My Second Day In Tupiza, Bolivia

May 29th, 2007 | By admin | Category: Travel Journal

In the afternoon of my second day in Tupiza I went to see the house of my girlfriend’s Aunt and Uncle. It’s the house where her father grew up. Now just three people live there but her father had 10 brothers and sisters so it used to be a lot busier. It’s kind of three houses in one, one below, one above and another at the back. Large, and with large windows that let the sun in. I took photos, much to the amusement of Lili and her aunt, who couldn’t really see what interested me so much. For them it’s normal, but for me everything here is different and strange and exciting.

In the afternoon we took the bus to Palala, which is a village very close to Tupiza. Here the river flows past the town when there is rain, today there was just a trickle. There were some children washing clothes in the river, and in the distance a couple of chulas (old Bolivian women in shawls and bowler hats) were herding goats along the gorge into the village.

On one side of the gorge stark red cliffs rose high into the sky, the sun setting behind them. I took some photos and we walked back through the village into Tupiza, following the tracks of an old railway line. I took lots of photos in the dusk as the sun set behind the mountains. It was fascinating for me, there were people walking home from school and work, the streets were coming to life after the heat of the day. The houses here were mostly very simple, some built of brick, most of adobe. It was poor, but poor in a happy friendly way, not a threatening or hostile way.

It was getting dark as we entered Tupiza and the streets were full of life, lots of people walking, shopping, talking. We passed by lots of small shops and it was very busy.