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Writer's pictureAudrey Abshire

Sucre, Bolivia

We arrived at our hotel super early around 5:30am and thankfully after ringing the doorbell a few times, the receptionist let us in. The hotel was absolutely perfect and just what we needed after that long trip through the salt desert. It was set right in the middle of the “white city” and covered with vines of greens and flowers - very elegant. While we were waiting for our room to open up, we got breakfast at the buffet at 7am, which was absolutely delicious and hit the spot - typical hotel style with a Latin twist. Our room was ready around 8:30am and we were asleep by 9am, woke up around noon, showered and ready to explore the city of Sucre. We first walked up to the mirador that we had both read about with a fantastic view of the city. It was a steep walk, definitely took our breath away with the elevation. There were little shops on the way with windows to buy snacks or drinks out of - as opposed to walking into the store/room, you instead buy something on the sidewalk through the gated window. So we bought some bottled water and ate the leftover pizza we had bought the night prior while looking out at the fantastic view of Sucre with white buildings and red roofs. There were locals and non-locals selling jewelry at this pop-up market and the same old things that you see everywhere in South America: key-chains, jumpers, hats, gloves, souvenirs, etc. The elementary school kids had just gotten out of school so there were tons of kids running around the area, playing futbol and other games. We walked down to the cafe with the view and ordered a cappuccino and talked about random life topics such as family, life goals, friends, etc. - it was a very nice relaxing afternoon. We then walked down to the main plaza and around the city a bit more and got back to the hotel around 4pm to relax (Anthonia read and I did a nice yin practice on the balcony with the sun hitting me—it felt wonderful). Though there were French kids running around the hotel, I tried my best to relax and get into my practice, since it had been a whole week since I had really practiced. After showering, we went to get dinner around 7pm which was too early apparently since no one was really eating in any of the restaurants but we found a nice French-style restaurant. I ordered beef with vegetables and potatoes and Anthonia ordered vegetarian pasta and we split a bottle of wine and continued our conversation from before about random life topics. It was a lovely dinner and then went back to the hotel after viewing some live music in the square. I had been doing some research and she read and had fallen asleep before realizing it was almost midnight so I turned off the lights and finally went to bed. Slept in until 9:30ish just in time for breakfast to be over at 10am. After breakfast we spent a couple hours booking things we needed to book and then set out again to explore more of the city. We also dropped off our laundry on the way and this time around we walked towards the shopping/traffic area which was much different than the main plaza area. There were shops selling electronics, street food and random clothing stores, lots of people walking around. We finally made it to this open park which wasn’t as big as we expected, but later found out it wasn’t the “dinosaur park” that we thought it was with the big Dinosaur footprint fossil. We sat and chatted on a bench after strolling through the park and it was another nice relaxing afternoon, and then we went to get food. We sat at stumbled upon a random cafe and I ordered a salad and Anthonia ordered some meat and vegetables. We had a nice conversation with the guy working at the restaurant and discussed how much easier it was talking to Bolivians in Spanish since they talked slower than other latinos (good place to learn). Once we were done with afternoon lunch, we walked back to the hotel and Anthonia read again while I did a more intense yoga class with the sunset. It was getting dark and then I gave myself a nice spa session…shaved, eyebrows, nails, and lotion. Then we walked to get some Thai food for dinner and turns out we ran into that Australian girl who had just sat down at a larger table at that same restaurant. The three of us had a great conversation talking more about traveling and such. I ordered a chicken and beef quinoa Thai bowl and we all split a bottle of wine. I tried going to bed at a more decent time since the night before I really stayed up too late. Unfortunately, the receptionist had misunderstood us when we asked for a taxi the next day, she thought we meant 5:45am instead of the afternoon (5:45pm), which we had already confirmed with her at the beginning of the request but it was a complete misunderstanding. Anyways, we got a call at 6am which woke both of us up and I couldn’t really fall back to sleep. I tried to, but just couldn’t for some reason. I had set my alarm for 9:45am to get breakfast, kinda in a bad mood from not getting as much sleep as I had hoped for. Once we were done with breakfast we had to pack up and check out by 11am so we did that and then went to pick up our laundry. We sat out at the plaza waiting for our laundry and then went back to the hotel to download some things but the Wifi wasn’t working so we tried finding a cafe with Wifi but didn’t have much luck so went back to the mirador viewpoint to have a nice sandwich. It was a great afternoon lunch and then I was getting tired so I went back to the hotel and the Wifi started working again (apparently the whole city was down for technical problems) so I finished downloading everything I needed to. Anthonia had run some errands and then we both relaxed out on the balcony again for a couple hours before having to leave. I left 45 minutes before her in a taxi to the airport as I was on my way to the airport to go to Brazil (it was about 30 mins away). It was hard saying goodbye as we were together for a week traveling but all things must come to an end. I took the taxi to the airport way too early, arriving 2 hours before my flight when I really only needed 45 minutes to an hour, but whatever. Since there was no Wifi of course, and I hadn't bought a sim card, I sat and did some writing and reading and then I was off to Rio on a 17 hour journey (and my first flight since Panama City to Columbia). I had booked two layovers since it was the cheapest option so leaving at 8:45pm from Sucre, 4 hour layover in Santa Cruz, then 4 hour layover in Buenos Aires, and then finally arriving in Rio at 1:35pm the following day.



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