Sucre Day 1

So did I ever tell you about that time when our bus lost ability to brake with about an hour left to go? No? Oh, well, here goes....

Yesterday Jamie and I hopped on a 9 hour bus ride from Uyuni through Potosí to Sucre. With about an hour left to go until we reached Potosí, there was a loud sound. We pulled over, people got out to stretch/pee/etc and ten minutes later we were off once again, with the impression that we had just been leaking oil or something. This is Bolivia. No big deal. A while later, I started noticing we had been driving rather slowly for a while, and sooner or later, despite a lack of announcement or anything from the driver, we all realized the brakes were shot. Ooops. Luckily, this may be more common in than we would all think, since it really didn´t seem like a huge deal to the Bolivians. No pasa nada, we reached Potosí about 1.5 hours late. Once there, we hoped to god that this same bus would not be the bus for the continuation of the trip to Sucre. Luckily and somewhat surprisingly, a new bus showed up and after minor troubles boarding and a scary interaction with the hostile driver, we boarded and off we went. This ride was much more comfortable (hello pavement... I´ve never been so happy to see you in my life).

We arrived in Sucre and realized that, despite no indication of poor driving, our driver reaked of alcohol. That being said, here we sit in an internet cafe looking up cheap Bolivian plane tickets for the next legs of our adventure (Sucre to La Paz to Rurrenabaque and back to La Paz). Hearingn about all the strikes causing road blockages in Peru, the frigid conditions of overnight 16 hour bus rides, and the desire to avoid dangerous Bolivian bus drivers... we´d like to shell out the extra bolivianos to remain alive and keep this trip on course so we don´t waste too much time.

One note about our journey... EVERYWHERE (rocks in the middle of nowhere Bolivia, waterpipes, sides of stone houses, etc) was propoganda in favor of the new Bolivian constitution that was a big deal back in 2006. A lot it read ¨Si a la nueva constitucion¨or pictures of the Bolivian flag with ¨unidad¨messages. The new Constitution, which is supposed to give more rights to the indigenous groups and which was eventually passed, was controversial because President Evo Morales changed the amount of Assembly support needed for the new Constitution. Basically, I was shocked by the widespread propoganda created by the government throughout small (small!) communities thoughout this country.

To leave on a happy note... Sucre is beautiful and after having a little trouble finding a hotel with spaces, we´ve landed in a nice place where we have a private bathroom, TV (CNN in english and more movie channels than we have at hoome in NY), and breakfast included. And ... IT´S WARM. I´m wearing t-shirt outside right now and no gloves!!! We haven´t seen much of the city yet, but more of an update about what Sucre is all about coming soon!