Sugar and the Peace

Sweet, sweet Sucre was one exciting day after another! I felt so immediately comfortable in this bright city and coupled with their largest annual festival, a fantastic group of fellow travelers, good food and friendly locals, I would have loved to stay there indefinitely, soaking up more of that nectar.


I left Potosi with no idea where I would stay in Sucre. Perhaps somewhere near the bus station until I got my bearings? As usual though, things worked out and I spoke to the only other foreigner on the bus, a welshman named Adam, while waiting for our bags who had a recommendation of where to stay down town. Once we arrived, I noticed one of the guys that had been in my tour group in Potosi was also there, Migi from Switzerland, who was sitting with a german guy, Markus. Thus was the beginning of the Sucre gang. The told me of a festival that would be taking place that coming weekend and I promptly made plans to stay for the week.

What a week! I had plenty of time to relax during the days, exploring Sucre's green spaces, parks, view points, wide, clean streets, markets and plazas. There was always something going on, a concert, an exhibit etc and as more travelers from a couple hostels came together we had a nice big group to hit the clubs at night. One night, after Markus and Adam had both left, Migi and I were having dinner and we decided to play a game. Let's try to guess where every person in this restaurant is from. Sadly to say, I lost, but in the process, we made a couple new friends, a dutch couple, invited them over, the four of us ran into another two at the next bar and oh did the sugar-high ensue! The 6 of us nearly took over a place called Joy Ride (which would become our regular haunt). A couple of us girls got free drink tickets for dancing on the bar, but when Migi decided to try to dance on a bar stool, not only did he not last long, all he unfortunately got was our applause and laughter! Afterwards we went to an after hours bar where we danced the night away, Cary surprised me with his salsa moves and around 5am, our pre-pre-party came to a tired but expectant end.

The next day, after a good sleep-in, we lunched and the festival began around 2pm with mostly children's groups dancing through the streets. We wandered around, taking in the festivities, watching the people arrive, sampling street food, randomly meeting up with friends here and there. The parade continued until well after 2am when the last of us decided to end the pre-party. We needed some sleep before the real festival. I would love to write an entire entry on the society of travelers that you meet along your journey. How nice it is to recognize faces, share stories and tips with eachother and even share a little bit of one another's culture while experiencing the same exciting places. On any given night I might be out with people from 10+ different countries, relishing in the music, the dance, the new food together, as one big traveler cocktail! I adore this aspect of backpacking!

Finally Saturday came and the parade began around 8am! I spent a lazy sunny morning in the hostel courtyard, writing in my journal and listening to the music in the distance. Once we made it to the main square and before we found a good spot to take pictures, I was interviewed not once, but twice! First by a man with the best mustache I've seen since India speaking on an old fashioned phone for a radio broadcast in quechua ( I surprised him by pulling out a few of the words I'd learned) and then by a man conducting a broadcast from his cell phone! Such a contrast in technology. We settled down in the front row and could hardly draw ourselves away after nearly 5 hours! Every time we agreed we were hungry or needed to move, we said "Okay, just after this next group.", "We'll just wait 'til that fancy bunch with the wild costumes comes" or "those swirling ladies" or "those adorable dancing kids". One after another, we could just not believe how many people were participating, they just kept coming!! Once night fell, Cary and I scrambled up a pipe to sit in a window well, the best seats in the house :).

Dinner was once again, irresistible street food and then back to Joy Ride for the longest night of dancing in my life! The bar was empty when we arrived and we put that nice open floor to good use! I must have danced for 7 hours straight without pause - I was high with the exhilaration of the music and the company :). Once the place was too crowded to move, we hit the streets, yes the parade was still in full swing around 2am and we joined the mayhem for a while longer. What a fabulous human expression - thousands upon thousands of people coming together celebrating life!

Sunday, working on about 3 hours of sleep, 5 of us drove out to one of South America's most colorful markets. I did a little shopping but more people watching and when we finally returned it was time to buy a few more of the famous chocolates and bid a sad farewell to Sucre. We took a night bus to La Paz and ended up at a recommended hostel. Another crazy place, predominantly Irish, dorm beds this time, nightly activities in their own bar, a girls only room with hair dryer and straightener (a luxury on the backpacker circuit!) as well as a comfy TV room with DVDs. After a double-decker bus tour of the city, the famous witches market, pub trivia and the second night, we lost Cary, who had been a great travel buddy and Migi convinced me to sign up to climb Mt. Huyana Potosi - a whopping 6,088m high! I had never really had the desire to do such a thing before, besides perhaps Kilimanjaro and now... well that story will have to wait until the next entry. I must pack up and head to Copa... Copacabana (where music and passion are always the fashion ;)