Blogs from Chuquisaca Department, Bolivia, South America - page 29

A week is a long time in La Paz, too long by about six and a half days. The Hotel we stayed in was lovely, eating and going out at night is dirt cheap and there are loads of bargains if you like Alpaca jumpers (shame they all come with pictures of lama’s or Pacha Mama stitched into them). However the city is dirty, chaotic and full of thieving toe rags, some of which come from surprising backgrounds. After our week in La Paz we came to realize a few things about the city. All of the cab drivers are illiterate. If you give them an address or god forbid a map of the city centre and ask them to take you there, they look dumbfounded and mystified as if they’d never heard of La ... read more

Sucre is a real breath of fesh air after La Paz: smaller, cleaner, warmer and more attractive. However we didn´t have the best introduction to Bolivia´s constitutional capital due to the fact that we were robbed on the overnight bus there from La Paz. The last overnight bus that we took was in Peru where they have combated the previously popular sport of robbing tourists on buses by making them super-secure. Not only do you need to present your ticket and passport to board an overnight bus in Peru, you are also finger-printed and videoed, just to make you feel that extra bit secure (though according to some this procedure is really used to make it easier to identify the bodies in the event of a fatal crash - try not to think too much about ... read more

Bolivia really is the most amazingly beautiful country. It's sometimes hard to believe we're in the middle of South America in an apparently third world country when we're having such a brilliant time of it but today we saw a bit of both the magnificent splendour and abject poverty of this intriguing land. Today we were off on an adventure into the Maragua crater, which lies about 25 kilometres from Sucre. It was another early start for us with Alex, our guide, collecting us from the hostel at 7am. We were surprised to find that our US$70 not only paid for his servces but also for a 4x4 wheel-drive car and driver! We headed out into the hills, stopping first of all at a lookout point that was interesting to us not only for the ... read more

As promised, some more pics from Sucre! Our last full day there was spent doing a day hike toward rock painting, an old local Inca Trail, and pretty much enjoying great vistas all the way. As said before, as pretty as the white city is, it´s surroundings are possibly even more spectacular! Some pics are attached here of this hike, together with Jen and local JoyRide guide Charlie. Also some pics from our second game of "walley", which is a sort of volleyball game, except it´s played in a squash court, and you´re pretty much allowed to use any squash, soccer or badminton trick you can think of !! Ah yes, and then also a light "snack" of the street, barbequed corazon (that´s a cow´s heart). Again, not for the vegetarians amongst us ! Some other ... read more

Cochabamba and Sucre South America » Bolivia » Sucre By patrickscottApril 17th 2007Patrick ScottAgain, trying to catch up on where I have been, here is my last entry from my travels in Bolivia before heading back to Canada. Here are some pictures of Cochabamba and Scure. I wish I could elaborate more but that would mean I will just get further and further behind on my blog. The last picture posted here is of my last bus ride in Bolivia before returning to Canada. The accident happened between Sucre and Potosi on the way back to La Paz. Luckily everybody was safe on the bus and in the jeep that hit our bus before sending us into a c... read more