Sucre

‘La Cuidad Blanca de Las Americas’

Sucre is described as Bolivia’s most ‘sophisticated’ city. It’s an eclectic mixture of interesting people and vibrant culture. And dinosaurs.

The centre of the city is a UNESCO World Heritage site with some amazing architecture. All the buildings have to be whitewashed once a year which gives it a natural, calm energy. It has a familiar feel with a huge array of people crowding the streets and passing the time in the central plaza.

Sucre also happens to be very close to the largest collections of dinosaur footprints ever discovered. The upshot of this is the city is dotted with bizarre, fibre-glass dinosaur statues in the most unlikely of places. There’s one outside the cemetery which doubles up as a public phone. It’s bizarre.

Sucre is architecturally beautiful, culturally interesting and a good setting for a zombie-dinosaur movie.

Having planned the first part of my trip around coming to Sucre to learn Spanish, I was glad to find myself in such a friendly and interesting place. I immediately felt comfortable. The people are open and warm. The city is small and easy to navigate and there are a plethora of curios stalls and shops. The central market is a blur of vivid colours and odd smells. There are a couple of good bars and there’s even a club which is decent. The fact that they play the same crap songs on repeat every time you go somehow doesn’t detract from its charm.

Sucre has been a great place to base myself and learn some Spanish. Most of the travelers I’ve met are here for at least a few weeks studying at one of the many language schools. It’s easy to see why. Life is cheap and everyday is different. The school I’m studying at, Fox Language Institute, has been great. It’s a non-profit organisation which teaches Spanish, English and Quechua and I’ve been taking Spanish classes and teaching English on a voluntary basis. What they lack in organisational prowess they make up for in enthusiasm and improvisation. The afternoon I arrived I was given an English class to teach with little support and some optimistic advice. ‘Just be creative’ was all I was given, along with a second rate English teaching book. The first few lessons were fairly interesting. There were quite a few awkward silences and confused looks. I now have another teacher to help me out and since then the students have warmed to the strange, African gringo.

Learning Spanish has been a challenge. I’ve had about 2 weeks of lessons and I’m starting to feel more confident. My teacher, Maria, is friendly and very encouraging. But spending a large amount of time with other travelers means I haven’t been practicing enough. I’m fine asking questions in Spanish, it’s just that I have very little idea of what the answers mean. It’s a bizarre feeling not to be able to express myself properly. Sentences are slow to form in my head and even slower coming out of my mouth. I imagine I sound slightly drunk every time I speak to someone. But I definitely feel an improvement and I think with a bit more practice with local people I’ll move from the ‘non-existent’ level to the ‘basic’ level. My plan after Sucre is to find somewhere a bit more remote with fewer travelers so I can get some proper practice.

I’ve met some wonderful people and Sucre really feels like a temporary home. The family I’m staying with are warm and welcoming and the broken conversations we’ve had in Spanish have been good practice for me, if possibly somewhat boring for them. I’ll probably be here another couple weeks before I tackle the rest of Bolivia. I’ve only just scratched the surface of this fascinating, ragged country and I’m looking forward to see what more it has to offer. No doubt a huge amount.


Check out the photos here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150098699436890.276552.514871889&l=a2fe46ca5e