On Friday morning, we caught the 8am bus from Potosi to Sucre, a journey which took 4 hours through some beautiful scenery comprising mountains, valleys and sweeping vistas. After checking into the Hotel Independencia, we had an orientation walk of the centre of Sucre - a very short walk since there weren't a lot of tourist attractions in the city. Sucre is the judicial capital of Bolivia, but is only a small city compared to other larger cities in the country such as La Paz and Santa Cruz. The city sits an altitude of 2,750m so although still high, it is a lot lower than other places we had just visited and a blessed relief on the lungs. We then went for a few drinks at the top gringo haunt in Sucre, Joyride, a conglomerate of bar, restaurant, club, shop and tourist agency.
Dinner was at "The Balcony" and comprised a meat platter which I shared with Mike. Then more drinks at Joyride followed by a club ("Mitos") with Mike. There were some seriously hot chicas at the club - clearly, as we got closer to Brazil, some of the genes which made Brazilian women so hot had made the short trip across the border. I was going to like Sucre! After the club shut, I ended up going on to another "establishment" with a couple of guys I met, although this turned out to be as "exciting" as watching paint dry. Upon leaving this place, it was a classic "Only Fools and Horses" moment as I stepped out of the door into bright sunshine! It was about 8am and I got a taxi back to the hotel arriving back at about 8.30am in the morning!
On Saturday morning, we had a city tour of Sucre departing at 9.30am. That left me about an hour to sort my stuff out, wolf down some breakfast, shout some more abuse at our annoying, hobbit-like (edited by Legal dept) (who is the same height as a hobbit and later admitted he/she shaves his/her feet because they are hairy like a hobbit), and try and sober myself up. I wasn't too drunk from my night's drinking, but this was only in comparison to previous all-night drinking sessions.
Sucre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and as most of the colonial buildings in the city center are whitewashed, the city also enjoys the nickname of the "White City". It is a quiet, clean city with a compact centre containing diverse shops and restaurants. Although La Paz usurped Sucre's status to become the seat of government, Sucre still remains the judicial capital of Bolivia. Sucre was founded in 1538. Bolivian independence from Spain was declared in Sucre on 6 August 1825 and the new republic named after its liberator, Simon Bolivar. The city was called Sucre in honour of the general who promoted the independence movement, Antonia Jose de Sucre.
Sucre didn't have a lot going for it in terms of tourist attractions, in fact, I'd describe it as quite sleepy. We visited (if I remember correctly through my drunken stupor):
- La Casa de la Libertad (House of Liberty), where the declaration of independence of Bolivia was signed on the 6th of August 1825. Fortunately, said document was enclosed in an airtight display case otherwise the nasty fart I deposited nearby would surely have caused the document to disintegrate, resulting in an international incident.
- Museo de la Recoleta, which served as a convent, barracks, prison, and museum, and also offered fine views overlooking the city from Mirador Recoleta.
- A park (can't remember the name) containing some grand monuments and buildings (can't remember their name) and what was billed as a mini-Eiffel Tower which you could climb to the top of but was a bit naff.
- The local cemetery. Yep, Sucre is so defunct of tourist attractions that a half-day tour includes the local cemetery. The tourist description reads thus - "the harmonious appearance, sumptuous burials and gardens with ancient trees make it a peaceful place to visit". DEAD peaceful!
Some of us had an evening meal at "Hong Kong" restaurant, a Chinese with the slowest service imaginable. After eventually managing to finish our meal and pay our bill, it was 11pm and off to Joyride for a few drinks, then most of the group went to "Mitos" again and a good night was had drinking and dancing. I was one of the last ones back to the hotel, an early night at about 4am.
We had a free day in Sucre on Sunday. Me and Nashy headed off to Joyride for lunch - I had a rather healthy honey and soy sauce chicken salad. Unfortunately, walking to the local supermarket with Nashy after the meal, he was rather alarmed to see a look of fear cross my face as I nearly farted my lunch out into my boxer shorts. It was too dangerous to attempt to walk the five or so minutes back to the hotel so I had to get a taxi, the driver of which was rather bemused as to why I wanted a taxi to a hotel only a few minutes away. If he'd listened to the resulting explosion in the toilet of my hotel room, he'd have understood. One of the main attractions of Sucre is the Cretaceous Park, which contains over 5,000 dinosaur footprints from at least 8 different species. It can be reached by catching the snazzily-named Dino Bus which leaves the main plaza three times a day. However, after a group of us queued up at 2.30pm on a Sunday afternoon and contrary to what my Lonely Planet said, it appeared they didn't run on Sunday anymore. A shame because it probably would have been worth seeing. Most people decided to have another Chinese in the evening, in the "Shanghai" restaurant across from our hotel, a much more "rustic" affair with food in danger of giving you food poisoning the following morning.
On Monday, it was time to leave Sucre - our next major piece of action would be the Pantanal wetlands in Brazil, which would take a couple of days to reach via Santa Cruz and Puerto Suarez. We had a final lunch at Joyride and then had a 1.30pm transfer to the airport for a 3.30pm flight to Santa Cruz. I liked Sucre. Although there weren't much in the way of tourist sightseeing attractions, the city was quiet and clean, there was a compact selection of bars and clubs so we didn't really need to decide where we were going each night, just follow the crowd, and the Brazilian beauty gene had made it across the border and the girls were beautiful.
We had one evening in Santa Cruz, which is one of the largest cities in Bolivia (at 1.5 million people). It is the fashion and modelling hub of the country and has the claim to fame of winning the most beauty pageant titles in the country. Walking around the streets, I could see why. We were staying at the 4* Hotel Arenal - our room was huge, with three double beds, sofas, a dining table, fridge, hot tub, bidet and mirrored walls. Very nice indeed! We had an evening meal at the very unoriginally-named "Irish Pub" (I had fish and chips, the fish being a chunky fillet of "surubi"), and I had quite a few bottles of Pacena Ice, before we all called it a night before 11pm.
On Tuesday morning, we transferred to the airport for our flight to Puerto Suarez, right on the border with Brazil. On landing, we took a short taxi ride to the border where we got our Bolivian exit stamps and then walked across the border to get our Brazilian entry stamps. Then, we took taxis to Corumba, our gateway to the Pantanal wetlands, where we checked into the Hotel Santa Monica. Priority number one was finding a bar, which we duly did, seated outdoors, the boys positioned accordingly so we could check out the Brazilian chicas. Also, it turned out the beer of choice in Brazil was called Skol - fortunately, this turned out to be an agreeable tipple and had no connection whatsoever to the cheap cans of paint-stripper that were sold in corner-shops in the UK when I was younger. We then found a restaurant and had a huge meat feast, something we'd be doing quite a lot of in Brazil. They like their meat over here. Another early night again(!), the next morning we'd be off on our Pantanal adventure.
Boozing into Brazil
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Corumba, State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil
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