Sucre, Bolivia

Thursday 3rd May

Sucre, Bolivia

There's regular buses from Potosi to Sucre, every hour or so, and we are pleased that this travelling day doesn't need to start early.

Had we had a shopping trolley, we could have freewheeled it down to the bus station, however, a taxi did an equally good job.

On arriving at the bus station, we're greeted by a ticket seller for the 10.30 bus, and we snap up the tickets, though the bus leaves 20 minutes late, stopping at a couple of places in town to fill up the empty seats. We're also stopped in our tracks by a makeshift roadblock - peaceful, but a pain in the ass, adding a little extra to our journey.

Of course, a journey on a local bus wouldn't be complete without tiny legroom. Hey, could be worse.

Nice scenery on the way, and we drop from the highest city in the world, to an easy on the breathing 2790 metres.

At the bus station there's a taxi waiting and we ask to be dropped at a recommended hostel, which is open, however undergoing some redecoration and is probably unsuitable, despite the man being very friendly.

Our taxi driver had already mentioned the Grand Hotel, but it sounded out of our price bracket, however we checked it out and was actually a lovely place, and a fair price of USD20, including breakfast. The room is lovely and overlooking a pretty courtyard - also pleased to have cable tv and free internet, oh, and oodles of hot water. We read and hear that hot water in hostels etc is quite a rarity, so happy to pay a little extra for it.

After chucking our bags in we head out for a wander around the interesting colonial-building town. Sucre was founded in 1538 and during the colonial period was the most important center in the eastern Spanish territories. Independence was declared in Sucre on 6th August 1825.

We found a trendy bar (mid afternoon - quite a lot of places closed for siesta) and enjoyed some good food and ginger ale.

After, we tracked down the popular Joy Ride Cafe and had some coffee and cake. Had hoped that these guys were doing quad bike tours, but seems they've stopped, though you can go on a motorbike tour and a bunch of other stuff.

Seems that we're continuing to eat very well in Bolivia - don't believe what the guide books tell you about the food here, there's some great stuff around!

Stopped at a supermarket just off the main square and were amazed to see a box (foot long) of After Eights. They cost as much as we had paid for lunch, but they were in date, and tasted great.

Friday 4th May

Going to see some Dinosaur footprints today, despite the warning in the excursion folder in the Joy Ride Cafe. We're told it's a waste of a 'couple of quid', but we're happy to take a chance for that sum.

The Dinotruck leaves the main square about 3 times a day, and we catch the first one at 9.30am, arriving at the site (now also a limestone quarry) - just us and another couple. They seem to offer half price transport for the first trip, and we realise why when we get to the site, and the guide (English speaking) tells us that the view is better in the afternoon, when the sun beats down on it.

The site is a huge (several hundred metres wide, a couple of hundred metres high) vertical wall, that was previously (millions of years ago) flat, but was sat on an active tectonic plate. There's about 5000 dinosaur footprint impressions here, and they were found only a few years ago, and confirmed only in 1998. Thankfully the quarrying work came across some elements in the ground that made it unsuitable (some chemical elements that I can't remember the name of), and work there stopped.

The site itself has been set up as a tourist spot, ie there's a few lifesize dinosaur models and associated information. The wall is viewed from a platform and, in truth, is quite far away from the wall, anbout 200 metres. Only a few months ago you could walk up to the wall, though I'd say the view is better from afar, especially if you have your own binoculars and camera with long lens. There are 'commercial' binoculars at the site, and they cost 2 Bolivianos for 2 minutes - a little annoying, but we're glad we remembered our binos.

The prints (clearly) show that the variety of creatures were in fact much larger than first thought - one predator walked for over 350 metres, the longest continuous recorded dinosaur track.

We were really blown away to be seeing this sight, just thinking of how old these prints were. Despite the distance away, it was very easy to see and very exciting.

Because of the disappointment of finding out that the view would be better around noon, we asked whether we could catch the later transport back to town, and this was no problem. Of course, we could stay at the site as long as we wanted and had the place to ourselves, including watching a couple of dinosaur documentaries while we waited on the sun getting in position.

Well worth hanging around for, the view became a lot clearer and more and more prints revealed themselves. The clearest prints were the 'figure-8' style of the Titanosaurio, a giant herbivore from 130 million years ago. Wow, and we're looking at this stuff!

The footprints were so clear you could also make out the 'claw' shape from the Noasaurio, as well as prints from the Abelsaurio and Carnotaurino. Quite difficult to appreciate the size of the prints from where we stood, though there were some workmen and their vehicles just below the wall and these prints were clearly from something gigantic!

Our time was soon up, and the follow on group arrived with our return transport. Shame that none of them seemed that impressed with the sight we had in front of us. No-one bothered to use the binoculars and I offered ours to a group of English folk - seemed a shame for them not to get a closeup view.

We totally enjoyed our visit to the cement quarry and feel quite lucky to have seen such a unique site/sight - this is one of the highlights of the trip for us. I'll put up some photos when we're home in July 2007.

Back in Sucre we enjoy lunch and continue talking about how much we enjoyed the Dinosaur prints, and then some cake.

We hang around in the sun in the plaza for a short while, and also buy our bus tickets out of here to La Paz for tomorrow night.

Sleep well, and looking forward to more exporing around town tomorrow.

Saturday 5th May

Up early to make the most of our last day, and Chris catches up on some diary.

Another blue sky day and we make our way out of town (on foot, not that far) towards the Mirador Cafe, which overlooks the town and surrounding hills. A nice walk up, though we have to stop to catch breath half way up - we're really not big fans of this high altitude stuff and wished for spaceman-style oxygen tanks.

The cafe is in an excellent position, though as a result it's quite busy but we get a nice table under a pretty tree, and away from the main group of tables.

Pleased to see Coffee Frappucino's on the menu, together with cake, of course.

Even more thrilled to see a small hummingbird zipping around and grabbing nectar from the flowers on the tree. Used up quite a lot of camera memory trying to get a few good shots - bloody thing won't keep still, but I'm partially successful!

We end up staying here for the best part of the afternoon, enjoying the warmth in the shade and the pretty greenery around us. Decide that we continue to really enjoy Bolivia.

Amongst others, Rich and Clyde won't be pleased that I bought some hooky CD's in the market in town on the way back down. Not sure if they'll play, but nice to have bought some music nonetheless.

Chris went back to the hotel whilst I was shopping, the diary is 'well' out of date, hence, I'll be typing up this blog a few weeks after the event!

Our bus leaves for La Paz at 6.30pm, so we get there nice and early to avoid any problems. All seems to be going well, until just after the supposed departure time, when we're told that our bus tickets are for the next day....

Not sure what the mix up was, and our Spanish is good enough to have heard the woman at the travel agency order our ticket for 'manana', being today, not tomorrow. Of course, manana means tomorrow, but I'm working within different tenses here, come on!

Anyway, after a few minutes, and some help from some other 'local' passengers, Chris jumps off the bus to discuss. Some minutes later, she's back and we're saved, though strangely two more seats have turned up for the folks who were double booked with us.

Glad to be on the road, and comfy in our semi-cama seats.

The journey to La Paz is fine and we get into town at first light. It had been warm enough until about 5am, when it turned something like 'freezing'. More importantly, we arrived safely and all is good.

continued on next thread...