Sucre

Day 1 – Getting to Sucre (Altitude 2,180 Metres)

Before I start,  this is not going to be the most interesting of reads as Shell and I have decided we wanted to take a break from enjoying ourselves and just to hole up in a nice Air BnB apartment in Sucre for a bit of recuperation and try to sort out our tech problems.

First though after yet another crap night’s sleep and a breakfast of bread and jam, we packed up and headed to reception where we were reliably informed by a tourist agency that we would be able to book a taxi to Sucre.  However, the receptionist thought otherwise and said he could only get us a taxi to take us to the bus station where we could find a shared taxi.

At the bus station,  at first we were told we should be at the other terminal, but after we finally got ourselves understood we were pointed round the back of the station where the shared taxi’s were.

We dragged our bags up the stairs and around the back of the terminal and were accosted by two young girls who wanted to know where we were going, when we said Sucre they grabbed our bags and briskly trotted/ran towards a car.  At the car,  Shell’s bag was loaded into the boot and then another irate woman came across and started shouting the odd’s.  Suddenly there were 5 people hanging onto my bag (myself included) whilst a melee irrupted, with lots of pushing and shoving.  Shell decided it was best if she grabbed her bag out of the back of the car and shouted at the people to stop.

Finally getting out bags under control we deduced that this cab had either jumped the queue or was an illegal cab, so we followed the elder (still irate woman) to another cab and it all started to calm down a bit, although the various women continued to have a heated debate by the side of the road.

Once in the shared cab we had an old local guy for company, but we learned that we still had to get one more person on-board before we set off.  We waited for a while but were keen to set off so in the end we agreed to pay for the extra seat, which to be honest made the back seats more comfortable for us and for a 2 hour taxi ride we thought that £15 was reasonable.  Although along the way Shell was feeling quite light-headed, maybe because of the increased oxygen as we descended in altitude for the first time.

The drive was pretty good and again it was pleasant to watch the scenery go past and soon we were entering the town of Sucre.  The driver drove round for a bit with the help of our phone sat-nav but couldn’t locate the address of our apartment, so we got him to drop us nearby.

Unfortunately, using the sat-nav system on foot, we still struggled to find the address and found ourselves walking up and down the same street with very odd street numbering.  Getting very frustrated and with Shell’s phone and sat-nav system just about to die, suddenly a women, Jacqueline, came up the road (the host) and found us and showed us to the apartment.

The apartment to our surprise was far better than the photo’s suggested. It was very large and spacious, with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large area and kitchen cum dinner and desk space.  It was all tastefully decorated with the bedrooms having parquet flooring and a little outside space with a utility room for laundry, all for £25 a night.

We were very happy with the apartment and after the woman had showed us around and we had unpacked we then headed out to the supermarket to get some provisions.

The supermarket was quite a way away and when we got there we were a bit disappointed with the food on offer.  We did the best we could to find stuff to make up a few meals and some breakfast materials, but thankfully they had the essentials….Water, Beer & red wine.

We struggled back to the apartment and found home in the kitchen for all our stuff before I set about trying to cure the PC problems, which meant a factory restore.  As the PC was barely working I bit the bullet and decided to reset it to the setting when it was first bought, which meant losing all my personal files (hopefully backed up) and any programs that had not be pre-installed.

Whilst that was taking its time to process and keeping my fingers crossed for the best I went to the kitchen to prepare my famous Chile Con Carne which took my mind off it.

In the evening,  it appeared that the reset had worked and the PC now had life, although it had got rid of the Microsoft Office suite which I use for the blogging, never mind we can re-build it!

After this revelation,  Shell and I sat down for some much looked forward Chile Con Carne and a couple of bottles of red wine, it was nice to be having some home cooked food and a place to relax for a bit.

Later during the evening whilst I was downloading a new copy of Microsoft Office we sat and relaxed in the living room and watched some TV, before heading to one of our bedrooms for the night.

Day 2 – More R&R Re-Building/Relaxing

After the best night’s sleep we have had for ages (no stupid breathlessness) we were able to get up in our own time, Shell appreciated being able to get up and go into the living room without disturbing me, we set about our tasks.

Whilst the PC was now operational I now spent the day completing the job by restoring files from back-up’s, adding missing programs, sorting out various program settings (ensuring it doesn’t down-load the dreaded memory killing Window’s 10 again), checking bank accounts and uploading photo’s from the camera/phone.

During this time and most likely to try and block out my expletives Shell spent her time cooking breakfast, doing all of our laundry and Cooking our evening meal.

At some point during the day the owner, Jacqueline, popped by to see how we were getting on and if there was anything we needed.  Shell and I had already discussed it and decided we wanted to stay here and recharge for longer. So after checking with her we booked and paid for three more nights which meant we were going to stay in Sucre for a week.

By the end of the afternoon I had got the PC to a point where I was happy with it, a much stripped back version of it, but the main thing was that it was ready for blogging and banking again.

 

Shell then dished up a nice dinner of meatballs and spaghetti which she had improvised and was very tasty, which went well with the red wine.

The evening was spent reclined on the sofa watching some British download’s before heading to bed, only to get up halfway through the night and swap bedrooms as we were being attacked by either a mosquito or a sand fly depending on who you want to believe!

Day 3 – Just R

It was now Wednesday and we hadn’t really stepped out of the place and today this was not going to change.

After another great night’s sleep (I’m actually getting lie ins!!) much of the day was spent trying to catch up with the blog and I even managed to sort some of our banking problems out, which should make things easier going forward.

Whilst I was doing this Shell was sorting out meals for the day, although she did also relax while streaming the latest UK dating programme, Naked Dating.  She was happily watching people’s genitals whilst I was blogging away, which was a bit disconcerting. Although I did take a few cheeky peeks when the ladies were on-screen.  I think Shell’s found a new favourite bit of junk TV!!

In the evening, we ate another of Shell’s inventions which was a Tuna and Olive spaghetti number which turned out well, also went very good with the wine!!

As we headed for the couch for the evening we were very excited to see that we could stream ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’ (very sad I know, but nice), which we watched and got up to speed with before turning in for the night. Larry is a Legend!

Day 4 – Actually got out of the House!

Although we most probably would have stayed in all day again, we had found out that Jacob & Danielle (Laos & Australia fame) had arrived in Sucre the day before and so we had arranged to meet them later in the day.

So,  until we were meant to meet them we spent the morning taking turns in blogging, having breakfast (could have been my dodgy boiled eggs) and booking our flights to La Paz. We also found out what to do with our rubbish, which is to hang it on a wall down the road on the provided hooks (I guess it gets it out of the way of the street dogs).

Later in the afternoon we headed for the main square where we were going to meet Jacob and Danielle, along the way trying and failing to find a shop that sold loose tobacco (had to buy tailor made’s instead).

 

Getting there early,  we walked around for a bit taking photo’s and trying to locate a decent bar that we could go to when we met them, this was easier said than done.

Going back to the meeting point in the centre of the square we sat down on a bench where an old bloke tried to sell us some seeds to feed the pigeons with, realising that we were not going to be customers he settled for bumming a cigarette off us instead.  Shortly after Jacob and Danielle arrived and after a few hello’s we all headed to a nearby pub that we had found.

It was great catching up with them again after meeting them in Laos and then hooking up with them in Sydney.  We were surprised they were in town as they were on their final stint of their travelling as they were going home for Xmas and were darting all over the place.

We all sunk quite a few beers whilst chatting about various experiences we had all had and swapped tips on other places that we were going.  Us giving them some tips on Brazil whilst they gave us the low down on Peru where they had just been.  Also,  Jacob and I kept on having small conversations about football, but the girls were not having it!

 

The beers kept flowing and we took a few photos for the blog before calling it a night after apparently 16 beers (shared), we said our goodbyes and headed off home, picking up a fried chicken take-away on the way back.

Back at the apartment we tucked into our chicken & chips, which wasn’t too great as the chicken covering was more like a thick fish batter ((KFC it wasn’t). Whilst we ploughed through that we watched another couple of episodes of ‘’Celebrity’ before hitting the hay.

Day 5 – RRRRRRRRRR

Slightly jaded from the night before we spent the day sharing the blogging duties and catching up on the social networks and sending a few E-mails to friends and family.

During the afternoon,  we knew we had to go for some food supplies so we trooped back up to the supermarket to get some provisions, but to our horror the booze section was shut and we were told it would not open again until Monday!! (It was now Friday)

We picked up some food for our evening meals and headed back to the apartment where I continued to blog whilst Shell found another favourite and started to stream and watch ‘First dates’

In the evening, Shell started to cook a family size Spaghetti Bolognaise, which meant she could use up the horrible port like wine I had bought at a little store the day before.  Whilst she did that I went down the road to take some money out of the ATM and visit the little shop to get some better wine and restock the beer.  The women in there are getting quite friendly now, enjoying my pigeon Spanish and miming, whilst they try and speak a bit of English, I’m becoming one of their regulars I joke with them.

 

After Shell’s spag bol we then settled down again and watched some TV, including ‘celebrity’ for the rest of the night. Larry is still a legend!

Day 6 – Ventured Out again today!

Once again the day was pretty much dedicated to blogging, but this time Shell had got up early, whilst I had another lie-in and had tackled one of the larger blogs.

After breakfast and some blogging for most of the day we decided we had to go out later that afternoon to do a couple of chores.  Firstly, try and arrange an airport transfer for the Monday and secondly, try and find some loose tobacco.

 

Around 5 we headed to main square trying along the way to get the tobacco without much luck so we headed for an agency to try and sort out an airport transfer. Unfortunately, the girl that was trying to help us was pretty vague and quoted us a price that seemed a bit expensive so we decided to give it a miss.

Leaving the agency, we re-doubled our efforts to try and find tobacco and after an hour or so of trying to ask various stall holders we eventually found some, although I think we were ripped off and we were pretty sure the tobacco was going to be old and very dry.

We then thought that as it was Saturday night, we would go for a drink before we headed home, but once again we were walked around for quite a while until we found a bar that was open.  But at this bar it seemed strange that once we had got a beer out of the fridge the owner made us pour it into two mugs then wanted the bottle straight back.  Shell deduced that it was against the law to sell beer today (On a Saturday!!), but that did not stop us having a couple more mugs of beer before setting off for home.

 

On the way back we visited my new shop-friends to liberate a bottle of Red (they did not seem too concerned about the laws) before going back to the apartment to enjoy them with last nights spag bol.

For the rest of the night we settled in to watch some more ‘Celebrity’ – how do you think Danny Baker will do?-  followed by David Attenborough’s “Planet Earth II” -those snakes! -before bed.

Day 7 – Blogasuaras-Rex

The most exciting thing about this entry is that I’m actually typing it whilst being in the exact day, we have finally caught up!!

Today I mostly blogged, 11 days worth to be exact, whilst Shell cooked breakfast, did some washing and cleaning, watched some streamed TV and had a nap, lazy bitch (although she does get up about 3hrs earlier than I do!). The only problem being that we have hit the apartments data limit on the internet, with all our downloading, streaming and blogging, so we will have to use our own phone data to finish off….bloody liberty!!

In the early evening, I popped down to the local store to pick up my final purchases and say goodbye to my new friends, whilst Shell prepared dinner, which was pretty easy as we were finishing off her family sized Spag Bol. We are both fed-up with Pasta, but try buying decent veg and salad ingredients in Bolivia, we’ve yet to see a potato that hasn’t been chipped and frozen in a bag!

For the rest of the night it was a bit more ‘Celebrity’ and downloaded TV before our last nights sleep in this nice apartment.

As I am just about to post this blog, we are totally up to date and it is Monday 21^st morning. So in last nights  celebrity, Danny's upset Martin again, poor love!! We are just packing, cleaning up and preparing to get a taxi to the airport to take us to our next stop, La Paz!