Colonial times in Sucre

Sucre (6th and 7th of June) and Villamontes (8th of June 2009)

After a taxi ride with the craziest driver in the world (we really nearly got driven over by a lorry), we landed outside the Amigo hostel. Richard and I got a room there for 65 bolivianas (we thought that was each, until I paid the next day) and went for some lunch with the Irish and English guys from the taxi. After lunch, we ventured to the bus station where we found out about getting to Paraguay from Bolivia and then took a colectivo back to town.

We wandered for a bit, enjoyed the colonial grandeur of the city. Sucre is the constitutional capital of Bolivia and its Colonial buildings ensured it became a world heritage sight in 1991. It's a pretty town and very clean, especially for Bolivia. That night the streets were full of young people, all dressed up and ready for a Saturday night party.

The next day, Richard wasn't feeling well. I checked us out but he continued to sleep in the room for a couple of hours, hoping the rest would make him better. He got up around 12.30 and we went to the bus station and paid for our tickets. The rest of the day was spend wandering around the city and on the internet, before we got on a night bus to Camiri.

While on the bus, we realised that we probably didn't have enough money to get us across the border. And possibly no way of getting anymore out. Opps. Once we got to Camiri, Rich was luckily able to get some money but we later discovered that it was far from sufficient. We got a taxi to Villamontes, where buses pass through on their way to Paraguay but the bus ticket was $30 each, much more than Richard and I had. Luckily, we were also near the Argentinian border and remembered that we also had some pesos. The man in the office was nice enough to accept these. Now it was just a ten hour wait, with four pounds to spend for the whole day. We got some lunch for one pound each, the rest was spent on tuna, bread, water and coke.

Villamontes was a pleasant town though. It even had some Mennonites there. It was obvious that gringos aren't common though and we got many strange looks, especially in the banks where we tried to convince them to give us some money using our cards and passports. No such luck though. We spent the evening playing cards and scrabble and eating tuna, until we went for a nap on the floor in the man's office around 11pm. The mosquitoes bit us, enjoying my face best, and the next day I realised what I would have looked like if I had been unfortunate enough to suffer from acne during my teenage years. The bus arrived a little after 2am. It was a comfortable bus with decent reclining seats. It was also our forth night bus in a week so tiredness quickly won out. At least for a few hours.

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