sudamerica 2009: sucre, beautiful one day, stormy the next
13th-feb-2009 - posted by dtra
the climate here is perfect, we're at about 2750m, but it's not cold (it is summer i guess), it's not too hot, though it can get hot i've heard. it's been really nice a couple days, and pissed down a few others, but it's never too cold, and certainly hasn't been too hot, i have a long-ish walk to school which includes a big up hill home, and i don't really sweat at all. i arrived last saturday from potosi (say it twice quickly with emphasis on the to, that's how they sell bus tickets here. the bus ride was only three hours, and was pretty good, the road was paved i think for a fair proportion, the scenery was pretty good, although there was a big dry river which would've been nice if it had running water (everyone's in drought i guess).
i haven't done too much in town, apart from sleeping and studying, played walley (a modified version of volleyball played in a squash court) on wednesday night with a bunch of people from the school, that was fun, though my team didn't win any games 
. wandering around town a little, i'll probably have more of a look on the weekend, there's a lookout and also a lot of churches (which never seem to be open), so hopefully i'll get lucky. i have a really good view from my room in my home stay, can see a lot of houses on the hill, and also a lot of the night sky, i tried to get a lightning storm in bulb the other night, but i think there are too many lights for it to work properly. anyway, took a bunch of cool long exposures the other night with the moon and clouds, so wait till i get back for those. long exposures, the ladies will love them (pun absolutely intended 
).
last sunday i went to a football game between universitario (of sucre) and the strongest (i think from la paz), the first half was pretty boring, but the second half livened up after the first half substitute (from argentina) scored the first of three goals (yes, a second half hat trick) for universitario. it cost $30 bolivianos, so it was much cheaper than the boca game, and obviously not as good, it was pretty similar to an aussie rules atmosphere, people only really cheer when something happens. universitario played a team from ecuador last night in the copa de libertadores last night, unfortunately i couldn't find anyone to go with .
so then i started school on monday (doing 2.30pm to 6.30pm, i'm not getting up to start classes at 8.30am), and i seem to be in a private class, which is a lot of pressure, but it seems to be going well. my teacher is argentinean, she is from salta, haha, i should tell her what the dutch guy said about it. it's going so well in fact (though i think she is speaing slowly for me, still whenever picks up the pace, i have no idea), i think i'll just stay for the two weeks before heading to la paz, and hopefully get there in time to see the carnaval in nearby oruro (the second biggest or most important in south america so my teacher says), they wear the real traditional clothes there but it's very cold and windy. they have this bizaare tradition of throwing water balloons (using water guns, and even tubs of water as well) at everyone leading up to carnaval here in bolivia, tourists are not exempted, i can assure you, it's not so bad here in sucre, but in potosi, la paz, and oruro, i can imagine, it probably won't be so great.
and of course, everyone already knows i shaved my head, i did that on monday, it feels pretty good, and is so much easier. here's another dopey picture i took. i'll probably do it again when i'm in colombia, we'll see how late it is, to see if i shave it number 1 again, or number 2.
that's all for now, have a cooking class tonight, curry, i hope it's got coconut milk, and a birthday party tomorrow, haha, barbeque, awesome. picture of the night sky from my room on my first night here, that was with my little camera, so imagine the beauties i have waiting on my pentax.
#33 dtra (david tran)
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