THE “REAL” CAPITAL – SUCRE!

A quick one night’s pit stop in La Paz for the second time after the Jungle  (we still didn’t warm to the place), and we were finally on the way to Sucre. Well it seemed that way as we prepared for another 12 hour bus journey.
The station was the usual chaotic mess that we would eventually get used to in Bolivia! We arrived a little late – 7.15pm for a 7.30pm bus. This would be early at home, but when you have to go to the desk to find out which platform the bus is at; then pay the tax (yes – you have to pay tax of about 2 Boliviano at each station!); check in your bags – there’s always a gang ahead of you checking in huge canvas bags of food or clothes as well as boxes upon boxes (some people use the buses as an alternative to post!); get to the platform to find your bus is at a different one or not there at all; and leave yourself enough time to ask (in Spanish) the relevant questions to help you with all of the above scenarios - with the constant background screaming that goes on at Bolivian bus stations (loud women shouting destinations at you over and over)!!

We were awoken at 2.30am (half way to our destination) with the sight of an endless line of buses ahead all stopped on the road along with ours. The driver informed us that there was miners striking up ahead meaning the road was closed indefinitely. He then went on to say he was turning back and heading for La Paz and “kindly” gave us the option to get out and wait here, in the middle of the desert, if we didn’t like it! As happy as we were to be leaving La Paz, we weren’t going to wait in the desert at crazy o’clock, with the handful of lunatics who got off the bus. We got back to the station in La Paz at 6am where us & almost everyone else from the bus (along with 2 couples we had met on the bus earlier) waited until we got a refund.
Our options were to stay in La Paz and try another night bus or take a flight. Since we didn’t know when these strikes would end we didn’t want to risk it, and neither did our new friends from Belgium and Portugal, so I called the airport from the station and reserved 6 seats for us on the next flight to Sucre later that day. We hopped into  2 taxis back to the airport (AGAIN!) and got breakfast together. Bruno & Anabel from Portugal were on their honeymoon and travelling around South America in 3 weeks. Hanna & Tomas from Belgium were also on a short trip, just visiting Bolivia.
…We named ourselves (after the bus company): ‘The El Dorado Six’!

The 'El Dorado Six' waiting for our flight 

Take 2:
Our flight to Sucre with Aerosur (for about e50) was great – the last time we were on a plane all passengers got a window seat – remember?! As soon as we stepped onto the tarmac we realised we were at a nice altitude (2900m) with a lovely climate to match – finally!! We mentioned to the gang that we were going to check out a couple of hostels we had looked into before leaving, so we all went together and ended up all staying in the first one we came to – La Dolce Vita.

La Dolce Vita

Niall sitting outside our room

It was the best hostel we had stayed in to date by far - equipped with a nice lounge & TV room & clean kitchen. We were in a large room with a private bathroom, which looked out onto a lovely bright courtyard that we would spent a lot of time chilling out in; especially in the evenings with the manager of the hostel – Vincente. It was perfect, and cheap!

Left: Enjoying wine with Vincente & 'Mitchy' the cranky cat. Right: Getting spoiled by Vince - home made pizza!

First item on our agenda while the others toured around the city – laundry! We had no clean clothes since the Jungle – not light staining either, everything was destroyed in sweat and insect repellent! Since everything completely shuts down on Sundays in Bolivia we couldn’t do a laundry in La Paz so as you can imagine – our rucksacks absolutely stank!






With that done, we spent the rest of the afternoon strolling around the central part of town. We immediately had a good feel for the place, with it’s dazzling white colonial style buildings; bustling streets; mixture of locals – both modern looking people going or coming from work and women in traditional Bolivian dress selling food on the streets; 20-25 degrees of clear sunshine; a touch of normality; and it’s general relaxed friendly vibe.

Later that evening we met up with our new friends again and we all went out for a
gorgeous meal to La Florin. It was probably our best meal in Bolivia so far – Niall and I shared a platter for 2 of Mexican food; tacos, fajitas, nachos, delicious salsas & guacamole (still not as good as my Mother’s guacamole though!). We all had Mojitos as well to get into the South American spirit, but the waiter caused somewhat of a scene when he realised one of us might have had more that 2 Mojitos. Apparently there’s a 2 cocktails per person limit during happy hour (even though happy hour was about 2 hours ago!)... gotta love those Bolivians! The whole meal for 6 including countless beers and cocktails came to the equivalent of about 60 Euro!We left around 12am and a very disappointed Bruno made no secret about how let down he felt by the Irish with their lack of drinking stamina (it was a long day and a half!)!!
After a well deserved lie in the next morning, since the rest of the crew were moving on further South, the ‘El Dorado Six’ said their goodbyes and parted ways.

Over the next week and a half we went to see a traditional Bolivian dance show ("Origines"); explored the large but small-feel city; ate ice cream in the picturesque & well kept park; regularly visited the bustling & colourful “Central Mercado” where we’d buy lots of fresh fruit/ veg/ eggs/ meat/ bread and cook our meals in the hostel kitchen; chatted with our new & good friend Steve from Brighton in the cool evenings at the hostel; bought a netbook (thanks Steve!); shared bad & mediocre bottles of Bolivian wine with Vincente and discuss his woman trouble; completed 12 hours of Spanish School; visited parks on the outskirts as well as the well known picturesque cemetery & Recoleta (a pretty square with views over the whole city); went mountain biking/ hiking/ swimming in a canyon; and sat through the weekend of the National elections where the entire country shutdown for 2 and a half days.

Sucre Cemetery

Recoleta

We had fallen in love with Sucre – it’s sometimes frustrating but relaxed attitude; it’s Spanish era buildings; it’s people; other travellers we had spent time with there; it’s albeit sparse but above average restaurants; it’s bustling market & surrounding streets; specialty chocolate shops; La Dolce Vita & Vincente! It’s the first place I could’ve stayed even another week in and the first place where either altitude or heat wasn’t an issue.

We will always remember Sucre as one of our favorite stop offs in South America – especially in Bolivia, despite my hatred for it’s useless internet cafes and lack of shops that simply sell white vests!

Te amo Sucre… por siempre!