Sucre, Bolivia

Sucre Hotel Independecia
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2009-02-01

When the bus arrived at Sucre a little before 6 am, the group was nice to get off the bus and back on to stable ground. After a short taxi ride, we arrived at Hotel Indepencia. We managed to get our room straight away, and went to sleep for a few hours as neither of us managed to get much sleep on the bus. At 11 am, we had a short meeting to hear about the city and various tours that were being offered. We decided to take a tour of the dinosaur tracks and waterfalls on the third. Later we went and dropped off our laundry that had been building up. We had lunch at the Joy Ride café a very western place. We had hoped for bigger portions for the price, but the steak sandwich and chilli con carne were at least very tasty if not large.

Later we wandered through the city for the rest of the afternoon trying again to avoid the numerous waterbombs, but they managed to get us a few times; one hitting the camera, which was luckily inside a case.

Sucre
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Later we wandered through the city for the rest of the afternoon trying again to avoid the numerous waterbombs, but they managed to get us a few times; one hitting the camera, which was luckily inside a case. That evening Ale took us to a restaurant that gave a nice view of the city for dinner that night. During the walk, Jesper managed some water revenge for the group when he emptied a few bottles of water into some of the cars that were throwing waterbombs at us. A loud cheer went up each time this happened. We all had some nice steaks for dinner and went to see the movie “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” with Vicky, Paula, and Andrea. Although it was a chick flick, as Ian would say, it was nice to enjoy a movie as it has been months since our last one. Lori thought that the movie was good and a various interesting story about aging.

Sucre Parque Boliviar
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2009-02-02

Breakfast buffet was a feast in the morning. It was by far the best one they had had so far with four kinds of juices, bread, eggs, yogurt, cereal, and pastries. We needed to change some money and travelers checks, so we started with the Santa Cruz bank. Two hours, four banks and one money change later, they were successful. Lori and Ian found that the National bank offered a commission fee of 3.5%, the money change wanted 8% and Banco Ganadero offered 2%, which was the rate they were expecting to pay. Luckily, Ian went straight to the assistant bank manager at the Banco Ganadero and they were able to change their money in about twenty minutes. Bolivia does not seem to have a general queuing system at the bank. You have to get a ticket when you enter and then wait for your ticket to call. It appeared that if you had an account with the bank you were seen quicker, which would seem is far, but very frustrating when you are tourist. After leaving the money back at the hotel, we had lunch at a cafe on the main plaza and picked up our laundry.

Sucre Plaza 25 de Mayo
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We walked up the hill where we had had dinner the previous night to take some photos of the city during daylight. For dinner that night, we went to the Joy Ride Café again. Ian had chill con carne again and Lori decided to have it as well. After dinner, we went to party upstairs in the dance lounge and relaxing with the group drinking and having fun.

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Sucre at night
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2009-02-03

In the morning we enjoyed another breakfast feast and joined the group for the tour to the dinosaur tracks at Parque Cretacico and the seven waterfalls. We had a twenty-minute ride to Parque Cretacico, which was discovered twenty-five years ago by the cement factory that was next door. The site boasts the longest tracks in the world made by over 500 dinasaurs from four different groups; Hadrosaurian, Trianosaur, Carrotaurine, and Brocosaur. While the site was impressive, we were disappointed that we had to pay extra to take photos only to discover that you could not get very close to the tracks, in fact you ewre about 100 yards away.

Sucre Lori
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Next was the seven waterfalls. During their hike there, we got to see the second, third and fourth waterfalls. The hike to the second waterfall took about ten minutes and had a few instances of narrow paths that the guide had to help the group cross. Between the third and fourth waterfall, there was a tricky section to climb up. We arrived to the fourth waterfall, which had a pool deep enough to jump and to swim in, and had sandwiches for lunch. We spent a few hours relaxing in the sun and swimming in the cool pool. Ian was even adventurous and climbed up rocks that were six meters above the pool and jumped in. The group hiked back after a relaxing afternoon. For dinner that night, we went to a restaurant just off the square. The town experienced a blackoff on their way to dinner, but it was resolved within about ten minutes, so they could eat in light and not candle light. As the food was expensive at the resturant, they just had sandwiches, but treated themselves to cheesecake for Lori and crepes with ice cream for Ian at a place nearby.

Sucre
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