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Published: February 19th 2011
Biggest Mango ever
I bought this mango in Cochabamba, hard to tell but it is bigger than my hand can really hold. Like a football! And delicious.After an amazing few days in Cochabamba where we did not really get up to a whole ton except enjoy the City, Amy and I both bought bus tickets to head in opposite directions. Amy wanted to do an ice climbing trek to a mountain somewhere in the 6,000 m altitude range outside of La Paz and I wanted to go visit Sucre. After our last day in Cochabamba, I got on my night bus that I was dreading for the entire day. Mostly because it was the only bus that said they had cama (bed seats) yet it was only Bs. 60 (which is about $9) for the 12-hour ride. Needless to say I expected the worst. However, my recent experiences with other horrible night buses had me prepare well in advance for the discomfort.
The last bus had me forget that James had given me an awesome inflatable neck pillow. So I made sure that was included in my daypack for when I was on the bus rather than in my big bag. I also brought lots of warm clothes. Our last experience on the bus from Uyuni to Oruro saw me freeze my buns off, so I
Sucre Cathedral
All the buildings in town are white. Apparently you can get fined if you paint your house or shop a different colour. was ready this time. I also brought Gravol to hopefully knock me out enough to get a good sleep. A fully charged iPod to drown out other people. Water. Snacks. And finally a carefully selected seat on the bus. My strategy involved picking the seat at the very back so hopefully nobody would sit beside me (the front fills up first), also this was done knowing the bus had no bathroom (and therefore no horrible smell at the back). I also elected to choose a window to seat to allow me the chance to lean against the window for added comfort.
In the end it was an awesome bus ride. The guy beside me was really nice, he even shared his huge cosy blanket with me. Although I was careful to keep all my valuables securely in my backpack and have the straps wrapped around my legs on the floor. Also the seats reclined really well and there was nobody sitting in front of me. Probably the best bus ride yet. AND it was on time! An incredible feat of engineering by Bolivian standards.
Anyways, enough of my bus ramblings. Sucre is a beautiful City. I grabbed a
Fruit heaven in Sucre market
SO much fruit. And it is all so cheap and so perfectly amazingly deliciously good! cab from the bus depot to a hostel right beside the central market. I was still pretty tired despite the good bus ride, so I got a room and took a nap for an hour or two (nothing beats being TRULY horizontal after all). I got up around noon and headed to a cafe that had great food and a tour agency next door. I had wanted to go and visit the Maragua crater, and old volcano, 8km across with some of the most stunning scenery in Bolivia. Unfortunately due to the rainy season (damn you rainy season!), the river was too full for tour groups to cross so it was inaccessible. Boo hoo.
HOWEVER, they also had paragliding which I was stoked to try. Unfortunately they need groups of 3 to make it worthwhile for the instructor and I was only one person. So I put my name down on a piece of paper and posted it on the bulletin board hoping any other people wanting to go would get a hold of me at my hostel.
The next day I had not heard anything still, so I went around to probably every tour agency in town
Sucre
Takin a break in the shade. to see if ANYBODY had paragliding trips. Nobody did. I was beginning to get pretty bummed about not being able to do either of the cool activities I wanted to do. So I moped about the City exploring for the rest of the day, saw some beautiful parks and the rest of the City. I did a bit of shopping since Sucre is so close to Potosi (where there is a HUGE silver mine) and hung out in the main square. It is the week or two leading up to Carnivale where probably everybody in South America pretty much just goes nuts. For some reason teenagers roam around the City here (either in cars or on foot) and spray people with foam, water balloons or water guns. I got pretty wet going through one area by the market, but I have not gotten foamed yet.
By the time I got back to my hostel on Thursday night I was still pretty bummed about not being able to go paragliding when I was handed a note by the hostel lady from the tour agency where I had left the message. I ran back and met two other awesome girls (one
from France, one from Portugal) who also wanted to go paragliding the next day. THRILLED.
It. Was. So. Cool. I cannot really explain it because you need to experience it, but I think some of the pictures do it justice. I was able to take my camera up with me because there was a small strap to attach it so I would not drop it. I got some great pictures and a video while flying. It was a tandem jump, which was good because I think I would have crashed, I have no idea how he managed to spiral us all the way down and land exactly where he said he would. We ended up landing in a cow pasture which was full of kids who had watched us flying down and were trying to be there when we landed. It really was not as scary as I expected, even though to take off you run full tilt off the side of a hill. They had told us not to eat before we went because you can get a bit motion sick. But we had a to wait for a while for the wind to pick up so I
Me in Parque Bolivar
There was a mini eiffel tower in this park that was apparently made by the same person who made the real one. was starving and ate my sandwich (oops!) and did feel quite nauseous after the flight. Still totally worth it. A big thanks to Judy and Larry for telling me to go do something really thrilling on my trip!
When we got back from the trip I went to the market where they have women with fruit stalls and blenders and had them whip me up the best juice combination yet: banana, strawberry, mango. I think next time I am going to throw in some peach as well since it is one of the fruits that is grown primarily here (MUCH smaller than our BC behemoths though!). I felt way better after some juice so I bought a bunch of food to make my own dinner then ate at the hostel, caught up on my journal and hit the sack early since I had a nervous sleep the night before.
The next day I spent in museums and some churches and exploring the cemetery since for some reason people love the cemetery here. They go there on weekends and have picnics and the kids have a great time playing around the mausoleums and such. No photos of the museums,
they were being sticklers and of course I did not want to intrude on families in the cemetery, but I did manager to get some shots of the plots and some mausoleums. I also booked my flight back to La Paz since I did not really want to have a 16 hour bus ride when I only have a week left on the trip!
From La Paz Amy and I are going to meet up and ride bikes down "The Worlds Most Dangerous Road" to Coroico, spend a night there then head back to La Paz for our flight to Lima and then home! Excited and sad that the trip is so close to an end...
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Jill (Mom)
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How brave of you to go paragliding, Jodie (Dad says no way he'd do it, but I sure would)! Amazed you had the capability to take photos while gliding up above. Sure hoping you can adapt to living (& working) on Canadian ground again in a week. Love you lots, Mom & Dad