Sunday, July 26, 2015

7/18-19/15: Real last day in Cochabamba, First in Sucre!

Since I unexpectedly had to stay another day in Cochabamba, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it. I woke up way earlier than I wanted to, so I boiled some water, washed some clothes, organized some of my stuff, etc. I also started to tackle the monster that is all the irregular verbs and verb tenses that I briefly went over. There’s so much that it feels overwhelming.

Eventually, I decided to head to a café so I could work with some wifi. Daniel met me there and we actually started talking about what happened on my trip to Toro Toro and what our plans were going forward until he leaves. I basically ended up getting very little done, but that’s fine.


I headed to the bus station to try to get there around 7, but ended up arriving much closer to 7:30 because of all the traffic in the area. The terminal was hectic as always, but I was able to buy a ticket from someone standing in front of one of the ticket offices trying to resell his ticket because there was a problem. The guy manning the office verified it and I got the ticket for 5 Bs less than its sell value – yay!

I’m still getting used to being on the road, moving from place to place – and the fact that I arrived at 5:30 the morning after to Sucre did not help one bit. The night bus to Sucre was a lot shorter than I would have wanted – about 9 hours – meaning that it was still pitch black in a city that I had no idea where I would stay. I would wake up intermittently, so I also didn’t get the greatest night’s sleep. I’m thankful that I had the foresight yesterday to ensure I had the address and information for the cheapest/most valued hostel, though, because the two people that were potential Couchsurfs never really confirmed. One gave me an address but apparently was in an accident recently. He said I could still stay at his place but didn’t say that he would be there or that I could find the key in a certain place, didn’t call me back, and hasn’t texted me, so I’m just going to operate as if they are no-goes. The other guy said he might be able to host me but ended up traveling this weekend for his sister’s birthday. That disappointed me the most because he has the cutest little daughter and I was looking forward to working with kids again. Oh well.

I arrived really early, and the city was very asleep still. It took me maybe 15 minutes of ringing the doorbell to get someone to come open the hostel door and let me in. When I got in, the lady who answered told me they might not have a bed, but it was still completely dark outside so she let me stay in the lobby area. Turns out there was a bed open, so I got to take care of that and head out to the city by about 8 am!

The thing to note about Sucre is that it's the de facto capital of Bolivia. People usually know more about La Paz and other cities, but this is still officially the capital. The buildings and feel of the city is extraordinarily uniform - one of its nicknames is the "White City" because all the buildings are white. When you walk down any street, you just see a bunch of white on all sides, and you feel a sort of peace that isn't present in La Paz or Cochabamba. In fact, the feel is way closer to Santa Cruz, a city that I absolutely loved. I definitely like Sucre - even after just one day - and I'm pretty sure that will just be confirmed tomorrow and the next day. 

I headed to the main Plaza 25 de Mayo. It was very, very quiet on a Sunday morning, but it's quite nice. At 9, the Casa de la Liberdad opened up. I had seen some really great reviews about it on Trip Advisor, so I was excited to see the fuss. It cost a little over $2 to get in, but I was really disappointed to see that everything was in Spanish. Although my Spanish is certainly improving, that in no way means that I can read and understand yet. It felt similar to what it was like to be around so much Spanish when I first traveled - I couldn't understand anything and could maybe pick out a few words here and there to be able to make a guess that was a little structured. It was sad, but they still had some cool displays of older art, weaponry, portraits of previous Bolivian presidents, etc. 








I wandered around the area a little after that, including into the church off the main square. It had service going on so I wasn't free to really walk around and explore, but it was cool to see the church in action. That was not very exciting and looked a lot like service in the church that I used to go to. I continued to wander and stumbled on another church, and it was much the same. 


The sad thing about Sucre on Sunday is that there are so, so many things that are closed. The Liberty Museum seemed to be the only thing that wasn't, and I got through that in an hour because I couldn't really read what was written. That made it really terrible, but I got over it and headed towards a lookout point over the city that is similar to what I remember in Cusco. Since Sucre is so uniform, the view has quite the order to it. I decided to take a seat at the cafe there and ordered this delicious chicken salad, tomato, and cucumber sandwich. I have missed chicken salad like heck, wow. 



The funniest thing that happened there was that there were 3 Australians that came. They just did not care about anything, it seems, because they were speaking rather loudly and knew almost no Spanish (for example, the word for thirty). What they did speak was heavily, heavily accented. It got to the point where I was embarrassed to show any indication that I could speak English but was simultaneously laughing at the terrible accents they had, but they just didn't care, it seems. It was such a different mindset that they had compared to mine. When I can't speak the language I keep my mouth shut, and I listen extremely closely to try to mimic the local accent as much as possible. Wow. 

After that I headed to the cemetery. I'm sure they exist in other cities (La Paz, for example, has one that I saw from the cable car) but this one in Sucre has some special significance and is huge and quite nice. I didn't know why there were so many ladies outside selling flowers until I entered the cemetery and remembered. 

It was really important/great for me to go and visit the cemetery. I've been thinking about some stuff that I'm having a hard time with, and being around so many plaques/displays of dead people reminded me of my mortality. What kind of world do I leave behind, and what am I going to be thinking about in my final moments? What kind of things - though hopefully none - will I regret? I saw two funeral processions walk down the aisles of the area while I was there. I have very little pictures because it felt wrong to take pictures there. Either way, it was a very interesting place, peaceful and with an underlying appreciation for life and its pleasures. 

I stopped by a tour agency to ask about tours to Salar de Uyuni, and I was really excited to have the whole conversation in Spanish! Unfortunately, the lady told me that (1) my original plan to visit the city of Potosi probably is a no go because they have protests that are preventing buses from going, and (2) the tour she offered cost over 1000 Bs. On the bright side, it doesn't cost more to go directly to San Pedro de Atacama afterwards, which is a small relief. But still, I'm hoping I can visit Potosi. 

The last two things I wanted to see were the city "central market" and a church in that area. Sucre is filled with churches and hostels, actually. Both seemed to be legitimately at every corner. I went to the market first - it was really, really sad. This might be due to the fact that it's Sunday early evening, but there weren't many stalls and the sellers lined maybe two blocks on the street. Huge departure from La Concha in Cochabamba. The church was also very average. On the way I saw a lot more tourists, and I always don't know how to respond to the ones that carry a huge backpack with their water bottle off to the side, the tourist hat and shoes, and a huge Lonely Planet guidebook in their hands. I just. Why? 

Right before going back to the hostel, I stopped at the park in front. In a stark contrast to most other things in the city, like the relatively empty streets, the park was full of people and life. I will be able to tell tomorrow if it's a routine or special occasion, but the park had blow-up bouncy houses, rental horse-riding, rental cars for kids to drive, peddleboats on the little river, tons of people selling food, and some street performer-like people working with dogs. It was nice. 

The wifi at night at this hostel is terrible - I can barely load web pages. #Struggle For tomorrow, I'm hoping to go to some of the museums that weren't open for today, as well as the dinosaur footprints! It'll be an exciting day!


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