After finishing a long 4 days in the jeep for the salt flats, Candace and I decided to split off from the boys a bit to head to Sucre, which is apprently the capital of Bolivia. I thought it was La Paz, but apprently not. La Paz basically usurped the title from Sucre, but the supreme court still convenes there, so I guess that counts for something, and plus, it is still listed as the capital in the constitution, so cool beans..or frijoles frio..haha. My amazing spanish skills coming into use.
Sucre was a beautiful city--it is called the white city--and it was full of students and professionals so it didn´t really feel like Bolivia at all. The streets were clean, the buildings were a blinding white because apprantly it is a law to white wash them every year, and although there were a fair amount of beggars on the street, for the most part, it seemed like most of the people in the city were quite well off.
Side rant: I did get a bit annoyed that the beggars never asked Bolivians for money though. I mean, I get that I am a tourist and they think I have money, but so do the other Bolivians walking past. It was a pretty big turn off to the country in the sense that it seems like they really don´t take care of their elderly since those were the majority of beggars that I saw. It was really sad, and definitely put a damper on all the happiness Bolivia was making me feel. Bummer. I just think the beggars should ask everyone for money instead of just tourists, because if they really need it, then it shouldn´t matter who help comes from, right? Maybe I am not getting some cultural part of the begging though..who knows. This country has so much potential, I really hope that it can get on its feet soon. I read up on the history of Bolivia, and basically every other South American country has taken advantage of it, which really sucks and is totally unfair because the people are so wonderful here and they really deserve so much more.
Candace and I spent our time exploring the city and checking out this massive market of food where I got some amazing fresh fruit juice (strawberry, pineapple, passion fruit is the best juice combo ever!!!!), that unfortunately made Candace sick and she spent most of her night in the bathroom throwing up. Ew. I must have third world stomach or the milk her fruit lady used was bad. Who knows. I had two glasses though, and they were sweet as! ´´Sweet as´´ is an expression used by my New Zealand friends. haha. Thought I would try it out, but I´m not sure I like it.
We spent the next day horseback riding through the valleys of Sucre. My horse, Mancerat, was basically amazing and he totally navigated us down hills and rocky slopes no problem. I even galloped!! It was a fun day, minus the extreme sunburn I got on my neck, but a horse pooping onto Candace´s pants and shoe pretty much made up for it. haha. Apprently our guide is the only person in Sucre who owns horses, and unfortunately, a few years ago, he was riding his stallion and rounding up his horses and car deliberately hit him while he was on his horse and he was robbed while he was lying unconcious on the road!!! Probably the craziest story I have ever heard. His horse died, too. So sad.
We ended the afternoon at this little old lady´s house where she made us chachi, a homebrewed beer made from corn, and really bad bread and cheese. I got my cup and noticed a bug floating in it. haha. Tradition is to spill the first bit out before starting to drink, but I couldn´t get the bug out of my cup when I did that! Dammnittttttttttt. I had to spoon it out, and then after I stirred in some sugar, I noticed more black specks (bug parts possibly? eww!) and just had to try to drink around it because the little old lady was so nice and I didn´t want to be rude. I should have declined the drink in the first place because it was brewed in a rusty looking vat in the yard, plus it was made with water which is definitely not something I should be drinking in Bolivia. I took the smallest sips I could and tried to make it look like I enjoyed it. haha. The best part of that afternoon with the little old lady was basically me and another girl having to explain to her the Israel¬Palestine conflict. What the shit?? I can barely speak spanish, and now I am trying to talk about WWII and the holocaust?? What was my life? haha. The funniest part (well funny now, shocking then) was that she and our guide had no idea what the Jewish religion was. WHAT??!! The girl and I didn´t know the word for Jew, but we could not get the other two to say the religion when they started to list some off. They said Muslim, Catholic, and even Mormon, but there was no concept of Judism. It was crazy. Just goes to show how isolated some people are in the world. She was an absolute sweet heart though, and I´m really happy I didn´t get sick from drinking that beer.
Next up is La Paz...should be interesante to say the least!
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