Sucre

Sucre, The white city.

Both La Paz and Sucre are Capital Cities in Bolivia. La Paz houses the President and the Law Makers, whilst the Sucre is the legal capital. Two, very very different cities.

We arrived into Sucre after taking the bus from hell. The journey took around 10 hours, travelling on a bus that resembled a sauna, windows that refuse to open, zero air con, ignorant people sat in front, (no need to guess from where) people sat with phones blaring and no headphones, it was very nearly the bus journey that broke the camels back of bus travel. Good job that the flat that I had booked came with 3 bedrooms, bathroom, separate shower room, kitchen, balcony with table, chairs and views of the town of Sucre, Netflix and Private pool, Sauna and a Jacuzzi the size of a small swimming pool!! Bus woes quickly vanished as we surveyed our latest pad. (by the way, if curious, this apartment cost a whopping £32 per night) Whilst the pool was lovely, it was a tad chilly for the 3 bunnies, the sauna? given the bus sauna of the night previous we chose to give that a miss, but the Jacuzzi? Yeah Baby!!

Sucre, part two.

Leaving behind our glorious pad in the high hills above Sucre, it was time to relocate to the city centre itself. You cannot leave Sucre without exploring the old town. Sucre is named the White City, and it wasn`t hard to see why. It truly is the most beautiful place, with its many white walled streets, white cathedrals and churches, and a festival to end all festivals! Once again this city, like every other, has a Plaza de Armas, or Plaza de Mayo. And it was packed !! Yet again we had landed on a festival weekend, but this was a festival like no other. Every street around the square was lined with chairs, tables, stools, benches, deck chairs, folding chairs, plastic chairs or just cushions. The two widest streets had multi tier bench seating, and every inch of space had a body occupying it. We have never seen so many good natured, happy, excited people since we left the parade route of Walt Disney World last year!. September is the Patron Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe, a 2 day (really?) event that involves thousands of people. A carnival atmosphere of epic proportions ( or are we just English, and this is ordinary?) We managed to find the smallest gap, and stood for over an hour watching dance group after dance group, band after band parade past us. Not just ordinary dancers, but dancers in the most exquisite costumes and an energy level that would put any duracell bunny to shame. Sparkles, sprinkles, sequins, flowers, dayglo, iridescent, feathers, masks, balloons, we saw them all. They danced barefoot, in heels, boots to their thighs, sequined boots, platforms with tambourins attached, ankle shells, knee drums, whistles and gaudy batons. The dresses were long, short, tight bodiced, floaty, skimpy, sequined or flowered, sparkles and colours...oh the colours! Fire Red, Brilliant Blue, Cocoa Brown, Sunshine yellow, Vivid Orange, Sparkling Green, Purest Black we saw the entire spectrum as they paraded by. Then the bands. the bands all seemed to be playing the same or very similar tune, and it was played in one fashion, and one fashion only  LOUD !! never mind tuning, or split notes, just hoof it ! Dancers then band, dancers then band, dancers then band. Every aspect of the community, or from what we guessed, seemed to be included. Young children, teenagers, special needs groups, wheel chairs, disabled, elderly and everyone in between. The noise levels touched your core, and the bands with the most drums made darn sure you knew they had arrived! We had come across the Festival at 4pm, but at 11pm it was still going strong, you don`t sleep in Sucre town centre whilst this takes place that`s for sure.

Sucre, day 2 and Dinosaurs

In 1985 a local cement company unearthed strange footprints, unsure as to their authenticity they called in local palaeontologists who confirmed that the footprints found were indeed genuine, and not just genuine, but the largest array of dinosaur footprints ever found in the world. This I just had to see for myself. We took a cab out of town and headed for Cal Orck`o cement quarry. At this point I have to confess this bunny had expected heat and dust and dressed accordingly, but hey ho, this is the one day that the weather chose to be cool! You arrive at the quarry and you do think, `where on earth am I?`...It is a fully functioning quarry, with little to suggest that this is a huge site of importance as you stand in the dusty car park. Take heart. climb the ramp. At the top the smell of new paint, the remnants of building materials, tiles and the lingering remains of dust sheets, it is quite apparent that this site is slowly accepting that tourists like dinosaurs. Movie quote, `If you build it, he will come` comes to mind. The quarry floor tour starts at 12 pm, there is a second tour at 1pm. At these times, the sun (ha!) is usually high in the sky, thus avoiding shadows on the wall of footprints. This was not to be an issue for us on this cold day. Arriving early to avoid the crowds (there were no crowds..) we had a couple of hours to kill prior to our tour. We had already toured the museum (one room)..the 3D spectacular (an empty room, newly tiled), the shop, (one glance and you saw it all) and viewed the life size dinosaur models, all that was left was the cafe in which we sat to get warm and await our tour time. Cafe. Do you want Tea. Coffee ( no milk) . Water. Coke or Inca Cola. Salchipapa, chicken nuggets/chips or a burger. The menu isn`t hard to recall.

At 12pm, we were invited into the auditorium to watch a dinosaur documentary, in Spanish, no subtitles. Chilly bunny here had to beg for a jacket off a workman, I didn`t care what I was lent by this time, but have to say the procured denim jacket was quite neat, though I do suspect that the owner was a painter given the jackets pungent odour of paint stripper. 12.15, our tour started. A group of 6 locals, 2 Dutch, we three bunnies, and an English girl we had met at Lake Titicaca couple of weeks earlier (small world) . Prior to being escorted down to the quarry floor, we were each issued with hard hats. Having already had the huge expanse of crumbled wall pointed out to us, we had no qualms in wearing said hats. To clarify though, the local insta bimbos decided the hats made for useful water carriers... We then proceeded down the steepest path to the quarry floor and the wall of dinosaur footprints. A lot can happen in 68 million years of evolution, hence the once horizontal dinosaur path rising to reveal the now vertical footprints. something about a shift in tectonic plates and rising sea levels. Research in the area has ascertained that the entire land was once covered in water, and that it was probably a watering hole for the dinos. To stand in front of that huge wall and see those incredible prints left by a now extinct animal species was quite humbling. There are just so many tracks. I could name a couple of the dinosaurs but I much prefer to call them meatysaurus , veggiesaurus, gigantasaurus, and the longest set of baby T Rex prints ever found. Over 400 continuous paw marks! A lot of buses invite you to travel from La Paz directly to Uyuni, but to miss Sucre, for both its white city cente, and its eerie wall of dinosaur footprints, would be a crime.

Sucre, day 3

Today we are to be leaving Sucre, but knowing the festival had now finished (like I said earlier, really?) We decided to see what a peaceful Plaza de Armas looked like. Passing a cafe called Azkaban halted our progress for a while, A Harry Potter Cafe, here? in Sucre? beckoned this Harry Potter loving bunny, and it did not disappoint. I have to say they had done a very good job recreating all the little aspects of the books. I had Cerveza de Mantequilla (hot butterbeer) butter, brown sugar, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon. , whilst Mr bunny had Espresso Patronum, ( cafe solo) . As we left the little cafe, the now familiar sounds of yet another band beckoned to us. Still more dancers, not quite the same flamboyant costumes, but still the same energy, and yet more bands. It would appear that if your turn didn`t arrive in time during the previous two days, you were allowed to perform and parade on day 3 as well. After a fabulous lunch in the square, chicken soup, thick, creamy, big chunks of white cooked chicken, add in chips, garlic bread and a charcuterie board of epic proportions for big bunny we felt like two overstuffed bunnies. One last drink on the roof of the most fabulous, yet well hidden hotel, it quite literally had a sign saying rooftop bar 65, and a simple door yet yielded the most impressive and sumptuous interior. We headed back to our tiny room and the joys of yet another overnight bus. PS Must tell you, Sucre has a fabulous chocolate shop called Para Ti, ...im saying nothing, not another word, except who puts plums, raisins, and liqueur in a chocolate bon bon? heaven in a mouthful.