Blogs from Sucre, Chuquisaca Department, Bolivia, South America - page 13

After checking out of our hostel we began the laborious and expensive task of posting home some presents, souvenirs and no longer needed winter clothes. 40 quid for 4kg seemed cheap after DHL quoted us 130 pounds, which I nearly agreed to after doing the currency conversion very wrong and thinking it was 13 pounds! We returned to Mayapata for lunch with a view and spent what was left of our day before another night bus in the museum of Indigenous Art. I had thought it was just going to be a few examples and history of different styles of weaves and some women weaving, but it was so much more! We got an A5 guide book about 30 pages long to guide us around the 13 rooms of exhibitions. I had no idea of the ... read more

Breakfast at "Backpackers Hostel" was as stingy as the reviews had suggested - 2 bread rolls with only enough butter and jam to cover half of one! But we weren't complaining at only 4.50 (pounds) each for our private room! We set off to climb the tower of a church on top of a hill for a good view of the city - but I got distracted by a market and the church closed before we got there. Still got an excellent view though, and some more brilliant purchases at the market to decorate our house in Manchester! No doubt the colours of Bolivia might be a bit colourful for our place in the UK, which I see as an excuse to buy enough to cover the place! In fact I've already planned a trip back ... read more

The road from Uyuni to Potosi was half paved half gravel and wound round hills and mountains heralding spectacular views across wild terrain. The bus stopped occasionally in remote villages to pick up passengers and make the most of the limited space on board. The smooth paved section was a god-send and we were soon approaching Potosi - a historic town with a checkered mining history. Potosi basically bankrolled the Spanish empire thanks to the fruits born from Cerro Rico - Rich Mountain. Silver was discovered here in 1556 and the Spanish wasted no time in exploiting the local indigenous labour force to extract it. The silver from the mountain was crucial to the Spanish Empire and helped them fund their armies and continued expeditions on the continent. The silver was shipped to Spain where much ... read more

I didn´t love my time in Sucre - not its fault - so this might not be the most enthusiastic blog you´ve ever read. Sucre is the consitutional capital of Bolivia and is rather handsome. It feels fairly small and the roads are so narrow that the cars honk at every intersection. There´s a big square full of trees in the middle of town and the buildings are all white. Around the city are pyramid-shaped scrubby hills. The weather in Sucre while I was there was always very pleasant - warm and sunny. I was planning on staying in Sucre for 3-4 weeks and doing some voluntary work at Fox Academy while also learning Spanish. Unfortunately Fox was pretty disorganised and this is the main reason I didn´t stay. I had been trying to find out ... read more

Hola Mis Amigos! I believe I left off on arrival in Sucre after another Bolivian bus journey that would have changed my opinion of Bolivian buses if it weren´t four hours late because it kept stopping every now and again for an hour to let the chicken/hamburger/bread and egg sellers on board! Still, I was just very happy to be back in Sucre and have a couple of weeks of Spanish lessons and to catch up with Vicky from Trailfinders (not her legal title). So I headed to a hostel I had booked just for one night to settle back into Sucre, before doing some shopping around other hostels that afternoon. I found a really nice little place called ´Hostal Pachamama´ with a lovely older Bolivian couple running it. It had a nice garden area for ... read more