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Published: April 19th 2011
WARNING!! This is a long entry if you want to skip to the end and just read what I learnt in Sucre feel free 😊
Wow where to begin?
It´s been a month since my last entry, I always had in my head that I may stay in Sucre a month to learn spanish in order to be better prepared for the rest of my travels but nothing could have prepared me for the month I was going to have here.
I travelled up from Uyuni with a French girl from the Uyuni tour. We departed Uyuni hoping to be able to change busses in Potosi and head straight to Sucre. About 20 minutes out of Potosi the bus stopped on the side of the road. Thinking this was just a toilet stop we got out and did just that and boarded again expecting to leave. But no, it turned out that o this routine bus trip that they do everyday they had run out of petrol halfway up a hill! We weren´t informed of anything and everyone just seemed to be happy waiting. It took nearly 2 hours for another vehicle to come with petrol and then it still wouldn´t start so the bus driver had to spend a good half an hour with the engine open trying to get the gas to flow! Ah welcome to Bolivia!! We finally got underway and arrived in Potosi (the world´s highest city). Upon arrival we were told that due to Bolivian carnivale buses to Sucre would not be leaving until the following day. Being such high altitude it was freezing and absolutely pouring with rain (the wet season was lingering) so we found the nearest hotel and booked a room.
The following day we jumped on a bus without any hiccups and made the 4 hour journey to Sucre. Looking out the bus window the landscape and way of life was just so vastly different to anything I had seen so far. The Bolivianos living in the country still dress in the brightly typical Bolivian clothes that their ancestors would have warn. Babies on their backs in colourful cloth and a really warn look about them, these people live a hard life and are people of the land.
Arriving in Sucre we arrived at our hostel and then I set about finding a good language school. In the end I decided on two (you can never have too many 😊) one that had one on one classes and another with group classes. I began my one on one classes with an Italian chick Claudia she is my age and speaks about 5 different languages! Our first class was 6 hours!!! Eek it was definitely information overload. She was working at Fox language school who use part of the proceeds they make to help buy equipment for the school children so part of your money is going to a good cause.
I then changed hostels and as Julie was leaving for La Paz, the new hostel had a large single room for only 30 bolivianos a night the equivalent to $6 NZ a bargain! Unfortunately the bed was terrible so I made my way back to the first hostel to see if they had anything. On the way I spotted a hostel and just thought I would go and ask if they had anything and thats when they showed me the apartment with double bed, bathroom, kitchen and lounge for only 70 bolivianos ($14 NZ a night) I was in love and decided to splurge!
I attended a Fox language academy lunch on the Friday hoping to meet some people to hang out with and did just that. There were a wide range of people from all over the world at the lunch including an English chick, Dawn who I met in San Pedro de Atacama (its funny how many people you bump into over and over again ) she was looking very unwell and had been for the past 2 days. Turned out she was also staying at the same hostel as me and when she didn´t improve I took her to a small private hospital near the centre of town. Luckily her spanish was good and even in a time when she felt like death she was able to communicate with the doctor and I could just be the gopher. It is a total pay as you go system here, the doctor writes a list of things you need and you go to the pharmacy and purchase it. This includes needles, drips etc! After 2 hours at the hospital they had rehydrated Dawn, given her a range of antibiotics and after getting blood tests back told her she had salmonella. She did feel a bit better and was able to recover somewhat over the next two days and we went to a carnivale about an hour away on the Sunday only to leave 20 minutes later as the water balloons and foam just weren´t fun anymore!
I then began my group classes on the Monday there were 3 of us an american and english guy and I. It was good and I learnt alot in a short space of time which was good. Unfortunately my memory isn´t the best and trying to retain all I had learnt was the hard bit. I still continued to see Claudia in the afternoon which was good but it meant that in the evenings I was shattered. I became friends with an Aussie girl Fiona funny how when you meet someone from your part of the world you just seem to click more easily.
So things were going really well I was enjoying Sucre alot it is such a pretty city with white wash buildings with a mix of both modern and traditional as this is a university town there are alot of young people who adopt western dress and then there are all the older people dressed in their more traditional clothing. It is also a town that feels safe. I had this image that Bolivia was going to be very dangerous and that I would have to watch my bag all the time but its not like that here at all.
And then I got sick....
It happened following a night of cocktails and w¡ne so I assumed what I was feeling was an extra bad hang over but then 3 days later when it was still bad I knew something was up so I headed back to the hospital I had been with with Dawn this time with Claudia my spanish teacher (who was fast becoming my friend.) I went through the same thing as Dawn so it wasn´t as scary as it had been for her as I knew what was going on. And like Dawn the doctor told me that my blood showed salmonella so I was sent away with antibiotics and hoped that as with Dawn I would begin to feel better the next day. But the next day I felt dizzy and nauseas and then that night took a turn for the worse.
Making the decision to go the ED at 4am was a difficult one, I think that´s why it took me so long to go! A) because I can´t speak spanish and b) because I didn´t want to wake anyone else in the hostel up to come with me. But in the end I had to. So poor Lucy a girl I had met on the trip to Tarabuco the previous weekend got a knock on her door at 4am and off we went to the hospital. Being 4am we couldn´t go back to the original hospital so had to go Santa Barbara the main hospital here. We arrived and the place was dead, not what I would imagine an ED to be like on a Sunday morning. The doctors literally had to get out of bed to see me and everything was all very slow. I tried to explain that I didn´t understand why the antibiotics weren´t working but it was hard and scary and yes there were lots of tears! My stay here consisted of 10 hours on 2 drips and then the doctors giving me different antibiotics as I may have been reacting the ones I was already on. Claudia also joined us at 9am just as they were making signs that they wanted to put a camera in my stomach and I was freaking out and just telling them I didn´t understand.
I left feeling alot better but very weak. I woke the next day still extremely week I couldn´t even walk to the plaza which is less than a 10 minute walk away! Fi and Claudia did a wonderful job of visiting me, buying me food, making me cups of tea and generally just being there for me. Unfortunately 2 days later I had gotten worse was again very dizzy, nauseas and feverish. Fi had stayed with me the Tuesday night to make sure I was ok but I wasn´t so in the morning the 3 of us went to yet ANOTHER hospital this time a gastric hospital. I was admitted after it was discovered I had a temperature of 38. I had my own room for 80 bolivianos a night and was put on a drip and had more tests.
I never imagined that my first hospital stay in my life would be in a Bolivian hospital. Apparently the best hospital in Sucre this you didn´t get toilet paper or towels but I did get an extra hot gown to wear! After being admitted I was hooked up to more fluids and Fi and Claudia had left to let me rest in the afternoon. Then 10 doctors came into my room and stood around my bed all speaking spanish. I was very scared! I had no idea what they were saying and there were 10 of them! Then part way through one of the doctors asked in very good english whether I understood and I immediately felt better. He then returned after they had all left and explained how the system works in Bolivia and that the doctors meet to talk about the patient infront of the patient as they have nowhere else in the hospital to meet. He continued to visit me and was extremely helpful.. and also rather hot which made things extra specially good 😊
The doctors decided to discharge me two days later when my results came out negative they said they thought I had a urinary tract infection but I thought that perhaps they just had no idea and wanted to get rid of me after I refused to have a endoscopy. After a few house visits from the hot doctor 😊 and yet another visit to a specialist as I still wasnt feeling right on Monday I slowly started getting better. The conclusion was was that it was food poisoning and that I had reacted to the antibiotics which stopped me from getting better. All I know is that it feels sooo good to be well again!
I spent my last week hanging out with the hot doctor and learning lots about Bolivia and Sucre hanging out with a local is just such a different experience to being with only travellers. I also headed out to Mitos the only club in Sucre with Fi and Claudia and danced until the small hours it was just so nice to be out and having fun again!! 😊
Fi and I then flew to Santa Cruz a town 16 hours by bus away on a very dangerous road or 20 minutes by flight at only double the cost the equivalent of $60 nz it was a no brainer!
WHAT I LEARNT IN SUCRE:
Being sick in a foreign country where you can´t speak the language is SCARY!
There are amazing people out there that will go out of their way to help you in times of crisis!
Always carry your own toilet paper even if you´re going to hospital!
Bolivianos only sit a written test to get their drivers license which means that police officers have to stand at the lights and direct traffic even though the lights work!
Sucre is an extremely noisy city as it seems compulsary for people to toot their horns every 30 seconds and car alarms go off all the time.
A drain in Sucre always doubles as a toilet there are some very smelly corners!
Even in Bolivia they serve green beer on St Patricks day.
Never drink a milky cocktail they can make you sick!
2 weeks is a very long time when you constantly feel nauseas!
Bolivianos never complain in hospital and just put up with pain no matter how full on it is. They all thought I was very sensitive!
There are hot bolivian interns in Sucre 😊
I never want to stay in a city as long as I did in Sucre again on this trip... unless there´s a gorgeous beach!
Thanks for reading... until next time and I promise the gap won´t be so long!!
Photos at the link below just cut and paste it 😊
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=10150149103786895&id=594416894&aid=281940&l=6512c43fe6
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gemma
non-member comment
reminds me..
Hey I had a bus trip like that too, but it was in Timaru earlier this year, yip we run out of petrol but the bus driver thought it was something else and really didnt do a good job of communicating to us what was wrong and i could beleive how people were just so calm and patient and quite ok with sitting there for 2 hours waiting for help, quite odd really. Great story telling hun, keep up the great work xx