Sucre, Day 3

Yesterday I was sitting in the hostel having breakfast at their little cafe and who do I run into but Tamson and Andy from the Inca trail! ... It was great to see them and not have to have a getting-to-know-you conversation with a complete stranger. We parted ways after breakfast with plans to meet up later.

My morning was full of walking around, exploring, seeing things. I went into a couple small art galleries, looked at a few buildings of interest: one of the big theatres and the Supreme Court of Justice, though both just from the outside as the former was closed and the latter was high security and required at least nice clothing.

Sucre is the constitutional capital of Bolivia mostly because the Court convenes here; La Paz, the de facto capital, has more power.

Next to the court is Simom Bolivar park, a very pretty spot at which to relax. It´s full of tall tall trees, lanterns which I always love, replicas of the Eiffel tower and Arch de Triumph, and some recreational things for the kids. The only thing that bothers me about these lovely parks and plazas is that you´re never allowed to walk on the grass.

After lunch yesterday I met up with the British couple to go see Cal Orcko where the dinosaur footprints are located. We hopped on one passenger truck after paying the 10bs for transport, but it wouldn´t start and we were ushered into a taxi instead, with a full refund. The site is only 5km out of the centre, so it didn´t take long to get there and the taxi waited for us to return.

´Parque Cretácico´, what appears to be a new or renovated addition to the site, was good but a little pricey for what you get: 30bs and you can´t even get close to the footprints. It´s sort of geared toward children, too, though it´s got lot of good information on the period and the dinosaurs themselves. Leading up to the tracks are numerous life-sized models of various dinosaurs, all scary either because of their sharp teeth or mere size.

The path leads up to an observatory with binoculars (2bs for 2 minutes), overlooking a grand cement wall with all kinds of tracks leading up to the sky. It was far away enough that it was hard to judge their size, but they were impressive nonetheless. I suppose the ground they walked on was flat at the time, but over the years, with the shifting of tectonic plates and the formation of the Andes mountain range, that particular layer went from horizontal to nearly vertical.

I´ve had an off-and-on fascination with dinosaurs; I wish I could have a closer look. People used to be able to go closer with hard hats and a truck, but a rock fell on someone from above and they banned it from then on. A bit surprising for Bolivia. I think you should be able to sign a waiver and go anyway.

We got back to town just before 5pm so I wandered over to the National Library and Archives building, curious to see what it looked like. It´s a beautiful, massive building, all white with shining black accents. The archives aren´t for public perusal so what I saw was very limited.

...

Today I´ve accomplished little. I got a package ready to send to Canada, but made the mistake of assuming the post office would have basic post office things like boxes and brown paper for packages. It was another one of those frustrating experiences because I didn´t know the exact procedure. At least the Spanish wasn´t the problem this time. Anyway I went back after lunch for the THIRD time and finally got it sent, no problems. (It´s going to Sarah in Hamilton, by the way, so no one else keeps their eye out.)

Once I´m done on the internet here I head to the bus station to catch a ride to Potosí. I´ll write again from there. Bye for now!