Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
EASTERN COCHABAMBA VALLEY
La Angostura
This village stands on the shores of the artificial lake of the same name and is a popular
spot for
cochabambinos
to head to fill up on fish. It's on the route to Tarata, 18km from
Cochabamba. There are many places to eat along the lake shore, which fill you up with
enormous plates of
trucha
(trout) or
pejerrey
(king fish) with rice, salad and potato. There
are also places to hire rowboats and kayaks at weekends. From the corner of Barrientos and
Manuripi in Cochabamba, take any
micro
toward Tarata or Cliza and get off at the An-
gostura bridge; if you see the dam on your right, you've gone too far (just). Nearby, on the
highway, is the famous open-air
Las Carmelitas
, where Señora Carmen López bakes deli-
cious cheese and onion empanadas (B$3) in a large beehive oven.
Tarata & Huayculli
Tarata, 29km southeast of Cochabamba, is one of the region's loveliest towns; a pictur-
esque but decaying beauty that's well worth a visit for its noble buildings, cobbled streets
and gorgeous plaza, filled with palm trees and jacarandas. The town's name is derived from
the abundant
tara
trees, whose fruit is used in curing leather. Tarata is famous as the birth-
place of the mad president General Mariano Melgarejo, who held office from 1866 to 1871
and whose remains now lie in the town church. While the citizens aren't necessarily proud
of his achievements, they're pretty proud of producing presidents (populist military leader
René Barrientos, who ruled from 1964 to 1969, was also born here), and there's a huge
horseback statue of him on the main road.
The enormous neoclassical
Iglesia de San Pedro
was constructed in 1788 and restored
between 1983 and 1985; several of the interior panels include mestizo-style details carved
in cedar. The 1792
Franciscan Convent of San José
, which contains lovely colonial fur-
niture and an 8000-volume library, was founded as a missionary training school. It now op-
erates as a museum and contains the ashes of San Severino, Tarata's patron saint, whose
feast day is celebrated on the last Sunday in November.
