Sucre
I left Cochabamba and after a 10 hour bus ride arrived in Sucre. It was easy to see straight away why this is where the government sits. It is a beautiful town, a little more modern and still looks quite colonial.
The bus trip had been slightly bumpy but uneventful, though we did have two bathroom stops along the way. None of the buses in Bolivia have any toilets on board. So communal bathroom stops on the side of the ride are normal.
After a quick nap, I headed out to the market opposite the hostel. I was delighted to find the same fruit juice stands as we had in La Paz. The market also had the standard meat, fruit and vegetables as well as a cake section where you could sit and eat cake.
After walking though one of the prettier plazas I had seen, I stopped for lunch at the Joyride Cafe which had been recommended by many. Joyride has a good reputation for tours so I joined a biking, walking and swimming tour for the next day. The lagoon where we were to swim was a beautiful green colour.
My afternoon excursion was to the dinosaur park to see the dinosaur tracks. I paid the equivalent of 2 dollars to head there in a dinosaur truck. We had an English guide, YAY, and the talk was very interesting, particularly the impact of the Nasca fault on South America. Bolivia used to be flat and it is very hard to imagine after what I have seen. The dinosaur tracks may have been impressive but we were too far away to see them properly. The tracks are on a wall which is starting to collapse so too dangerous to be close to. Still no T-Rex tracks either.
I was delighted to find that the Joyride has movie screenings in the evening and with my tour the next day, I received a free voucher so decided that "Imagining Argentina" would be a good film choice with my impending travel there. A good movie but it was not the light hearted entertainment I had been expecting and was all about politics and the disappearances that happened in the past.
The tour the next day was at 9am, which meant I had time for my fruit salad, which was probably not sufficient a breakfast before a 14km ride, 3km hike and swim. The riding was mostly downhill. It was a very hot day and the uphill was tough to say the least. Fortunately, we had a trainee guide from the UK with us and he finally pointed out the art of changing the gears and I found it all so much easier and just as I was really getting the hang of the gears, the biking ended. The scenery was beautiful though, I really did pay more attention to the road which I felt was more dangerous than the Death Road in La Paz.
The hiking to the lagoon was easy but we were walking along a river which was the colour of chocolate after the recent rains and I had my doubts on how we were going to find our green lagoon. And I was right, there was no green lagoon but a chocolate mud river. It did not stop us from getting into the very cold and dirty water. The fish nibbled at our toes and legs while we fought the current. It was so strong that the guides hadn´t wanted to use the raft. So, fighting our way and holding onto rocks for support, we made it towards the waterfall through the canyon. It was hard work but good fun and the rest in the sun later was worth it. Getting back was easy, we let the current take us back and it took much less time. We were so dirty after our swim and I had half of the river´s sand in my costume. We did stop to rinse off in a clear stream before getting back onto the truck to La Paz. Back at Joyride, a stop for some drinks, and then a much needed shower before meeting Uri (met him on the bike tour) for a walk to the fountains of light and dinner. It had been South America´s version of the Commonwealth Games and although I was too late to attend the sporting events (I did see some of the running), there was a free street concert in the evening to celebrate the end, so we watched for a while.
Friday morning started off slowly. I was trying to send a package back to England. Now, in England, you walk into a Post Office, buy an envelope and you are sorted. Not quite the same here. You need to find a Liberio to buy an envelope. However, if you are sending back a guitar case and tablecloth, this won´t fit an envelope, in which case, you need paper and cello tape to make your own. This endeavour took about an hour with walking backwards and forwards and cost me, with postage, about four times the cost of what I was sending. The afternoon was dedicated to admin and a walk to the Mirador to watch the sunset. I almost missed the film, "The Devil´s Miner" regarding the Potosi mines I was heading to next. It was very sad, about a 14 year old boy working in the mines. It still happens now. The rest of the evening was spent in the Plaza, enjoying the free Aids concert. The music was really good and I enjoyed the diversity of Sucre.
Saturday, I tried to play tourist but was hampered by erratic opening hours. I did see a copy of the Belgian Declaration of Independence, a confirmation in a church and then headed to a Spanish Castle made of red rock and 7km´s out of town.
I had waited for the Tarabuco market on Sunday, so getting up early, I caught a bus to the market and managed to restrain myself from bulky purchases. I did buy some jewellery. I was heading to Potosi later that afternoon, and as usual, I didn´t buy my ticket in advance. So at crunch time, we struggled to get tickets at a reasonable time. We did eventually get our tickets, loaded our luggage onto the bus, got onto the bus only to realise we were on the wrong bus. So the four of us fought our way off the bus, past the now irate locals, grabbed our luggage back and ran to catch our bus which was about to leave
