$12 per star

In the morning it was raining again, so we suited up in our damp clothing and hit the highway. Normally our riding gear dries overnight, but usually there is some source of heat in the room to aid the process. Last night there was no heating and thus the wet clothes this morning. 

A little road construction.

A little rain.

Thankfully we soon rode out of the rain and by the time we made it to Cochabamba we were dried out and warm. The route into the city was nothing less than spectacular, pictures sometimes just don’t capture the essence of the location.

We decide that a really nice hotel is in order after riding in the rain for a couple of days and the whole La Paz experience, we were having a bit of trouble finding the city centre but we did finally find a little hotel with 4 stars under its’ name. Where else can you get 4 stars for under $50Cdn.

 

“Cochabamba was founded in 1542 when a group of Spanish colonizers settled in the Kjocha-Pampa valley. Ten years later, on August 2nd, 1571, by orders of viceroy Toledo the new city was founded under the name of Villa de Oropeza in honor of the viceroy whose title was Count of Oropeza. Three years later, on January 1st, 1574 the nominal foundation was made by Sebastián Barba de Padilla under orders of viceroy Toledo too. The new city was established along the shores of the Rocha river. From the early days of its existence, the valley showed hints of its natural wealth. At the height of Potosí's silver boom, thanks to its wheat and corn production as well as its cattle abundance, the valley became the source of food for the miners in Potosí as well as for other nearby regions. When Potosí's boom declined in the early 18th century, so did the demand for Cochabamba's products. By the mid-19th century, however, the economic crisis faded away and the city gained back its position as the nation's granary. Currently, Cochabamba is a progressive and economically active city.” Borrowed from Cochabamba website.

 

One of the top places to visit in the city is the Palace Portales which was built by a tin baron named Simon L. Patino. At the time of construction in 1927 the palace was not in the city, today it is practically downtown as we walked there in less than 45minutes. The construction materials were largely imported from Europe as that is where the Baron and his family lived at the time; this also influenced the design of the palace as it was favorable to imitate the European style of the time.

A very old church.

The Baron lived most of his life abroad and when he finally decided to move back to Bolivia he suffered a heart attack during the trip and died before ever living one day in the palace. Today his grandchildren run the foundation which was started years ago. The palace and grounds are used as a museum and cultural center, the dry climate of Cochabamba has allowed the house to remain well preserved to this day. The silk wallpaper, parquet floors, stunning woodwork, 15meter high doors with shutters, everything is in very good condition. The lower level (basement) of the palace is an art museum; the main floor is open to tours and is used for special functions. The top floor which is closed to the public is still used by the family when they visit the city; they apparently use it for meeting as well to oversee how the property is functioning and to discuss foundation business.

Sorry, no inside photos allowed.

From the mansion tour we decided to walk to the gondola station and go for a ride up to the top of the mountain to see what we could see. What did could see was a very long line to get on the gondola and it was not moving. The gondola has only three cars on it and they hold six people each, all three are together on the cable so it is a very slow system of moving people up and down.

We decided the view was not that important and that we should continue our walking tour of the city. According to the little tourist map we had there was a path around the lake that looked promising and from there we could make our way back into downtown.

The lake not worth the 20 minute walk to find it. There was a large border of weeds around the water and the walking paths were unmaintained dirt tracks. The only good thing is that we were on the good side of the lake and it led us to the large market area that seemed to just go on forever. The traffic was all snarled into the market and the main bus terminal  was in there as well. We just kept thinking that we were glad we were walking and not on the bikes.

 

 

After all that walking we were fairly worn out and a little R&R at the hotel was in order.