Sucre

"I was feeling very calm, and I was more aware of the importance of the Road to Santiago in my life and the question of what I was going to do after the pilgrimage had ended. The area we walked through was like a desert, the meals were seldom very good, and the long days on the Road were exhausting, but I was living my dream." - Paulo Coehlo 

A friend asked what I do all day, now that I have been traveling for six weeks. I told him I read, hike, yoga, eat, chat, and do whatever else my heart desires. There are glorious days.  But as I surpass my longest solo travel experience within these next few days, there are parts of the journey that aren't that fun. I'm homesick for routine, my culture, my fitness, my kitchen. You know when you book a plane ticket and check 200 times that your personal info and the dates are correct before pressing submit? Imagine that level of anxiety, but every three days. Decision paralysis is real. Even on the most trying day of travel though, I'm still living my dream. Shout out to my new job for giving me this time to travel. Tysm!

My four days in Sucre included all of the activities mentioned above - reading, hiking, meditating, eating, chatting. When Leonie and I arrived, there was a local festival happening, so we grabbed street food and watched the parade. The hostel book exchange had a book on my reading list so I borrowed that and read around town in between my visits to the market, the chocolate shop, the vegetarian restaurant, and the ice cream parlor.

I met two amazing German twins (my fav!) named Amelie and Franzie. I also met a cool American named Hannah. We explored and went to the market multiple times per day and laughed and ate too much and then ate ice cream after we ate too much. I liked the Germans so much I decided to join them in La Paz for the few days they are there. I felt serious cool girl travel vibes from Sucre. 

Leaving Sucre meant saying goodbye to Leonie, and afterwards I had a serious friend hangover. She is a wonderful human. I love that she has hippie vibes but is also real; she has undertones of oh hell no but is simultaneously warm. Her vulnerability drew you closer and her confidence was steady but disarming. I learned so much from her. She doubled my reading list, my podcast subscriptions, and my recipe list. Like Gil and John colored my Camino and Verena and Mack shaped Peru, my bar trip will largely be defined by the weeks I spent with Leonie. 

On a less serious note - I went to a DINO PARK. It was the dorkiest and most Brooke Murphy thing I have done in a long time. I took a DINO BUS from the main square and then did a DINO TOUR through a DINO MUSEUM where my tour guide demonstrated with DINO FIGURINES and watched a bad CGI/claymation DINO INFO movie and then walked through life size DINO REPLICAS. Cal Orck'o has the largest track of dino prints in the world.