Sucre

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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 when my lessons would be but was told nothing until 8am on Monday morning, when Mama Vicki (the lovely lady who owned the family home where I was staying) knocked on my door and told me that my teacher was arriving at 8.30. Great. My teacher didn´t actually arrive, but a bit later on, a replacement teacher did. I told her that I´d arranged via email with Fox that I would be teaching English but had heard nothing from them about it and she said I could help out in her English lessons if I liked, as she taught English as well as Spanish. I did this in both a local school and Fox Academy. I liked the pupils but I found it a bit boring repeating things in English, and it wasn´t what I had wanted to do. My feeling of frustration wasn´t helped by my coming down with some stomach bug and missing some lessons. I only had two Spanish lessons in the end - another one was arranged, but my teacher wanted to take photos of the Fathers´ Day celebrations at school instead so I wasted my time on that one! The following week I was still sick, so I just gave up on school.

I was in Sucre for two weekends. I had been planning on going to Potosí on one of the weekends, but didn´t make it. The highlights of most people´s trips to Potosí is a visit to the silver mines. Having heard about the cramped, hot conditions in the mine, and also having watched The Devil´s Miner (a very good, interesting film, but with dubious ethics - apparently, the filmmaker was going to pay the family that feature in the film but in the end he only sent them a cheque for 30 Bolivianos - three quid - which would cost them more to cash than it´s worth), I´m not too disappointed I missed out. I would recommend watching the film though. What I did do on both weekends was go to Tarabuco. The first time was with the guys from the Salt Flats tour; we explored the markets and bought touristy souvenirs. The seccond time was a trip arranged by Fox to witness a yearly carnival/festival which celebrates booting the Spanish out.

Robyn and Cameron, whom I´d met in PUnta Arenas and travelled with on the Navimag, arrived in Sucre in my second week. They were heading to La Paz and then the jungle so I decided to follow them. A Very Good decision!

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Comments

[Michael Fields]

Sucre sunny Sucre
Duuuuude, I am all over your Sucre Blog, was a little dissapointed there was no mention of my searing wit and tea making skills tho......I think you should rewrite and edit me in a bit more.........

[Jess]

sucre sucks
I'm sorry you didn't like Sucre but the photos look lovely! Especially the man with the chocolate sauce face. yum x x

[emskibub]

I was thinking about it, but there was just no way I could do your tea-making skills justice in prose. I´m just going to have to tell everyone I meet about it instead.

[emskibub]

Yeah, he was lush! That mirador place is really nice too. There´s nothing wrong with Sucre itself, I just wasn´t feeling the best. Luckily there was this amusing chap from London who made nice tea. That made it better. (Will that suffice, Mike?)

[Katerina]

Bolivian dish
Hi Emma!! Many kisses to you and your authorish hand! I was wondering what the delicacy with the happy face on the photo just above waS? Was it tasty?? xxxx

[emskibub]

I believe it was a pancake with chocolate sauce. MMMmm!