Sucre, Bolivia – August 12th – 20th, 2017

After setting a fast past since Lima in mid-July, we decided to slow down and spend an entire week in Sucre. We ended up ditching the first homestay after finding ourselves disgusted by the cleanliness and asking ourselves the question, “Why we were continuing to slum it when we were way under budget, tired of the struggle, and finishing the trip in less than a month?” The homestay was also a 20-minute walk into the city and get this, up hill both ways! So, instead, we more than doubled our accommodation cost and landed in a ridiculously nice apartment in the center of town. So worth it!

Roaming around Sucre.

More roaming around Sucre.

 Sucre is a beautiful city with lots of tourist infrastructure, so naturally, being burnt out as we were, we spent a good majority of our time there watching Game of Thrones. We also managed to tear ourselves away long enough to eat some really amazing food, see the sites around the city, and take the local bus to a dinosaur park with thousands of dinosaur footprints embalmed (strange choice of words I realize) in a giant wall – super cool! We also walked up Cerro Sica Sica where we found no view whatsoever, took a cooking class, and toured the Basilica San Francisco.

Food in Sucre

Super fun dinosaur park with so many dino footprints!

Beauty of Sucre!

The paragraph above makes us sound busier than we really were. We did, however, spent a good bit of time getting some R&R in the form of massages, haircuts, and reading. The massage was going really well until I was completely convinced that the man issuing the massage was purposefully placing his testicles in my hand, which was lying face up on the table while I was face down. If only I had learned the Spanish phrase for, “Can you please stop putting your balls in my hand.” I might have been able to avoid being stiff as a board for the rest of the massage. Even though we sought out the fanciest looking “salon”, my haircut was also an epic fail. The hairdresser literally clumped my dry hair together, chopped it 3 times, and then said she was done. Again, a well-practiced Spanish sentence which said something along the lines of, “Excuse me, but you just butchered my hair and I do not think this is worth $10. Also, I think you are scamming me,” could have really come in handy. Instead, I left in shame, had a good cry after, and wore my hair up until we returned to the US, where it took 2 haircuts and 6 months to be pseudo normal again. While my hair looked like I got it caught in a lawnmower, Andy had a very successful haircut and shave… good for him. As for the reading: We were seeking a quiet place to read and enjoy the weather, when we landed at the cemetery. It was actually really nice until we became inescapably aware that this was indeed a cemetery where dead people live. Our realization came in the form of a MASSIVE congregation wailing in grief as they buried their loved one right next to where we were reading… we left as soon as we could weed our way through flow of bereaved Catholics.

Since we would return to the US without insurance, we also took this opportunity to get some quality Bolivian medical care. You think I am kidding, but no, it was actually fantastic (except the organization and confusion about providing samples and picking up results, that was kind of ridiculous). We wandered into what we thought was a clinic, but turned out to be an Emergency Room at the hospital. Since we were clearly tourists and the locals are insanely helpful (and very curious), the ER allowed us to be emitted for physicals. The only catch – it would cost us $2 each. We guiltily cut the line of waiting, actually sick, patients, and saw the doctor. Although the doc spoke no English, he was thorough, surmised that Andy had a stomach infection, and ordered a full set of blood, stool, and urine lab work for both of us. The next morning, we arrived to return the now full stool and urine sample cups and get blood drawn. What we did not realize is that blood is only drawn between very limited hours very early in the morning and we had missed the deadline. They graciously took our feces and pee though. We ended up returning the next morning and without issue got the blood drawn. If you know me well, you know I am terrified of needles, but they guy that took my blood was hands down the best I have ever had. I barely even felt it and he distracted me perfectly. Thanks Bolivian vampire! The results came back a few days later (which we figured out through multiple rounds of trial and error) and although we struggled to understand them, all seemed healthy except that the doc was right, Andy had a e-coli and was prescribed targeted antibiotics (they had even run the test to figure out which antibiotics would be most effective). The entire hospital adventure cost us less than $35 total for 2 people. My cholesterol is great by the way, thanks for asking.

We reluctantly left Sucre … stop over in La Paz … off to Chile for ski-cation!