TUPIZA and SUCRE

is that cactus sending us a subliminal message?

WHERE: TUPIZA and SUCRE

WHERE: the bits of Bolivia we visited that weren’t around LA PAZ

WHEN: days 217-229

watch out, any second now he's going to break out in a gallop

WEATHER IS: still sunny and hot, but a bit of cold when you step into the shade.

TEMPERATURE IS: mid-30’s        

PEOPLE ARE: in Sucre our Spanish teachers are the meanest, nastiest people in the world. In Tupiza our horses are pretty cool, although a little lazy and not too interested in the whole galloping thing.  

FOOD IS: from around the world. Although an awesome country Bolivia certainly isn’t the world’s culinary capital. As a result, apart from the daily doses of Saltenas (pretty much sweet Cornish Pasties) we have three Chinese meals (not bad) two Mexicans (a little soggy for Fajitas) and Italian (actually really good).

Sucre's main church

HIGHLIGHTS/LOWLIGHTS: TUPIZA, after the torturous 9hr bus ride from Uyuni, in which the temperature inside the bus drops to -5, we arrive at our hotel at 4am only to find out our travel agent booked us in for the next day. Fortunately the hotel has a spare room (and a pool) so we stagger to our room and collapse into our comfortable beds... the next day we saddle up and hit the trail on the same paths that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid rode (only a little slower) ... despite our hotel having the slowest internet connection known this side of the 1980’s Paul spends six straight hours updating our blog...SUCRE, officially La Paz’s capital and a very pretty city, we arrive with a single challenge in mind - to learn Spanish. Seven days and 4hrs a day of one-on-one Spanish lessons later we couldn’t care less about Spanish and want to speak English forever... If it wasn’t for the fact that the lessons cost £4 an hour and it seemed criminal not to learn for those prices, we would have quit a week earlier....

nothing says "welcome to our sleepy market town" like an angry local holding the bloody heart torn from the body of your Spanish oppressors. 

... Paul’s tactic of buying teacher a Chirimoya (a local fruit) in the hope of getting an easy ride backfires as she tests him on all the newly taught verbs every morning and tssks whenever he gets one wrong... Rhaani and Julie’s tutor “gordo (fat)” is slightly easier going although the girls quickly realise the daily trips to the market aren’t so much educational exercises as a chance for Gordo to get them to buy his lunch for the day... we meet some 18-year-old English students who are travelling around South America doing charity work...Paul wonders if he should be embarrassed that he’s been on earth for twice as long and hasn’t done a day’s charity work in his life ...

UP NEXT: LA PAZ