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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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... and we weren´t disappointed!
Sucre!! The name means ´sugar´ in Spanish, and we set out to consume as much of it as is humanly possible. Wow. First up... the fruit juices in the market, absolutely delicious, and 100% fresh and healthy. They have huge piles of all the different fruits imaginable, from pears and apples to kiwis and 2 different species of passionfruits, and you can combine any of them as fruit shakes or milk shakes, with cereal or fruit chunks, and even bring a bottle to fill up and take away. There is food sold on every street corner, from fresh squeezed orange and pomelo juice, to sugared chestnuts, cheese filled puff pastries, hot cornish pasty type things with chicken and vegetables, papas rellenas, which are potatoes fried and filled with cheese or egg, fresh cow and goat cheese, candyfloss - grape and apple flavour!!, shortbread biscuits, slushpuppies, GIANT pumpkins, the size of computers, fancy cakes, fresh icecream, homemade yoghurt... basically we just grazed from morning to evening... very satisfying. We did however see some less appetising snacks, which we didn't feel too compelled to sample... barbecued cows heart for example). Sucre is also famous for its chocolate, and there are plenty of little chocolaterias dotted about the city, just waiting for you to come in and buy up a bag of white chocolate truffles...about 5p a piece! We counteracted this GLUTTONFEST by wandering the quiet, laid back streets, albeit lazily and in search of a 'food fayre' we had heard about that day. Unfortunately this was over when we turned up, but we managed to source some complementary mini german sausages and sauerkraut, to stop us from going hungry. The other highlight of the day (the trip?), for Laura, was getting her nails done in a park by someone using the SAME stencil machine thing that they had in Kratie, something she's been trying to track down for ages. She struck a deal with the lovely manicure lady, who agreed to meet up with her in a couple of day's time and sell her two of these kits. Seriously, someone still needs reminding she's a BACKPACKER. The rest of the day was spent soaking up traditional Bolivian culture, namely a trip to a miniature version of the Eiffel tower, along with some other Brits, and returning to the park to challenge these same Brits to table football, apart from Laura, who was left out, and played with a shoeshine boy. He beat her.
On the Sunday we caught a micro (= minibus) to an indigenous market about 60ks out of town, which was unbelievably colourful (nope, lost those photos too, dammit!), and full of women wearing hundreds of skirts selling all sorts of handicrafts, from woven bags and spreads to silver jewellery and... toy llamas. Ok maybe it was a little touristy. We hopped back on a micro (not on top, as some of our fellow passengers had to) to Sucre, where we climbed up the steep hill overlooking the city, visited a monastery, guided by a congenial young trainee Franciscan monk, circled its 1400 year old tree thrice for good luck (mhmm), and went to the Museo de los niños TangaTanga, an NGO working with local children, which turned out to be closed that month, but where instead we managed to procure some more food, as we watched the sun set over the city beneath us. CHOCOLATE FONDUE and fruits, to be precise. And a pancake. It was good. Our last day in Sucre took us to another small museum, with modern art, colonial art, indigenous art... and far too many MUMMIFIED CORPSES than is necessary, after a sugar overdose. We took a nightbus to La Paz, a relatively quiet journey, apart from when we woke up briefly in POTOSI (3h in the opposite direction), but were reassured it was just the route the bus took. Logical.
We've now been in La Paz (the capital) almost 4h, and are still waiting for our room to become available in our hostel, but at least we've finally had time to update this. Hopefully people we've met along the way will be sending us some of their photos, so we might add more soon.
We're going to be in the city for about 5 days before heading northeast (down the "world´s most dangerous road"... by BIKE) to Coroico and Rurrenabaque, down in the Amazon lowlands of Bolivia, where we hope to go on a boat trip into the jungle. Time to escape these icy altiplano temperatures!
Keep in touch, lots of love
Laura and Rebecca xxx
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