Sucre

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Last night was yet another nightbus journey for me, this time to Sucre, the official capital of Bolivia. It was supposed to take around ten hours but two hours into the ride, the bus broke down in the absolute middle of nowhere. We had to wait another 2 hours for a replacement to arrive.

When the new bus turned up, it was a bit bigger so I was lucky enough to have two seats to myself and was able to curl myself into a ball across them and sleep. That is until a girl trying to sell corn decided to take a seat on my head and then upon awakening, a man asked if the seat was free and I had to give it up. Good while it lasted though.

17 hours after leaving Cochabamba on the nightbus, I finally arrived in Sucre. And it was worth the wait - such a beautiful city!

Known as the ´White City´(not quite like the one in London), all of the buildings are bright white and are kept that way by washing regularly.

I spent most of the first day recovering from the journey but in the evening went to watch a film about the silver mines in Bolivia. Only it turned out to be a film about herion addicts that made you want to slit your wrists.

The next day was a bit more entertaining. In the morning, I went with my group to visit an orphanage for newborns to five year olds. We visited the local market beforehand, pooled our money and bought supplies for the kids like nappies, milk, cereal and pasta.

As we arrived, a nun opened the door and looked very pleased to see us and especially grateful for our gifts. First, she took us to see the newborns who were mostly all asleep apart from two cheeky little ones in the corner with great big grins on their faces.

It was lunchtime so we walked into the big cafeteria where the older children were eating lunch. As we wandered in they all started shouting ´hola mama, hola papa´ to us. I asked one little girl (in Spanish) if her lunch was tasty and she just looked at me and cried. Great start.

After lunch was playtime! One litte boy called Alej ran up to me screaming ´MAMA´and we ran around, played on the slide, chatted to his friends, had a turn on the roundabout until he found someone new and more interesting to play with.

It was a wonderful place and they´re really doing a great job there. Most of the kids were so happy although you could tell the difference between those who had never known their parents and those who had.

After playtime was naptime. We tried to put them to bed but we´d given them way too much energy and there were crazy! Jumping all over the place, throwing toys, shaking their cots. So we thought it best to leave that bit to the volunteers.

One last visit to the babies before leaving to go back to hotel (awesome hotel - Hotel Independcia.)

In the afternoon, 4 of us went on a city tour run by the hotel. The guide (think her name was Sonia) was just amazing.

The first place we were taken was a castle that was owned by a couple who were considered by Bolivians to be a sort of royalty. But now owned by the military who have sort of ruined it a little. There was a clock tower based on Big Ben and another Russian designed tower that we climbed to the top of. The castle and its grounds were amazing though even with the military damage.

We then went to the cemetery where the couple were buried. It was an odd place where you could find people just hanging out like it´s a park.

In the centre of Sucre is a school that used to be a convent . It's also closed to the public but our lovely guide managed to get us in. We went up to the roof which was very Gaudi-esque with two bell towers and an uneven tiled floor. I climbed one of the bell towers which gave a great view of the city. What I hadn´t realised however, was that Marcel had followed me up so when he rang the bell, I near jumped out of my skin.

The day was rounded off nicely by going to watch the sunset over the pristine white buildings of the stunning city.

On the last day in Sucre, most people went tubing but there wasn´t enough space for all of us and I didn´t really feel the urge to sit in a tyre and injure myself further so I stayed back.

I walked around the city, went to a great chocolate shop and came back to met Julie and Marcel. We then went to a weaving museum to see the history of tapestries and to watch how they´re made. Have to admit I found it a little boring.

In the evening we went to watch the genuine film about the silver mines called the ´Devil´s Miner´which was a real insight into Bolivia´s mining industry. The others came back from tubing and I sat with them for dinner, went for a drink and then headed back to pack for yet another exciting journey.

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