Day 22: 22/7/12
Stayed in bed as long as I could today- wont have many lie ins for a few weeks I'd say! My room was by the road and I was expecting to be woken really early but it was fairly quiet around- they obviously don't get up at 5 round here!
Just made breakfast by 10- ha some kind of cereal. Don't know what it was but it taste nice! Then I went down to reception and there was a sign up from g adventures that the group will meet at 7pm and perhaps have dinner after. That was grand to know that I had the whole day off.
I headed off down to what seemed to be the main place on the map, ie where he church is! I had to find a bank link first cos I had no bolivianos. I took out 500 bolivianos which seems like an awful lot, but its only €59! If that keeps me going for a while I'll be delighted!
Went to the church then (basilico de San francisco) and mass was just starting so I went in- yell be very proud of me!! I don't know why they were saying but we seemed to stand up and kneel down in the places I'd expect! The church was massive- gold and statues everywhere! There was a statue of St Martin de Porres with a Bolivian and Peruvian flag- that's the guy you were talking about Bernie- wasn't it? There were a few things very different about the Mass- the server was a middle-aged woman and she also gave out communion. There was a confessional box over at the side and there were people going in and out to confession during the whole mass. Lots of people were walking in an out of he church- both locals and tourists. I seemed to be the only white white person at Mass. They were arriving in with flowers and statues and things and leaving them up at the altar. Only about half the congregation went up for Communion . When it was time for the final blessing, most of the locals gathered up around the altar and held up their statues and things and the priest fired a load of holy water over them! Lots of people stayed around after Mass to pray at the various statues around the church.
The main road is fairly flat, but all the roads off it ate uphill. It was grand walking to the town but when I decided to walk back after mass I could really feel the altitude. I took my time, bought a bottle of water and went up to the room for half an hour. There was a small parade just passing the hotel when I came back aswell- I think it's just because it was Sunday.
There's a travel agent place right beside the hotel so I went down and booked a bus tour. I had two hours to get to the bus which was practically the other side of the town. I walked anywyay. There are little market stalls everywhere and women with skirts, shawls and hats minding them. It's the same type of clothes that they had in he rural areas in Peru but the skirts here are fancier- much shinier material. Their shawls seem to match their skirts also and the hats are like bowler hats, sitting on top of their heads! The one thing that really struck me while walking through the town was how quiet it was. There are lots of people and traffic but they are all fairly quiet. There's no beeping or shouting- they seem to be calm people!
Half way down the main street there was a bit of a festival or something- there was a tent with musicians playing and lots of stalls selling food and jewellery as stuff. There were charicatures and bouncing castles for he kids. Also there was a section of the road marked off with bollards for kids to drive around in little quads and bikes!
After this section the main road got very upmarket- I passed the Radisson, the plaza and the Ritz is across the road from the bus stop. There are no people with stalls around here!
The bus tour was only okay. It was one with headphones and the narration don't always match where we were and they kept cutting in and out so I didn't really learn much. The bits I could hear were mostly about architecture! There are some nice buildings alright. The city is kind of in a crater so it's high all around the outside. We went to a viewpoint (mirador killi killi) and looked over the whole city- that was good. Theres a lot of statues of people that fought in wars and the people that won independence. Sounds like they were in a lot of wars recently- chile 120 years ago, Paraguay 65 years ago- all the wars seen to be about land and borders.
It took me ages to walk back after that your cos it was nearly all uphill. With the altitude you'd be really out of breath. Then a few minutes later youd be grand- its weird. I had no headache or anything so that's good!
Met with the group at 7. The leader is called karina and she's really chatty and seems nice. There's a couple from Switzerland, a man from Germany and an English guy. The two swiss and the Germans were talking German a lot! Myself and the tan were left out!! Hes a student on a gap year before he starts uni. The Swiss and German seem nice but when you ask anything there's silence for a few minutes before they respond- obviously trying to process the English! We're flying to Sucre tomorrow and then there are 11 more people joining us that were already on a trip in brazil. We went for dinner together and it was lovely- spuds, veg and chicken!!
Have to be up at about 4.30 in the morning- so early to bed again!