Grand Hotel Sucre

... chilly water. Not wanting to be left behind I followed the others into the canyon, so far so good, it was just swimming back, against the tide, I swallowed a mouthful of dirty water: I panicked &amp; had to be rescued by the dingy!!<br><br>Needless to say, you won´t be seeing me compete in London 2012 as a triathlete, particularly if altitude training is involved. I just couldn´t breathe...

Hallo!<br>Um 1 Uhr in der Frueh ging unser Bus zur bolivianischen Grenze. Dort kamen wir wie geplant um 7 in der Frueh an und ueberquaerten die Grenze ohne Probleme. Wir wollten eigentlich von der Grenzstadt gleich nach Potosi oder Sucre, haetten aber dafuer 12 Stunden auf unseren Bus warten muessen. Daher folgten wir dem Rat zweier Neuseelaenderinnen und fuhren nach Tupiza, eine kleine aber sehr touristische Stadt. Die dreistuendige Fahrt war besonders angenehm, da wir zu dritt ...

... I eventually found a comfortable position to sleep in when the bus stopped again and allowed more passengers on, they sat in the aisle right at our feet, couldn´t get comfortable again!!!! Arrived in Sucre, very tired and stressed around 6am!!!!<br><br>However Sucre is a very pretty city, the constitutional capital of Bolivia, the hotel was terrific, very comfortable and we even had a bath in the room ...

... was something in between, I´ll call it our home I guess) was about 9 x 15 feet. It had a cement floor, and four walls that were, clay maybe? some sort of mud type thing. The front one was whitewashed which filled in all the cracks (though the cracks did not go all the way through). There was a window, which Felipe and the people setting us up nailed paper over, for warmth I think. The glass was not by any means air tight, really it was panes of glass held ...

... of tourists. Naturally this comment would come to bite me firmly on the ****! It started off well enough, I managed to dose off a few times despite the bumpy roads, no tarmac yet. I was awoken from my slumber by a comotion and the driver was having a row outside with a trucker coming downhill in th eopposite direction. Eventually we all got off as the bus reversed back down the hill to create some space for the other bloke to pass. So we got back on the bus and luckily for us we ...

... so well, we spent the whole afternoon of the second day sitting in the patio of a cafe overlooking the city of Sucre just eating, reading, drinking and eating some more. <br><br>Whilst lounging in the sun, we met one of the girls who did the mountain biking with us in La Paz - Dara Glass from Boston in the U S of A. Spookily enough she was also staying in the same hostel as us. She was quickly coerced into spending the day eating, drinking and ...

... Yes, it might sound funny that we had to rest on our vacation but it gets really tiring if you need to jump from one place to another like on every second day. Yes, for real! Though, we weren't lazy at all, neither did we do much partying, instead we were very hard working (as always! :p) and took some private Spanish classes for 5 days to get some basics for traveling. We had to so homework and studying every single day! And it was ...

... for a fruit salad; there was a choice of two sizes, and feeling hungry, I opted for the larger. I was not disappointed; for the equivalent of 60p I was presented with a bowl stacked outlandishly-full of every conceivable fruit to such a height that the entire structure was about a foot tall, covered in fruit syrup and ice cream. No joke, it took me a good fifteen minutes to eat, and unsurprisingly after this I was absolutely stuffed! After thanking Granny Fruit-Salad and promising to return ...

... warm. Claire then had a shower, then came back in to the room scowling - hers had been cold. Unluckyyyyy my son! Meanwhile I had checked my stuff into the single room next door to our room, which was cosy yet little bigger than a cupboard, and soon the girls packed up and moved their bags inside too.<br><br>We hunted for the bus ticket agency which was five minutes´ walk from the hostel, and saved a trip to the terminal. The girls ...

... a shop and you find an angry Israeli shouting at the shopkeeper because they think they're being cheated. Internet cafe - hostel - bus station - same story. I don't even know how they can enjoy traveling in that constant state. <br><br>I've become a racist. No - what is it called when you assume something about someone because of their nationality? It's not their religion...I know tons of Jews that aren't Israeli that are great. I ...