Tupiza tales

27th - 28th January, Tupiza Bolivia

Well, turns out Sucre wasn't done with us yet. We got to the bus station and stocked up on snacks, only to be then told that there was a blockade near Potosi so no buses were running to anywhere. Immediately I ran to the bus counter that sold us our tickets and they were very nice about giving us the full refund immediately. This is apparently very common in Bolivia, and the worst part is they don't ever know when the blocade will end so you need to go to the bus station everyday!

We didn't worry too much, we went back to 7 Patas which luckily still had rooms and played matchstick poker till late. We cancelled our Tupiza hostel but the next morning I found out that the strike was over. So Bernie and I rushed to the bus station and bought the last 4 available tickets - the best news was that our Icelander felt well enough to come with us! Unfortunately they didn't have the sleeper bus options on this one, but 8 hours isn't really too bad. 

After a lovely afternoon chat with the latest arrivals at 7 Patas, it was finally time to say goodbye again. We got to the station, paid the leaving tax and were on a nice bus. The Bolivian buses are notorious for having toilets on board that are locked during the entire journey and the buses don't stop either, so I was prepared and stopped consuming any liquids from 2 pm. But actually, this bus made a dinner stop so all was good. 

We reached Tupiza at 4 am which is the worst time to reach anywhere, but we immediately got into a cab and made our way to the originally booked hostel Los Salares. We'd called the hostel earlier and they were okay with us showing up at that hour. Luckily, the owner actually did open the door, and since we had paid for the room for 2 days, he led us straight to our rooms to sleep! Beauts. 

Woke up this morning to a beautiful sunny day and a very different landscape outside our window. When we got out of the hostel, we were all so surprised to see this lonely building, it looks half done (as do all the buildings in Bolivia) but actually the rooms are really nice. We walked 5 mins to the center of this shabby little town as the clouds gathered. I began cursing the guy who recommended we visit Tupiza because it's not pretty, and the tours from here to the Salt Flats are an extra day.

We found the tour agencies and then were told that they couldn't do the 3 night 4 day tour and drop us off at San Pedro de Atacama in Chile; instead we have to go all around the Flats and back to the start, and then back down to Chile. A whole extra day and night in extreme cold and high altitudes. I was not happy as you can imagine. I don't know why I agree to veer off my heavily researched plans, but now I know better. We went ahead and booked the tour with Torro Tours for 1,250 Bolivianos pp that starts tomorrow morning. I have researched and researched and researched... And I know it's going to be freezing cold, and the altitude reaches 5,000 meters above sea level, and the accommodation is very basic... But every single person has said that Salar de Uyuni is the most amazing thing they've seen so I'm going to put away all my apprehensions and quietly wear my thermals!

Anyway, it began raining very heavily so we ran into the first pizzeria and it turned out to be absolutely delicious, definitely the best so far in South America. We will probably return to London connoisseurs of Italian food and hamburgers, it's almost the national food of Bolivia!

The rain has been belting down and the roads turned into rivers so we rushed back home. Unfortunately, none of the ATMs were working with any of our cards, so we all are surviving on a kitty of 20 bolivianos, hoping that we can pull out money at 7 am tomorrow before our tour begins. Hasta la vista, next blog post from Chile!

Hasta luego Sucre

January 26th, Sucre Bolivia

It's been exactly 1 month since we've begun our travels! Seems long and short at the same time; long only because I'm absolutely dying for a cup of tea and a biscuit and some Indian food!

We're leaving for the town of Tupiza by the night bus tonight. Its only going to be the 3 of us as our Icelander has been diagnosed with bronchitis and has to get a daily shot of antibiotics for the next week. Sad to say goodbye, but traveling through South America, its likely we'll bump into each other again.

We decided to celebrate our last night in Sucre with - whatelse - a party. There's a bunch of new people in the hostel so we sat around drinking in the patio. One of the Brits in the hostel is a policeman back home, actually an undercover cop! At first it is so surprising since he looks like a proper party boy from the north with lots of tattoos, but then it makes sense how he fits in to his different identities. His stories were beyond cool, definitely cooler than watching TV!

After a while we decided to go to Florins and Bernie decided to dress up as a little red leprechaun exchanging shoes with the Brit so he could be dressed in all grey. The night only got crazier from there with lots of tequila. By 2 am I was ready for bed though the rest continued on. I was glad since we had to pack and check out early this morning.

Now we're all sitting around really sapped of energy. I'm really really going to miss this place, especially all the lovely people we've met. But as Bernie reminded me earlier, we have so much more to see and many new people to meet that I can't feel sad!

Matchy matchy

Pics from the Kings cup night!

Never pass out surrounded by drunks!

A day of drama

January 25th, Sucre Bolivia

Today has been drama filled. Well I say today, but actually it started last night at 12:01 am when I got an email from airbnb (short stay apartment booking website) asking if I was excited about my upcoming stay in Rio next week. Next week? But Carnival is next month! 

Let me start from the beginning. I am shit at booking things, I get dates wrong, times wrong, peoples names wrong etc. So back in August I began researching stay in Rio during Carnival week as it's so expensive, finding the perfect place. Until December 24th, I was confident about everything till I realised I'd researched the stay, but hadn't actually booked it. So Christmas Eve, I was panicking calling up hostels in Rio asking if they had a booking under my name, which of course they didn't. 

So Bernie and I decided to splurge on an apartment for 1 week in Copacabana, right by the beach. Everything done, we bought our Carnival Sambadrome tickets, happy that everything was sorted. Booked. Confirmed 100% with many emails.

But of course, I booked it for February instead of March. And I only realised it last night, so all morning was spent contacting the apartment owner, but luckily we cancelled in the nick of time to get 50% of the payment back. The Carnival rate was like 5 times the amount which was wayyy too much. The guy was very efficient and we've already got confirmation that refund process has begun. Anyway, Bernie has now booked us a hostel (one of the extremely few that still had rooms) which was exorbitantly expensive, but we had pretty much no choice left. We haven't even gotten to Brazil and we've already been fleeced!! But I'm still so excited to go to the city of my dreams that I won't let all this spoil the mood. 

Whilst I was panicking and making sad faces at Bernie as he was on the phone to the Rio flat owner, one of the German girls staying in the hostel came up to us in a panic - my credit card's missing! So we tried to help calm her down, tell her what to do, where to go to cancel her cards, check the bank etc. She doesn't know if she left it in an ATM or it was pinched.

Just after that bit of drama, a new boy (an Indian!) got to the hostel. He'd met up with our Brit boys previously in La Paz and had an unfortunate incident of being robbed by people dressed up as cops. It's a common story I've heard so we were very prepared for what to do in that situation - they stop cabs and do their act. You must ask them to take you to the police station and then show them what they want. They usually kick you out of the cab at this point knowing they're not going to get anything. But it was sad that he got taken in by them. Anyways, he had no luck in getting anything back as the Bolivian police have a nexus with these thugs. 

So anyway, he walks in and then tells us his latest story - last night in a Bolivian town called Santa Cruz, he got robbed at knife point and slashed a little. His wounds don't look bad, but his bloodstained shirt (which we got him to show us) was quite scary. I think he tried to fight them instead of handing everything over. Anyway the poor guy is still in good spirits even though he pretty much has nothing of value left on him. It's scary to hear, but again it's a matter of being smart and not walking on lonely roads in the middle of the night. 

So after all this, we were talking about going to bus station to buy bus tickets to Tupiza for tomorrow, when we find out that our Icelander has taken a turn for the worse and a doctor is coming in this afternoon to check on him. So now we're not sure if we're leaving tomorrow, though we've already booked our hostel in Tupiza!

Aaah the life of a traveler, always got something going on and you have to adapt to everything. There's no place like South America!

A rainy day in Sucre

7 Patas

January 24th, Sucre Bolivia

Today we woke up and chilllled, no more school! The boys are obsessed with their card game which I don't part take in, just watch. The losers have to do push ups, jumping jacks, burpees and whatnot. I ain't doing any of that unless Jillian Micheals is yelling in my face!

We've decided to extend our stay in Sucre (again) as our Icelander is unwell. But we've atleast agreed on a plan which is to catch a 9 hour bus to Tupiza and stay there 2 nights. We'll then plan the tour to Salar de Uyuni which was the highlight of the trip for Bernie, except now he's least bothered to do any planning! To be fair to the poor boy, in London I really harassed him to do some research and planning (which he didn't do) but so far we haven't once looked at the pages and pages of research I've done! 

It started off bright and sunny this morning but a sudden thunderstorm has descended which means lying in bed all afternoon!

Pictures at our hostel 7 Patas

Bernie not doing so well at cards!

So many pushups

Kings Cup

January 21-23rd, Sucre Bolivia

Today was our last day of Spanish classes and the farewell was quite emotional. I really enjoyed the experience and would 100% recommend this to anyone traveling through Sucre looking to learn. I can't really say what level we're at, but we are so much better off than when we started. 

Last night the 4 of us, 3 new Brits at the hostel and an Australian couple decided to barbeque in the hostel. So after Spanish class we all had our jobs of shopping, cutting, marinading or fire duty. The food was absolutely delicious! We had chicken, sausages, steak and a big salad. Unfortunately, every single steak we cook here is incredibly tough, I can't wait to get to Argentina. I loved the food, we even had ketchup and mayo which is quite a treat. At one point one of the girls was about to throw her piece of chicken neck away, and me and one of the boy's fought over it. No one understands how delish the neck is (Mama, if you're reading I bet your laughing at how I always manage to find the chicken neck!), even in Spanish class when they all thought I was making a mistake with the body parts!

We had such a blast, the company was great, and then decided to play an epic game called Kings Cup. It's a card game with set rules every time you pick a card, and is the funnest thing ever. We ended the night dancing on chairs and tables, downing drinks, screaming out lyrics of random songs and just being generally silly. 

We are coming to the end of our time in Sucre and I am very sad to be leaving soon. The best thing about Sucre is the stray dogs - it's not the general mongrel in different colours as you see in India, but dachunds and cocker spaniels and other 'exotic' dogs. I'd definitely have a houseful of pets if I lived here!

Since we've been here, we haven't gone touristy sightseeing, so maybe we'll do that in our next few days. Though the only thing to see is dinosaur footprints (remember earlier when I was confused why there was so much dinosaur paraphanelia around?), but the reviews were not great and you don't get to go up close. We don't quite know yet where we're going to next, so stay tuned!

Getting the BBQ started

Easy to start and looks lovely!

Chefs in the kitchen

Salad duty

Getting the rules ready for Kings Cup

Smashing 1 Sublime bar to share between 10

The rules

Drinking the Kings Cup

Crazy time

The best part of traveling is meeting new people

January 19th and 20th, Sucre Bolivia

We were meant to leave for Uyuni salt flats on Saturday morning, and our two new friends were going to join us. They were most happy to be with someone who would plan everything, and I am most happy to plan everything for everyone - it's great to make friends and travel with them for a bit. However, on Friday I kept wondering aloud about staying back in Sucre and doing another week of Spanish class. We finally decided to stay back, and were very pleased when our mates also decided to stay back an extra week and just relax. So our plan to go to Uyuni together is still on.

Since we were staying, I went to the main vegetable market to force feed the boys some salad. It was a proud moment for me, walking home with bags of fruit and vegetable knowing that I spoke fluent Spanish with each vendor asking all the right questions.

A new group arrived at the hostel on Saturday night. They are from the UK and one from Israel and were so much fun. An afternoon bottle of wine and chat went on till 4 am! We talked non stop and heard some hilarious stories, and finally ended up playing a game of I Never. This is really one of the best games to get to know people, along with good ol Pemprepe! 

The best part of traveling is meeting new people. We discussed how many people we know have asked if we are traveling to 'find ourselves'. What??! I was never lost, and if I were lost, I definitely would've found myself by now! They are so bewildered by why I would quit my good job in London to travel around South America 'at this age' as it's apparently only acceptable to do in during your gap year. I've worked hard to save my money for this trip, to see new places and meet new people and just have a good time. It really is that simple. 

This afternoon we went to school for week 2 of Spanish classes. We saw Bernie's beloved Shing Ram noodles in a Kodak shop (?) and that was my dinner along with some Lays Stax crips. I love crisps!! Lots of homework tonight, back to the grind!

Shamanism

January 18th, Sucre Bolivia

Waking up this morning was a task. I knew it wasn't worth trying to wake Bernie up before 3 pm so I chilled out and updated the blog.

We went to Abis cafe for some food and came back to find the patio overtaken by an art project. The boy from Holland and the American girl are just so eccentric and amusing, randomly sing and dance and speak to each other in crazy voices. They have created a sign and tomorrow they are going to sit by the Witches market and wash peoples hands with a bar of soap he picked up at another witches market! It has some Shaman meaning but I don't think I got it.

Many of the travelers here in Bolivia are very interested in Shamanism and rituals, especially one called Ayuhasca. At the beginning of the trip, Bernie was really keen on this. Its a week long (or longer) cleansing ritual that takes place in the woods or somewhere isolated. Once I found out what it actually entails, I immediately backed out. I'm secretly very happy that Bernie has also decided against it after hearing very mixed and weird reviews.

Either way, I'm going to visit their 'stall' tomorrow, it will definitely be amusing!

Don't you worry child, see heaven's got a plan for you

January 17th, Sucre Bolivia

Woke up this morning to see everyone sitting at the patio doing their Spanish homework. Like I've mentioned before, Sucre is the chosen place for all weary travellers to rest and most go to Spanish school to improve their language skills. There are around 20 schools in this small little town, and all are probably packed. Yesterday was a hard class, we learnt all the exceptions to verbs in the present tense and everyone was quite frustrated and down this morning, last class today and struggling with homework!

However our last lesson was much easier, our professor took us to a museum and we all only spoke Spanish. Once again, I was so surprised that I could form sentences and my vocabulary has definitely improved tenfold. However, I keep throwing in a couple of Portuguese words, which is very annoying because I don't realise that I'm doing it. Who would've thunk that I'd remember so much Portuguese?! The museum had 4 sections, one called the 'Mask room' was super cool and interesting with masks from all the different festivals. I sneaked 2 pictures before getting told off by security. 

After class, we decided to go to Abis Patio for a lovely meal, and also as a farewell to Tim, one of the Brits who is leaving the group to go to the north of Bolivia to stay with a girl he met earlier on his trip. But she's not just any girl, she's a 'witch'... but a good one! I am so sad that my boyfriend does online advertising like me, which sounds so boring next to being a witch! Only in Bolivia! It's such a crazy fun amazing story - he met her at a bar and decided that it's rare to have such chemistry so he's going back to stay with her in the countryside. Unfortunately she has a big family and small house, so he's bought a tent which he's going to pitch in her garden for 2 weeks, and that's going to be his new home! I cannot wait for updates.

Before Abis though, I decided to crack open a bottle of red wine to celebrate our Spanish lessons. I also taught the boys 'Pemprepe', a card game that has brought so much happiness into the lives of all my friends! However they weren't catching on quick enough so we went back to playing the other usual games. Boys are so thick sometimes!

After a stellar meal at Abis, we then decided to go to a bar/restaurant called Florins which is quite popular with fellow travelers. It was nice and buzzing, a bar inside and a covered patio outside with tables that were later cleared for dancing. The place was full of 'gringos'. A gringo is a derogatory term for Americans, but is loosely applied to all white people most of the time. I am actually most thrilled to be in the gringo category! It's rare to see Indians this side of the world apparently, so they don't really know where to slot us, and most people think I'm just a very nicely tanned white girl! When I do tell people I'm Indian, they are so intrigued by me.  

It's crazy, but I think Sucre Bolivia is the only place in the world that hasn't been inhabited by Indians! Actually, I haven't seen a single Indian in La Paz either, it's very strange to go almost a month without a sighting of my fellow country mates.

The music at Florins was quite loco, a mix of Elvis and Swedish House Mafia, Spanish pop songs and suddenly Vengaboys (all the foreigners including me ran around the place in a train formation)... There is no concept of mixing, just turning on and off songs. What really excited me is Marc Anthony's newest song (Vivir mi vida - we understand the lyrics!) which is a huge hit this side of the world and I already know it by heart. This must make me local no? I really missed my crazy dancing-jumping partner Iti, but in memory of her, I hiked up my shirt to show my tummy and danced like a crazy person! Bernie did his Bernie dance which included hitting a couple of people, but we didn't get thrown out (miss you Sachin and Preeti!!).

The Sucre girls have not heard of the 'boobs or ass' concept - only show one! There were lots of girls dressed to the hilt in tiny tiny tight dresses and super high heels with lots of makeup and jewellery and their hair all done up. They must hate us tourists showing up in jeans and sneakers looking like we've just trekked there. 

Florins started clearing up around 12:30 am so we decided to go to the much talked about Mitos nightclub. The taxi had to drop us off on the main road and we had to walk down a little crowded lane (which had a strip club) to get to the entrance. At the entrance, the bouncer asked us where we were from, and then approved and let us in when we said Inglaterra, which I found really weird. We had to pay an entry fee and then walked down to the basement - and it felt like going into the basement of someone's house where they are having their sweet 16 disco party! It was full of really young looking gringos, all of whom seemed to be drunk or having a great time jumping and dancing to music that was not to different from Florins. There were very few locals in there, but they started arriving around 2:30 am.

I was ready to leave in 2 minutes, but our Icelander Thor's 'Sucre misus' (read a few posts down for more info) showed up with her friends so we decided to have a drink and dance a little with the group.

Dancing and jumping to some random songs, but a lot of favourites, in a basement 'nightclub' in Sucre Bolivia at 3:30 am... How did I get here, and do I need to leave?

So wake me up when it's all over

When I'm wiser and I'm older

All this time I was finding myself

And I didn't know I was lost 

~ Avici

Nerdy me

The boys

Masks at the museum

Cooking class

January 16th, Sucre Bolivia

This morning I woke up early, determined to make the boys breakfast (instead of Pollo Loco again) so I went to the supermarket (was too scared to try the main market) to buy bread and eggs. Unfortunately the bacon was just fat with a steak of meat, but it added the necessary taste to our egg butties. 

At the beginning of our travels, I would dress normally, like I would in London. Very soon I began putting on a little less make up but still faithfully straightening my hair. Soon, I stopped the makeup and just used eyeliner. Now I'm at the stage where I'm entirely makeup less, don't bother to straighten my hair, and am in glasses, I don't even wear my lenses! I think this makes me a proper traveler. 

After Spanish class, we headed over to a local family's house for our cooking lesson. This family also hosts a lot of home stays which is what Bernie and I originally planned for the second week in Sucre. It's really useful because the families only speak Spanish so you have to practice a lot and they cook so well! 

We started of peeling a million potatoes - they have a huge variety of potatoes and these had a pink skin with lots of bumps and holes, not the easiest to peel. While some of us peeled potatoes, the others cut green peppers, onions, tomatoes, garlic and chillies which she cooked to form a sort of gravy. Once the potatoes were boiled, we mashed them up, and then created little craters with them in our palms to fill with either cheese or a boiled egg. So a stuffed potato, but done differently!

This was then deep fried with the gravy on top. At first I wasn't looking forward to this as it doesn't sound very appealing, but it was YUM. She also made the gravy very spicy so there were a lot of different tastes. 

We spoke a lot of Spanish and I could immediately see they benefit of practising everything we learnt. Unfortunately, I remember all of the new words, except the name of this lovely traditional dish! Our problem is the second we leave class, we switch back to English with little to no Spanish conversations for the rest of the day. We really need to practise more!

Yummmm

Nosotros somos cozineros

January 15th, Sucre Bolivia

I received the sad news that my avo (grandmother) passed away yesterday and today was the funeral. Even though she was bed ridden and suffering after a stroke last year, I feel very sad that the matriarch of my family is no longer with us. I've never quite fulfilled her random aim for me to become a 'Bollywood actress'! There's still hope though, my Hindi has gotten a lot better. May she rest in peace.

We went to school as usual, and today was a good day for me because I stopped speaking English and have realised that I can actually form sentences with (mostly) correct grammar! Just 5 days of intensive classes has equipped us with the basics (in the present tense only!) and we've got 2 days to go to hopefully learn all the tenses and have a bigger vocabulary of the nouns and verbs. 

We were meant to play a game of 'Bolivian volleyball' this evening - it's played indoors and sounds similar to squash but didn't have enough players so it was scrapped. Tomorrow we have signed up for a Spanish cooking class so stay tuned to see what typical Bolivan dish we cook!

After class, we decided to go to the supermarket and cook a meal in the hostel so bought some basic ingredients for a chorizo pasta Alfredo. Bernie pretty much cooked the whole thing and it was absolutely delish. There's something about cooking your own food that makes it seem healthier, even though we chucked in a ton of oil, butter and cream! We also bought some red wine which was great for me because I don't drink whiskey or too much beer. Can't wait to get to Chile and Argentina for the vino!

It's quite chilly tonight and everyone seems a bit tired from the hectic partying the past 5 days so looks like it's going to be an early night in. I really don't know what Bernie would do without his iPad!

Title translates to (I hope) "we are cooks".

Sucre university, 390 years old

Bernie cooking

The courtyard inside the university

One of the many churches

Donde esta la biblioteca?

January 14th, Sucre Bolivia

We realised we hadn't eaten the best sandwich ever for 2 days, so we headed to the market first thing. At the stall, the lady recognized us and told the boy what to make even before we asked. I like such service! In London, I once went to a pub near work almost everyday for 2 months with the workmates, and they still never knew who I was... Hmphh.

After our sandwich and juice (today I went for a simple strawberry-orange), back to school. Unfortunately the Brits are feeling a bit overwhelmed and have fallen behind so one of them decided to stop the classes. If we decide to do a second week, I think Bernie and I may opt for a private class for the 2 of us so we can pick up speed. 

After 3 hours of hardcore grammar, our exercise was to go to the plaza and ask for directions to certain places, and then find a museum where our teacher was waiting for us. I really enjoyed this excercise. No matter how much you rehearse, the words seem to abandon you when you're actually speaking to someone. However, I feel like my once non existent Spanish is actually not bad, I am now forming full sentences instead of barking out random nouns and verbs hoping someone will understand. The grammar is still not there, nor is the vocabulary but I'm confident that we will leave Me Gusta much better off than how we started. 

One of the peculiar things I've noticed in Bolivia is that the cars here are really old. And I don't just mean look like they've been driven for a while, but old model cars that are probably not sold anymore. I could be wrong, maybe this is the type of car here but it's not surprising to see an old model car pimped out with all sorts of accessories. The other confusing sign is the "no parking" - it's an 'E' for no estacionar.

This evening, the boys (minus Icelander who has gone on a date with the girl from my previous post) have gone to the market to pick up ingredients for a pasta. I am confident that they will come back with some takeaway kebab once they realise that they have left their notebooks here and cannot act out most of the ingredients!

The post title translates to "where is the library", and fans of the TV show Community will recognize one of the most famous raps by Troy and Abed!

Quiero leche condensado

January 13th, Sucre Bolivia

Mornings are pretty much a write off as we are only up by 12:30 pm. Back to school today, I am really enjoying the classes and actually feel a lot more confident. At the end of today's class, we ate some local fruit and were asked to describe it in Spanish. I've never heard of some of these but one of them is a cactus fruit called 'tuna'. It's got a green spiky skin which you remove and the actual fruit has a lot of seeds. I didn't particularly like it. The other one is called 'tumba' which looks gross and tastes sour, but I really liked it. We have a new boy in our class, he's at our hostel (friends with the American girl) from Holland and is flamboyantly gay, a new personality to chat with for 4 hours daily!

After class, we got back to the hostel and into our usual seats on the patio playing cards. We're all addicted and play games like uno and rummy for HOURS on end, never getting bored. I think it's a traveller thing. While playing, 2 Brazillian girls said they were going to the plaza to dance. So we thought maybe we should go watch them and started calling everyone else. Soon we were a group of 20-25 people. Turns out they weren't going to dance, but do a quick jig for a friends blog. The kind where you record a short video of you dancing madly for a couple of seconds everywhere you travel. So we were all very excited to learn that we were going to be in this video!

Spirits high, we walked to the main plaza drinking our beer out of plastic bottles and cups. Now the song - I couldn't stop laughing when I heard what it was going to be. It goes like this:

Quiero leche!

Quiero leche!

Quieri leche condensado!

Which means:

I want milk

I want milk

I want condensed milk!

So they turned on the camera and all 25 of us screamed out the song while dancing and jumping and running around like mad for about 30 seconds! I am waiting for her to send me the video, but I do have a bad picture of part of the group. After our performance, which by the way no one in the square really even cared to inquire about, we went to grab a drink. Unfortunately the restaurant was a bit low key so the group began dispersing.

I tried out my Portuguese which is quite bad, but enough to have fun conversations nonetheless. I did note that I was almost playing the role of the translater between the English speaking and Portuguese. I also noticed that I've begun using Spanish words which I didn't know previously, so I think that my lessons are working, though they are pushing my hard learned Portuguese out of my head.

After a few drinks at the 2 restaurants, we returned to the hostel where everyone was hanging out chatting and just having a good time. Chatted with a bunch from Germany, a couple from Argentina till I finally called it a night at about 2 am. The good thing about this hostel partying is that I can leave whenever I want to, and Bernie can stay till the very end like he likes, and everyone gets what they want!

Tuna

Tuna and tumba

The group ready to dance in the main plaza

No woman no cry

January 12th, Sucre Bolivia

Relaxed Sunday morning, no school so we decided treat ourselves to a good meal. One of our Brit friends was suffering from a massive hangover (altitude + hangover = mahooosive hangover!) - winner drinks shots of whiskey, losers do push ups... everyone was in some kind or pain! I found the number 1 rated restaurant in Sucre called Abis Patio where we had some very yummy BBQ burgers and brownie with home made ice cream.

We pretty much chilled out all afternoon and evening. At about 8:45 pm, Bernie went to Pollo Loco and got the last bit of fried chicken, rice and noodles. He came back and informed the boys who then ran to the chicken shop. 10 minutes later, they charged back in running helter skelter in all directions. Did you get some chicken, the 3 (Bernie, hungover Brit and myself) of us asked. We can't talk, they shouted, we met some girls!

Huh?

Turns out, while they were discussing where they could get some food outside the chicken shop, a fancy car with 3 girls pulled up and asked them if they wanted to join them at a party at their house, with a pool. So the boys (Brit, Iceland and 2 Brazillians) ran into the hostel to pick up some beers and their swimming shorts. Loco!

We chatted a bit wondering if they were either going to be robbed or have the best night of their lives? We were planning on an early night. But just then an American girl from Colorado arrived at the hostel and she was locked out of her room so we sat around drinking beer, listening to her hilarious travel stories, while she played country music in the background. Pops would have enjoyed her selection!! 

At around 12:30 am, the boys got back and they were very pleased with themselves. Lots and lots of stories, but basically they had a great time. More than anything else, they were thrilled that they got picked up by girls! After a lot of noise, everyone got told off by the hostel owner and we went to bed. But all's well that ends well... Our Icelander may have something going with one of the girls and has a follow up date planned...

In South America, the women are very forward. At a bar, it is more likely that a woman will come up to flirt with a guy than vice versa. 

Me gustas tu

January 11th, Sucre Bolivia

Once again sunny bright morning, we only got out of bed at 12:30 pm. Even in Bolivia, we are our lazy selves. The first thing the both of us wanted to do was go back to the main market and eat the chorizo sandwich... Bernie and I are so made for each other! We dropped off our dirty laundry at the shop (in Bolivia and Peru, they wash and dry your laundry and charge by the kilo) and headed straight to the best sandwich ever. The stall lady recognised us immediately, I think she meets a lot of tourists who are hooked from day 1.

After the best sandwich ever, we headed to the fruit market for a smoothie. So yum and filling and cheap and healthy. We've decided this is going to be our daily routine whilst in Sucre. Class again at 2:30 pm, this time I went prepared with water and buscuits, just like real school but no Anoushka and Nandini :( ! Today's class was quite intense, we do learn a lot, but have to really spend some time practising at home as well. I've decided to dedicate all morning tomorrow to studying. Cannot believe these words are coming from me!

At class, our teacher played us the famous Manu Chau song 'Me gustas tu', which coincidentally was a song that Bernie introduced me to when we met! It's a great song, and we had an exercise where we had to correctly sing the Spanish words to the image. I really like this method of teaching, fun.

Tonight there's a lively game of cards going on, the boys are really into it. We are debating going out, but will see what the mood is like at 2 am! Agh, I thought Goa was bad since no one enters the clubs before 11:30 pm, but 2 am is crazy. We'll see where the night takes us!

Careless Whisper

January 10th, Sucre Bolivia

Woke up yesterday to another lovely bright sunny day! I decided to go to the supermarket and buy some stuff as we have a kitchen in the hostel... Mind you the stuff I mean is bread, cheese and crisps! We really felt like we've been living in Sucre for a while, it all seems so familiar. We lazed around all day until it was finally time for our Spanish classes.

At 2:15 pm, we assembled in the patio, 5 of us dejectedly dragging our feet as we walked to Me Gusta, no idea what to expect. Long story short, I really really enjoyed the class! It's 4 hours long with a 15 minute break, but our teacher can sense when the energy is waning and changes it up with games etc. Yesterday we had an excercise at the end of the class where he took us to the main market to practise some of what we learnt and it was really fun and useful. He also took us to a 'chorisquena' (I've probably spelt that wrong), a local chorizo and pork snack stall, and it is seriously the best sandwich I have eaten yet! 

The market itself is amazing - huge with different sections from meats to fruits and flowers and fast food stalls. The flower section was so breathtaking, if I ever saw flowers that pretty and fresh in London or Goa, I would be very happy.

After class, we went back to the hostel and immediately brought out the beers, the four hour class really took it out of the boys. We played cards (super competitive side of me came out!) and chatted and basically chilled. The hostel has an interesting mix of people, a few Brits who've been here a while, 2 South Africans who I thought were Australians (no matter how much I travel, I still cannot distinguish accents), some Argentinians, an Iranian, a big group of Brazillians (who aren't unfriendly, they just hang out with each other) and a couple of others I haven't spoken to yet.

It's really nice hearing about their experiences, and Bernie and I already feel qualified to offer our views since most of the people here haven't been to Machu Picchu/Cusco yet. Interesting fact, 'Machu Picchu' means old mountain... 'Machu Pichu' means old dick, so gotta make sure you pronounce and spell that right! Lots of stories on how they have been pick pocketed or straight out robbed, drunken losing bags, forgetful leaving cards in the ATM... quite scary but again just reinforcing what we already know - don't be stupid when you are traveling with all your stuff ie passport, money etc. But there's only so much you can do without going insane, so you can only be careful.  

The other funny thing I've noticed is the search for weed aka drogas. Some of the people at the hostel smoke marijuana, but cannot seem to find any in Sucre. This is especially funny since most of them are here for 2-3 weeks, so daily we hear stories about how they went foraging and lots of exciting build up, only to come back to the hostel empty handed. Ah I love South America, full of surprises.

The 5 of us finally decided to check out the nightlife, since it was a Friday night after all, but couldn't find any! It was about 11 pm, which also meant the restaurant kitchens were all closed. We'd already been to beloved 'Pollos Locos" and were shocked to find it shut at 10 pm on a Friday night, absurd considering how much business they could be raking in. So we ended up at a kebab cart next to a woman selling pizza that she was cooking in a oven contraption, again in a tiny wheely cart - all of them mooching electricity from an electricity pole at the side of the road.

We stopped by a pub where there was live music, once again fairly empty. The duo playing Bolivian music was oh so bad - it was like each band member was playing a different song, but the crowd was loving it, singing and waving their hands in the air. We couldn't understand it!! But then, as our Brit friend rightly pointed out, even if he was playing a really bad version of Careless Whisper, we'd all probably break out in song as well! So true. 

Fun times in the little town of Sucre.

We later found out that people here only go out after 2 am, so everything was dead because the party started a couple of hours after we'd gotten home already!

Me Gusta Espanol

January 9th, Sucre Bolivia

Woke up this morning really excited and happy because:

a. We were going to Sucre

b. We were taking a 45 minute flight versus a 12 hour bus

c. We were leaving La Paz - great city but too chaotic, and I was ready to go to lower altitudes because I was always out of breath

The flight was much more than the cost of a bus, in fact the taxi to La Paz airport cost more than the bus, but it was so worth it to travel in comfort! We got out at the tiny Sucre airport bathed in sunshine and 19*C. I'm yet to find out the reason, but there are dinosaurs everywhere! Huge statues in the airport, parks, even our cab driver's gear was a dinosaur head!

We pre decided to stop and chill at Sucre for 2 weeks and checked into hostel 7 Patas. As soon as we got here we saw a big group of people chilling in the patio and started chatting. Very quickly we made friends with 2 Brit boys and their traveling companion from Iceland. 

Bernie and I have decided to take Spanish lessons in these 2 weeks and it looks like that's what most people are doing in Sucre. It's just such a lovely peaceful pretty town that if you're coming from La Paz or from Chile, you get here and realise you need a break from mad big city life. So most people here have been here/intend to stay here for a minimum of 2 weeks, most have already been here a month or more.

After a lovely meal at a restaurant called Joyride, the 5 of us headed out to Me Gusta Espanol, the Spanish classes that got extremely high reviews on Tripadvisor (once again, thanks Tripadvisor). The Brits are really hilarious and I can't stop laughing at their stories and jokes. They also have been traveling for 2 months now and speak little to no Spanish, so we joked that maybe we'd all be in the "idiota class".

At Me Gusta, we met the owner who explained how it works (4 hours a day, 5 days a week with lots of fun activities such as movie night, cooking night etc, and lots of conversational practice), he then gave us our entrance test to see what level of Spanish we were at. It was actually really fun, but as expected, the "quatro idiotias" are in beginner class together, the Iceland boy was a bit more advanced so is in another group. I have to wonder if we'll actually learn anything because my group is full of loonies, but I'm excited. I mean, we've actually voluntarily signed up to go back to school with homework and everything!!!  

After signing up for Spanish School, the 5 of us walked to the local market to buy a random range of things for the boys who have all 3 been robbed of a lot of stuff at some stage of their travels. The roads in Sucre, much like La Paz, are amazing. They have entire roads of lawyers, shoes, clothes, jewellery, photocopying, even libraries! And I mean shops and shops selling identical wares on the same street, it's crazy yet very efficient if you think about it. You need a power tool, go to the power tool street, need a carpet? It's on carpet street next to power tools street!

We spent all afternoon walking around the market area and through the 'Witches Market' which sold all sorts of herbal looking remedies, and boxed up 'portions' to help any solve sexual issues, alongside dead llama and bat carcuses. I mean there weren't any shamans with pointy hats stirring a smokey brew, more mainstream witches I guess! There weren't too many of them, and all had identical stalls so it was a bit disappointing.

We also bought notebooks for our school tomorrow!

Back at the hostel, we sat at the patio and the boys began drinking beer. Random people from the hostel joined to chat, it's good fun hearing about everyone's experiences. I wasn't drinking after my exciting night out in La Paz, so after a dinner of a chicken+beef+pork roll from the local 'pollo' joint, I am up in the room chilling now, very tired. I hear the boys having a blast downstairs, I left them as they bought a new bottle of whiskey from the local shop and have been passing it around swigging from the bottle. Classy Englishmen!

We considered renting a flat and staying here longer, but let's see what happens after day 1 of school!

Hasta luego!

Quack Quack Quack

January 7th and 8th, La Paz Bolivia

While we were at Urban Rush (see previous post), we met a British lad, Tom who works at the 'party hostel' called Loki and had brought a group from the hostel. We got chatting and decided to have a victory drink at Loki - for surviving!

Loki has a nice bar in the hostel, and seems super party so I'd recommend it if that's the kind of place you want to stay in. Tom got us our first drinks, he's a sort of manager around there, only 23 years old and has been pretty much travelling for the past 5 years before deciding to settle in La Paz for the past year now. We chatted with him and to Adam, the Israeli bartender (who hadn't heard of Kenshoo) and just generally to anyone and everyone.

We also had a long chat with an American boy who got separated from his group so was there alone and at some point when he told us he was from Minneapolis Minnesota, we got so excited about 'The Mighty Ducks' that all three of us started yelling Quack Quack Quack. It really is one of my favourite sunday movies to watch!

Happy hour began and it was double vodka in a pint glass! They then started the 'Blood bomb' challenge, drink shots for your country. Apparently India had never been up there on their board, so I was determined to represent. I then bumped into a group of Brazilians and we became fast friends and moved on with them to another bar. It was a super fun night, me and the Brazilians girls got up on the bar and danced! On hindsight, I wonder what I looked like dancing next to 3 Brazilian beauties... and how I even dared!

This morning was pretty much a write off. I did not move till about 1 pm, when beloved Berns brought back burgers to the room. We're staying in La Paz an extra night because we're taking the flight instead of a bus to Sucre. Hopefully the bags will get there with us.

All in all, a great time was had in La Paz, but I'm quite happy to spend the next 2 weeks in Sucre away from the chaos here!

India on the board for the first time!

Dancing on the bar! Bernie's terrible photo taking skills

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can...

January 7th, La Paz Bolivia

Yesterday morning we lazed around in our hotel (such a luxury since we've been rushing around a bit) and finally ventured out to a Cuban restaurant for lunch. It had rained really heavily in the night and early morning, but the sun was now out and it was beautiful and warm. The restaurant looked promising and had good reviews (thank you Tripadvisor!) and had set meals for very cheap, I think our meals plus drinks only came to $7.

After lunch, we roamed about a bit and went to a travel agency to find out how much it would cost to take flights to Sucre instead of a 12 hour bus. It turned out to be quite reasonable, though 5 times the cost of the bus, so we bought them and are flying to Sucre tomorrow. I have to say that I am very happy to avoid the long bus journey, especially since the buses in Bolivia have quite a bad rep. While at the agency, we looked at a flyer for Urban Rush - basically you walk/run down a 17 floor building, but on the OUTSIDE with a free fall at the end. This sounded much funner than biking down the Death Road and was also a 5 minute walk away so we rushed there.

I will not lie, I was very very nervous. We got to choose an outfit as well. Both of us picked Spider-Man suits! We got the instructions and practiced on a small wall, I did very badly in the practice round but was raring to go. It is super safe, they have never had an accident and all their equipment looks new and strong so I was not too worried.

And it was amazing!

The practice wall

Running down the building!

The free fall

Superman, Spider-Men, Mario, Luigi and the crew!

Screaming my lungs out during the free fall

Flying

Practice wall and already so scared

The building from across the road

The view of the centre of La Paz from the top, before we jump out!

We did it!