"Brightly painted facades, a jumble of craft shops and stacks of freshly fired clay pots make a welcoming sight along the main street of this one hourse town...Ráquira is well known for for its quality pottery...A number of small pottery workshops are in the village itself and on its outskirts, where you can watch the production process and buy some products if you want."
Sounds like it's a little town full of hearty people sitting in their homes making esquisite pottery. I'm not a pottery fan, but, what the hell, sounds interesting. Soon after arriving and seeing that the main statue in the central square was of a kid with a basball cap backwards peeing, we should have known better.
I mean, a kid peeing? This is what you want as the defining image in your town? Usually, it is some dead hero or the town founder, or barring those, just a plain old fountain that, you know, shoots water in the air. It's not usually a one-dollar-store lawn ornament put up on a podium. Maybe I'm just picky about my parque central fountains.
So, what is there to actually do in Ráquira? Well, you can buy tourist stuff or, ummm, well that's about it. The whole town is basically one street lined with stores that all sell, more or less, the exact same stuff. Yes, there was some actual pottery there, but it was surrounded by a lot of stuff that's on par with a t-shirt that says "I went to Colombia and all I got was this lousy T-shirt". (And yes, they did have those shirts for sale, too)
Stuff for sale
Just to give you an idea of some of the stuff that was there, one of the larger stores off of the main square sold a sculpture / lawn ornament that was a masturbating pig. Yes, you read that right. It was a pig in overalls lying down and looking very happy. I could see it's right hand (hoof?) but where's his left hand? Oh there it is, in his overalls, kinda where you think it might be. And it's not like this was in the corner of the store, or something. It was right there at the entrance, staring at you in a content-but-dirty pig sort of way.
Ok, ok. Maybe I'm being harsh. We did pass some time by having some super sweet strawberries and cream. And the buildings were colorful, even though they only seemed that way to amuse the tourists. And I did snap a good shot of a guy walking his donkey through town, which gives the town a bit of authenticity. Of course, maybe he was just stopping by to buy a ceramic masturbating pig.
We're silly and adventurous, computer geeks and yoga peeps.
November 07, 2008
Dan Susan
November 08, 2008
Bessie
"On many occasions, the statue is dressed in a costume. His wardrobe now consists of several hundred different costumes.... On occasion, the statue is hooked up to a keg of beer. Cups will be filled up with the beer flowing from the statue and given out to people passing by."
That's awesome!! Apparently we should have left the Raquira statue an outfit...
November 07, 2008
Wendy
November 07, 2008
Linda
November 07, 2008
Liza
Not-so-liking-sitting-in-front-of-her-computer-Liza
November 08, 2008
Kyle
November 07, 2008
DADDIO
November 08, 2008
Bessie
November 07, 2008
Mark H
My blog contains a story about the image of this statue in a packet of cigarettes (search under Belgium).
November 08, 2008
Kyle