I arrived in sucre after a quick bus from potosi, not even staying the night in potosi. I found a hostel in sucre, and decided to try my hand at exploring the city in a day, before my next bus to santa cruz left.
Weirdly enough, there was what looked like a giant nest in the middle of the city...
Stopped for lunch, and had a delicious chorizo sandwich. Guess how much it cost.... about 10 bolivianos, so about a dollar and a half. I have to say, if there was ever a country for traveler's on a budget, Bolivia is the country for them. It has lots of beautiful sights while at the same time being insanely cheap. Taxis are cheap, you can generally take a taxi for about 2 dollars, hostels are cheap, you can get a room for like 5 dollars, and even the adrenaline thrills I got in some of my other posts have been cheap (relatively at least).
Someone mentioned there was a castle right outside of town, so I decided to go to it. I was waiting on the wrong corner, or maybe the bus really didn't like me... regardless, I had to chase down the mini bus to get me there (fortunately they are pretty slow and there was some traffic). Here is a picture of the "castle". I walked around a bit, but it wasn't that impressive. I guess I had in my mind one of the large European castles with ramparts, portcullis, and spires, so I left relatively quickly.
I left the castle, wandered around sucre for a little, and found a pullup bar and a man named mario (pictured) doing dips on the dip bars. I couldn't resist, so I joined him for a quick workout, making a friend in the process.
More wandering plus a taxi took me to the central fruit market. I really liked the smell here, full of fragrance, one could almost taste the peach.
I didn't like the smell as much here. I am not really sure what these meat like substances are, and I am not sure I want to know.
This was definitely one of my more favorite moments of the trip. I found a smoothy stand in the middle of the fruit market, and after all my wanderings through the city and the various busing, I was ready to just relax. I did just that. Sitting with my kindle, reading, and drinking as much smoothy as my heart desired. The smoothy was fresh, delicious and it was only 50 cents. Not only that, the smoothy also came with a free refill. And there was a live band playing. Life is good.
Do you ever have those moments where things happen, but you are not really sure what the individual event means, and multiple of those events happen, without you connecting them. Then, a person explains it to you, and it all makes sense. Well that happened to me. I noticed in the market boys squirting each other with water guns. Actually, I noticed that several times. As I was walking with some fellow tourists, there was a waterballon thrown at us from a car, and we were merely like "rude". And then ,as I am walking back to my hostel, yet more kids are shooting each other with water guns. One of the kids tells me it is their Carnaval upon asking, and comes along with me to buy water balloons. Kid that I am, I join them. I fill up a cooking pot full of water balloons, and join the fray. These people above are my stalwart foes. It is a lot of fun. I have superior running and throwing power, but they have better machinery with their giant supersoakers, so it is an even match. I try to make an alliance with the girl to my left to get the other boys, but she shoots me in the back, and retaliating, it becomes a free for all. Twenty minutes later, drenched but exuberant, I return to the hostel, and get ready to go to Santa Cruz.
And then begins yet another adventure, this one slightly less positive than some others. I get off the taxi, and try to find a fare for Santa Cruz. Now, I am wholly a proponent for comfortable night buses, and generally, I am willing to pay the extra 10 dollars to have that "luxury". And since I would prefer to save money, I have avoided the plane, even though people in the hostel were talking about how the plane was only 100 dollars. However, the bus company that I wanted to take had already left, and the only other company in the vicinity had only one ticket left, yet for only semi cama (not the luxury version). I didn't want to be stranded in sucre, so I went for it. I should have read the time on the ticket more carefully though. As soon as I got it, I realized it was for like five minutes, and they said their bus was the green one. I run over to the bus terminal and see a green bus leaving, my spirits dropping, because my bags are on that bus as well. I learned to my relief that that was not the right bus, and the right bus had not arrived yet. Pacified temporarily, I waited for the right bus, and checked with the other people to make sure it was the right bus this time. I got on, and knew already that this was not the luxury bus. The chairs were narrow, and mine didn't recline. But it was the fellow passengers that told me it would be a long ride. In the seats in front of me, there was a mother and her baby, and in the seats behind me, there was a mother and her baby. I was also seating right above the wheel axle, so with every jolt from the road I was lifted a foot from my seat. I sat, sandwiched by squalling infants, jostled by the road (or lack thereof, it was often nothing more than a dirt path), wishing fervently that I had taken the plane. There was no choice at that point, so I sat and bore it. For 16 hours. I eventually arrived in Santa Cruz, and decided to stay and rest for at least a night.
Weirdly enough, there was someone from my boxing class at CMC at the hostel, so we decided to grab lunch.
We went to an all you can eat place. I ate all I could eat.
We also went shopping where there were a bunch of creepy, weird maniquins. I love haggling (sometimes more than the actual item), so I haggled for a polo. We contemplated going on, but the sweat was dripping down at that point, so we decided to head back to the hostel and enjoy the nice pool.
These guys save lives. Fresh orange juice please and thank you.
Spent most of the rest of the day relaxing, in the pool, playing pool, and reading. We went out as a group, and got pizza, but the nightlife was fairly dead so we returned, defeated. The next day, I woke to find my kindle had been stepped on so my solace on those long bus rides, my source of books was dead. On the bright side, maybe a message that I should start my school reading.
Saying goodbye, I booked a bus (comfy this time) to Quijarro, a border town. Unfortunately, it was relatively late, so I had the rest of the day in Santa Cruz. More Wandering!!
The Plaza
The Park
Shoe shiners are pretty ubiquitous in Bolivia
And I stumbled upon a chess game.
I am a fan of chess, so I asked to play. Both old men were characters. I played the one on the left first, and he was definitely the worse player, but I made a really stupid mistake and gave up my queen, one of the most important pieces of the game. I wanted to give up outright, and start over, saying it would be more fun etc, but the old man either didn't understand or didn't want to, so I continued playing. Somehow, I actually managed to pull off a win. The second guy was interesting too. He kept muttering things in an amusing tone that I couldn't really understand. I played mostly silently, and after waging a war of attrition, eventually won.
I went to a bookstore, trying and failing to find a portuguese english phrasebook, but I found this instead. While it might not register as a challenge in English, in spanish, it is a challenge. I need something to occupy my time on those long bus rides.
And then, I had yet another bus to Quijarro. This I slept like a baby in, waking up as the bus arrived in Quijarro.
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