Lovely Sucre

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Our arrival at Sucre and finding a bed was one of the greatest reliefs of our trip. As I had said in the previous blog we had been up at 4.30am to the airport in La Paz, flight cancelled, and then waiting around for our night bus to Sucre. Bolivia being much cheaper than anywhere else we opted for the Bus Cama, at 180 degrees we thought we would need it. The company sold us the tickets, but we had heard rumours that there was a roadblock on the way (not that anyone in the company mentioned it to us, always happy for a sale in South America!). The bus meandered around town, like it was picking up people to come on the bus and sell or beg, one guy even blasted out a song.
We slept quite well, only to wake at 6am and notice we weren´t going anywhere, a quick peek out the window and a long line of trucks and buses, as well as a train of people walking on foot we knew it could be only one thing, a blockade. We weren't sure where we were or how long we would be. (not that the bus driver was any help). After an hour or so we were driven to the front of the blockade, which was trucks at different angles blocking the road. We grabbed the bags and started walking, we found out we were in Potosi which wasn't too bad as we knew we would be able to get transport and it was only 3 hours from Sucre.
After getting a taxi to the bus station. And then a bus driver telling us he only had six seats left on his bus to Sucre (there were the six gringos of us together), only to find the bus half empty (feeling very gullible once again) we had to wait for more passengers before we were to leave. We then proceeded to drive around town trying to find a way out as many streets were blocked, many with stones laid out blocking the roads. We finally arrived in Sucre around midday and wandered around as every accommodation said "full". Finally, finally since 4.30am the previous day, we had a hotel room to relax in and a bed! Life couldn´t get any better.
We have had a lovely relaxing time in Sucre, gorgeous weather, shorts and T-shirts even in the evening, clean city, brilliant food, UNESCO heritage site with lovely whitewashed buildings and many parades. The town has a lovely sophisticated feel, modern and peaceful.
We went to the Mirador cafe for sunset and a beer and the following day I did a tour out to Cordillera de las Frailes and to Chataquita to see some ancient rock paintings and an old Inca Road. It was very dry out there and warm, plenty of gumtrees and a good view of the Maragua crater in the distance, a nice peaceful walk.
Most of our stay involved relaxing and eating at Joy Ride Cafe, Deb loved the place, the food was very very good and always left you full (Check out the chicken wings). We checked out the Casa de La Libertad about the liberation of Bolivia and enjoyed the parades that were on in town, all hours of the night, on Haloween night we hit the bed about 1am and we could hear the partying going on until 5am.
We saw a traditional dancing show with Rorie and Emer, it wa a nice night out. All the dances were from different parts of Bolivia and the food again was great.
We spent another day with Rorie and Emer and another Aussie/Irish couple Brad and Ciarra, at the Mirador Cafe we witnessed a robbery, a dodgy looking character was around. His friend distracted two girls from above and as they went to pick up his dropped money his mate took off with her camera and bag, jumped off a small ledge and had a car waiting. We were all just there in shock and couldn't believe it had happened to close to us. Sucre had seemed safer than most towns, but it shows you always have to be on alert. We checked out Castillo de la Glorieta which was pretty average in honesty but it got us out of the city for a change of scenery.
I have to say that we really enjoyed the relaxing stay in Sucre, not quite like we expected for Bolivia and the food really hit the spot. Next on to Potosi to see the mines!

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