I never intended to visit Sucre. I was travelling faster than I thought and it was either spend more time in La Paz or visit somewhere new. Now, I love La Paz but I thought I really should get out of the chaos and explore more of Bolivia. After talking to other backpackers I thought Sucre was a good decision and booked a cheap flight there to save an overnight bus trip. (I'm turning out to be a rather precious backpacker...) Also a draw card to Sucre was that it is a good spot for learning Spanish and after emailing one school I booked myself in for a much needed four days of classes!
Sometimes you need stops in a trip where you don't do much. Apart from four hours of Spanish classes a day, Sucre was my rest stop. I had a big night in La Paz on my last night and had no sleep before catching the 10am flight. Luckily the flight was less than an hour so I was safely in my hostel by noon with the whole afternoon to chill out.
Sucre is completely different from La Paz. It's small, quiet, clean and really pretty in a colonial town kind of way. The buildings were mostly white. It's a tad boring.
My two favourite things about the city though, are all the chocolate shops and the Mercado Central. If I wasn't at school I could be found at either of these. Seriously the chocolate shops were like my favourite Melbourne chocolate shop Koko Black but so much cheaper. God I love Bolivia! And god Australia is expensive!
The Mercardo Central is the Central Market which sells fruit and vege and anything else you could ever want! My favourite thing: a fruit salad, yogurt and cream combo for $1. Incredible. And a five minute walk from my hostel.
Sometimes you need stops in a trip where you don't do much. Apart from four hours of Spanish classes a day, Sucre was my rest stop. I had a big night in La Paz on my last night and had no sleep before catching the 10am flight. Luckily the flight was less than an hour so I was safely in my hostel by noon with the whole afternoon to chill out.
Sucre is completely different from La Paz. It's small, quiet, clean and really pretty in a colonial town kind of way. The buildings were mostly white. It's a tad boring.
My two favourite things about the city though, are all the chocolate shops and the Mercado Central. If I wasn't at school I could be found at either of these. Seriously the chocolate shops were like my favourite Melbourne chocolate shop Koko Black but so much cheaper. God I love Bolivia! And god Australia is expensive!
The Mercardo Central is the Central Market which sells fruit and vege and anything else you could ever want! My favourite thing: a fruit salad, yogurt and cream combo for $1. Incredible. And a five minute walk from my hostel.
Spanish lessons were exhausting. Four hours a day of brain strain. But it felt good! And I was a lot better than I thought! I think I can understand a lot of Spanish. If someone talks I can mostly get the jist of what they are saying. It's the speaking of the language that I find difficult but having the lessons gave me more confidence and I was so stoked that on my second day my teacher and I had a one hour conversation in Spanish! Pretty basic stuff (where we are from, birthdays, occupations, marital status, families, costs etc) but it felt good!
It was taking these lessons that I really fell in love with the idea of learning the language more. All I needed was time. Even though I'm away for seven months it's not actually that long to do all I want to do so after thinking about it for a couple of days I knew I had to change my plan from my original itinerary. Here I decided I would cut back my time in Brazil from one month to ten days, and not do Patagonia in Argentina. This would give me time to settle somewhere later on my trip and take lessons. Sucre was the front contender at this stage. I could return after I've been up in the Galápagos, and before I head to Brazil.
On my third day of lessons the topic was food. My teacher Marlene told me about all the places I had to visit and the food I had to try. Yes! That's what it's all about I thought! Tomorrow is my last day, so a good day to be a foodie day I thought. I was excited. Because I had been lucky enough to be put in an apartment at my hostel I had a kitchen so was buying veges from the market and cooking for myself (I needed a health fix). This was a good idea and with my planned foodie day on my last day I was happy with how Sucre was turning out. I even thought I could use that last day to do all the touristy stuff, between meals of course.
So it didn't turn out like this. Eating a saltena on my way back from a lesson on that third day I was thinking to myself how great it was that I hadn't been sick from all the street food I had eaten in South America. I was smug, feeling better than everyone who I knew who had been struck down with tummy bugs.
And I jinxed myself.
And I think I food poisoned myself.
Before making it to my foodie day I had some leftover market veges and quinoa to cook up. Done. I then went off to watch a film at a local bar before meeting people from La Paz for a drink. A good night. Until 2:30am when I woke up sick. And then again at 3:30am when I woke up again to be sick. And then the next three hours when I kept waking up on the hour. To be sick. Damn.
My last day in Sucre was not a food day. I didn't make it to any touristy spots. I struggled with my lesson and had to call it quits when an hour in I nearly threw up when we were talking about food.
On the bus out of the city the next day I decided I probably won't be back to Sucre for more Spanish lessons. I'll save that for Colombia. I liked Sucre. It was pleasant. I'm glad I went. But it did leave a bad taste in my mouth.
It was taking these lessons that I really fell in love with the idea of learning the language more. All I needed was time. Even though I'm away for seven months it's not actually that long to do all I want to do so after thinking about it for a couple of days I knew I had to change my plan from my original itinerary. Here I decided I would cut back my time in Brazil from one month to ten days, and not do Patagonia in Argentina. This would give me time to settle somewhere later on my trip and take lessons. Sucre was the front contender at this stage. I could return after I've been up in the Galápagos, and before I head to Brazil.
On my third day of lessons the topic was food. My teacher Marlene told me about all the places I had to visit and the food I had to try. Yes! That's what it's all about I thought! Tomorrow is my last day, so a good day to be a foodie day I thought. I was excited. Because I had been lucky enough to be put in an apartment at my hostel I had a kitchen so was buying veges from the market and cooking for myself (I needed a health fix). This was a good idea and with my planned foodie day on my last day I was happy with how Sucre was turning out. I even thought I could use that last day to do all the touristy stuff, between meals of course.
So it didn't turn out like this. Eating a saltena on my way back from a lesson on that third day I was thinking to myself how great it was that I hadn't been sick from all the street food I had eaten in South America. I was smug, feeling better than everyone who I knew who had been struck down with tummy bugs.
And I jinxed myself.
And I think I food poisoned myself.
Before making it to my foodie day I had some leftover market veges and quinoa to cook up. Done. I then went off to watch a film at a local bar before meeting people from La Paz for a drink. A good night. Until 2:30am when I woke up sick. And then again at 3:30am when I woke up again to be sick. And then the next three hours when I kept waking up on the hour. To be sick. Damn.
My last day in Sucre was not a food day. I didn't make it to any touristy spots. I struggled with my lesson and had to call it quits when an hour in I nearly threw up when we were talking about food.
On the bus out of the city the next day I decided I probably won't be back to Sucre for more Spanish lessons. I'll save that for Colombia. I liked Sucre. It was pleasant. I'm glad I went. But it did leave a bad taste in my mouth.