Feb 23, 2018
Sucre is known for it’s abundance of Spanish schools throughout the city. I had previously planned on staying a shorter time. Everyone I talked to along the way said La Paz, my next destination, wasn’t very nice and it was just any other big city. For this reason, I cut my time in La Paz to stay longer in Sucre. In the next 5 days, I took 4 hours of Spanish class per day with a wonderful teacher named Cecilia. It definitely helped widen my vocabulary.
In the afternoons, I walked around the city and visited museums. I visited the central market where so much fruit, vegetables and meat could be found. I had my first lunch on the top floor of the market. The stalls were all selling the same meal. Whenever one woman yelled out the available food, all the other women chimed in as well, making it seemed like a chorus. Sucre is also known as the white city because all the buildings are white. It has many colonial buildings making the city a nice place for any architecture fanatic.
On the outskirts of the city is El Castillo de la Gorietta, a castle lived by Sucre’s only “royal” family. It is easily accessible by bus, paying a mere 1.50Bs for the ride (about 0.30$). It is big and empty inside, with not much explanation presented. I got lost in it quickly, especially with some stairways being blocked. The garden is filled with palm trees where many parrots rest and sing, making it a very serene place. However, it isn’t in harmony with the surrounding buildings. By this I mean that at the end of the garden is a very modern building which I was told is a conference center. On the other side of the river, you also find a military base. The soldiers’ chants mixing in with the parrots singing made for quite an interesting sound.
Feb 24, 2018
The Maragua Crater is a popular hiking spot which according to Google is an hour and a half drive from the hostel. It is a bit expensive to join an organised tour. I wasn’t planning on going but I met a person from my hostel who had a car and we decided to go there. It took us an hour just to find the road that would lead to the main road. Also, the drive on the unpaved road was very slow. About halfway, we saw a car stopped at the foot of a mountain so we decided to stop there too for a hike instead of going to the crater. It was a nice hike which gave a beautiful view of the city.
Feb 25, 2018
The next day, I went to Las Siete Cascadas, the 7 waterfalls. The falls are each very small but makes for a nice swim. You start at the bottom, the 1st fall, and climb over each one to get to the next. Again it took me very long time to find the first fall. While walking I got picked up by 2 girls in a taxi who were going in the same direction and dropped me off a few blocks further. I saw some people in a yard and asked for directions. Luckily the guy knew English and pointed me in the right way. It was still a long way up the mountain. When I finally arrived at the falls, I couldn’t figure out how to get past the 3rd fall. At this time, a group of young Bolivians were heading to the 4th fall as well so I followed them and hung out with them there. It seems to be a popular hangout spot for Bolivian families and friends alike. I swam in the pool under the 4th fall. It was very short lived because the water was freezing cold. I was dreading the hike back to the bus stop but I left with the group who showed me a much easier way that I had not read about online.
Feb 26, 2018
My big spending in Sucre was a rock climbing tour. I was the only one who had booked tour so it was more like a private tour. There were 3 walls to climb, each having various difficulties depending on the route to be taken. I was able to mount all except the very last one, either because of sore arms or the difficulty of the climb. For whatever the reason, I will never know.
Other than the activities, Sucre is a very good city to live in because it is big enough to have many restaurants and tourist attractions yet small enough where the people are very friendly. Lunch here is the biggest meal of the day and all restaurants offer set meals. Most nicer restaurant offer 3-course meal for 6$ while local places offer soup and a main for half that price. It would be more than enough to keep me satisfied for most the day, leaving dinner with just some fruit or a sandwich usually. It also helped that the hostel I stayed at had the most amazing and hearty breakfast.
Feb 27, 2018
La paz is the next stop where I shall see if it is just another big city or it has its own charm.