We arrived in Sucre on Good Friday so our first weekend was all about Easter. They take it extremely seriously here and although we are not religious it was fantastic to see all the festivities. The highlight for me was happening upon a procession of hundreds of people following a coffin with a model of Jesus in it, Mary was on a pole held above the crowd and a model of another man with a beard followed... I'm afraid I don't actually know who he was! The crowd all looked extremely sombre and the big brass instruments and drums gave the whole thing a really ominous feeling. Jim and I joined in the walk to the main plaza, we didn't go right to the church, where I assume they were headed, but it was a real spectacle and quite enjoyable to be part of!
It also turned out that the Easter bunny comes to Bolivia and he even managed to visit our hostel. Yummy.
We have now been here for a week and I have fallen slightly in love with Bolivia's capital. It is placed on a hill, or what seems to be several hills and valleys muddled together. The streets roll up and down which is a little tough on tired legs but creates a unique landscape to wander through. The main plaza and the surrounding streets are full of grand colonial buildings, huge ornate churches and extremely well kept gardens. You really feel like you are being spoiled. As you venture out further the streets are filled with gorgeous white houses with terracotta roofs and it is easy to mistake one street for another.
Of course, like most Latin American cities, poverty is just around the corner and there are more beggars here than any of the places we have been so far, mainly old women and small children. Obviously you can not give something to everyone but being a tourist you do get asked a lot. I find it particularly hard to see when it is a group of children sitting on a hard pavement floor all day instead of being in school or just out playing, they look tired and fed up. Really sad.
If you venture away from the tourist centre you then get to the more 'truthful' streets where the fancy restaurants turn into greasy food stalls and the shops filled with lovely weaved fabrics, bags and hats turn into market stalls with bright pink tracksuits, fake label sunglasses and huge piles of second hand shoes. These streets are not as picturesque. There is rubbish on the corners, lots of not so nice smells and all the drivers angrily toot as they pass through. There is one shopping road in particular which is a little intimidating at first. It is filled with shops, carts and stalls spilling out onto the street, people quickly walking in every direction and old women sitting with their tables of herbs, natural medicines and scary looking concoctions. You definitely get some funny looks for being there but it is worth it just to be caught in the hustle and bustle of the real Sucre.We have been having far too much fun in Sucre! Our hostel did not have a kitchen so we have been spending all our money eating out ;-) The best thing in the world is that we found a place that did sushi!!! I was in heaven... amazing how good some raw fish is when all you have had to eat for a couple of months is fried chicken and rice! We have had a week of living too luxuriously for our budget so we have now moved into a small flat with a kitchen so we have no excuses. We start a Spanish course tomorrow and hopefully volunteering next... holiday is over!
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