Heading to Central or South America for more than a month?
If the answer is yes then it is likely you will be looking to learn Spanish. But where is the best place to learn Spanish in South America?
Having researched before arriving in Peru a couple of months ago, we narrowed it down to 3 places in South America:
Quito, Ecuador
Cusco, Peru
Sucre, Bolivia
These 3 places are recommended all over the internet and by fellow travellers as the best places to learn, best value for money and most beautiful cities to settle in for a while. While I cannot vouch for Quito just yet (will be exploring there in a few weeks) I can say that Cusco is beautiful and Sucre, well Sucre captured my heart for about 5 weeks!
After making our way through Peru for one month surviving on the most basic of Spanish (Hasta la vista, Sí and dondé es el baño?) we thought it was high time we got out butts into a classroom to learn this melodic language, plus my hands were getting tired of the constant gesturing. Since we had already passed though Cusco, and Quito was about 3000 KMs away, we decided on Sucre, Bolivia. Arriving in Sucre after spending some time in La Paz and Salar de Uyuni we were ready to slow things down for a while. Luckily for us Sucre is one of those beautiful looking cities that makes you feel right at home the second you arrive in it.
After a few days soaking up the sun and style of Sucre we said goodbye to our Swiss mates Aldo & Markus (who had been our Spanish translators) and set out to find a school. Sucre has loads of them and all are reasonably priced offering both private classes and groups from around 700- 850 Bolivianos ($100-125 US) for 20 hours of lessons. Most schools run classes for 4 hours per day and alternate from mornings one week to afternoons the next.
Having looked around Jen and I decided on a school () close to the main square and not far from our hostel “Casarte Takubambas”. It was here that we met an English traveler, Chris who decided to join us for the classes. Little did we know we would be in Sucre studying Spanish for 4 weeks! With such an amazing teacher, Carla, it was hard to leave and in 4 weeks we made many other friends in Sucre and settled into a comfortable routine of studying, gym, cooking and partying on the weekends. Sucre is most definitely Bolivia’s most liveable city in my opinion. After our 4 weeks was over and it was time to move on we found it very difficult to say goodbye to our new friends but felt a lot more confident in our Spanish. Thanks Carla!
Why study Spanish in Sucre?
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