Happy New Year from Sucre!

To be honest, I can’t say I was sad to leave La Paz in the end. On top of the drink spiking incident we’d also found out that there were no longer tours of the San Pedro prison since an uprising a few months ago. This had been something I’d really wanted to do so the news was a bit of a downer.

We’d planned to welcome 2010 in Oruro, with the intention of heading south to the Salt Flats, however, things changed when we arrived there. Having travelled four hours on an over-crowded bus that smelled of BO and chicken - with a few un-caged pet cats thrown in for good measure - we were deterred by the fact the place was flooded, and the vibe seemed very uninspiring and a little depressing. This resulted in our booking a night bus to Sucre, a city of about 200,000 and the judicial capital of Bolivia (La Paz is the executive and legislative capital). This meant we could also enjoy some great food and wine at ‘Restaurant Nayjama’, of which the master chef, Don Roberto, has been plugged by the Lonely Planet as being particularly hospitable. That he was. He recommended a lovely Bolivian red and chatted to us about his many travel experiences. He even insisted we take 20 of the 40 Boliviano tip for the cab ride home (we didn’t).


We arrived in Sucre on December 31 with enough time for a siesta in our lovely European-inspired hostel. After doing the typical backpacker thing and drinking with other travellers in the hostel, we headed to a local bar where there was a ‘beach party’ underway (i.e. the floor was covered in imported sand – luckily I wore thongs!) The New Year was a bit of an anti-climax - no countdown or anything – but the all-you-could drink beer meant I was unfazed. We even spotted some fireworks in the main Plaza 25 de Mayo, and Bec and I enjoyed a ‘who eats wins’ session with some suspicious meat from a local vendor in the square, all the time hoping we weren’t eating dog.

Happy New Year!