Sweet as time in Sucre

After another couple of days in Santa Cruz we jumped on an overnight bus to Sucre, known as the 'white city' because of all the dazzling whitewashed buildings.  It used to be the capital city of Bolivia and is a Unesco Cultural Heritage site.  It really is a cool little city and we happily spent 5 days wandering around checking out the buildings, the central market and just chilling out.

As are most of the markets we've been to in South America so far, the one in Sucre was an overload for the senses.  Stand after stand of bright and colourful fruit and veges piled up high, fresh cheese and eggs, meat and chicken hanging out in the open air and the occasional cow/pigs head, spices and herbs, sweets and pastries and many other wonderful things.  There was also a bunch of stands selling fresh juice and smoothies, which were delicious and cheap.  And upstairs you could get hot meals of local Bolivian food.  Even if you don't actually buy anything, it's a great place to walk around and get lost for a while.

Sucre is at a slight altitude (2750m), and one day we walked up to the lookout for an incredible view over the whole city.  Terracotta rooftops stretched down below and up the surrounding hills.  There are also some cool buildings around the central plaza, so architects and painters would delight in this city.

As we tend to do, we met 3 English guys who were staying in our hostel so we went out with them one night for cheap food, cocktails and beers.  You really can't complain when you get a burger and chips and 2 cocktails for about $5.  We also met up with Rob and Melinda, the American couple who left the jungle volunteering just before us, so we shared stories and caught up over beers, mainly rejoicing in the fact we weren't in that hellhole anymore.

Unfortunately on the bus ride to Sucre a muscle in Kurt's shoulder started to hurt and it only got worse while we were in Sucre.  He could hardly lift his arm and couldn't find a comfortable position to ease the pain.  After trying a few different drugs we eventually went to a medical clinic to see a doctor.  I'd written down a few phrases in Spanish thanks to google translate so I gave these to the doctor when we went in.  However, the consultation amounted to the doctor reading the phrases then writing down about 8 different prescriptions for drugs to be administered intravenously.  She didn't even bother poking and prodding at Kurt's shoulder (possibly a good thing). We have no idea what any of the drugs were, but it only cost about $12 all up.  We didn't see the nurse do it, but we assume (and hope) that all of the drugs were put into one big bag of solution that was then slooooooowly fed through the drip.  And I mean slowly, like 3.5 hours.  However, after another couple of days Kurt was still in pain, so we just had to stock up on codeine and any other drug we could find.  So, loaded up with painkillers we moved onwards and upwards to Potosi.