This blog is all about our time in Sucre in Bolivia. We spent 2 weeks having more Spanish lessons whilst there, hence the title, 'back to school'. Sucre is Bolivia's historical capital and is also where their independence was agreed. It is still the site of the supreme court and a large university town.
We arrived in Sucre late on a Friday night to be greeted by yet another road block (these had been through every town since our arrival in Uyuni). The miners in Bolivia have been ripped off very badly by all accounts and blocked entrances to most Southern mining towns in protest. This meant having to get off the bus, grab our bags and head for the edge of town on foot. Thankfully as 'gringos' we're not of any interest to them, but they had set a fire across the road! That was a bit scary! We got in fine though and settled into a hostel for the night.
The next morning we set out to find our school, Fenix. Thankfully it was just around the corner so was simple to find. We agreed on afternoon lessons of 3 hours a day and also learnt there was a traditional dance show that evening! We moved hostels to meet some friends from school in Buenos Aires and set out for a wander round. Matt wrongly thought the Champions League Final was on so we ended up in a gringo bar. The match was not on, but along with another Matt we beat 3 professional footballers at pool to earn some free cervezas! After that it was on to the dance show. We didn't really know what to expect and were greeted by lots of handkerchief dancing! There were some very cute kids though and one troupe who were very colourful and entertaining in particular. We then headed back into town where numerous 75p cocktails saw us contemplating singing Papa Roach's Last Resort on karaoke at 2am!
We had a lazy Sunday with excellent quinoa beers and rotisserie chicken and chips with friends while we prepared for school starting again the next day.
We also moved into a 'homestay' organised by the school on Monday morning. We hoped this would see us chatting to a family and improving our Spanish, however that never really happened sadly. It was a block of rooms / mini apartments with a few families also staying there, we didn't mind though as we had a beautiful apartment, bigger than our Brixton flat and the same price as a hostel!
School saw us with a teacher called Jovanna. She was very bright, able to speak 4 languages very well, but also the baby of the school at 24. Just from the first lesson it was obviously much better than our previous school in Buenos Aires and miles cheaper too. We had some interesting discussions as Jovanna was a devout Christian who also liked gambling! We established we lived in sin, but had cool jobs previously! Most importantly though we learnt loads. We're by no means fluent, but can ask numerous questions and hold a conversation depending on the topic. The school was also heavily involved in charity work and put on numerous extra group activities. We attended the Chorizo Festival and also Corpus Cristi meals with other students and teachers. We can't speak highly enough of the school and would certainly recomend it.
Also whilst in Sucre we caught up with friends we'd met on our trip and made some new ones. Claire and Andrew we met in our first week at school in BA. It was brilliant to see them again and we spent a lot of time with them in our first week. Claire made us a brilliant curry and we made them a spaghetti bolognese! Through them we also met Karen, yet another fantastic person and even knew some girls Matt was friends with at school! We also met sisters Ruth and Helen again after seeing them in Mendoza and Valparaiso. We were in the homestay with them and spent a particularly interesting last night in Sucre with them, culminating in a trip to a rather seedy 'karaoke' bar.
The 2 other best things about Sucre were the restaurants and the huge market. We were able to get a fantastic meal at the market for around 1 pound or an even better one in a restaurant for around 4 pounds. The best we had was at a tiny Italian restaurant called Monterusso. The market itself was enormous and great just to walk around and look at the mounds of fruit and veg, freshly butchered meat or neon cakes! We visited most days.
Because of school everyday we didn't do loads else. We did see various street processions celebrating Bolivian Independence Day which was great. Even when grinning soldiers were parading past holding heavy artillery (bazooka's included!). We also visited a museum which explained how ancient tribes altered skull shapes to denote social class. We also took a salsa lesson to add to the tango lesson in BA.
All in all it was one of the nicest places we've been so far. Next up was La Paz and a return to extreme altitude...
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