29th May:-

The day was spent travelling from Rio to Santa Cruz on two flights. Upon arriving Santa Cruz airport it felt very South American all of a sudden, and we were greeted by the lovely owner of our hostel Fernando who drove us there. The hostel was so nice and genuinely looked like a huge European villa all light and open - and extremely clean with a massive fully equipped kitchen. We later found out that this hostel had only opened a couple of months ago; it has the potential to be such an amazing hostel, especially considering the owners are so sweet, and both Liv and I said we would be interested to return in a year or so and see how it has progressed.

We went to the supermarket and bought some food to cook in the kitchen, a nice cheap easy meal! We spent the evening making use of the wifi and the facilities in the new hostel, and of course enjoying each other's company. We planned a fair amount of our trip, and knowing how jam packed our schedule was going to be over the next couple of months we really made the most of this time to relax and organise.

30th May:-

We got out early to book a flight to Sucre for the following morning and It was pouring with rain meaning the streets were pretty much flooded as the draining systems here in Bolivia are not at all advanced. It was embarrassing having to communicate with the travel agent thorough an app due to our lack of Spanish - I'm definitely going to try my best to learn some while I'm here.

We walked to the main square of Santa Cruz to look around, and I imagine that in the sunshine that square would have been a lovely place to sit for the day, people watching, as it was very pretty with a cathedral on one edge. It was a very chilled day just wandering around and strangely pretty much everything seemed to be closed as it was the weekend, making the whole town look a little bit abandoned which was cool. There was some excellent street art which seems to be a common theme here in South America.

Back at the hostel we it chatting to a lovely and interesting German girl named Sarah and the three of us signed up for the salsa lesson that the hostel was offering that evening! We had some drinks and when the salsa teacher finally arrived it was just us three and the hostel staff taking part! However, by the end of the class the whole hostel had joined and there were around 20 people all dancing - it was hysterical. It lasted for three hours and every hour there was a break for drinks. It was hilarious because the instructor spoke absolutely no English so Liv and I spent the majority of the first hour fumbling around a little bit clueless, eventually associating Spanish sounds coming out of this man's mouth with specific salsa moves. The first part consisted of learning the basics, with the second involving everyone dancing in a circle in alternating male and female formation. The final part was the funniest as it was partner work - salsa dancing semi-drunk as a couple with a complete stranger! I had such a fun evening and it turned out to be really social too. Definitely going to whip out my new moves the next time I go clubbing!