Potosi and Sucre

Trip Start Dec 02, 2007
1
2
3
Trip End Dec 28, 2007


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Bolivia  ,
Friday, December 7, 2007

The bus trip from Uyuni to Potosi is only three hours but those three hours were quite a fun/adventurous ride. First time in a Bolivian bus...quite a difference from the well organised, comfy Argentinian luxury coaches. Luggage is deftly tied to the roof, I thank my parents for being short legged (I blend in nicely with the Bolivians), and under a mist of black exhaust pipe smoke we wave goodbye to Manu and Ana. Manu said he'd meet up with us in Potosi. There's no paved road to Potosi so our behinds are a bit sore when we get there. Also, the local music, cumbia chicha (i can't really describe it but it always has the same chirpy rhythm with just bad lyrics and worse vocals) blasting from the stereo in the bus drives me a bit nutters.  

Anyway, Potosi is pretty, it's the highest city in the world, 4060 metres above sea level and I definitely feel the altitude. Main Square in Potosi
Main Square in Potosi
 I'm completely out of breath after two steps. At night it's freezing cold and our hostel room doesn't have heating. And then Roos gets ill (this will be the first of a chain of illnesses). We first think it's the altitude but she gets fever and all. Luckily, she's got me as her private nurse and Manu and I cook up some weird rice-carrot dish, which supposedly has to make her feel better but by the looks of her, she doesn't really seem to enjoy these experimental flavours. Oh well, I did my best.

After three nights we head down south to Sucre. I don't know if you have been following the news, but there have been some turmoils the last few months in Bolivia. The point is that Evo Morales, the President, wants to amend the Constitution in his favour, and on the other hand Sucre wants to be the capital of Bolivia again, after La Paz had taken that status about hundred years ago. In Sucre, there were some violent demonstrations. Four students died, but we arrived there a few weeks after those events. Everything seemed to be quiet apart from a burned down police station. Sucre is a beautiful city with a lush green surrounding, completely different from Potosi. The climate is nice and warm, we can take out our skirts again, it's just very relaxing. We also met a nice bunch of fellow travellers with whom we met up every night to explore sucrean night life. All in all we stayed five days, a bit longer than wanted because Roos got ill again. Bolivian food doesn't seem to become her well.
Slideshow Print this entry Potosi hotels