Blogs from Chuquisaca Department, Bolivia, South America - page 27

Today feeling much healthier and livelier we decided to do a short self-guided tour around Sucre, the highest city of its' kind. A lovely day with fantastic views in store, we headed up the cathedral La Merced for rooftop views of the city. The city looked so European, with whitewashed terracotta smart houses with courtyards, all lined up the hilly landscape. Also visible were palm-lined squares with interesting sculptures, lots of ornate cathedrals such as San Francisco cathedral, university and government colonial-styled buildings, great views. The church itself was very decorative inside with gold detail, but a fairly plain ceiling. It looked like it needed a bit of maintenance, and health and safety standards were limited, with a plank of wood lined across the winding high staircase to access the rooftop. We soon realised that some ... read more

After a quick stop in La Paz to find myself a new camera I jumped onto another bus and headed east this time to a town called Sucre. Sucre was where the declarion of independance occured and was once the policitical capital of Bolivia before La Paz took over the title as capital city. The Supreme Court is still found in Sucre and the town still holds importance within Bolivia. I had been told that the town was beautiful and on arriving I was stunned to see the buildings in this place. I felt like I had left Bolivia and arrived in another country. Sucre is full of old and very white fancy buildings dating back to when the town was more prominent in the country. There is a lot of money here as the ... read more

The 14 hour public bus ride was pretty tortuous and increadibly bumpy. Bolivia is a very poor country and there aren´t that many sealed roads outside the centre of most towns. Instead pot-holed dust tracks are the norm and the busses hurtle down them as if they were the M25. Bolivia is a big country (I am told almost as big as France and Spain put together but I need to check that) with a population of only nine million. Half is tropical jungle & savannah, and the other half, the altoplano, is up high in the Andes mountain range where it is in the most and barren. Its fiercely cold at night (well below freezing) and hot in the daytime (say up to 25 degrees). There isn´t a cloud in the sky and the ... read more

Ok, just typed out a really long entry and managed to loose it. Have just returned to Sucre after a long stint in Bolivias back and beyond. We arrived this morning at 6, after a 13 (were told it was 8 hours) hour night time taxi ride through the mountains (filled with adventure, floods, avalanches, dust storms, roads that would make your hair stand on end...im not normally scared of heights, but my god. was torn between forcing myself to open my eyes and talk to the driver, or at least nod and smile to his spanish monolgues, or squeeze my eyes tight, risk the driver falling asleep but hopefully i would be unconscious when we went over the edge!) Anyway, with lisa stretched out on the back horribly ill and in pain with an ear ... read more

Journées des lundi 4 & mardi 5 Lundi Couché tard mais nuit dans un chambre plus confortable que d'hab : j'ai ma propre SDB ! Tentative de trouver de quoi ti-déj mais en vain, j'achète un pain fourré au fromage... à vomir ! Poubelle ! Mon bus pour Tiwanacu est à 9h. La minette de l'hôtel m'attrape un taco, elle est adorable. Grosse discussion avec le taximan, comme à chaque fois d'ailleurs, j'aime bien discuter avec eux parce qu'ils me posent toujours les mêmes questions, je leurs réponds toujours la même chose avec de plus en plus d'aisance, j'ai l'impression d'être bilingue, je parle super vite sans fautes jusqu'au moment où un grain de sable vient gripper la machine : il me pose une nouvelle question ! Là, malaise : "No entiendo", "Puede repetir, por favor ... read more