After completing my second destination, I thought it would be interesting to compare each place I´ve been on a few categories to get a glimpse of what each offered. Considering the structure of my time in Sucre and Veracruz were significantly different, some of these comparisons won´t exactly sync. But by the end of my travels this should work for a a quick scale of the highlights. I arbitrarily chose the following categories based on what I think mattered and what I had pictures of:
Food: The Dream Team vs Angola, Alabama's football team vs. Western Kentucky St., freedom of speech in North Korea. What do these all have in common? All very one-sided affairs. That is exactly the case with Bolivian vs Mexican food. In Bolivia it is a national crime if there aren´t at least two different kinds of potatoes in every dish. I certainly enjoy potatoes, but I really don´t need to eat potato soup followed by rice, boiled potatoes, and some mashed potatoes on the side, and then do it all again the next day. Even if the food was incredible in Bolivia I don´t think it could have withstood my passion for Mexican cusine, but this wasn´t even close. My last week in Veracruz I discovered the holy grail of restaurants, an all you can eat taco buffet for $4.50. That alone should defeat all challengers, but the enchilladas, quesadillas, gorditas, empanadas, and molé dishes make this an unfair fight.
Snack: I´m giving this one to Sucre. I loved the cheese empanadas and enjoyed the various flavors of tamales, but the salteña is the perfect on-the-go creation. Chicken and veggies wade together in a salacious broth, gifted in a buttery, flakey, slightly sweet crust for $1. For some inexplicable reason these were only sold between the hours of 9am to 2pm; I can only assume the potato lobby is responsible for this atrocity.
Climate: Close call here but Sucre gets the edge. Veracruz was low 80s during the day, mid 60s at night with slight humidity. That´s pretty good, but the humidity made it uncomfortable to wear pants during the day (I try to avoid screaming that I´m a tourist and shorts are a bulls-eye) and at night it was still too warm to wear my favorite piece of clothing. There were also mosquitoes... enough said. Sucre was high 70s during the day, mid 50s at night with 0 humidity. I really can´t think of a better climate than that. T-shirt and khakis during the day, just warm enough at night (after a few drinks) to wear a t-shirt, but most importantly it allowed me to wear my most coveted attire... the sweater!
Music: This one is a tie. Live music wasn´t featured in either place and the music played at the bars was more or less the same. I cannot stand the Mexican music of the north that features a heavy dosage of the accordion but thankfully I only heard it sparingly.
Drinks: Also too close to call, with maybe the slightest edge to Sucre. Amazingly enough I did not have one margarita when I was in Mexico... probably because no one really drinks them there outside of all-inclusive resorts. Instead the local drink unique to Veracruz was the Torito, a thick, flavored drink fermented from sugar cane. In Mexico the common beer was Sol, a very light lager similiar to Corona. There were other, slightly darker options but nothing too spectacular. Pretty much all the beers in Sucre tasted the same but with a little more flavor, and more importantly higher alcohol content. Bolivia´s local spirit is Singani, a clear, tequila-esque liquid, and mixed with Sprite creates the Chuflay. Not my favorite beverage, but tasty enough.
Bars/clubs: This isn´t entirely fair since I went out significantly more in Sucre than in Veracruz, but Sucre wins. I had a great time when I went out on the weekends in Veracruz, but I am glad that I already had a group of people I knew to go with beforehand. The venues themselves were great in both places, but in Veracruz the people seemed less conducive to meeting strangers. Many times in Sucre I ventured out on my own and joined a group of locals. I didn´t get the same feeling in Veracruz, it felt a little more cliquey. Veracruz definitely had the better bar hours, there was no hard 3am shutdown that applied to most places in Sucre. Still, I´ll take the friendliness of strangers over the guarantee that my bar will not close at 3am.
Spanish (accent, slang, etc): Mexico wins, but it´s close. Both Mexican and Bolivian Spanish are very clear, not too fast, and use the generally accepted words for most items. Mexico wins because of its slang, specifically the usage of the word ¨wey.¨ This means absolutely nothing but I guess the closest would be ¨man¨ as in ¨hola wey¨ (hey man) or ¨pásame una cerveza wey¨ (gimme a beer, man). This had to be the most common word I heard at M-A whenever I listened to kids speaking Spanish so it was fun getting to actually use it in conversation. Plus, the Spanish teachers in Mexico were closer to my age so they were a little bit more fun to converse with.
Adventure: Sucre is the defacto winner of this category since I really did nothing except school and a few weekend trips to bars in Mexico. This category should be much more interesting once I actually start moving around to different places.
Something Random: The zebra crossing guards in Sucre win here. I guess I can understand why there are crossing guards even though there are crosswalks, but why are they dressed as zebras? The something random contender of Veracruz would be the pet crocodile of the owners of my favorite local restaurant. I had to see this one to believe it, but sure enough in the backyard there is a crocodile. Señor croc lives a leisurely lifestyle of sunbathing, but I did not confirm if he does in fact enjoy a nice scratch behind the ears.
big pimpin!!!!
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