We got to the city of Sucre and Rochelle, Sam and I felt as though we were in some other country. Sucre is the other capital of Bolivia and it is large and busy like any other type of capital city, except that Sucre is completely whitewashed and clean with spanish style colonial buildings and it looks and feels like you are in some other city in some other part of the world... not in Bolivia. By the time we got to Sucre, Rochelle, Sam and I were definitely in need of some down time. We found a really nice hostel with a big open courtyard garden and we definitely took advantage of the sun and finally warm weather.
While in Sucre, Rochelle received the very good news that she finally got her Swedish working visa. So, we decided that it should be a celebration day. On our way to find a place to celebrate at, we found a chocolate festival... not by mistake... and after gorging ourselves on all the chocolate we wanted, we relocated at a restaurant on top a giant hill overlooking all of Sucre. The day was beautiful and Sam decided we should really make a celebration of the day so we ate and drank for about 6 hours ordering more food and drinks as the day progressed. It was a delicious day to say the least.
Unfortunately, we had made plans to meet up with other friends at 7pm at a different restaurant... only an hour after we left the first restaurant and were pleasantly full. We arrived at the second restaurant, not to find the people we were planning to meet, but the couple we had gone on the salt flats tour with. We ended up staying for more food and drinks and finally ended up finishing the day with a solid 15 hours of eating a drinking... not a bad way to spend a first day in a new city.
The next day was spent wandering around, checking out some of the beautiful architecture of Sucre and going to the Casa de Independencia. While there, our guide warned us of the impending blockade on Sucre by the angry farmers for that night. He advised us to leave Sucre as soon as possible because it was unknown how long the blockade would actually last. This was an ongoing problem from the week before when there were riots between the students and the farmers about the president going to visit Sucre. Apparently, the people of Sucre do not like the president very much and were protesting his arrival, while the indegenous farmers outside the city wanted to welcome him. This mess eventually caused and even bigger mess and we were there to witness some of it.
We were not able to leave that night and tried unsuccessfully to get bus tickets for the next night. When we woke up the next morning, we went outside our hostel to find a completely different city to the hustling, bustling Sucre. There were no cars at all on the street and most of the stores were closed. Little kids were playing soccer games in the middle of the street, which Rochelle, Sam and I decided to participate in for a little bit. All in all, it was just a very strange day and evening.
Lucky for us, at about 7pm that night, we received a phone call from the bus company telling us that there were three available seats for the bus going to LaPaz that night at 8pm and that the blockade had been temporarly lifted. We packed all our stuff, found a cab to the bus station, and literally got there as they were about to leave. I found out afterwards that people were stuck in Sucre for as long as a week after that because no buses were able to leave. After throwing all our stuff into the bottom of the bus, we finally got all settled in for the 12 hour bus ride to La Paz.
