Today I woke up with a dodgy belly and slept most of the day, wathed TV and films, went to the toilet a number of times, ran out of toilet paper. Not a pleasent day and not an eventful one unless you wish me to tell you about the kind of faeces..if you can call them that!!!
Neil would you like to tell them about your day?
I had a great day. I got to lie around in bed and watch loads of films and TV, even though I wasn’t ill. I popped out twice – once to check emails and stuff, once to go to the supermarket to buy lunch (and a couple of beers for myself). B felt better when she had rested for a bit. I made rice for tea.
Please note there are no pictures for this day...you can guess why
8th September
Today I woke and felt much better and so, washed and ready, we headed out in the town of Sucre to do some sightseeing of the town. We started off doing our usual of breakfast at 1pm or 2pm, then decided to see........
The Church of the Virgin de Guadeloupe – it was the actual day of celebration today so we headed into the church. We knew it was an important day today as at midnight last night the fireworks began for about 20mins. Church is small yet pretty and I managed to get Neil to take a photo of the inside even though he was worried it was disrespectful. I expained that we would be doing this when seeing temples in South Asia and India.
Next to the Casa de la Libertad (House of Liberty) It is where..gather up children for your history lesson for today...it is where the declaration of independance Bolivia was signed by many including (Neil’s favourite Revolutionary) Simon Bolivar. It great to get to get really close up to the main room, the declaration and artefacts of the time. I am not going to lie some of the stuff in their was creepy see below!!!
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| Creepy Jesus |
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| The House of Liberty - Bolivia |
Neil can you explain what happened next in the casa....
We were looking at some stuff in a room and there was a god-awful racket coming from outside – it sounded like a load of schoolchildren attempting to play with brass band instruments. Next thing we know, a load of schoolchildren march into the courtyard with a load of brass band instruments. They are followed by load of suits and sort of official looking people. They perform their thing again in front of them and we take a few sneaky videos (we had to pay an extra 10 bolivianos for the right to use our camera inside). They then went into the main sort of parliament looking room and did something then they all went away. We were sure it was some sort of important and significant thing, probably something to do this holy virgin thingy or something. We then went to see another museum...
It was the museum of indiginous art..however when trying to get in the lady explained she did not have change and all we had was 100 bolivanios (roughly £10) so we could not go in.
So I suggested we go to the Museum of Recoleta which also has amazing views of the city. So while walking up steep roads, no pavements, cars and at a high altitude we finally got there. However you have to understand that in Bolivia things open whenever they feel like it and so the musem was shut but the view was amzing. We found a cafe with deckchairs and sat and had some drinks while watching the view and the sun start to set!
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| We look like something from a Beckett Play here |
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| The view of Sucre |
We headed back into town...got on to internet finally in a bar with facebook uploaded phtos etc and had some drinks. By this time it was ten so found somewhere to eat..nice place called Locots..Neil could not have a beer as they did not sell alcohol but we did not know this when we first arrived...honest! So we had vegetable curry and pork wih maize and potatoes (Neil liked it a lot) as it was “peasent food” like in Africa and stuff.
9th September
Our last full day in Sucre and we had a lot to do. First up was a nice breakfast at ‘Joyride Cafe’ – scrambled eggs with nice bread – this was around 1 ish. We had already been to get our bus tickets to Potosi. The travel agent wasn’t quite as helful as I’d hoped - when I asked if he could recommend any good tour companies for the salt flats he said, “There are over 70 in Uyuni. They’re all the same...” Cheers pal.
After breakfast – OK, brunch (OK, really it was more like lunch...) we jumped on the ‘Dino bus’. We had been planning on doing this ever since we had arrived. The cretaceous park was billed as an old cement quarry where they had discovered thousands of dinosaur tracks that we could go and see. We were very excited about this. B said that for a split second, she had hoped it was like Jurassic Park. I did too, but secretly still hoped this.
The ride was bumpy to say the least...it gave me an insight into the 3 hour bus ride to Potosi tomorrow. On the bus was a mix of Americans, Oz and Bolivian. The Americans were chatty and loud..not like our frends Erin, Justin and Jamie (We love you guys!) you’re just so Canadian. We arrived at the park which was a bulding in a working cement quarry. We walked up about 3000 million years and then arrived at the entrance. Suprisingly included in our price..the over inflated international price...was a guide..and oh yes ENGLISH SPEAKING!!!!!
The guide asked us to follow him and we all trudged up a slope, me directly behind him. For some reason, I started to find this hilariously funny. He had this tiny green umbrella and, every now and again, he’d stop and check that I was following him. I kept expecting him to speak or something but he didn’t. I looked at B to see what she thought and she was trying to contain her giggles. It just seemed really strange.
So finally after walking in silence with a little man with a green umberlla we arrived at the beginning of the tour, which was a small museum. It had a big picture of the quarry and some really really bad models of dinosaurs..coming out of their shells (Neil says in creative colours!). There was also a really good skeleton of a dinosaur like the kind you find in the Natural History Museum.
He begin to speak...OMG what the £%^*? He introduced himself...something Spanish, then he dipped down to bow to us and said “From the bottom of my heart welcome to the Dino Museum” That was it me and Neil were already pissing ourselves (we are again as we write this!)
Then he started his tour. He pointed at an area on the wall map and said, “See this triangle inverted. The triangle inverted. See this. The triangle inverted. See. See the triangle inverted.” We nodded. He said, these are tracks of a sauropod. A sauropod.” We nodded. He said, “Sauropod. Sauropod.”. We nodded. He then opened what looked like a children’s book on dinosaurs and showed us a picture of a sort of brontosaurus thing. He showed the picture to all of us. Individually. And very close to our faces. Each time he showed us the book, he said, “Sauropod. Sauropod.”. I started to lose it and was almost giggling uncontrollably.
I also found this funny but knew if I looked at Neil that would be it. So I composed myself and tried to see if anyone else found this as amusing as we did. No luck!!!! Neil told me later the reason he lated stopped was because what would Brendon from Coach Trip say if he was here. I LOVE Brendon..You know you do too Eileen and Leslie. He the becan to speak about other dinosaur tracks and repeating himself again and again pointing at the childrens dinosaur book and showing us fishes and layers..... He then explained that the skeleton in the room was not real but a copy from Argentina which the orginal was found in 1984..he repeated this so much Neil remembered....To all teachers repetition works try it! Then he held his umbrella and took us outside to explain about how the footprints were on a shore but due to the movement of tectonic plates they are now on the side of a mountain, also there was water at some point, change from saltwater to fresh...god know how that works. We find explaining this as word can not express how we felt you had to be their!
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| Our amazing guide...Sauropod, Tauropod.... |
Sauropod.
Tauropod.
Ornithopod.
Antlapod.
Apparently the sauropods were the “blue and red ones”.
Sauropod.
Tauropod.
Ornithopod.
Antlapod.
He took us around the park..lots of dinosaurs..real ones they were big and speaking for real. It was like Jurassic park...we loved it!!! However they did not move much..We took pictures of the dinosaurs bottom as Neil was impressed by this....please boys no jokes.
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| Dinosaur..T Rex...COOL |
We then got to the piece de resistance - the quarry wall. Not going to lie it was a disappointment. You dont get close enough to the footprints to see. Took pictures in lots of zoom, we even treid to take pictures through the binoculars.
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| Look closely and you can see dino footprints...can you? |
We then had 20 mins to wander the park ourselves so we took pictures of the dinosaurs and the amazing view!!! Best thing about it was to see the landscape that Sucre sits within. Then go back on the dino bus and finally the Yanks were chatting about the funny tour, the wall, the footprints we could not really see and so we joined in and chatted to them for a bit.
Now after reading this please dont think we hated it and that we dont recommend it on the contrary we suggest if you come to Sucre pleas do this..it was the best entertainment we have had on the trip so far. Hopefully by the time you get their you can absail down the rock face, as this is what we requested in the guest book.
After this we went shopping in the market to buy me a warm junmper as we knew the higher up we went the colder it would get. After looking, haggling and explaining the top does not fit my chest I bought a warm jumber for about £8. Also bought gangster, postcode war scarfs for both me and Neil. Tell me does anyone know what postcode is the black and white scarf and the blue and white scarf?
After went to a few bars, wrote up some of the blog. Due to places being packed we ended up in the same place we had dinner last night. Neil had the same, I tried a bolivan dish...not great. Cocktails were good as they were 2 for 1.
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