The white city of Sucre
I was trying to remember something about the bus ride from Cochabamba to Sucre. It can´t have been that bad, or that good if I am struggling to remember it. But this is Bolivia, so of course it wasn´t straight forward! I had trouble finding a company that was going overnight to Sucre. When I found one, they told me that they only sell the tickets on the day and to come back in the morning. I came back in the morning to be told there wasn´t any tickets left (or no bus, I´m not quite sure). I eventually found another company with one seat left and they gave me a small discount because it was at the front and the semi-cama seat didn´t have the leg rest. No problem for me because I´m not that tall and I was just grateful to get a seat at all! When it came to catching the bus I nearly missed it because it was parked behind another bus and I couldn´t work out where the bus was waiting. Luckily, the driver of the bus was at the travel desk when I went to ask about the bus so he made sure me and my luggage got on the right bus.
Sucre - La Ciudad Blanca
What can I say, I loved Sucre! I stayed at a nice hostel and met some really cool people. The hostel also had a kitchen so I could cook for the first time in a few months. I had great fun buying random ingredients at the market – the best thing in Bolivia is that you can buy exactly only what you need at the market, no matter how little. I called my dish Aji de Soja (dried soya meat in a chili sauce with rice).
The best fruit salad lady in Sucre market
The highlight of each day was going to the market for fruit salad. There was a corner of the market with a bunch of ladies with stalls selling fresh juices and fruit salads. Fruit salads came in 6, 8 and 10 Bs. sizes. I always opted for 8 Bs. size and was never disappointed. The fruit salads were full of exotic fruits and topped with yoghurt, cream, shredded coconut, nuts and a wafer biscuit. What more could you want??!!
Bs.8 size fruit salad
Because Emmanuel fell over (drunk) in Berlin and hurt his arm, he had to go to Venezuela for an operation which meant he wouldn’t be going to Australia until February (rather than November as planned) and because I couldn´t get a flight from Buenos Aires to Sydney until 23 January at the earliest, I decided to take the opportunity to stay longer in South America and go to Australia a bit later.
While I decided what to do with my extra time I enrolled in Spanish lessons for a week at Sucre Spanish School. I took 4 hours of one-to-one classes each day with an enthusiastic teacher called Johnny. Fortunately, I didn’t really have much new grammar to learn so it was mostly revising bits of grammar and then reading a text on a topical subject before having a discussion about it. The classes were a lot of fun and I learnt loads – oh, and they were a bargain at only US$6 per hour. The school also organised after school activities so I got the chance to play wallyball. Check out the link for more info but it’s basically volleyball played on a squash court and you can bounce the ball off the walls as well as hit it over the net directly. As with my attempt to play volleyball in Peru, I was absolutely rubbish as wallyball. It was super fun though and as always my Bolivian team mates (it was me plus 5 expert Bolivian wallyball players) gave me lots of encouragement and were super patient with my attempts to even hit the ball, let alone score any points! We had a lot of laughs the next day when I showed them all the massive bruise on my wrist from my attempts to hit the ball.
Dinosaur telephone box near the hostel
In Sucre I wish I had the Cholas in Bowlers book to read (even though I’d already read it in London and passed it on). I had no trouble finding the cafe mentioned in the book (Joy Ride Cafe) as it’s such a major traveller hangout. They show films each night so I managed to see The Devil’s Miner documentary about the mines in Potosi. I hadn’t realised the film was about children working in the mines, so it was even more hard-hitting than I expected. I’d already read quite a bit about the history of the mines in Potosi and had already decided for my own reasons that I wouldn´t visit the mines. I really recommend seeing this documentary if you can. There is also a more recent documentary on a similar theme (that I’ve not seen yet) called Todos Los Dias La Noche.
As I ended up doing quite a lot in Sucre I’m going to break this post up into several smaller ones so I can share lots of pictures.
trying to travel light 