7/23/15: Salar de Uyuni, Day 1

We arrived in Uyuni earlier than expected, and the city was freezing. I had expected it to be cold, but I now understood what other people were talking about with the temperature before. Also, it was way early, and I didn’t know how to even begin to find a tour company to do the Salt Flats tour with. Luckily, there was a small agency right outside of the bus stop, so we walked in and booked a tour right there! From what I had heard about the prices, what we got was pretty decent, so I then took some time to walk around the city.

Uyuni is very small and very touristy. There is maybe one museum, but dozens of hotels and hostels lining the central plaza. There was a significant market right in the center of town when it started to get later, and I stopped to get some yummy breakfast from the street stands – fried potato filled with egg, and this rice/chicken combo. Delicious!

The tour started at 10:30, and though we had only a Spanish-speaking driver/guide for the 7 of us, it turned out to be pretty good. The group was 2 Brazilian friends who had lived in Bolivia for years and a mother with her 20+ year old son and daughter. One of the Brazilians and the son and daughter spoke English, and they were happy to translate for us if there were things we didn’t understand.

Our first stop was the train cemetery. It was almost like an adult playground – lots of old trains that you could walk around and climb!

The scenery was gorgeous – when we got to the actual salt flat, I understood what people were talking about with the beauty. In the winter, there’s no water and therefore no reflections, but it was still incredible!

We stopped at a little artisan area to buy whatever we needed, and I was over the moon that I could get two pairs of cute mittens to go with my hats for 30 Bs – or less than $2.50 total!

We had some lunch before heading to the “island” of volcanic rock (Isla Incahuasi) that was randomly in the middle of the salt flats. It was filled with cacti, and had a beautiful view at the top!

We then got to see the sunset across the mountains, and moved on to our accommodation for the night. It was this hotel, with the ground covered in salt, and made of salt blocks for the structure and furniture – very interesting! There was a little museum next door with mummies/skeletons of the dead, which we toured. There was nothing special about the bones compared to other skeletons I had seen in other museums, though.

At night, the two Brazilians brought out the alcohol and basically got the party started. I was skeptical at first and didn’t want to drink, but I decided to just go for it when everyone else (except the mother and daughter, who went to sleep early) and the other tour group started drinking. I remembered how fun it can be to drink – the other group, made of French people who had varying degrees of Spanish ability, started teaching us some games.

The first was like Taboo – we all write names of famous people and split into teams, trying to get teammates to guess the people. For the second round you could only say one word; for the third, charades; for the last, a single post. We played for a while – in Spanish, no less – and then split into two groups.

Eventually, we combined groups and started playing a “pass the ball” sort of game, where you could choose to pass the ball, skip the person next to you, or reverse the direction of the ball. For each one, you have a specific word you have to use. When people are drunk, this becomes incredibly fun – people start messing up and making up words, among other things!

The last game we played was this drinking game, where everyone is an animal and you basically call each other out until someone messes up and has to take a drink. The phrase, which is “El caballo no bebe, quien bebe es la mariposa” where you substitute animals, is great for non-native Spanish speakers, because it’s really hard to get and speak quickly. Needless to say, it was quite fun. Also, one of the French girls was so impressed with my English, Chinese, Spanish, and French. I kept trying to convince her that it wasn’t that special because my Spanish and French are pretty terrible and I struggle a lot with Chinese in some respects, but she was not having it. At least it made me feel good.

Eventually, we headed outside when we stopped having as much fun with the games and drinking. The stars were amazing – you could see so, so many! It was freezing but worth it to just take a look. 

7/21-22/15: Rest and Travel

I woke up rather late today with a phone that was dead, and chargers that no longer worked. I don’t know why this has been such a big problem, but my phone is so crucial to my travels – it’s my entertainment, my clock, my camera, my communication device, my map, my GPS, my note-taking device, everything. I might be able to live without it but life with it is so, so much easier. Hopefully this is a temporary problem that I can solve soon.

I wandered out into the city for a bit, but I realized that without knowing the time, it was hard for me to ensure that I would have enough time to see things, since most attractions are closed between noon and 2 for a siesta. I ended up walking to the public library and then going to sit at the main plaza because I was suddenly exhausted. Since I wasn’t able to get any sleep, I headed back to the hostel earlier than I expected to take a nap on the couch before heading to the bus terminal. For some reason, the terminal in Sucre is very different from that of other cities, and it was a challenge to find a bus company that had tickets to Cochabamba still available for tonight. Eventually, I found one (for rather expensive in Bolivian terms) but it was quite comfortable.

I arrived at 5 am in Cochabamba but was able to wait in the bus terminal for Daniel at 9, when we had agreed to leave. We spent the day in Oruro – a nice but empty city when Carnival is not happening – and went to a “café” at the top of a hotel in the center of the city to work during the rest of the day. We had to pay for wifi, and only had access to it for an hour, but I guess it’s better than nothing. I was able to buy an iPhone charger for about $40 from a store that looked to be certified Apple – they had Apple products, laptops, chargers, headphones – but I’m still having trouble with my phone battery. I don’t know if the problem is with my phone itself or with the cords that I’ve been using to charge it. I really hope this will not be a problem going forward – it’s so important to me to have my phone! – but I guess it will be a lesson for me if I have to learn to live without it. At least I still have my laptop, otherwise I would go insane. 

7/20/15: Sucre and the Dinosaurs!

It was a good day today! I felt like I did a lot, but don’t have very many pictures to show for it, unfortunately. I started off the day relatively late for my traveling days – I left the hostel around 10am. I wanted to get in as much sleep as pleased me, and then headed out into town! My first stop was a small little place called Centro Cultural Masis – I had written down its information without really knowing what it was. No regrets, though!

It turns out the center is a place of music – of preserving traditional music of a group called La Masis. They have an extensive collection of all kinds of instruments of Bolivian tradition, as well as many gifts from others in the musical world, from other parts of South America. They also had a room with dozens of masks, many used for traditional dances and Carnival – a huge 3-month celebration in all of Bolivia. It is partially funded by the proceeds of Masis, the group, that travels the world and apparently was in Texas last year! They have classes for kids to keep them off the streets and provide them a great place to stay. As I was the only one there at the time, I wasn’t sure if I was able to take pictures or not, so I don’t have any, but the instruments were beautiful!

At that time, I wanted to leave for the Cretaceous Park and dinosaur footprints there, and after some wandering around and asking several people, I finally figured out how! The park entrance was very cute – they have life-size replicas of all sorts of dinosaurs, and I arrived just in time to go see the footprints on the first tour.

The dinosaur footprints were a lot cooler than the ones in Toro Toro – simply because there were a lot more and you could see them much more clearly. I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to capture them very well in my pictures, but in person they were definitely worth the trip there.

The Park itself is located on a pretty high mountain, so it gave a great view of Sucre as well!

When I got back, I decided to make my way to the Museum of Indigenous Art that I passed by but was closed yesterday. It was pretty extensive, and they had books of translations of all the signs around the museum – it turned out to be a ton of information. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed, but the content was similar to the poncho museum that I visited in Copacabana.

What I thought was most interesting was the difference between cloths woven by women and those woven by men – the women’s tapestries had more intricate detail while the men’s had larger, more crude shapes that resembled that I would expect from a child. I had originally planned on spending no more than about an hour in the museum, but with all the information and different rooms, as well as the complete English translations, I ended up staying closer to 2-3 hours. It was worth it, though!

On my way back to the hostel, I stopped by two tourist information spots to ask about the 7 Waterfalls attraction. It sounded interesting, but both ladies told me that it probably wasn’t worth going, especially independently. The area is apparently a little dangerous and not worth going to during the winter. In addition, because there is a blockade/barricade in Potosi right now, I would not be able to go directly to it or go from Sucre to Uyuni. My best option would be to go from Sucre back to Cochabamba, to Oruro, to Uyuni. Well, at least I can meet up with Daniel in Cochabamba and ensure that we get on the same bus and tour and everything.

7/18-19/15: Real last day in Cochabamba, First in Sucre!

Since I unexpectedly had to stay another day in Cochabamba, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it. I woke up way earlier than I wanted to, so I boiled some water, washed some clothes, organized some of my stuff, etc. I also started to tackle the monster that is all the irregular verbs and verb tenses that I briefly went over. There’s so much that it feels overwhelming.

Eventually, I decided to head to a café so I could work with some wifi. Daniel met me there and we actually started talking about what happened on my trip to Toro Toro and what our plans were going forward until he leaves. I basically ended up getting very little done, but that’s fine.

I headed to the bus station to try to get there around 7, but ended up arriving much closer to 7:30 because of all the traffic in the area. The terminal was hectic as always, but I was able to buy a ticket from someone standing in front of one of the ticket offices trying to resell his ticket because there was a problem. The guy manning the office verified it and I got the ticket for 5 Bs less than its sell value – yay!

I’m still getting used to being on the road, moving from place to place – and the fact that I arrived at 5:30 the morning after to Sucre did not help one bit. The night bus to Sucre was a lot shorter than I would have wanted – about 9 hours – meaning that it was still pitch black in a city that I had no idea where I would stay. I would wake up intermittently, so I also didn’t get the greatest night’s sleep. I’m thankful that I had the foresight yesterday to ensure I had the address and information for the cheapest/most valued hostel, though, because the two people that were potential Couchsurfs never really confirmed. One gave me an address but apparently was in an accident recently. He said I could still stay at his place but didn’t say that he would be there or that I could find the key in a certain place, didn’t call me back, and hasn’t texted me, so I’m just going to operate as if they are no-goes. The other guy said he might be able to host me but ended up traveling this weekend for his sister’s birthday. That disappointed me the most because he has the cutest little daughter and I was looking forward to working with kids again. Oh well.

I arrived really early, and the city was very asleep still. It took me maybe 15 minutes of ringing the doorbell to get someone to come open the hostel door and let me in. When I got in, the lady who answered told me they might not have a bed, but it was still completely dark outside so she let me stay in the lobby area. Turns out there was a bed open, so I got to take care of that and head out to the city by about 8 am!

The thing to note about Sucre is that it's the de facto capital of Bolivia. People usually know more about La Paz and other cities, but this is still officially the capital. The buildings and feel of the city is extraordinarily uniform - one of its nicknames is the "White City" because all the buildings are white. When you walk down any street, you just see a bunch of white on all sides, and you feel a sort of peace that isn't present in La Paz or Cochabamba. In fact, the feel is way closer to Santa Cruz, a city that I absolutely loved. I definitely like Sucre - even after just one day - and I'm pretty sure that will just be confirmed tomorrow and the next day. 

I headed to the main Plaza 25 de Mayo. It was very, very quiet on a Sunday morning, but it's quite nice. At 9, the Casa de la Liberdad opened up. I had seen some really great reviews about it on Trip Advisor, so I was excited to see the fuss. It cost a little over $2 to get in, but I was really disappointed to see that everything was in Spanish. Although my Spanish is certainly improving, that in no way means that I can read and understand yet. It felt similar to what it was like to be around so much Spanish when I first traveled - I couldn't understand anything and could maybe pick out a few words here and there to be able to make a guess that was a little structured. It was sad, but they still had some cool displays of older art, weaponry, portraits of previous Bolivian presidents, etc. 

I wandered around the area a little after that, including into the church off the main square. It had service going on so I wasn't free to really walk around and explore, but it was cool to see the church in action. That was not very exciting and looked a lot like service in the church that I used to go to. I continued to wander and stumbled on another church, and it was much the same. 

The sad thing about Sucre on Sunday is that there are so, so many things that are closed. The Liberty Museum seemed to be the only thing that wasn't, and I got through that in an hour because I couldn't really read what was written. That made it really terrible, but I got over it and headed towards a lookout point over the city that is similar to what I remember in Cusco. Since Sucre is so uniform, the view has quite the order to it. I decided to take a seat at the cafe there and ordered this delicious chicken salad, tomato, and cucumber sandwich. I have missed chicken salad like heck, wow. 

The funniest thing that happened there was that there were 3 Australians that came. They just did not care about anything, it seems, because they were speaking rather loudly and knew almost no Spanish (for example, the word for thirty). What they did speak was heavily, heavily accented. It got to the point where I was embarrassed to show any indication that I could speak English but was simultaneously laughing at the terrible accents they had, but they just didn't care, it seems. It was such a different mindset that they had compared to mine. When I can't speak the language I keep my mouth shut, and I listen extremely closely to try to mimic the local accent as much as possible. Wow. 

After that I headed to the cemetery. I'm sure they exist in other cities (La Paz, for example, has one that I saw from the cable car) but this one in Sucre has some special significance and is huge and quite nice. I didn't know why there were so many ladies outside selling flowers until I entered the cemetery and remembered. 

It was really important/great for me to go and visit the cemetery. I've been thinking about some stuff that I'm having a hard time with, and being around so many plaques/displays of dead people reminded me of my mortality. What kind of world do I leave behind, and what am I going to be thinking about in my final moments? What kind of things - though hopefully none - will I regret? I saw two funeral processions walk down the aisles of the area while I was there. I have very little pictures because it felt wrong to take pictures there. Either way, it was a very interesting place, peaceful and with an underlying appreciation for life and its pleasures. 

I stopped by a tour agency to ask about tours to Salar de Uyuni, and I was really excited to have the whole conversation in Spanish! Unfortunately, the lady told me that (1) my original plan to visit the city of Potosi probably is a no go because they have protests that are preventing buses from going, and (2) the tour she offered cost over 1000 Bs. On the bright side, it doesn't cost more to go directly to San Pedro de Atacama afterwards, which is a small relief. But still, I'm hoping I can visit Potosi. 

The last two things I wanted to see were the city "central market" and a church in that area. Sucre is filled with churches and hostels, actually. Both seemed to be legitimately at every corner. I went to the market first - it was really, really sad. This might be due to the fact that it's Sunday early evening, but there weren't many stalls and the sellers lined maybe two blocks on the street. Huge departure from La Concha in Cochabamba. The church was also very average. On the way I saw a lot more tourists, and I always don't know how to respond to the ones that carry a huge backpack with their water bottle off to the side, the tourist hat and shoes, and a huge Lonely Planet guidebook in their hands. I just. Why? 

Right before going back to the hostel, I stopped at the park in front. In a stark contrast to most other things in the city, like the relatively empty streets, the park was full of people and life. I will be able to tell tomorrow if it's a routine or special occasion, but the park had blow-up bouncy houses, rental horse-riding, rental cars for kids to drive, peddleboats on the little river, tons of people selling food, and some street performer-like people working with dogs. It was nice. 

The wifi at night at this hostel is terrible - I can barely load web pages. #Struggle For tomorrow, I'm hoping to go to some of the museums that weren't open for today, as well as the dinosaur footprints! It'll be an exciting day!

7/17/15: Toro Toro's Ciudad de Itas y Cavernas

It was hilarious this morning because the ladies that I had taken the tour with the day before all arrived a little after our agreed time, 7:30, and we all were worried we would be late. What I thought was hilarious was that all four of us were ready before the office even opened. That’s the difference between the culture of countries like the United States and France, and that of Bolivia – the office clearly said that they would open at 7:30, but in reality didn’t open until about 10 minutes later.

The day today was longer than I had expected, but it was still a great one! We went on a tour with Timateo again to the Ciudad de Itas and Canvernas – both were basically really large natural structures that had been carved out over long periods of time by water.

The Ciudad de Itas was basically an area that was kept from the conquerors of the area, kept as a secret area for the original people who lived there.  The above-ground caves looked amazing – not to mention that everything was on the sides of mountains and at pretty high altitude, making for great pictures. The mountains of the foreground almost reminded me of Isla del Sol in Lake Titicaca in Copacabana, and the mountains in the background, which had a blue-ish tint, reminded me of the Lake itself. Great views.

Our second stop, the caverns/caves were just as impressive. I have been in caves before – a long time ago, but we have caves that are in the Austin area. This one we visited was a little different because it required a lot more physical activity. The entrance to the cave was really large, but there were parts of the cave that were extremely narrow – we had to crawl in several of them – or extremely steep – we had to use ropes to help us go down.

Apparently, the condition of the cave wasn’t that great because there are so many tourists. According to an evaluation by some Italian scientists recently, the cave can take about 20 tourists a day to avoid pollution. However, there are way more people than that and tourists used to take off parts of the stalactites and stalagmites as souvenirs. I see why, because the stalactites and the stalagmites are truly incredible – but it’s such a shame.

When I got back, it was easy to get all my stuff ready to return to Cochabamba. The views on the way back were incredible! The sunset made it even better. I got back to the city too late to go to Sucre so I’m staying one more day in Cochabamba. I’m considering going to the ruins or just chilling. I regretted not trying that chocolate mousse in the café I spent so much time in, so I might try to go there. We’ll see.

7/16/15: First day in Toro Toro: the Canyon

Yesterday was [maybe] my last day in Cochabamba (I might stay to see the Ruins), and today I woke up around 4:30am to catch a bus to Toro Toro National Park. I was a little hesitant about it, but I decided just to go for it. I took all my stuff and walked out towards the main street, and hailed a taxi. I just had to ask about the “estation para ir a Toro Toro” and he understood.

The taxi ride was actually pretty cool because, now that I understand a lot more Spanish, I was actually able to have a conversation with him! We talked about traveling to Peru, Bolivia, and Chile, public health (the number of times I have had to explain what it is has been both amusing and enlightening), La Cancha (the market, which already had people setting up. Apparently it’s really dangerous – I’ve been told this multiple times, had someone try to steal my phone from my hands, had my charger pickpocked, and seen Daniel’s phone be sketchily taken from his pockets – and I believe it) and some other random things. I was pleasantly surprised at what I could say, and even though there was still a good amount of guessing at some words, it was nice! At the very least, a huge departure from some of my first taxi rides, even in Bolivia. Yay!

I got to the minibus stop (I would have been fine with the bus since it’s cheaper, but to be honest I didn’t know where it was) and paid about $5 for a front seat – the price was the same for all seats, I just lucked out with the front one. I hadn’t realized how much more you can see, because I was able to take a million pictures of the gorgeous landscape outside the window for the next 4 hours or so. Wow.

The national park itself doesn’t disappoint either. It’s connected to the town of Toro Toro, which is way bigger and nicer than Sajama was. I got there earlier than expected, around 11am, so I walked around for a place to stay. I met this nice couple that ran a hostel/hotel – a bit more expensive, but they were so nice and it’s a private room. For one day, I have no qualms. As I started to explore the city a little, I ran into the three other backpackers that were staying with Kathy in Cochabamba and had come to Toro Toro last night. We went to buy tickets (what were they doing last night?) and ask about tours. We decided to then walk around the city a bit, and started walking on a road, stopping along the way to climb the base of the mountain a little. We just talked a little, mostly exchanging language and enjoying the view. It was quite nice, actually!

I had been told that there was a tour at 2. They had more time than I do and wanted to continue with the mountain, so I headed back towards the town myself. I got back a lot faster than we had taken to go, so I waited at the Plaza Principal for a bit. It reminded me a little of the one in Ollantaytambo – the feel of it as well as the town itself. Near 2, when the office reopened (they take 12-2 for lunch), I went back in to ask about a tour. I waited a little until some people came in for a tour as well, and we formed a group of 7. We were made of two Americans (me and another lady who had an MPH and was working with an organization in Cochabamba), two French backpackers (just finished medical school), and a Bolivian father with his son and daughter.

Our tour guide was a 23-year-old guy named Timateo (aka Timothy) that did a great job! We stopped by the dinosaur footprints – they were way less exciting than I had expected, but the first set seemed to be a mother/parent and child herbivore, with evidence of a velociraptor type seeming to come creeping up to pounce on and eat the baby. Oh. They were cool though! Timateo explained all about the different time periods and the fact that the movement of tectonic plates meant that the prints we see probably were made when the rock was in the place that we see it today. Interesting.

I walked past a place that is supposed to be a river in the summer here, along with a natural bridge. The other place was a natural auditorium – with a place to perform and a place for the audience. The view the whole time was really great. A good amount of the time, I was actually talking to Timateo about his life and what he knows. It felt so, so cool to be talking in Spanish, having a conversation and just use everything that I’ve been working so hard on for the past however long. There were, of course, times when I had to guess what he was saying/meant, but for the most part it was good! Apparently he is a student who started studying tourism for a little bit but decided to change, and used to work a lot but now works usually on weekends to go to school during the week. University costs 50 Bs with all expenses paid for public schools, apparently. WHAT.

We saw the canyon from a lookout point – similar to the Grand Canyon! It’s one of few canyons that are made from the movement of tectonic plates and not water, which is shown by the fact that it has a zigzag pattern and the walls are more or less straight with what look like steps along the lower levels. This indicates that the canyon was made in steps, and not all at once. And certainly not with water, which would have made more of a triangular than rectangular shape. It’s home to some endangered species as well!

We then made our way into the canyon where we went to our real prize – the waterfalls. Just look.

The road back up the canyon made me want to just go to sleep, but I made it! I was able to converse a little with one of the French girls about medical school in France – it’s 6 years of combined university and medical school equivalents in the US. School costs maybe 350 Euros per year, and they just have to pay for housing and food and stuff. Wow. If only.

The four backpackers ended up going to dinner with Timateo – and at this point, even though my Spanish was second-best, I had spoken to him the most. We ate (nice plate of chicken with rice and vegetables for $1.50!!), and then the others girls left while I taught Timateo some English. We exchanged Facebook information and will hopefully stay in touch! In Spanish, Facebook is actually pronounced the same, but Google is pronounced phonetically. Goog-lé: LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

It’s kind of incredible how far I’ve come with Spanish in the last several weeks – considering I had a really tough time speaking even when I went to Oruro about 3 weeks ago. I’m not trying to brag – I’m just saying that practicing and dedicating myself to thinking in Spanish when I can (and not translating but simply thinking in Spanish only) has helped me make some really incredible progress. More technical conversations are too tough for me now still, but everyday casual conversation I can do. Wow. It certainly helps that Bolivians speak clearly and more or less slowly. I’m worried about Chile, but we’ll see. Maybe it’ll just push me to improve even more, even faster. But first, great day! I’m extremely glad I came – despite my initial doubts. 

7/14-15/15: Goodbye, Cochabamba!

Honestly, Cochabamba is a very nice city. I wish there was more tourist infrastructure, but overall it's comfortable and walkable. You can live here for pretty cheap and the weather is good during this time of year - no rain, not too hot, not too cold. Even though I'm leaving a little bit earlier than I had originally intended, it's no big deal. I will have done what I wanted and needed to do here, and understood how to live in a city in another country - even if it was just for a month and a half.

Undoubtedly, I'm a little sad that I am leaving, since I've gotten comfortable here, but I am also excited to get back to the backpacking and seeing tourist sites and being on my feet for long periods of time and having to figure things out again.

For Tuesday, though, I'm just chilling in a cafe. I have some work I need to take care of, Spanish lessons, and planning for the rest of my trip. I walked by a nice little place on my way to the Immigration office from yesterday that has great wifi and though the cinnamon roll that I ordered could be better, I have no complaints.

The last day I planned to spend in Cochabamba kind of crept up on me. I realized that there was something I had yet done, so in the morning I walk to Palacio Portales in hopes of visiting it. Apparently it opens at 3 pm only, but there was a person at the front desk already – it was weird, but I think it’s to let the people who work there get some things done before they have tourists getting all up in their grills and stuff. I was told there would be an English tour at both 4 and 5pm, so I should come back then if I want to take it.

On the way to the café as a result, I stopped to buy a samosa-like thing from the street food cart along the adjacent road (SO GOOD). When I arrived, I ordered a caramel macchiato, which is delicious. Ugh. I took advantage of the time and wifi to get a good amount of work done.

My Spanish lesson was moved up so I could go to the tour, so I was there from 12-3 more or less. I learned almost all the rest of the verb tenses (I don’t know if this exists in Spanish, but I still don’t know how to use “would”, like “I would like to” or “It would be great”, etc. I’ve encountered it in songs so I’m pretty sure it’s a whole different tense. I forgot to ask, dang it). It was an overwhelming amount of information, but I think I can handle it. Maybe. It will probably take me a while to get comfortable using all the tenses, considering I still have some trouble with the simple present sometimes. Lol.

After that, I stayed at the café for a while, planning on going to the tour at 4pm. However, I left a little too late (or underestimated the time it would take to get from the café to Palacio Portales) and basically had an hour to kill. I used it to walk around more, go to the ATM, and sit and read. I was also able to explore the part of the city near the area, and it was actually the most US/Europe-like area! I can’t believe I hadn’t been there before.

The Palacio was incredible. It was built by a guy that was born in Cochabamba and was able to profit a lot from the mines near Sucre and Potosi. The grounds were not that large, but there was a huge garden in the courtyard area with this guy’s house in the background. The tour guide (a woman, yay!) took me and another guy – a Canadian living in DC – inside to see it. No pictures were allowed unfortunately, but we had a chance to see the extravagance of it. This owner was seriously loaded as heck because the entire place was modeled after European architecture, complete with imported materials from marble to wood. Everything was about showing off his wealth and love for European culture, it seemed. He had statues that looked a little Greek, paintings of many places in Rome, a room full of Arabic style arches, and much of foreign-inspired culture, including French silk. I was able to take some pictures of the outside, and these are the doors – the large and former main entrance into the house that gave the house its name. Because they were about 5 meters high, they almost resembled portals – or portales in plural in Spanish.

In the basement, the organization had changed the cellar into an art gallery – and this month they were displaying comics. Some of favorite below!

During the tour, it turned out that the other guy, some banker who travels to Latin America about 2-3 times a year for work, had a lot of questions. Afterwards, we exchanged some contact information because I think he will be in Sucre when I will (at least for a day or so) so I might have someone to meet! Woohoo at my making friends!