The last of Bolivia

After the robarro saga, a couple more crazy bus and taxi rides and arriving at around 11 pm we decided to splash out and stay in the most flash place in Sucre that the lonely planet had to offer. Such bliss, it hardly even felt like Bolivia anymore.

In the morning Sucre felt even more like paradise, sunshine but not burning, air that is possible to breath, (its much lower altitude), no dust, ahhh. Well for some of us anyway, Mark was really sick so we stocked him up with half a dozen power aid and left him to sleep. It would be another few days before he was really feeling better.

Sucre is a university town and it felt like it, the first thing we saw when we went for a wander was people in zebra costumes directing traffic at the zebra crossing!!

Jeremy didn't mention that the robarro had also taken such useful things as all our camera and phone chargers! So we checked out some shops to try replace the stuff we needed.
Saltinas for morning tea, Bolivian empanadas, which were really yummy, then chilled in the pleasant temperature sun in the courtyard of the hotel.

Hotel lunch resulted in giant ravioli for Gem and Meredith and beef medallions for Jez. Yummy!!

Next flight to Santa Cruz on a wee plane to save us another 20 hour bus ride through the mountains on Bolivian buses.best decision ever!! Looking out the window at the Andes descending into tropical jungle was a much nicer way to experience it than by bus on the tiny winding roads we could see!!

Again arriving into Santa Cruz didn't feel like the Bolivia we knew (and loved? Or knew and hated...maybe that's too strong).
It was tropical firstly, and seemed really developed, almost like somewhere in Asia but without all the motorbikes!! Definitely not a dusty backwater like Uyuni!!

We arrived late and had a very early start (3 am) so we went down to the pool associated with the hotel at the local rec centre. The cafe was run by a Korean family so we had real yummy cup noodles for dinner!

Overall Bolivia has been a crazy experience. I think that's about the only way to describe it. The buses were rubbish, we were unlucky enough to get robarro'd (tho that worked out ok in the end), the altitude was hard work, we got stuck in a strike action, generally everything seemed really backwards, oh and the toilets were gross and never had toilet paper!. But despite all that, and maybe with the hindsight of a few days recovery now, it was pretty cool. The places we got to see were beautiful, amazing landscapes, especially the salar and the moonscapes of the desert, plus the worlds highest navigable lake, incan culture, Copacabana and Sucre were cool towns too. And really all those challenging crazy times are what this kind of travel is all about. I'm so glad we went!  :-)

Love Gem and Jez