Dodgy buses, flights and sickness in Sucre.

So the last time I blogged, the political situation was pretty uncertain which was playing havoc with the travel plans. The miners were striking in Potosi, blocking off the city to the outside world. The strike spread to neighbouring Uyuni and Oruro. Thankfully we managed to do the salt flats just before the strikes got worse, as a couple of days later Uyuni and the salt flats also became out of reach. We did manage to get a bus out of Uyuni to La Paz, however it did have to go a roundabout way and was in itself pretty terryfying. The road from Uyuni to La Paz goes through Oruro, but because of the spreading strikes going through was out of the question, so we had to go around. This meant going off road and through the salt flats for part of the journey. I cannot really begin to describe how bad the bus journey was. I tried to read, but you just could not keep still because the road was so bumpy. I managed very little sleep, as the bus constantly stopped and started, and felt like it was about to tip over at any point. Surprisingly we did manage to get to La Paz in one piece, and this would not be the last of "near death" experiences in Bolivia over the next few days.

The next experience with Bolivian transport was a flight to Sucre. The road to Sucre was blocked off so we decided to fly there from El Alto airport in La Paz. We flew with Aerosur, for what will be the first and last time in my life. I am not even convinced the guy flying the plane was a pilot. I felt like I had somewhat combatted my fear of flying due to all the flights I have taken over the past four months, but this one flight just reminded me why I hate it so much. The flight in itself was not that bad, it is only a 45 minute flight, and save for the very annoying French people who kept trying to take pictures out of our plane windows, it was not that bad. The landing though was something else. As we came into land, I got the feeling that we were going far too fast and when we finally did land we did not seem to slow down as we zoomed along the runway. We finally came to a halt, and when the plane turned back to taxi up the runway, we realized that there was literally only 5 metres of runway left, and what lay beyond this was an absolutely massive cliff! It was undoubtedly the worst landing I have ever seen, and we were so lucky to have stopped when we did.

Despite the bad experience with the flight, I am so glad we got to see Sucre. It is a beautiful place, again completely unlike anything I have seen in Bolivia. It has a very mediterranean feel about it. All the buildings in the main centre have to be painted white once a year, to retain its colonial feel.

There are plenty of historic sights and activities around Sucre. The city is another place in Bolivia that is home to dinosaur footprints. The footprints are a good little trek away and then you are supposed to view them from around 200m away. However, our guide decided to take us right up to them, it was a bit of a dangerous hike which reiterates the fact that it if off the tourist track and that you are not supposed to go right up to them. The footprints were good but not as good as the ones I had seen at Toro Toro national park just outside Cochabamba.

Sucre is also host to a number of orphanages, we visited one which was run by nuns. It is the only orphanage that was non-government backed. The government do not support orphanages with children from the age of 0-4. I have no idea why, as surely these are the most in need of backing. I was a little apprenhensive as to how the conditions in the orphanage would be, as clearly they rely to a large extent on the backing of donations from visitors. We went to the market beforehand and stocked up on essentials to take like, milk, cereal, nappies, fruit and lots more. The orphanage was a pleasant surprise though, it was very well run and the children looked like they were really well looked after. They all seemed well fed and quite content, which was completely different to what I had expected.

Sucre has the honour of being host to one of the worst clubs I have ever been in, in my life. Everywhere seemed to shut down pretty early, so after having drinks at Joyride, a popular tourist hangout, we decided to look for somewhere that was open. The place we ended up (I cant even remember its name, and nor would I want to!) must have been the only place only, I have no idea why we stayed there, it was so shocking. It smelt so bad, that when you ordered a drink they gave you an air freshner to spray around the room, it was truly horrific! We also drank some disgusting immitation vodka called Natasha, which caused a shocker of a hangover! It was just a horrific place all round.

I was ill the next day, I am not sure if it was Natashas fault or just a bug. Sadly I spent most of the next 2 days in bed, missing out on a 7 hour hike which I really wanted to do. Instead I had to settle for shit films on tv. It was such a shame to get sick at that point as Sucre was a beautiful place and I would have liked to have seen more of it. I have been pretty lucky and only been sick twice the whole time I have been away so I suppose I cannot complain too much.

I did manage to crawl out of bed to watch a beautiful sunset over the recoleta district of the city. That was literally the only thing I did for over 2 days though, which was a bit miserable as it was a beautiful place.

The end of the few days in Sucre meant only one thing, another dreaded internal Bolivian flight back to La Paz. Sucre airport must have the worst security in the world. The bag scanners were not working so they just did a quick check through your bags. The body scanners did not work either but they did not even search you. If you were late for your flight, they did not even search your bags, you just went straight on the plane. It was absolutely appalling! Thankfully the flight with BOA this time, was far better. I actually think the man flying the plane was a qualified pilot. The flight gave beautiful views of the mountains surrounding La Paz, and we arrived safely back in El Alto airport, ready to embark on more adventures in La Paz.