Sucre - an oasis

---

i arrived in Sucre at the end of May. I planned on staying a few days. today is July 12th and i am finally leaving. Sucre is a nice little town, it has been sunny almost every day, no rain and it does get cool at night. besides the weather there are other reasons for staying. restaurants. there are a lot of great restaurants here. some are expensive for Bolivia - $4, but where else in the world could you get fillet Mignon, in a real french restaurant - two fillets at that!!! - for $4. there are also a lot of good Bolivian restaurants here too!!

The people are truly friendly here, they want to learn about you, your country .... Also there are a few Spanish schools here. I went to fox academy and would recommend them. the cost was $5 per hour for a private lesson. i ended up volunteering to teach English - good fun. the school is non profit and they pay their teachers more than the other schools. also they offer the least expensive English lessons for the locals.


i stayed at the hostal cruz de papayan on loa and colon, nice place, i had a single room with a tv in english, there are flyers out there for 10% discount. i ended up paying $5 per night including breakfast. one drawback is if you want a private bath. for some reason the price is $20 per night. if you want a private bath go to the grand hotel.

oh, I forgot a few things. one of the reason i stayed so long in sucre is because after i arrived it was hard to leave due to road blocks outside the city ... the people here were upset and demanded that the president quit. the US and other embassies issued an advisory against traveling to Bolivia for fears of a civil war. Sucre was calm except for one day. Sucre is the Capital of Bolivia but all the activity goes on in La Paz. Anyway, the congress came here to vote on whether to accept the then presidents second resignation. many thousands of campicinos had marched here to protest. For the most part it was peaceful, though the peace was interrupted from time to time with the occasional stick of dynamite of teargas. Nothing like the sound of dynamite to get your attention. the night of the protest, Paddy and Suzi from Ireland and I had a little teargas party, complete with peppered salami from Argentina (like we needed more pepper) and rum. nothing like the sting of tear gas in your eyes.

---

Photos

sucre cemetary
this is what happens if your family doesnt pay your bill, they dig you up!!!!

good times at karaoke
paddy and suzi from ireland, enjoy a wee bit of karaike

no title needed
you can get anything in the campesino market

now this was a deal
At a french restaurant, two filet mignons with a cheese sauce, that were as good as argentinan beef, vegies and fries for less then a combo meal at McDonalds