Sugar coated Sucre

We caught a taxi for the 3 hr journey from Potosi to Sucre. Bit extravagant I know, however it was the equivalent of only $6 more than a bus so it was definitely worth it! Little luxuries are GOOD in Bolivia, plus with the driver speeding like a maniac the whole way he managed to get us there in a very swift 2 hours.



We were in for an absolute treat in Sucre, as it's a beautiful city with white wash buildings, lovely people, yummy and cheap food and sunshine... so much sunshine. We also stayed in a great hostel with a big sun terrace, kitchen and an enormous bedroom with ensuite and lounge-room. It was a home away from home so we jumped at the opportunity to unpack our stuff for the first time on the trip. Sheer bliss.

Sucre is a bit of a vortex, it sucks you in with its charms. We met many people who couldn't drag themselves away even after 2 months! As time was running out for us we managed to fit in a few days of relaxing before starting Spanish lessons. They were an absolute bargain at only $6 an hour for private tuition, so we jumped straight in with 3-4 hours a day for 2 weeks.



Along with the Spanish classes and 2 hours of homework a day, we spent the rest of our days in Sucre doing a bit of sightseeing; to a dinosaur park(!?)- Sucre is well known for its dinosaur footprints, the Tarabuco Sunday market, food shopping and eating at the most wonderful mercado that we've been to in South America. We relaxed in the beautiful plaza(and got hassled by shoe shine kids!) and ate out at La Taverne french restaurant. The most awesome steaks were served here at only $7 each, definitely rivaling the Argentinian steaks!

Tarabuco market - colourful threads everywhere




Cute street kids


Tom braving the market street food, served my ladies with dirt caked into their fingernails. Brave, very brave.


Even the shoeshine kids prey on people in trainers!


umm the dino park


Favourite mercado in Sth America - fruit and veggies were delish, plus they had ripe avocados!


The meat was not so appealing, out in the open with no refrigeration. Enough to turn you into a vego!



Tom also managed to fit in some time to bring colour to the streets of the suburbs. He became the talk of the town as most people had never seen street painting before. In fact he had a following of kids and adults lining up to get their houses/businesses painted and struggled to keep up with demand!





Some other photos of street life in sparkly Sucre...

Feeling a little dizzy in Potosi, Bolivia

We took the learnings from the previous horror bus ride and applied them to our trip from Tupiza to Potosi, and it worked. We had a much nicer and more comfortable bus with legroom, hallelujah! Unfortunately due to bus strikes, (by 2020 the government has ruled that there are to be no vehicles on the road that are older than 20 years and the bus companies are not too happy about this, particularly given that most of them are from the 1950's!) we couldn't leave for a few days so we spent a bit of time catching up on some much needed R&R. This travelling mallarky is exhausting!

The bus ride was relatively uneventful, except for the amount of cross country driving that we did - we were constantly diverted onto very bumpy dirt roads, when there was a perfectly good and new paved road alongside it - very bizarre. We also had some fun with the locals - we opened the window and then they closed it, we did this about 50 times! I think that Bolivians must be cold blooded because the bus was soooo hot and they were covered in blankets and 10 layers of clothing. We passed the last few hours of the journey watching in awe as a Bolivian lady put 200 or so coca leaves into her mouth - her cheek was bulging, resembling that of a chipmunk (!) and she was still putting them away when we arrived into Potosi. These guys are seriously addicted to this stuff.



We hadn't planned on staying in the world's highest altitude city, as at 4100m above sea level you don't feel great and sleeping is restless. However, we arrived late and really couldn't be bothered to work out how to get to Sucre so decided to stay a few nights. Potosi really surprised us. It's a city surrounded by mountains, it has a Spanish feel - with beautiful old buildings, narrow laneways and cobblestones.

Checking out the local produce at the market, and we were told that there was no fresh fruit and veggies in Bolivia...it's all lies!




In Bolivia no part of the animal goes to waste. They consume the whole animal, cow face and all!

Potosi is most famous for its silver mines and as the major supplier to Spain during the period of the New Spanish Empire. In the 1500's this city was one of richest in the world. In fact we were told by a local that during this time there was enough silver to build a bridge from the city to Spain, and enough bones from the people who died in the mines to build another one back. The life expectancy is only 15 years from first entering the mines and an astonishing 6-8 million people died over a 100 year period after having worked there.


View of the Cerro de Potosi and the famous mines



Next stop Sucre for some much needed Spanish lessons!

The wild wild west in....Tupiza, Bolivia

We managed to find the really rather horrid bus trip after-all. The trip took us from Uyuni to the wild west of Bolivia, Tupiza. The bus left at a delightful 6am and was micro in size with most of the luggage precariously strapped to the roof. Gone are the days when we had legroom and reclining seats on the bus.


Transporting bags of llama wool between towns

The journey was meant to take a short and sweet 6 hours, however after jiggering around for the first 3 hours(the roads were terrible!), we were all told to get off the bus as they unloaded the luggage. We were mighty confused as we had not been told of a bus cambio! We were then literally 'dumped' on the side of the road with our luggage and told to wait for a couple of hours until a new bus picked us up. hummm now this was the Bolivia that we had heard about. So we sat among the stench - it turns out that the bus stops also double up as open sewers. Yep, there is another reason for the Bolivian ladies' traditional skirts, their skirts enable them to squat wherever they want.... when nature calls....


Not so happy after being 'dumped' in a dusty cold and dirty town

When the bus finally appeared it was, unbelievably, worse than the first ...and we still had another 4.5hrs to go! It was also lunchtime, so everyone was tucking into very pungent food. Poor Tom couldn't fit his legs into the seat so had to sit sideways for the entire journey. And then just as we were about to make a move, 18 people appeared from nowhere to buy the discount tickets...ie to stand/sit in the aisles. Oh the joys of Bolivian bus travel!


Huddling up with the locals on the seemingly endless bus journey!

When we eventually made it to Tupiza we were very relieved to find that the room that we'd booked was lovely and with an ensuite! Pure luxury. Things were looking up. The following day we booked a 3 hr horse-ride through canyons and gorges. We had a great morning, depite our horses making the decision that we were ready to gallop. Yep these horse must have been making up for a few days of inactivity as were were flying through the dust lands. It was great fun, though the next day I was in absolute agony, it turns out that horse riding is not so relaxing!


Playing gaucho