The week finished with Emily´s birthday. We all went out for dinner at Joyride where we enjoyed champagne and a western meal. She received a ´birthday surprise´ which consisted of a flaming shot, a helmet with a candle on top and a t shirt which we all signed. The night didn´t last too long as Sundays in Sucre are pretty quiet.

Probably a good thing as the next morning it turned out that 5 out of 8 of us were ill. We couldn´t figure out the connecting link between the people (Emily, Tiahna, Max, Jess and Matt) but they all took the morning off. We (James and Ciara) and Gen were the only ones who made it into school. Turned out a new English guy had temporarily joined the beginners class and was a great addition, lowering the standard quite a lot. We took him back to our hostel where we pretended to the others that he had transferred from another Quest trip, which they readily believed. Eventually we sent him on his way. We haven´t seen him since.
In the afternoon Emily felt a bit better and took the three of us to a riveting Textile museum…. It consisted of traditional dress from previous civilisations. On the way back we met a dog who we named Clyde. He followed us a few blocks down the road before ditching us for some food. In the evening the others felt well enough to come out for dinner.

Tuesday school in the morning and then another museum in the afternoon- this time of masks. In the evening we had a football/volleyball match against the teachers and other students. We were quite throughly beaten. Another fairly early night as we were all pretty tired.

Wednesday was the day we had all been talking about – Australia day. As Gen is proudly Australian we decided to celebrate the day with her. After our salsa lessons in the evening (in which Matt excelled and Max found a little hard to pick up) we went back to our favourite spot – Joyride. We were also joined by Jon for the day. We had dressed in green and gold and Emily and Jon had bought us some face paint and tinsel to match. After various drinks (including a yellow and green cocktail) we found Jon and Emily dancing on the bar and so followed. Jon quickly took off his trousers which the boys decided to copy. For some reason we didn´t see Gen for a lot of the night.. At some point someone sensibly decided we should go back. However next to our hostel we heard a noise… Turned out there was a karoake bar right next door to our hostel. We all ran in, bought some more drinks and took the stage. Gen and Jon were in particular very talented and we loved Jon´s rendition of ´My Way´. It was truly beautiful.

Thursday breakfast was interesting. Jon was missed. We visited a local orphanage in the afternoon and played various games with the children there. They particularly liked Simon Says.. In the evening we went to the cinema and then back to the hostel to sleep.

Friday school went more quickly than the day before. We walked up to the Wally court in the afternoon to play for a couple of hours and then had a cookery class in the evening. We cooked a traditional Bolivian meal called ´Pique Macho´ which consists of chips, beef, and various vegetables. We all had a bit of a nightmare cutting the onions and there were a few too many tears. The meal was delicious. After we went back to the hostel and stayed up to the early hours chatting.

Saturday morning we unfortunately had school again but this time we took a little trip during lessons to the castle. After we came back we went to a Salteña cafe and tasted the local snack – a salteña. They are delicious and we will definitely be going back for more before we leave Sucre. Straight after we caught a bus to a hacienda about half an hour away from Sucre. We were so shocked when we arrived and saw how luxurious it was – ping pong table, swimming pool, bar – it was amazing. We had lunch upon arrival and then spent the afternoon chilling. Dinner, chatting and bed as some of us were very tired from the night before.

Sunday fairly early start, breakfast at 9. We started walking to the ´siete cascadas´ (seven waterfalls) at 10. The walk was incredible, although we only actually saw four out the seven waterfalls. In the fourth we all took a dip and then watched crazy Bolivian children somersault into the 4ft deep pool. Lunch was insane back at the haciena – steak from the BBQ which we had been talking about the whole way back. We spent the afternoon sunbathing by the pool and playing with various waterproof cameras. We were all very sad to leave at 4 30. A great week and weekend.

James and Ciara.