Sucre

We got to Sucre just after dark, checked into our beautiful hostel, Hostel Dolce Vita, and headed out in search of dinner. I had a really nice Quinoa Pie, Erin a Thai Salad and we sampled some more of the local beers.

Bolivians beers with very intricate labels.

Church spires lit up at night.

Day 120 – When too much weaving isn’t enough

Sucre is primarily known for its colonial architecture, so well preserved that the old part of the town is UNESCO World Heritage Listed. For breakfast we headed halfway up the hill out of town to a café overlooking the the town.

The view from breakfast.

Church bells on one of Salta’s many whitewashed churches.

That afternoon we headed for the Museo de Arte Indígena, where I learnt more than I’ve ever wanted to know about weaving and Erin barely enough. Erin also had time to fall in love with a particular style of weaving indigenous to the Tarabuco region. We’re still searching for a reasonably sized and priced example to bring home.

At the suggestion of the hostel’s Swiss owners, we splashed out and had dinner at their favourite French restaurant – very posh. I had Cow’s Tongue in a Chilli Chocolate Sauce, it was very nice!

Day 121 – Dinosaur footprints

Aside from colonial buildings Sucre is also known for the giant dinosaur footprints discovered at the quarry on the outskirts of town. Overcoming our fear of all things touristy, we boarded the ‘Dino bus’ and headed toward the quarry (yes, the bus had a dinosaur head sticking out the front – took us back to school excursion days. Sadly, everyone on the bus was over 21!)

Erin making a call on the dinosaur in town.

The interpretation centre at the footprints didn’t turn out to be any less corny than the Dino bus, it was however even more expensive.

OK, so the footprints are the really faint lines you can see on the wall opposite, tourists are not allowed any closer as the wall is unstable (as you can see from the landslip in the middle).

A close up of one of the sets of prints, they are in fact 80cm in diameter.

What can I say, takes me back to childhood visits to the Dinosaur Park in Creswick (but even then my most lasting memory is of a pissed-off emu chasing Tim).

A few days later we found out there is a second dinosaur footprint site near Sucre. This one hasn’t been commercialised yet and a guide takes you right up to the footprints, sounds much better. Apparently the locals are withholding the finer details of the location from palaeontologists in the fear that they’ll no longer be allowed to bring in tourists.

In the afternoon before our night bus to La Paz I decided that the literally dozens of barbers and hairdressers in the same block as the hostel (dubbed Barber Street for the duration of our stay in Sucre) were a sign that it was time for the hair to go. The knowledge that we’d soon be hitting the jungle and the weather would be heating up very soon helped cement the decision.

The longest my hair’s ever been, maybe the longest it’ll ever be. Though many kind people chose to tell me after I’d gotten rid of it that they liked it long, thanks!