Sweet, sweet Sucre
Trip Start
Jul 07, 2008
1
218
244
Trip End
May 27, 2010
Sucre, Bolivia
Friday, November 20, 2009
Dolce Vita Hostal, Sucre, Bolivia
sunny and warm
Friday the 13th turned out to be a good day after all, even the games night at the school was fun. I didn't completely disgrace myself by imbibing of too much vodka and I even shone a little bit when it came to the egg and spoon race (yes, it still goes on in educated circles). Afterwards we all adjourned to The Amsterdam Bar (does what it says on the tin) where we shared some beer and good conversation till the early hours. The Amsterdam Bar is one of those places where all the profits go to help local street kids. Tonight they have bingo and tomorrow a quiz night, plus they do book swaps (popping there later to see what I can find) and it really feels like a bar in Amsterdam. To top it off it also, according to Ben the Aussie, has the fastest wifi in Sucre.
Afer chatting with Jamie and olivia from the school things became a lot clearer with regards to all the fiestas and people last week. This weekend saw the beginning of the South American Games and Saturday was the inaugural ceremony. We decided not to go (I'm sure the atmosphere was great but sitting on a stone bench for 7 hours didn't really appeal) but we could hear all the celebrations from the terrace of the hostal. Apparently Evo Morales (el Presidente) was boo'd, he's not very popular in (mostly) middle class Sucre. He took a pay cut, which I think is very admirable and he definitely leans towards the poorer classes but it seems that he may be alienating other sectors of the population. He has threatened to close all private schools whereas it might be better to try and bring the public schools up to private standards. Afka, a dutch woman who volunteers with the street kids here in Sucre, was helping one of them with their English homework and what the teacher had asked him to do didn't make sense at all, no wonder he was completely confused. Maybe the teacher training in Bolivia could be improved?
Snr Chavez (el Presidente de Venezuela) tipped up yesterday and he's a different ball game altogether. His anti US (since we've been in South America he has also taken an anti Colombian something to do with US air bases in Colombia) stance is making him even less popular outside of Venezuela, but since when did the Venezuelans care too much what others thought? We met a Venezuelan woman in Ecuador who told us the day Chavez came to power the tenants in her apartment decided to stop paying rent. Six years later she managed to get them evicted but no rent was recovered. Power to the people!
yesterday we walked up to The Mirador with Afka to have lunch with Cat and Miles, an English couple we met at the school. The view of Sucre was wonderful and we suddenly realised how small it is, despite feeling like a great sprawling metropolis when we first arrived on the bus. The rest of the day was spent reading, doing some Spanish and generally relaxing.
We are in Sucre for the next 6 days, our intention is to leave early on Sunday. our Spanish is coming along, albeit slowly, and we are determined to be speaking Spanish by the time we get home to the UK. We will have some more time in Guatemala and Mexico to do lessons, by which time we will have been practicing the bits we have learned here plus what we have picked up along the way. I am now following in dave's footsteps and using the Hugo Simplified System, Spanish Self Tuition in 3 Months book (circa 1963) that we found in rose and Chris's apartment in Spain last summer. There are some things in it that make us smile, like the reference to 'servants' and some of the grammar, which is quite dated, but all in all it's still a very good book.
The fact that you can go into a shop here and buy ´potable´ alcohol is a little bit worrying. Maybe they make the drinkable version to stop people buying the industrial stuff and going blind as a result. Anyway, it comes in plain, menthe and a variety of other flavours and colours, but basically it´s pure alcohol. People generally collapse in a heap after imbibing too much, making it very difficult for pedestrians to get around as the pavements are very narrow. I saw a man the other day who had taken up residency on a piece of cardboard over a drain on the corner of a very narrow street. Drivers were being most considerate, I thought, giving him a wide berth and not crushing him to death.
As we walked towards the bus stop yesterday to catch a micro to el Castillo, we passed a man sitting on the pavement changing his trousers, his manhood displayed for all the world to see. Jobhanna, my teacher, waving her forefinger in a circular motion around the side of her head said ´loco´, crazy man, you have them in England? Not at all, I said.
hasta luego
laters
