2005: Jatun Yampara

Next, we drove to a nearby Quechua village, Jatun Yampara. 101 families live here and there are roughly 4 to 5 people per family. The village is very rural, so the dwelling spaces are quite a bit apart and surrounded by lots of farmland. I should mention that Sucre is about 9500 feet high and that this village was at 10,720 feet. (The market we went to at Tarabuco was at 11,070 feet. Potosí was even higher at 12,907 feet.) At this point, after being in Bolivia for thirteen days, Ray and I were acclimated to these high altitudes.

The chief from the village saw our bus coming down the dirt and grass road and started running with his Andean footplow to meet us. He was very excited because he wanted us to join him in blessing his flowering potato crop. Evidently pachamama will provide a bigger crop depending on the number of people who join in to bless the flowering plants.

So, we all poured chicha (a corn-brew like sweetish beer) on the ground around the four corners of the mesa (the offering that the chief had prepared). The mesa was burning a quiet smoke. His wife, children and other villagers joined in the blessing. We were festooned with paper ribbon garland around our necks, offered a plastic cup of chicha, made the offering to pachamama by pouring some of the chicha on each of the four corners of the smoking offering. Then, we drank a bit of the chicha. (It was quite sweet and I did not like it.) We were each sprinkled with confetti and had to take our sun hats off to receive this blessing from the chief's wife. While this was going on, the chief held firecrackers in his hand and set them off. We were all offered another cup of chicha to drink.

As others were making their offering to pachamama, Ray and I each spotted Andean Condors overhead. I had looked up and seen a white collared bird. About the same time Ray tapped my shoulder and asked, "Sharon, does that look like a condor to you?"

Our trip leader, Ric, had never seen condors in this spot before. He had overheard Ray and said it was possible. Ric asked the group, "Does anyone have binoculars? Can you see if the wings are tipping up?"

As I looked at this beautiful white-collared bird, I thought, omigosh, a condor! Then, I spotted another one, which joined the first bird in circling overhead. I watched in amazement as tears rolled down my face. Soon, Ric confirmed that these were indeed condors and the group was so excited! What a gift to see the Andean Condor in such a beautiful location during a blessing of a potato crop! Before long, a third condor joined the circle. At this point I went back to the bus to grab my binoculars.

When I arrived back for a better view aided by my binoculars, I could not spot the birds. The entire group had gone over to a memorial to the villager's ancestors. We passed by a couple of these and then, after passing the last one I saw the magnificent collared bird rising up from behind the village church. I watched him ascend. Then, when it was mostly too high up for any sort of good photo, I tried to capture an image on my digital camera. What an amazing moment!

We had lunch in this village and enjoyed a soup-style chicken dish with noodles, potato and vegetables cooked in chicha, a Quechua version of Coq au Vin. The Quechua name of the soup is Cjoko de Pollo. It was quite tasty and served with bread. We all had bottled water for beverage. Dessert was peaches and apples. Ray and I were too full to enjoy a piece of fruit for dessert.

After lunch, I looked and spotted the Condors again. This time I saw two circling overhead. A llama was born a week and a half ago and we all took photos of the baby llama and the other llamas which were wandering around. Next, we visited some makeshift stores in the village and purchased a small piece of pottery and a textile. We toured a little museum about daily life of these Quechua people and... oh, I should mention that along the way we picked up pottery shards, some of which were supposedly pre-Inca.

We visited a home of some of the villagers. Here they were preparing for the last day of Carnival by preparing a big BBQ and lots of chicha.

It was a splendid day.

Once back in Sucre we went to our room, and crashed for a bit. I had found a steakhouse courtesy of a guidebook, which looked interesting and was about a 10-minute taxi ride from the hotel. It was so great to have a steak!

If you are interested in visiting Jatun Yampara, contact Richard Pederson. Turismo Sucre Ltda. Calle Bustillos 101 Sucre, Bolivia Telfs/Fax 591(4)645-2936 & 646-0349 Celular : 728-78788 (Richard Petersen ) E.Mail: tursucre@entelnet.bo http://www.boliviabiz.com/tursucre

Monday morning we left Sucre and flew to La Paz on AeroSur. We spent the day in La Paz shopping in the sprawling market near our hotel, and ended the day with an early dinner to celebrate Valentine's Day.

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Come visit with me at http://travelerstogo.com/ by posting your follow-up questions in the Carribean, Mexico, Central & South American forum. My alias is Sharon Mc1, and I am the destination moderator for that forum -- I love talking about travel!

I recently wrote a practical travel guide for the Peruvian and Bolivian high Andes. I had a great deal of fun writing it, and particularly enjoyed writing the restaurant reviews. Here is the link:

http://p104.ezboard.com/feuropetogofrm21.showMessage?topicID=40.topic

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Articles in this series include:

Miami, Jupiter, & the Everglades (Florida) http://www.worldisround.com/articles/141804/index.html

La Paz, Tiwanaku & Valley of the Moon (Bolivia) http://www.worldisround.com/articles/141500/index.html

Oruro Carnival (Bolivia) http://www.worldisround.com/articles/141977/index.html

Sajama National Park (Bolivia) http://www.worldisround.com/articles/143197/index.html

Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia) http://worldisround.com/articles/143714/index.html

Train Graveyard - Uyuni (Bolivia) http://www.worldisround.com/articles/141742/index.html

Train Graveyard - Pulacayo (Bolivia) http://www.worldisround.com/articles/141647/index.html

Along the Road from Uyuni to Potosí (Bolivia) http://worldisround.com/articles/143868/index.html

Potosí (Bolivia) http://worldisround.com/articles/145509/index.html