Cochabamba - Big town, Big market, Big Jesus

Cochabamba ended up being a lot like Sucre - a lot of things, but not that much to do. There's only a couple of attractions in the city itself, but it's a good place to get to a bunch of national parks, which I will get to in another post. 

First one I went to was the big Jesus statue on a hill overlooking town. Apparently larger than Rio de Janeiro's Jesus, it sits atop a flight of 2,000 stairs carved into the hill. I unwisely decided to wear trousers instead of shorts which resulted in me spending a lot of time standing still trying to catch my breath in the thin air. Jesus turned out to be a bit odd - I though his face looked like an elf with the outrageous cheekbones and jawline. You can climb up inside the redeemer but only on Sundays, so our Wednesday visit was a little anticlimactic.

And Jesus said "I fed the hungry a fish THIS BIG!"

The other main spot is the central market. This place is enormous. According to some locals I met on a bus, the town has grown from 50,000 people to over 1 million in just 50 years, and the market was evidently built in the middle of those 50. There are some actual covered buildings in the middle, somewhere, but the sheer mass of vendors has swollen the market into the surrounding blocks. 

You can find anything in that place, but never the same thing twice because you will inevitably take a wrong turn in the rabbit warren and never see that llama wool sweater you had your eye on ever again. The atmosphere is incredible, I spent the best part of a day just wandering around when I came down sick, and the food is top notch and cheap as...well, chips.

For the most part, this town is nice but dull. They have colourful buses and surprisingly good coffee in the city square, but I didn't feel any need to stay here, especially after Sucre.

They all look like this! I have no idea why!

I will dedicate another post to my adventures in Torotoro national park, for now, I'm off to the big smoke - La Paz!


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