Carnival in Tarabuco with the Bolivian President

Bolivian president and his wife

On our full day in Sucre we were lucky enough to coincide with a carnival in a large village nearby that was brilliant: It was very, very traditional and the Bolivian president attended. There were many different groups of musicians, most of them playing pre-Spanish traditional wind instruments. No pan pípes, mainly very long quena type instruments. These group´s had dancers with lethal jangly things on their heels. Think of cowboy spurs and expand them several times to saucer sized circular saws on the back of wooden platfrom soles. We did notice a few cut toes from the odd accident! There were also some groups playing charangos, guitars and accordions. It was a real treat to the eyes, but not the ears - without exception all the music and singing was absolutely dire!! Tuneless and out of tune, especially the female high pitched singing.

The costumes were also colourful and traditional to the area. The president was dressed in the local traditional clothes, as were many of the locals. We were surprised that there was relatively little security for the president. Our guide had only seen him once before, in La Paz, and said that on that occasion there was significant security.

I took a lot of pictures and a fair bit of video. We were so, so lucky to coincide with this local carnival - definitely a real highlight of the trip so far!