Hola from Sucre
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Chantal
16 Maart 2015 | Bolivia, Sucre
Hola todos!
I am writing this first update from Bolivia from a sunny rooftop terrace of my really nice hotel in Sucre, having a wonderful view over the white churches and buildings of this colonial city.
Outside a local band (fanfare style) is playing (drums and trumpets), the birds are singing and the shouting of the children of the school next door.
I only arrived yesterday morning local time but it feels I am already much longer here. I like Bolivia till now and Sucre as well. It's the capital city but it is beautiful with its white buildings and calm in a way.
Yesterday after being about 24hours on the road (including a 3 hour layover in Madrid, where I met a friend for some beers) and another 3 hour layover in Santa Cruz about which I spent about half time queuing for immigration) I finally arrived here.
A pick-up from the hotel was waiting at the airport. My hotel is incredible! I have an entire suite for me with a double and a single bed, a bathroom with a bath, a table, a fridge and a little balcony. I could live in this room!!! And the bed is amazing! Never slept so good in my life, although I was also pretty exhausted.
After arrival and a shower, I went to look for a place to eat. Since it was Sunday, most places were closed and it was quiet in the streets. Found a nice place, where I had a great lunch and tea with fresh coca leafs. And that was needed because I started feeling the altitude (2750m) , the heat, the walking around and hardly sleeping. I thought I was hallucinating, but they played a Dutch song in the cafe... it took a while for me to realize that I was in Bolivia and that a Dutch song was not so normal here... I checked with the waitress if i really wasnt becoming loca, and she told be that it was indeed a Dutch song and that the owner was Dutch.
Then I spent some time sitting on a bench in the sun on the central square, too tired to do anything else. But it was nice people watching, families with small kids, feeding the pigeons, indigenous women in traditional clothes (2 braids at their back, a hat and a skirt) selling fresh orange juice or seeds as pigeon good. All very calm.
Unfortunately also small children helping their mums selling candies and/or pigeon food. When I almost became a zombie and roasted (the sun is strong here and I only put sunscreen on my face) I went to the supermarket to buy water. Drinking helps a lot against altitude sickness symptoms and of course also
after being a bit dehydrated from the plane.
In the supermarket I walked around for a while, not very focussed.
When I finally reached my hotel, after walking uphill and again a bit too fast, the headache started. So spent time on the bed resting, drinking coca cola (which I never drink at home, but here it helps!) and water with ORS and another coca tea. I felt slightly better after an hour of resting.
Had a delicious home made vegetable soup at the hotel and went to sleep, completely knock-out at 1915. Fell asleep inmediately and only woke up around 2245 (it's 5 hours earlier here then in NL) for a toilet break and then slept through till 5:00. Pretty amazing for me, cause I am usually a bad and light sleeper...
Woke up really relaxed, but stayed in bed till 6:30 since it was too early. The breakfast here is amazing too! A whole buffet with a.o fresh carrot juice, little crepes, home made jams, dulce de leche! :-), te de coca (with which I started), local cheese. They even had home made pies. Didn't eat those.
I went to visit a small museum which showed many handwoven textiles from the local cultures around here. Nice! And there was a lady doing the weaving. A boy and a girl from Argentina were there talking to here and making little movies, since they are making a documentary about Bolivian textiles and they met this lady (Malvinas) some years ago in her village. So the anthropologist in me came up as well and I stayed there for a while chatting with them, learning about how they make the textiles and watching her work.
Pretty impressive and she has the whole design in her head.
Afterwards I just walked around and ended up at the local market. People who know me, know that I love local markets. I love to walk around and watch all the fresh local products for sale.
And then begun my search for the fresh coca leafs. I asked many people, walked in and out the market for a while, and then it turned out that the lady who sold the leafs at the market wasnot there yet, but there was a place outside at some corner. After asking again and again, I finally found a dark shop with two big plastic buckets in front covered with blankets. That were the leafs!
After searching for at least half an hour, I finally found them!
I also bought some chalk with it. I remember from Peru that this is used as a catalystor. There it was a stone, but here it was white powder. I asked the old man how to use it. I think he hardly spoke Spanish, since he showed me with hand gestures.
I went to a local health store for some cool "candies" of super goods: maca sweets, quinoa and amaranth bars.
Then it started raining pretty bad, I walked with an umbrella, but went for the hotel for a while.
Then I saw a message from Christianne (the girl I will travel with this week), so went to meet her for lunch. She is really nice. Lunch was nice too! At 1500 we both had to be at the language school and we got our itinerary for tomorrow and the coming days.
Tomorrow at 7:00 we take the bus to the silvermine town of Potosi (at around 4000m) where we will be shown around by a local guide. Think we will even visit the mines...at night we take the bus to Uyuni where we arrive pretty late, 1:30 am, so straight to the hotel and then the next morning we go on a 3 day tour on the famous Salar de Uyuni.
At Friday night we take the night us from Uyuni to La Paz and that same afternoon I will fly to the jungle for my week of volunteerwork, without water, electricity or phone.. So bathing in the river and staying at the house of a local family. Quite an adventure!
I just heard that there will be another volunteer, a guy called Ben. So that is nice! And after this week I will go back by plane to La Paz, have some hours there (time to share my adventures with you) and then fly back to Sucre. From there I can write you again.
So, really looking forward to this adventure!
At 19:00 (in 1,5 hour) Christianne will take me to her host family,which also has a floor for butters where I will stay and then we will have dinner with a friend of hers. Good to stay awake till a normal time!
You have to excuse me for my spelling mistakes. Writing this from an iPhone without spell check.
Love from Sucre,
Chantal
I am writing this first update from Bolivia from a sunny rooftop terrace of my really nice hotel in Sucre, having a wonderful view over the white churches and buildings of this colonial city.
Outside a local band (fanfare style) is playing (drums and trumpets), the birds are singing and the shouting of the children of the school next door.
I only arrived yesterday morning local time but it feels I am already much longer here. I like Bolivia till now and Sucre as well. It's the capital city but it is beautiful with its white buildings and calm in a way.
Yesterday after being about 24hours on the road (including a 3 hour layover in Madrid, where I met a friend for some beers) and another 3 hour layover in Santa Cruz about which I spent about half time queuing for immigration) I finally arrived here.
A pick-up from the hotel was waiting at the airport. My hotel is incredible! I have an entire suite for me with a double and a single bed, a bathroom with a bath, a table, a fridge and a little balcony. I could live in this room!!! And the bed is amazing! Never slept so good in my life, although I was also pretty exhausted.
After arrival and a shower, I went to look for a place to eat. Since it was Sunday, most places were closed and it was quiet in the streets. Found a nice place, where I had a great lunch and tea with fresh coca leafs. And that was needed because I started feeling the altitude (2750m) , the heat, the walking around and hardly sleeping. I thought I was hallucinating, but they played a Dutch song in the cafe... it took a while for me to realize that I was in Bolivia and that a Dutch song was not so normal here... I checked with the waitress if i really wasnt becoming loca, and she told be that it was indeed a Dutch song and that the owner was Dutch.
Then I spent some time sitting on a bench in the sun on the central square, too tired to do anything else. But it was nice people watching, families with small kids, feeding the pigeons, indigenous women in traditional clothes (2 braids at their back, a hat and a skirt) selling fresh orange juice or seeds as pigeon good. All very calm.
Unfortunately also small children helping their mums selling candies and/or pigeon food. When I almost became a zombie and roasted (the sun is strong here and I only put sunscreen on my face) I went to the supermarket to buy water. Drinking helps a lot against altitude sickness symptoms and of course also
after being a bit dehydrated from the plane.
In the supermarket I walked around for a while, not very focussed.
When I finally reached my hotel, after walking uphill and again a bit too fast, the headache started. So spent time on the bed resting, drinking coca cola (which I never drink at home, but here it helps!) and water with ORS and another coca tea. I felt slightly better after an hour of resting.
Had a delicious home made vegetable soup at the hotel and went to sleep, completely knock-out at 1915. Fell asleep inmediately and only woke up around 2245 (it's 5 hours earlier here then in NL) for a toilet break and then slept through till 5:00. Pretty amazing for me, cause I am usually a bad and light sleeper...
Woke up really relaxed, but stayed in bed till 6:30 since it was too early. The breakfast here is amazing too! A whole buffet with a.o fresh carrot juice, little crepes, home made jams, dulce de leche! :-), te de coca (with which I started), local cheese. They even had home made pies. Didn't eat those.
I went to visit a small museum which showed many handwoven textiles from the local cultures around here. Nice! And there was a lady doing the weaving. A boy and a girl from Argentina were there talking to here and making little movies, since they are making a documentary about Bolivian textiles and they met this lady (Malvinas) some years ago in her village. So the anthropologist in me came up as well and I stayed there for a while chatting with them, learning about how they make the textiles and watching her work.
Pretty impressive and she has the whole design in her head.
Afterwards I just walked around and ended up at the local market. People who know me, know that I love local markets. I love to walk around and watch all the fresh local products for sale.
And then begun my search for the fresh coca leafs. I asked many people, walked in and out the market for a while, and then it turned out that the lady who sold the leafs at the market wasnot there yet, but there was a place outside at some corner. After asking again and again, I finally found a dark shop with two big plastic buckets in front covered with blankets. That were the leafs!
After searching for at least half an hour, I finally found them!
I also bought some chalk with it. I remember from Peru that this is used as a catalystor. There it was a stone, but here it was white powder. I asked the old man how to use it. I think he hardly spoke Spanish, since he showed me with hand gestures.
I went to a local health store for some cool "candies" of super goods: maca sweets, quinoa and amaranth bars.
Then it started raining pretty bad, I walked with an umbrella, but went for the hotel for a while.
Then I saw a message from Christianne (the girl I will travel with this week), so went to meet her for lunch. She is really nice. Lunch was nice too! At 1500 we both had to be at the language school and we got our itinerary for tomorrow and the coming days.
Tomorrow at 7:00 we take the bus to the silvermine town of Potosi (at around 4000m) where we will be shown around by a local guide. Think we will even visit the mines...at night we take the bus to Uyuni where we arrive pretty late, 1:30 am, so straight to the hotel and then the next morning we go on a 3 day tour on the famous Salar de Uyuni.
At Friday night we take the night us from Uyuni to La Paz and that same afternoon I will fly to the jungle for my week of volunteerwork, without water, electricity or phone.. So bathing in the river and staying at the house of a local family. Quite an adventure!
I just heard that there will be another volunteer, a guy called Ben. So that is nice! And after this week I will go back by plane to La Paz, have some hours there (time to share my adventures with you) and then fly back to Sucre. From there I can write you again.
So, really looking forward to this adventure!
At 19:00 (in 1,5 hour) Christianne will take me to her host family,which also has a floor for butters where I will stay and then we will have dinner with a friend of hers. Good to stay awake till a normal time!
You have to excuse me for my spelling mistakes. Writing this from an iPhone without spell check.
Love from Sucre,
Chantal
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