This week I completed my first thirty days in Bolivia. This necessitated a trip to the migration office to get a new stamp for another thirty days.

The whole process was relatively painless; I went in with my passport and photocopies; I left around ten minutes later with a new stamp and another thirty days.

Meanwhile, I had been hoping that this was going to be the first month of my trip where I brought my spending in on budget (i.e. spend less than I receive in rental income from my flat in London).

It wasn’t to be though; even removing my flight down from La Paz and the money I’ve spent on tours, I still went over budget. My rent was considerably higher than the suggested rent, mainly because I’m staying in short-term accommodation still, unwilling to commit to staying longer.

Sucre Life reckon that a couple can live comfortably in Sucre on $800 a month (and we all know two people can live as cheaply as one). My spend (excluding my flight down and my tours) came to $1100, which is considerably more.

My rent costs me around $100 a week, and my Spanish classes around the same, so there’s almost their $800 a month. The rest went on food, laundry, phone credit (mostly for internet, I never call anybody), cosmetic goods (much of which is crazy expensive), books (downloads from Amazon) and a couple of cheap clothing items bought in preparation for my trip out to the remote cold-lands of Uyuni in a couple of weeks.

The ideas I had originally about living in Sucre longer term have now pretty much been abandoned. I like the place and I’ve made friends (vaguely) through Spanish school but still Sucre doesn’t feel quite the right ‘fit’ for me.

I’m like Goldilocks, still looking for that just right combination of good weather, reasonable internet speeds, cheap prices, a ‘bohemian’ feel (even I’m not sure what that means, although I’ll know it when I find it) and sufficient infrastructure to enable relatively stress-free living.

However, I do now feel sufficiently rested that I can now start crossing some things off of my Bolivia ‘to do’ list, so I’m off on some trips over the coming few weeks.