Day 25: 25/7/12
Had a day to myself really in the town.
First I went to the Indigenous art museum- 6 main indigenous groups around Sucre- Jalq'as, peanas, tarabucos, ch'utas, katus, llameros.
Tinguipaya textiles- people in the Highlands. Weaving by women. Knitting by men. Lots of intricate designs and 2-d shapes representing sun, birds, money, etc
Jalq'a textiles- red and black. (our world and the under world) The textiles can be viewed both directions. Lots of cat like creatures and demons and when you look upside down you can still see them. Men's tapestries show the demon and have lots of colours- pinks, purples, oranges, etc.
Yampara/tarabucos weavings- vertical lines. White background with colourful illustrations. Shows much more detail of people and rituals.
Weaving tools found in a tomb that are 3000 years old are the same as what they use today. The textiles are used for clothes and for rituals.
Music- dancers wear costumes with bells etc to add to the sound. Men manufacture and play instruments while women do the singing. Humming in a low voice is considered feminine while whistling is considered masculine.
Some of the musicians are dressed almost like clowns (monos), there seems to be an element of comedy about the music. Costumes, especially for carnival are extremely intricate and colourful. Certain instruments and types of music are only played at certain times of the year.
The charango is a popular instrument- its like a cross between a guitar and a bouzouki and has 10 strings. There are different sizes and they have a tiny one for Easter. Other instruments look like wooden whistles and wooden clarinets and pipes (like a smoking pipe). Dancers wear spurs on their feet also.
The liwi liwi character dances with a goat mask (looked like real goat!)and stick.
In August they have a liberia dance which men do in really bright costumes wearing big wings. The dance is demonic.
There was A room with items from the Tiwanaku culture (300-1200 AD) found in a cave near Potosi- four cornered caps, textiles, tunics, skulls complete with braids!, jewellery, a tube for hallucinogenic substances! Bows and arrows, spoons (which the present Andean people have only started using donesticslly a few decades ago, woollen sacks, little baskets made from straw- woven do tightly they could hold liquid- one was found with remnants of chicha, another with blood!

Then went to Recolleta which is a viewing point over the whole city. It was nice but the buildings look nicer close up than they do far away!
Walked back to the square then. I wanted to see the cathedral and our guide had told us to go to San felipe de negro church aswell. But both were closed- maybe they'll be open later!! Then wanted to go to a museum with traditional masks in it but couldn't find it- it didn't seem to be on the street it was supposed to be- so had lunch instead!!
Then I decided to go on the dino trek seen as nothing else was open. A bus leaves from the square going to the Cretassic park. So I bought the ticket and got on. We were waiting for a while on the bus and I was laughing to myself cos a taxi was driving with a flat tyre. When he got out he did what most people would do and kicked it! Then he had awful work trying to loosen nuts! Serves me right for laughing because ws feel minutes after the bus took off here was a shuddery sound and it broke down! Everyone spoke Spanish so I didn't really know what the problem was. Eventually we all got out anyway and they got taxis for us. We arrived at a cement factory- not what I was expecting. It seems when they were breaking off rock to get cement they found these footprints. Palaeontologists have said they are definitely dinosaur footprints. They are on the side of a cliff which was strange! It seems they would have been on the flat but then with the movement of tectonic plates it became a mountain. Apparently theres a mixture of footprints- planteaters and meat eaters. You can just see round marks really from the viewing point. They would have walked on the ground in the rainy season and when dry season came it dried them up and preserved them. Layer after layer built up on it and then with erosion, we can see them again. They have a picture with one set of very clear footprints but of course that bit of the wall fell off! There are more footprints underneath though. It's hard to believe that dinosaurs actually walked there.
The guide was hard to understand because his English was in an American/Bolivian accent. I've noticed that a few times now- they must learn their English from rap songs or something cos they are real gangsta!
I was told the bus was leaving at 4 so I went out at that time, even though with all the commotion there was no bus (obviously only one bus) and lots of taxi drivers. They hadn't a word of English and I hadn't a word of Spanish. So I just waited for some other bus people to appear. The people I shared the taxi with were next out. The taxi drivers wanted money for bringing us but we had paid the bus so it was up to the bus people to pay them! We had to wait around until someone from the bus came to sort it out!
In town I found the mask museum. It was a big room with lots of masks- they were quite creepy, lots of devily looking things. They must be used for festivals or something. The information was all in Spanish so not sure what they were used for!
Met an English couple outside the museum who had been at the dino footprints aswell. They were nice. They had done g adv tour in Peru and were now doing Bolivia on their own.
Came back and attempted to skype home but Internet isn't so good here!
Then the whole group had dinner. Cows tongue was on the menu- the Swiss guy had it! Everyone else had normal food!!
Everyone went to bed after dinner which was over at 9:30. I thought more people would be going out at night but I suppose we have a bus to get in the morning! Potosi is the next town- not sure how good wifi will be.