A Weekend of Firsts

The past few weekends I experienced a few things that I had never gotten to do before.
First up, an app launch party. After growing up in Silicon Valley and working for Silicon Valley Bank for 3 years, it seems only fitting that my first launch party was in Bolivia. The app is called Stanstone and was developed here in Sucre.

It seems to be a sort of Facebook/Tripadvisor hybrid for backpackers, where you can post reviews, give real-time updates of places, write a travel journal, and some other features. Most importantly you got a free beer for downloading it. There was nothing particularly unique about the party, a DJ, some dancing, and a bunch of posters advertising the app, but nevertheless it was fun to go to technology focused event in Sucre.

The next Friday night a group of us went to Sucre's first ever electronic music festival, Lunatica Desciende.

This was a first for both Sucre and me, and from everything I have heard about other elecontrica events I think it is safe to assume that "festival" was a more than generous title. But regardless of what they called it we still had a great time. The price of admission included transportation to and from the event with the last bus leaving at 11pm from the Plaza. Of course everyone wanted to take the last bus so we ended up squeezing 80 people in a 40-person vehicle, but everyone was in good spirits and it was only 30 minutes to the venue. Electronica music has yet to take Bolivia by storm and the crowd was unsurprisingly gringo at a ratio of about 10:1.

When we arrived we were greeted by about 20 policeman surrounding the entrance blocking our path. For the next 20 minutes each person was searched with a thoroughness that would make American ambulance chasers drool for invasion of privacy suits. I resisted the urge to tip the officer for his services and we made it through the gates without further excitement. Unfortunately that was not the end of the police, and within 5 minutes of walking inside the music stopped and every single square centimeter of the place was searched by la policia. This took another 45 minutes and the crowd became increasingly restless, but finally everything was deemed all clear and we didn't have any more problems the rest of the night. The venue was essentially a grass field with a small patio off to one side where you could buy food and drinks. While the audience was mostly travelers all of the artists were Bolivian, and of course there was plenty of fluorescent paint. I'm sure this wasn't in the same universe as Tomorrowland, but it was still a fun night of electronic music and dancing.

The last of the firsts is something I'd rather not repeat anytime soon. The next night my group of friends decided to go back to the festival for the second night while I elected to stay in town and hang out with my Bolivian friends. We made our way to Mitos and stayed until it closed around 3:30, slightly past the legal close-time but nothing out of the ordinary. This time was a bit different. As we left the club we were greeted by another battalion of police officers. We mill about outside the entrance deciding what to do next, when all of a sudden it becomes incredibly painful to breathe and I start coughing uncontrollably. I had been battling a cold for the past few weeks so I didn't think too much of it initially, but then I noticed everyone around me was also coughing and knew something more was amiss. Apparently the crowd was not disbursing quickly enough for Mr. Policeman since they fired tear gas, which was just the motivation we needed to run away.

I had hoped that my first experience with tear gas would have been for something a little more world-changing than exiting a Bolivan nightclub, and after that less than pleasant burning sensation in my lungs I am not anxious to experience that again anytime soon. Even worse, I discovered the next day that those same police officers had come directly from the festival after shutting it down early. Someone had been caught with marijuana and that was all they needed to end the fun. One might argue that the police should be called to shut down an electronic festival that did NOT have marijuanna, but I suppose everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

Random Sucre Info - Nightlife

It's tough to take pictures of the nightlife but I'll try to provide an idea of how it works.
The weekend starts on Thursday night but you can find something to do on every night if you are interested. Many bars host a happy hour from 9-10 where you can get 2x1 drinks, and a few select bars extend that an additional hour to 11.

Best mojitos in town

One of my favorite aspects of Bolivian nightlife is Cacho, a Yahtzee-like dice drinking game that you can play in many of the local bars. Every Tuesday night Cafe Amsterdam hosts a Cacho tournament that draws a fun mix of Bolivians and Foreigners. Unfortunately, despite my impeccable attendance record I continue to finish at the bottom of the rankings.


Discotecas start to fill up around 1:00am. There are a variety of discotecas that with a substantial range of amenities... here are the extremes: The most expensive club in Sucre, Mooy, provides a posh roof-top experience with an amazing view of the city, a marble bar where you can buy 40b ($~6) red-bull vodkas (obviously this is very cheap compared to the US, but this is the Sucre equivalent to NYC prices), extensively made up clientele that dance in restrictive groups, incredibly clean bathrooms, and plays modern Latino salsa/dance music.

Mooy by daylight

The Louvre, or Sucre?      

Nanos, on the other hand, boasts a wonderful basement entrance, casually attired clientele that are very friendly, reeks of an atrocious odor, does not have a marble bar but beers are 15bs ($~2), has a bathroom with one very wet floor that I discovered was caused by the quizzical concept of a urinal that wasn't actually connected to anything, and plays modern Latino salsa/dance music.

You were warned... 

I prefer the middle ground, Mitos. Attire is still casual, there is a fun blend of locals/gringos, everyone wants to dance and have a good time but you can stick with your own group if you so chose, the building is clean but not egregiously so, and the music is modern Latino salsa/dance music AND some western hip-hop and electronic music.

By Sucre law all clubs are supposed to close at 3am. That seems to be arbitrarily followed but I cannot figure out the pattern... most do end up closing at 3 but some will stay open until 5 or later. The ones that do stay open are completely random, so you never really know what is going to happen when the clock strikes 3.

Regardless of where you decide to spend the night it is going to be a fun time. People are incredibly friendly and love to dance, and even at Mooy I met new friends. Multiple times I have showed up to places as the only non-Bolivian and never felt like an intruder or an unwanted guest.

One final thing worth mentioning is the current anthem of Sucre. Every place has an anthem, a song that when played causes everyone to cheer, dance with more excitement, etc. I first discovered this phenomenon while studying in Salamanca, where Ozone's Dragosta Din Te raged throughout the clubs (later that year it would catch on in the US, more commonly known as the Numa Numa song). And anthem's aren't specific to international destinations... as I was leaving the states Avicii's Wake Me Up seemed poised to grab the banner. Sucre's anthem is Marc Anthony's Vivir Mi Vida. When this comes on it's time to find someone to dance with.

Random Sucre Info - Transportation

Aside from the weekend trip to Cochabamba I have spent my entire time in Sucre. I personally prefer to stay in one place for a longer time, you actually get to know the city, can develop a real group of friends, and constantly being on the move is exhausting. Unfortunately describing everyday life isn't the most interesting thing to convey in a blog post. So I'll try to post every few days some of the random items that make up everyday life. Some are boring, some interesting, and some are just really weird.

Currency: Boliviano - $1USD = 7bs (not really transportation but worth knowing)

$1.43 Big Ones

Getting around Sucre is quite easy: you can walk everywhere in under 30 minutes. Crossing streets is pretty much a free-for-all. There are cross-walks for busy intersections but you can go whenever you want as long as there is space. And there are even half-way points in the cross-walks where you can take a break if you get tired!

Sometimes you just need a breather

But if you are feeling lazy or want to experience the motorized variety of transportation you have a few options. Taxis cost 4bs to get anywhere in the city during the day, 5bs at night. This is a per person charge and you certainly are not limited to only fitting 4 in a cab if you are rolling with a big crew. The plaza is pretty much safe regardless of the time of night, but since I live towards the outskirts of the city anytime past 11pm I take a cab home.

8 people?  No problem

There are also a number of these micro-buses that are constantly moving on fixed routes. 1.5bs a person will get you aboard.

These are actually an awesome bargain

There are stoplights on "big" roads, but there are no stop signs anywhere. Instead, cars will just honk or flash their lights when crossing an intersection to let others know they are coming.
The stoplights go green, yellow, red... but then will go red, yellow, green. The yellow lights only last about .5 seconds so there isn't usually any confusion and cars waiting at a red light usually start going when it shifts to yellow. Still, it is certainly interesting seeing the double yellow.

Watch Out!

Finally, without a doubt the most bizarre thing I've seen in Sucre are the Zebras. During peak rush hours around the plaza a brigade of zebra crossing guards will direct traffic. I'm not entirely sure why they exist, the lights, crosswalks, and all other street infrastructure seems to work fine, but the zebras are there to make your life better.

Don't fuck with the zebras

Villa Tunari and Cochabamba - A Weekend Excursion Part 2

Well it took a bit longer than I expected to get people's pictures but I finally got them last night. Here's what we did the second day...

We awoke to pouring rain, which was bad news for today's big activity of visiting a jungle-animal rescue shelter. Our guide told us the park would not open when it was raining and we decided to wait an extra hour at the hotel to see if the weather would improve. For me, that ended up being the best thing that could have happened. The rain continued to fall and after an hour and a half we were told that we'd be visiting a museum about the coca plant instead, which did not elicit too many smiles from the group.

Just as we were getting into the van to leave our guide tells us that the president is staying in the cabin next to us. My first reaction was to wonder which president she was talking about... I assumed she meant of some nature society. My second reaction was that she was just trying to make a joke to boost the morale of the group. But then we walk over and sure enough there is President Evo Morales himself standing on the porch. What the fuck is the president of Bolivia doing at what would generously be described as a 2 star accommodation? No idea, but I wasn't about to complain about meeting my first head of state.

Whatup E (in the middle, white shirt)

He shook everyone's hand, asked where people were from, and posed for a picture with us. He seemed particularly happy that one of our group was Austrian (Austria and Bolivia share similar socialist policies and Austria's head-of-state and Evo are friends), and since there were 7 of us it wasn't incredibly obvious that I just smiled and didn't say I was from the US. I don't think there would have been a legitimate problem if I had admitted I was American, but considering his less than rosy sentiments towards the Red, White, and Blue I didn't see any reason to test that hypothesis.

What I found most interesting was the utter lack of security in the area. I can only imagine what it takes for Obama to stay at a hotel... of course the president of Bolivia isn't the president of the US, but I only saw two security guards that were either unarmed or carrying concealed pistols. Unless the monkeys in the trees had just finished sniper school the president of a sovereign nation was rolling with significantly less security than the mayor of San Francisco.

After our encounter with the president missing the animal park didn't sting too badly. Instead, we visited a coca museum, located in the headquarters of a drug-enforcement police complex. Coca is the plant from which cocaine is derived and is a major crop for Bolivia and Peru. Just the plant itself is harmless: it is an incredibly mild stimulant that causes slight mouth-numbing sensation when chewed, and is often used in tea to help people adjust to altitude. I'm not really sure what I was expecting when I heard we were going to a coca museum, but it certainly wasn't what we visited.

Hi kids, follow me to the museum!

Unfortunately cameras were not allowed inside so I don't have any photo evidence, but the "museum" was a small warehouse filled with various pictures and tools explaining how to make cocaine. Our tour guide was a surprisingly attractive female drug officer dressed in military camouflage who politely pointed out the various methods/paraphernalia that drug dealers had tried to use to smuggle their product out of the country. Hollowed out televisions, bicycles, and children's toys littered one side of the building; another side had 20 jugs of acid that a patrol had recovered on a recent raid. Now I'm sure it would take about 2 seconds to google how to make cocaine, but it does seem a little counterintuitive to have an exhibition devoted to explaining exactly what you are trying to stop.

We ended up trying to go to the animal park but it was indeed closed. We even tried using photo evidence that the president was on our side but the guards would not open the gates. We still saw a few monkeys though, so it wasn't a complete bust.

It was worth missing you to see Mr. Prez

We made our way back to Cochabamba, stopping a few times along the way for scenery pictures...

Sometimes pictures make me nervous

... and some fresh air by a lake.

 Who doesn't like a nice lake?

We also sampled some of the local beverages.

Our guide was very helpful

We arrived back at Cochabamba in the evening and decided to treat ourselves to a fancy Italian dinner. The white tablecloth, candlelit atmosphere was a pleasant contrast to the jungle, and drinks afterwards capped off a great second day.

Cheers!