Before leave for Sucre today I´m heading out to an old temple complex about 70km outside the city at Tiahunaco. I head up through the early morning bustle of La Paz to Cementario where I get a collectivo heading in that direction. Tiahunaco is an old Pre-Incan complex. A sacred site of an early culture centred around Lake Titicaca. It was a 90min drive out of town
There were 13 in the collectivo. Just before we left two lads tried to bargain 2 seats for 15 Bolivianos, the rest of us paid 10 each. Listening to this the auld women in the collectivo went bananas. Howls of derision were hurled out the door at these guys. A babble of complaints which took the tune of
" Listen Sonny, If ye young scuts think ye´re getting in here for 15 Bolivianos the pair, then ye´ve another thing coming. Yez can bloody well wait for the next one now!!"
The two lads were left looking quite sheepish on the footpath. When it was felt the driver was delaying the departure too long more howls of protest erupted from the golden girls. Banging on the windows was accompanied by "Vamos, Caballero, Vamos!!" The driver skipped around to the cab and we hit the road. You tread lightly when you´re around the auld grannies of La Paz!
Tiahuanaco was nice and picturesque rather than spectacular. Much of the temples are badly ruined so it required some imagination and model recreations to get an idea of how they looked originally. I´ve read about this place vefore so it was nice to see it in reality. One of the more impressive sights was a 7m tall statue of the Goddess Pachamama (still revered in Bolivia). It was housed in a nearby museum. Photography was forbidden but 2 German lads came in and started snapping so I took out my camera and got off a shot and popped it away again before an attendant arrived, caught the lads and gave them a right bollocking. Mr goody twoshoes here was sauntering around with an angelic innocence as I greeted the attendant cheerfully with a "Hola, Buenas Tardes!"
We got back to La Paz around 3pm so I had a few hours to kill before catching the 6pm bus to Sucre. I had some empanadas in a small cafe close to the hostel. I´d been here yesterday and the empanadas (pastry pies filled with chicken or beef and vegetables) were fantastic. I had to come back and try some more before I left La Paz. I picked up my rucksack at the hostel and walked over to the bus station, a 25min walk. I was going to take a taxi but I was told the centre was blocked off by another demonstration. This time it was car importers complaining about something or other.
The journey to Sucre was a 15hr overnighter and to my consternation I found the bus had no toilet. This wasn´t good. Also, I would be sitting beside a mother with a 6month old infant. In the aisle beside me the woman´s 10yr old daughter set out blankets to sleep there. To be fair to the baby he was very quiet, a cute wee fella. The fact that there was no toilet caused me more grief than he. After 5hrs on the road we got a food and toilet stop. Out the back of the restaurant in a courtyard there were a line of open air urinals. Beside these a line of women queued for the proper toilets which faced them. Seeing the line of women facing us myself and a young lad hesitated to use the urinals, feeling slightly bashful under the full gaze of these Bolivian Madres. An old guy pushed past and made straight for the urinals, unconcerned about who was around. Swallowing my bashfulness, I put my head down and followed suit. Necessity prevailed over nicety. The women looked unconcerned by it all anyway.
Later, after the bus had resumed the journey I managed to get some sleep. I didn´t dare move though as at some point in the night the baby ended up lying on my lap!!
No comments:
Post a Comment