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25th May 2013
We woke up to another good breakfast of pancakes and egg before ordering a taxi to take is to the bus station. We shared a taxi with a guy from Oz who spoke perfect Spanish and managed to help translate what the taxi man was trying to say to us. Basically the taxi man knew someone who would take us to Sucre for the equivalent of £8. At first we weren't sure especially after our Santiago experience however the guy from Oz said it was quite legit and safe so rather then wait for a bus we just went for it.
The taxi man dropped us at a 5 seated taxi with a man already sitting in the passenger seat. It was mental, just lots of taxis waiting to drive the 2 to 3 hours to Sucre trying to fill their cars. People were shouting down the street. After a 15 minute wait we finally filled our taxi, a small Bolivian lady joining us. The taxi driver had definitely done the drive before, most roads had a pretty big drop and he cruised fast around them making me feel slightly sick! However his knowledge of the roads and fast driving ensured we got there in 2 and a half hours and even got dropped at the square where our hostel was. Not bad for £8! Just another case of ridiculously cheap Bolivian prices, the same taxi journey in the UK would cost hundreds.
When we arrived at the square there was loud music, markets, and children's rides. We'd arrived on their independence weekend! Everyone was in high spirits and the sun was shining. We walked the 100 metres to our hostel and checked in. At first as we had arrived a day later they tried to charge us an extra day, however when I put up a fight they soon gave in. We put our bags in our 4 bed dorm and met Dean a young guy from Essex who was on the top bunk. After a couple of minutes of conversation Josh had found himself a pal to watch the champions league final with! We were already meeting Robbie however he now had a further football buddy.
Dean showed us the way to Joyrides a gringo bar which was playing the football and Robbie was waiting outside. Although there was a happy hour whilst the game was on we didn't wait and got beers in straight away. I ordered chips but Josh refused them using the phrase 'Eatings cheating', a choice he would eventually come to regret!
We were soon joined by Blair the kiwi we met in San Pedro and we continued to drink beer until the end of the game which Bayern Munich won 2-1. We were then joined by Blairs girlfriend and another Kiwi couple we'd met Sam and Cushler. We all decided to stop by the local super market and buy alcohol. Josh, Dean and I went thirds on a massive bottle of apple Bacardi, 45%.
We went to Robbie and Serenas hostel where a hungover but motivated to drink Serena was waiting. So already quite drunk especially Josh, Dean and I started to drink combined with drinking games. We played the normal pyramid card drinking game before playing a game of arrogance. Basically with arrogance you fill the glass with your alcohol depending on how arrogant you're feeling about your go. You then flip a coin heads or tails and if you guess the correct side you pass the drink on to the next person, if wrong you have to down the drink. Obviously depending on luck the drink can fill up quite a bit, however people normally tip a tiny bit of their drink in and don't tend to be 'arrogant'. When it got to Josh's turn an already very drunk Josh for some reason decided to be arrogant as you can get and rather then fill a small bit of of his drink into the empty glass he swapped his full drink of Bacardi and fanta for the empty one. Big mistake as luck wasn't on his side! For some reason drunken Josh was feeling very arrogant a persisted to do the same twice! So within the space of 5 minutes he had downed 3 large Bacardi and fantas. He was well and truly wasted and a considerable amount more then everyone else!
As it was Gemma's birthday we'd decided to go for a meal so all of us minus Sam and Cushler went to a restaurant to celebrate. There was a happy hour at the restaurant but looking at Josh state he missed out and stuck to water. I ordered a vegetable lasagne and a burger for Josh. Literally the whole time josh kept questioning me about the burger at one point telling me I mustn't of ordered it. Everytime I glanced across at him he looked worse and worse until he literally couldn't stand it anymore and had to make a toilet stop. When he returned he did look much better and especially when he seen his burger waiting!
After the meal I spoke to the waiter who brought a candle and a shot whilst we sang happy birthday to Gemma. Then the spice girls came on! Gemma, Serena and I literally jumped up on our seats at the same time and screamed the song and danced along. There's nothing like a bit of spice girls to bring girls together! The whole restaurant just looked at us like we were mental!
After the meal Serena and Robbie hungover from the previous night went home. However Josh, Dean, Blair, Gemma and I continued and went to find a karaoke bar.
The karaoke bar we found was awful! Literally tables of Bolivians who couldn't sing. They were honestly terrible and it didn't help the song were foreign too! We did put our names down to sing just for a laugh but after a few songs sung by the Bolivians we literally couldn't cope and left!
We made our way back to our hostel with Dean. I really couldn't say what happened next as by that point I wasn't pretty drunk and literally the next thing I remember was waking up the next day!
26th June 2013
We both woke up with banging heads so decided rather the suffer to sleep for longer. Josh had been offered a Skype interview at the University of Nottingham but also had to prepare an essay on the importance of Geography on pupils learning and had to be at least 750 words. Poor Josh let alone not really wanting to do work when traveling, he also had a hangover from hell to deal with.
Our amazing roomie Dean came back after a walk with dissolvable paracetamol for us both. It definitely did help! Josh also popped out and being the amazing boyfriend he is brought me 3 ice lollies, a big tub of ice cream, a big bottle of water and a big bottle of coke! It did the trick! After an hours nap I was finally ready to see day light. As it was Independence Day in the square outside our hostel there was a massive fair with lots of different stands and kids activities. We walked round for a bit taking in the friendly vibe before making our way to the fish market. The fish market although mainly fish obviously had a cake stand. The cakes look incredible, I literally wanted to grab them so bad!
We'd been told about the chocolate festival that was being held in the town, so naturally I wanted to take a look! It was as expected amazing! Chocolate everywhere. I bought a chocolate covered strawberry and grape. It was lush! They also had a chocolate river you could cross. I didn't as clothes are limited when backpacking and laundry is expensive! But we watched a few people go across. After exploring the chocolate factory we decided to grab some fast food at their equivalent of KFC, Kingdoms. Then head back to the hostel. Poor Josh started on his essay on Deans borrowed haptic and was up till 3am whilst I fell into a much needed sleep!
27th May 2013
We arranged to meet Robbie and Serena around 10am. On route we managed to book our bus ticket to La Paz that evening and also a new memory stick for our camera. We all went to the local super market to grab some lunch for later in the day then hopped in a taxi to the dinosaur museum. The dinosaur museum isn't dinosaur remains but is actually a wall of actually dinosaur footstep imprints that were discovered when a quarry was mined. Once at the museum we were taken into a small room and bizarrely they just played BBC's 'Walking with Dinosaurs'. As much as we'd all loved to watch a massive group of school kids entered so we took the opportunity to exit. We made our way through a garden of life sized dinosaurs before we arrived at the main attraction, the footsteps. The large wall found in the quarry was a considerable distance away however even from a distance you could see the different foot prints. It was pretty incredible and unique to see evidence of their footsteps millions of years ago still existing today. After a little while taking it in we made our way to the exit and asked for a taxi to be ordered for us.
Simon our taxi man picked us up and took us as close as he possibly could to the 7 Cascades. The route there for me was petrifying! We were on winding roads with a drop. I literally grabbed Josh and didn't let go or look the whole way. It didn't help that Simons taxi was falling apart with a hanger used to open it. As we were in the middle of nowhere we asked Simon our taxi driver to return and pick us up at 5 in exchange for money up front.
We made our way to the 7 Cascades which are 7 waterfalls in the middle of nowhere. The walk wasn't easy and took around 45 minutes. We had to climb massive rocks and make our way through streams to get there but it was so worth it! A waterfall and spring to ourselves in the boiling hot heat, it really was beautifu. Josh and Robbie had lots of fun climbing high and jumping in and exploring. I was quite content in the sunshine taking in the rays and enjoying my lunch. It was so relaxing and peaceful, we stayed there for hours. At one point a load of people turned up who volunteer for the day to clean up the waterfall. However they didn't stay long and we had the waterful to ourselves again. Eventually we packed up our bags to make the hike back to meet Simon our taxi man. I think we all had a slight doubt he'd turn up which was slightly worrying! We sat on the side of the road in the designated meeting spot for around 20 minutes before we saw him old worn down taxi turn up. Relieved to see Simon, however I was now petrified again to be driving along the big drop roads again. I buried my head into Josh until we were back onto normal roads.
Simon dropped us at the main square, we said our goodbyes to Serena and Robbie and made our way back to our hostel to have a quick chill out before we took a taxi to the main bus terminal. A French girl was getting a bus at a similar to save costs on the already cheap taxi she jumped in. So already we were off to explore Bolivia further. An over night bus and we'd be in La Paz. I was very excited to see this hectic city that I've heard so much about!
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