Jun 2007

The main reason we have come to Samaipata is the pre Inca site El Fuerte . It basicly is a huge slab of stone wich is carved up with puma and serpent designs . There are two parallel grooves on top of the 100 meter long stone which made Erich von Daniken believe that this is actually a landing site of alien spaceships . But then this man also believed that human evolution is manipulated by genetic engineering by aliens . So I would not put too much faith in his words .
We are staying in a hostel called Posadas del Sol which is such a nice relaxing place that we decide to stay two days longer then intended .
From Samaipata we take a bus to Vallegrande . Slowly but surely we are making our way up to the highlands , Vallegrande is best known for being the last resting place of Che Guevara . That is till 1997 when what was left of his body was transferred to Cuba . Guevara was executed on 9 october 1967 in a small place called La Higuerra after a long chase by the Bolivian army through the mountains of the Santa Cruz department .
In Vallegrande we visit the hospital where Guevaras dead body was displayed in the laundry room . To get to the hospital we have to follow a street which is lined with funeral parlours . At the hospital itself we have to take a path which leads to the back into the garden . It passes some small buildings in which patients are lying in beds . When we pass their window some of them waive at us. The laundry room is now covered in graffiti done by Che admirers . Behind the laundry room there is another building in which soldiers cut off Guevaras hands so no one could identify him by his fingerprints . When Guevara was marching through this region he was met with mistrust and suspicion by the locals . But when he was dead and his body was displayed in this laundry room local women noticed that he looked a bit like Jesus Christ . It seems ironicly to me that the communist rebel only got the recognition of the local campesinos he craved for in death when he resembled the spearhead of a cult he must have despised .
Near the hospital there is a museum dedicated to Che Guevara . The museum consists of two rooms with dozens of pictures of his dead body . So I can tell you that unlike Elvis Guevara is dead . We learned in the museum that when he was captured Guevara wore three pair of socks . I can see why because it can be awfully cold here and with his asthma he could have caught a terrible cold .
After visiting the place where he was clandestinely buried for 30 years we take a bus to Sucre . We travel by the old trade route . Not many travellers come this way and we soon find out why . At eight in the evening we get dumped in a tiny village and we get told to be at the busstop the next morning at six . Threre is only one hotel in town and when we see it we seriously think about going to the local police station and ask then if we can sleep in a cell . The room we get at the hotel is ensuite . The toilet is covered in brown stains . I cannot determine if it are shit stains or if someone ate a package of tobacco and puked it all out . The bedroom smells like a couple of rats have died here recently . Needless to say we are very relieved when the alarmclock goes off at five .
I liked ´the Athens of the Americas´, Sucre , ´the White City´. Maybe I liked it so much because of the festivities that were in place for the towns birthday . Half the town was marching through the streets while the other half watched them . Apart from the military there were guilds of every profession lifting their feet to sound of the drums . Even the clowns dared to risk their unhealthy white skin to the burning sun .
Sucre is also called ´the Cradle of Liberty´. We visited the Casa de la Libertad to see a copy of the declaration of independence and a portrait of Simon de Bolivar which he claimed was the most life like representation ever done of him . I will now tell you something which you cannot read in any guidebook . Simon de Bolivar looked like the Artist formerly known as Prince . He only has sideburns and a higher forehead . Also he must have been a sexy motherfucker because he had quite a few lovers . Simon de Bolivar is one of South America most charismatic sons . Without setting a foot in Alto Peru its inhabitants named the newly liberated country after him and made him first president . While it was Antonio Jose de Sucre who did the work .
We end our stay in Sucre with a bit of B&B . That is not Big Brother . B&B stands for Bolivian Blues . There cant be too many Blues bands in this country though as one of the three bands performing we already saw in Santa Cruz . The bandmembers recognise us also . After the performance the singer comes over to us and asks me if I am a producer . Because he is buying the drinks I do not deny it .