Every Sunday, the Yampara people go to Tarabuco early in the morning to sell their homemade goods, which some could take months or years to make.  The Sunday Market of Tarabuco is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Sucre.

There are plenty of tour agencies in Sucre that will sell you a bus ticket to Tarabuco.  I went with Oasis Tours and the ticket cost 35Bs round trip.  I bought my ticket the afternoon before from their office at Calle Aniceto Arce #95.

My bus left from Plaza 25 de Mayo by the cathedral at 8:30 AM in the morning.  I was told to be there at 8:15 AM.  When I got there there were already a bunch of people already waiting.  There was a big bus and a smaller bus.  I was on the big bus and it was pretty full when it left.

The trip took about an hour and a half.  Our bus had a hard time getting through the town because of its size and we got stuck probably for about 20 minutes on the bus.  A few people were complaining that because of the delay they’ll have less time to check out the market.  We were given 3 hours to check it out, and trust me, that’s a lot of time.  Because of the delay everyone agreed to leave Tarabuco half hour later.

There was also a very cheerful lady from Samay Wasi who welcomed us when we got there.  She gave us some information about the town.  We then got off the bus and some went to use the bathroom at Samay Wasi while the others hurried to get to the market.

The town was quite small and didn’t really look that great.  Though the main plaza was pretty decent.  While I was walking around the market, I was surprised how small it actually was.  I probably went around it 3 or 4 times and that took an hour.  I didn’t really buy anything as there wasn’t really anything I needed.  A lot of the goods looked very similar to the ones sold at other markets as well.  For example, I bought a pair of gloves and a hat in Peru and saw almost the exact same ones here.

I still found it interesting, however, and I thought it was worth the visit.  You’ll see a lot of the Yampara people wearing different traditional clothing.  While in the market, you’ll also hear conversation in a different language, which I believe was Quechua.

Around lunch time I went back to Samay Wasi to eat lunch and watch a performance, which we were told about ahead of time before we got off the bus.  The food at Samay Wasi was just ok, but reasonably priced.  The family living there performed a few dances for us, which I actually enjoyed.

Some pictures below:

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