L'Oreille Cassée

July 10, 2007 3:07 PM

Bolivia? Planning on Going to Spanish School in Sucre. Your experiences there? Tips?

So I'm finishing with the bar exam in a couple of weeks and am on the verge of buying my plane ticket (ouch!) to go down to Bolivia for 6-8 weeks and solidify my Spanish with a tutor in Sucre.

Your tips? Experiences? Do's and Don'ts? I've travelled in europe, china, and central america and will be flying to LaPaz from SFO.

I picked Sucre dbecause it seems like a nice medium sized city with some history where I could get up into the andes. I've been trolling the Thorntree, but if any of you Mefiters have any personal experiences to add I would be much obliged.

About me: 30 something male (committed relationship), just graduated from law school, moderate but rusty spanish, would like to attain 'fluency' so that I can work with my spanish speaking clients. I'm interested in Morales and the social movements going on in Bolivia right now and think that this would be an interesting time to be there. I play soccer, but I'm pretty terrible (should I even bother trying to get in on a pick up game at 6000 feet?)

I'd like to have a nice time, but I'm pretty committed to getting my spanish into top condition.

Thanks!

posted by prettyboyfloyd to travel & transportation (7 comments total)

sucre was nice. i spent a weekend there when i lived in cochabamba for several months doing exactly what you are doing. what spceifically are you asking about? bolivia in general? sucre specific things?
posted by jare2003 at 4:27 PM on July 10, 2007

my aunt and uncle lived there for a year. they reported that the spanish spoken in bolivia is very clear and undiluted. i'm not sure what they meant by that, but i presume it means that there isn't a lot of indigenous slang and the accent is neutral. so it should be a good place to learn.

it's been several years since they lived there, but apparently there were a lot of strikes going on that would stop traffic for hours and even days. this was in cochabamba.
posted by thinkingwoman at 6:06 PM on July 10, 2007

Jare,

I guess I'm asking about both Bolivia in general and Sucre. Given my point of arrival (La Paz) I will likely visit salar de uyuni, potosi, and possibly cochabamba. (Maybe yungas
road?)

I also have a friend who will be in Arica, Chile and its possible that we may meet up somewhere, either in Sucre or possibly somewhere in between.

Travelling around is one of the big question marks. Good bus lines? Train lines? (I think I may just have to roll with the punches on the road block business....)

Mostly just asking about any favorite experiences or don't miss things in bolivia in general or in sucre and la paz in particular.

(I have a guide book, so the more anecdotal/personal the better.)

Thanks again!
posted by prettyboyfloyd at 7:08 PM on July 10, 2007

Spend no more time in La Paz than a day or two...you can see everything there in that time, and it's really unhealthy to be there any longer.

Go to Lake Titicaca during a new moon. The sky you will see will blow your mind.

Also take lots of activated charcoal and probiotics. I got sicker than I've ever been in my entire life when I was in Bolivia...i got sick RIGHT after i ran out of probiotics.

The roadblocks are really frequent, and never really publicized. My girl got stuck several times outside of La Paz....El Alto isn't the nicest place to be stuck either.
posted by furnace.heart at 8:32 PM on July 10, 2007

Be prepared to take it easy when you arrive in La Paz. High altitude effects seemed highly variable: you might be layed out for a day, or you might barely notice.

The city is in a giant bowl-like depression, so wandering will have you climbing and descending a lot too.
posted by Merlyn at 9:39 AM on July 11, 2007

there's like two train lines, and neither of them are between big cities. one is from er..Oruro to like Chile..the other is from Santa Cruz to the Brazilian border.

The way you get around is on long distance buses. Overnight buses cost $4-8 bucks - for example, Sucre->Cochabamba was about $6 each way - this is for a nice one where the seats recline all the way back to sleep. There are a lot of buses from Arica to La Paz - that might be a good central place to meet. Sucre is decently centrally located. Cbba was 12 hours. im not sure how long it is to la Paz. Potosi was a $3 colectivo ride that took two hours from Sucre.

I flew one from CBBA to La Paz - it was $45 one way. Not sure if its still so cheap.

i disagree with furnace - there's plenty to do in La Paz, especially to spend more than 1-2 days.

I liked the Rough Guide to Bolivia far better than Lonely Planet, although combining them both was best.

Cbba was a great place to live, however, thjere's very little in the way of sights depsite being Bolivia's third largest city. Skip it and go through to the Chapare/Yungas and enjoy some nice tropical weather.
posted by jare2003 at 2:43 PM on July 11, 2007

also, bolivia was a great place to learn spanish.

very slow and unaccented - very easy to understand for a non-native speaker.

however, a big chunk of the population speaks spanish as a second language (first language quechua or aymara) , so be cautious with that when learning words!
posted by jare2003 at 2:44 PM on July 11, 2007