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Hola, we leave our little Sucre today and head East to Santa Cruz. We've been here for 3 weeks now and it's become our 'home'...even with all of the crazy protestors and riots!! We've both learned loads...language and culture, we have a much better understanding of the Bolivian history and its people. Friday, our teacher had a 'dinner party' at her house and cooked traditional Bolivian cuisine for us all...was a good test of what we had learnt as we could only converse in Spanish!! Later that evening we went along to a old Andean ritual that happens twice a year...was soooooo interesting we felt quite priveledged to be there as there were only 25 people...mainly native and this is really serious and sacred to them...but they welcomed us in and treated us like one of themselves. Only freaky thing was when they sacrificed the sheep...have been vegeterian since!!!
Yesterday we went to a city a few hours out of Sucre called Potosi...it was once the highest, richest and most populated city of the world (colonial times) was due to the discovery of silver in the mountain...don't get me started on the amount of slaves, from Africa and indigenous people who were exploited on account of the greed of the spanish invaders!!! They still mine the mountain for other minerals...mainly zinc...was really sad and interesting talking to the miners...their working conditions are seriously not that mcuh better to the coal mines during the industrial revolution...life expectancy of around 40years!!! Better change the subject hey??!!
Overnight bus tonight to Santa Cruz where we'll spend a week exploring the area..might seek out part of the Che Guevara trail, then catch the 'Death train' into Brazil!!
Thank for all the little messages..is great to hear how you're all getting on!!
Love Maria and Kotuku
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