After five weeks of studying in Sucre and not really leaving the city, it felt a bit weird to hit the road again, but we were also excited to leave Sucre. On the way out we got stopped by a convoy of large Nissan Patrols driving at very high speed, it was the president, Evo Morales. Other than that it was a smooth drive to Potosi. In Potosi we first filled up on fuel, managed to pay local prices again after bribing the woman with a 10 Boliviano tip. The streets in Potosi were very narrow, barely the width of a car, plus a couple centimetres of footpath. Thanks to Julia’s navigational skills we found our hotel quickly.

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In total we spent five weeks in Sucre.  I would like to say that we made the most of our time there but in all honesty we were tired after four months of travelling through Argentina and Chile.  We were staying in accommodation where we felt comfortable, which was quiet, peaceful and away from the humdrum of the city also meant that we were quite lazy and spent a lot of time hanging around there basically just recharging our batteries.  We felt a bit guilty about this but we also ran into a lot of other travellers who were on the same level and were going through their own dose of travel fatigue.  Continue reading →

After driving for a couple hours on Bolivia’s altiplano (highlands) we came to the first sizeable town and decided to try if we would be able to buy fuel. It was the state owned fuel station YPFB, which apparently is the most difficult one for foreigners. The woman didn’t seem very enthusiastic and when we asked how much the fuel was, she responded with the international price of 9.12 per litre. And so the negotiations started with me repeatedly saying ‘Muy caro’ (very expensive). After promising to pay her a tip and having her boss involved we were allowed to fill up for 7,5 per litre. Not bad for a first time, but there was room for improvement.

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