When you have a sinus infection, your husband recently had an infected toenail removed for $2.89 in the sketchiest clinic ever, and the altitude makes it impossible to climb a flight of stairs without gasping for air... what do you do? Head to Sucre, of course! Sucre, aka "the white city", is one of the most tranquila cities in Bolivia. It is one of the wealthier areas, but still maintains a large indigenous population. We spent nine days there escaping the altitude of La Paz... although at 9,000 feet above sea level, it is still extremely high. We stayed at a cute little bed and breakfast called Santa Cecelia's, which was nice and quiet and even had a kitchen. It was a pleasure to do some of the simple things from home, like preparing our own meals and going to the market. Although we didn't end up doing any activities or tours, it was a pleasure to walk around the city to look at the architecture and spend time in the many public squares.
While we were visiting, the locals spent three days celebrating the Fiesta de la Virgen de Guadalupe. There were parades with music, dancing, and the most elaborately decorated cars I've ever seen. People travel from all over the country for the holiday, and all of locals spent their day outside in the main square watching the events. One overall observation about Bolivia is that they have a LOT of parades and fiestas. Often, we find ourselves walking around and are interrupted by a parade of anything from music and dancing to kids dressed up as toothbrushes and toothpaste encouraging people to brush their teeth.
I'm happy to say that after several days of low key hanging out and rest, both Daniel and I are finally healthy and ready for more adventure. I got in several good runs, which had been seriously lacking in the past several weeks. I also had the best intentions of hiking around the nearby Maragua Crater (which has dinosaur footprints in the bottom!), but unfortunately couldn't get a group together to go. I would definitely recommend Sucre as a good place to spend some time relaxing. It is beautiful, the weather is fantastic, and it has an overall nice vibe.