Sucre

We immediately noticed a big change between Potosi and Sucre. The streets were cleaner, the people happier, warmer weather and the white washed houses with terrecotta roofs everywhere have the city a very Spanish feel, thanks to the Spanish royalty & wealthy families favoring Sucre over Potosi during its silver boom. 

We arrived about 9pm and checked into our hostel then headed out for some dinner. The place we had been recommended was closed so we tried our luck at the one next door. On appearance it looked pretty basic and the salad bar quite sad but as it was already about 10:30 we figured we didn't have a whole lot of choice. Upon examining the menu it was clear it was a steak house and having had more steak in the last week than I've had in the last 5 years, I decided to opt for the salad bar only. Unfortunately for me, this turned out to be the best steaks on the trip thus far, but at least Jimmy's portion was the size of half of his plate so I still got to try some. A far cry from the first grey steak we had eaten in La Serena!

The next day we just wandered about enjoying the festivities as it happened to be Sucre's Independence Day, celebrating their first cry for freedom against Spanish rule over 200 years ago. The celebrations included marching bands, people in traditional dress and food stalls all over the streets. It was fun to be caught up amongst the festivities but Jimmy & Dmitry had other things on their mind.. Finding a pub that was broadcasting the champions league final (football). We managed to find one that had a decent looking menu, wifi and a number of TVs so everyone was happy and we settled in for an afternoon of beer drinking & football watching (or photo uploading in my case).

Once the game had finished it was almost sunset so Irina suggested hiking up to the top of the hill and catching the last of the sun's rays from the square up there. It was good to stretch the legs after so many beers, but man the altitude gets you every time! The view was well worst it though.

After the last of the sun slipped behind the hills, the five of us piled into a cab to go and secure our bus tickets for our trip to La Paz and Coachabamba as we had heard rumors they sell out fast. Jimmy, Dmitry and I managed to not only get a ticket but full Cama seats which was exciting as we had only had semi cama before.

Back to the hostel we went in order to have some more drinks (I wanted to get rid of the pisco I had been lugging around in my pack for about a week). Somehow we ended up still drinking at the hostel at 12:30am with no dinner, and a whole lot of extra booze in us. Turns out, circle of death can be quite hilarious with a Frenchman, French woman, a German, an Argentinian, a Russian/Canadian and 2 kiwis... 

Going to bed I couldn't help but feel like our choice of activity for the following day - rock climbing, might not be ideal with a hangover!