me gusta espanol

we spent nearly two full weeks in sucre, bolivia, took spanish classes and really settled in.  sucre is a beautiful and charming city.  it was the city where bolivia's independence was declared and was the capital until the capital seat was moved to la paz.  although it is bolivia's third largest city it maintains a small town feel.

our backpacking family navigating the streets of sucre on arrival....

we spent the first couple nights at a sweet little hostal in the center of town...

then we moved to a homestay that was arranged by our spanish school.  we stayed in the home of senora cristina but actually had our own little two bedroom apartment.

our home away from home for a couple weeks

the homes here are deceptive as they look like nothing from the outside but then open up into these lovely courtyards filled with trees and flowers (it is winter right now so the vegetation wasn't in full force)

outside our homestay

inside the courtyard

we ate breakfast and lunch prepared by senora cristina everyday.  her brother (an unmarried lawyer) joined us for lunch everyday as this is the big meal of the day in this culture. she cooked typical bolivian food which was pretty good overall. we were on our own for dinner, so sometimes cooked for ourselves and sometimes went out.

we spent 4 hours everyday in spanish class at our spanish school called 'me gusta spanish school'. todd and i had class together with a teacher and the kids were in a class together as well.  it was very intensive and we feel we now have a good foundation of spanish to continue on our travels.

becky and elder were the kids teachers

our teacher carolina

our classroom

there were a few school organized activities. our favorite of which was wallyball, which was volleyball played in a court such that you can use the walls. it was pretty fun. we played twice during our time in sucre.

in our free time we explored sucre.  it is known as bolivia's white city and most buildings are a stunning spanish colonial white.

we of course saw many a church with elaborate altars.  todd and i tried our best to give the kids a crash course in catholicism but we are woefully a poor source on this subject.

a painting of the virgen de guadalupe that was covered in gold, silver and gems....apparently she is worth millions

every street corner has a juice cart. for less than a dollar a nice lady will squeeze you a cup of fresh orange juice. lucy was a big fan of the juice cart!

this is one of my favorite quirky things about sucre.  the government pays people to dress up as zebras and stand at intersection dancing and waving to encourage the traffic to obey the traffic lights (like actually stop at the red light).  the zebras are super friendly and would high five the kids as we crossed the streets.

that about sums up the past couple weeks for us and though we have had a wonderful time here in sucre we must move on.  we are leaving tomorrow to go back to la paz.  from there we fly to the outskirts of the amazon and start our weeklong jungle tour!
hasta luego!