Finding sweetness in Sucre

Next Stop: Sucre, Boliva (May 3 - 6, 2011). Our Bolivian salt flats crossing ended in Uyuni, Bolivia. There isn't really anything to do in Uyuni so we just spent the night there and headed off the next morning on a bus to Sucre. We booked the nine hour bus ride for the exorbitant price of $9 CAD (and that was the more expensive option). Choosing your public transportation in Bolivia is like taking a shot in the dark, you hope for the best (this was becoming a common trend in Bolivia). There are numerous bus companies but no discernible difference between them. The only thing we knew for sure was that we wanted to travel by daylight, as we had heard horror stories of drivers nipping from the bottle on night rides. Also, we knew that the roadways would be harrowing with the narrow roadways and steep cliff sides and we figured that we might as well be able to witness our own demise rather than fear the unknown in the dark. So, we again went with our gut feeling and booked our tickets with our fingers crossed. The next morning when we caught the first glimpse of our bus and we saw that the front of it was emblazoned with the word "CRAZY", we knew we were in for the ride of our lives.

A few observations from our bus ride:

• Our luggage was thrown on top and covered with a tarp and a bit of bungee cord. I figured that I was lucky enough to be sitting on the same side of the bus that my bag was packed on so that if it should fall off along the way I could at least have the chance to see it tumble off the cliff side.
• I dressed in five layers of clothes for the bus ride and I was still cold! The bus company was kind enough to provide each passenger with a blanket, and I was grateful, despite the fact that the blanket smelled as though it was fresh from a llama farm.
• One hour underway, we got a flat tire.
• In total, about half of the road was paved, the rest was gravel, and there was one stream crossing.
• Yes, the cliffs were sheer and there were no guard rails. Our driver, bless him, honked his horn before every blind curve. There were some white knuckle moments and, miraculously, I found the ability to nap.
• Our nine hour bus journey ultimately turned into eleven (is it any surprise really?).

We had a stop in Potosi to change buses before continuing on to Sucre. While all the passengers (which all happened to be tourists) stood around retrieving their bags and sorting out where to catch the next bus, there was a girl of about ten, a little thief-in-training, circling the group, eyeing up the bags, looking for an opportunity. I watched her with mild amusement for awhile and when I caught her eye I gave her the universal I'm-watching-you symbol. She smiled coyly and kept on with her work. Although what she was doing was wrong, I felt sorry for her, this poor girl, because this was her reality. Forget about education and just being a kid, she was being raised into this life, her father watching nearby. Her present is her future. 

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Sucre is a pretty little city that sits in a valley surrounded by low mountains. It holds the honour of being a UNESCO World Heritage site, which is no surprise, really, given its whitewashed buildings set in colonial architecture. It is very easy on the eyes. It also happens to be the constitutional capital of Bolivia (La Paz is the governmental capital).

 

On our first day we made a trip to the Parque Cretácico (a dinosaur park) to view real dinosaur footprints from the Cretaceous period - sixty-eight million years ago. The footprints were discovered only 20 years ago when grounds at a cement quarry were being cleared and employees uncovered the limestone wall bearing over 6000 tracks from over 150 different species of dinosaurs. Unfortunately, the limestone walls are crumbling so the footprints won't be around much longer. In fact, only ten months ago, a large portion of the wall collapsed and turned to dust.

There's nothing quite like standing there, looking at sixty million year old fossils to make you feel like an inconsequential blip on the map of life.

Our ride to the Dinosaur park, the Dino Truck...
Yes, that is a Dino head on the front






Yeah, that's my Dino imitation

Fake Dino's but, I mean, what else do
you put in a park like this?



No details left out of these replicas

 

Voila!! Some of the Dino footprints. No, Dino's didn't scale cliffs, this piece of earth was 
once horizontal, but due to the earth's movements, it was pushed up vertically. 

 

View of Sucre from the Dino park. It gives you an indication of how hilly Bolivia is.

 The rest of our time in Bolivia was spent taking in the city, its parks and its market. 

A mini replica of l'Arc de Triomphe

A mini replica of the Tour Eiffel

 

Stayed: Hostal Charcas, Sucre. We had a room with 2 twin beds, cable TV, and an ensuite bathroom for $10 CAD per night. Ridiculous. It was very good value for the price.

Met: Again, Mike (from Uruguay, Torres del Paine, Mendoza) makes an appearance. He must be some sort of stalker. Just kidding, we weren't sure exactly when he and Laurie would rejoin us, but we were pleasantly surprised when we randomly ran into them on the street in Sucre.

Ate: The central market in Sucre had the most amazing produce. The mangos were to die for. They changed my life.



At one of the many juice bars in the market.

Fresh produce - a.k.a our breakfast

                                                     
Quotes:
"Why am I still wearing my sunglasses?" -Me, in a moment of realization, while stargazing on the bus to Sucre (it was well past dark).

Scene - Jane is in the shower. Erin is watching TV. TV turns to static.
"There's something wrong with the TV."
Shower stops. Silence except for TV static.
"Jane..???!!"
- Erin's poltergeist moment. The hilarity came from the rising panic in her voice as she called out my name.