What a nice surprise Sucre has been.
We needed to spend an extra day here because flights were booked out and our first impressions,coupled with the travel warnings, had us a bit concerned.It didn´t take long to feel very comfortable and happy to be here.
Aerosur has a monopoly here, until next month when LAN comes on the scene. It will need to get itself much better organised if it is to survive. Luggage for about 30 people didn´t turn up, as some flights had been cancelled on previous days and there was other cargo that had to come. However they didn´t tell anyone that their luggage was not going on the same flight. When there is only one flight a day it means it would be good to have a change of clothes and a toothbrush! We did have that fortunately, but some didn´t. And it meant a young Danish girl had to wait a day and not travel on as planned.
Then we had a taxi driver from hell from the airport ....but that was it!
Oh, did I mention that this airstrip is one of the most dangerous ones to land on as it is barely the length required, and they had to dig into a hill for more length. Luckily I did not notice the brake marks on the tarmac when we came in, but they are there! Take off is fine evidently....well, I hope that's true.
The hostal is gorgeous, white Spanish Colonial, beautifully kept, terraces and flower pots, large rooms with antigue furniture, very quiet at night, hot showers and firm beds.To boot, there is a breakfast fit for kings and queens!Apart from the fruit, cereal, eggs, toast and rolls that come with good breakfasts here, there are crepes, cakes and lemon pie!! Now that is a fine way to start the day! :) :)
This hostal is called Hostal de Su Merced.
For our first day we decided to have a taxi take us to the main attractions that were , as it happened to be right across town from each other.The hostal arranged it and we were very lucky to get a man who is just lovely and has a very clean taxi.It ends up from conversation that he is actually an agricultural engineer, but there is no work for engineers here, so for the past 12 months he has been driving a taxi, something he said a lot of people like him are doing.His wife is a laboratory technician.
I was speaking to a young man, also an engineeer, who had come home for Christmas from working in Italy for a few years, who said the same thing.
He made sure we were looked after wherever we went and was a real asset. He actually got us in to see the felt hat factory, which is famous in Sucre. He had not seen inside it either, so enjoyed it too. It is quite a process to make a felt hat from the raw, dirty wool to the hat shape, which goes off to be refined into a stylish finished product.
We visited La Glorieta Castle,built in the 19C by a fellow who made his money from the mines at Potosi and had a bank.This place has unusual styles and towers and in its heyday was very grand, with huge gardens and small manmade lakes.The couple built an orphanage at one end of the property and cared for 100 children,( they had no children themselves).We could not go in as they are renovating, but from looking through the windows, that are actually monogrammed in the family initials,inside is beautiful with parquit floors and goldleaf painted ceilings.It is good to see that such a place is being restored and will provide some income for people as a good tourist attraction.
Some of the grounds are there to walk through, and need some work,and some are now part of a military academy, but in one section there are playing fields and we watched a huge group of children on holiday camp having a ton of fun doing tug of war competitions.
We also stopped off at the cemetery since it is also a very important place in the city.It is a beautifully kept place and has mausoleums,sepulchers and old tree gardens.Many important people from Bolivian history are buried here.Rather unusual, is that students go there to study in the grounds.Our driver pointed out the inscription on the gated arch entrance, in Latin, Hodie Mihi cras Tibi. He said it means....Now for me,tomorrow for you. A rather sobering thought. Blessed is each day we have, I think.
We then drove over to the newest attraction I would think, Cao Orck'o. This is a wall with dinosaur tracks on it, about 5000tracks from many different animals, dating back about 68million years, to when there was a lake here.It was discovered as it is in a limestone quarry. Now of course it is not mined and one of the owners has built a small park beside the wall that displays lifesize models of some of the animals that made the prints. It is very well done.The site was discovered in 1994, but the park has been open just over a year.
Yesterday we headed to Potosi, about two and a half hours drive from here, with our taxi driver friend, because he is a safe driver,and good company, and he gave us a good deal. The buses were not recommended, so we thought, why not, as there was a lot to fit in in one day.
We were not disappointed. We drove through such differing mountain landscapes, that in themselves made the trip worthwhile.
Potosi has itself a sad history because the people were exploited by the Spanish who mined the silver in gigantic quantities and shipped it back to Spain.Now the mines are worked by the people in co-operatives and for private companies, and on Bolivian standards, they earn a high income. However on our tour the guide said that this year 64 people have died in the mines. We had a quick tour and had to get geared up in shirt and pants, helmet and light.We went into the first level and had to walk through some very muddy patches along the track for the little wagons that carry the sacks of minerals. The guide said that when you hear the rumbling noise get off to the side.....well, that meant leaning against the wall most of the time. We only had to do it once!You are advised to take a gift to the miners so you can photograph them, much to Peter's disgust! Anyway, I was not going to be inside a mine without the expected offering for the miners!! It is a bag, two actually, of coco leaves for them to chew to keep up their energy levels, cigarettes of a type that they can use (forget why)and sometimes a fuse and a stick of dynamite. Oh, also a small bottle of alcohol, white sugar cane alcohol.....more like metho!Light it and it would explode for sure.
There is a stature of the devil god for the mountain in an alcove and the guide took us through the ritual the miners regularily do for safety and good production. It was all very interesting.
We also looked through the mint and I went on a shortened tour of a convent called Santa Teresa, which has similarities to the one in Arequipa. Everything is beautifully restored and kept. The woman who took me through needed a key for each and every room we went in to. She had them all in a basket! some of the locks were wonderful.
The day was really busy and we headed off around 4.30pm, as my tour of the convent took one hour instead of 30mins....but the men were patient.Usually the tour is for two hours.
Something interesting the guide at the mint said was that there are enough minerals still in the mine for production to go on for another 500 years. Strange that after all the years of currency at the mint, hundreds of years, noe the Boliviann money is made in Canada, France and would you believe it , Spain. We couldn't quite grasp that one.
As well there was a safe bow for the transportation of money and it had a system of twelve locks that worked from the one key7keywhole.If you put the key in too far you disabled the system.The guide said that he had done that not long ago. There was another chest there with numerous hidden panels and you to know where they all were to unlock them all to open it.All these things were in place because of the shipping and pirates that were about.
Today Peter is trying to get us from Santa Cruz to Iguasu Falls and I am writing up a somewhat neglected blog. We can do with this sort of quiet day every now and then.
We have over the past three evenings, gone to concerts put on by the city for Christmas. The first featured a middle aged lady singer/guitar player, who was much loved by the audience.We left early as we couldn't understand a word and it was getting a bit tedious, as a woman with a toddler sat in front of Peter and she let the little stand on her lap and blocked evryone's view.The next evening was group of musicians that played some Christmas carols and other pieces, beautifully, in a small church.Last night we went part of the university, a beautiful room to hear a Jazz group. pianist,doublebass/cello player, 3 young women and 2 young men singers. They sang in English from West Side Story and other songs. They were great.
