Sucre
Trip Start
Mar 28, 2008
1
16
98
Trip End
Mar 27, 2009
Sucre,
Sucre,
Bolivia
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Another flight, another cock up with only mine and Julie´s boarding cards! Luckily we got them with 45 minutes to spare which gave us enough time to get through the security checks which the other airport did not have.
Sucre is situated at 2,700 metres so we were warned to take it easy. The group were advised to go for a 2 hour nap so Julie did as she was told!! We weren´t warned about all our bottles of cosmetics inflating with air so when you open them, alot of it pours out!
Altitude sickness can affect you at any time and you can defintely feel you are higher. It is harder to get full breaths and you feel light headed very easily - you have to remind yourself to breath deeply.
Julie wasn´t feeling very well so she had a Matte de Coca (coca tea) - this is what all the locals drink or chew. It is meant to eleviate the symptoms. Sucre is considered one of the capitals along with La Paz and is also known as the White City of The Americas.
During the afternoon we visited the Casa de La Libertad, this was once a Jesuit Uni but is know famous for the signing of the Bolivian Act of Independence from Spain. The tour was really interesting because it was in English. (Dad and Sarah - are you impressed we went to learn abit of history!!)
We found an amazing chocolate shop - at last pure chocolate. It has been 3 weeks since Claire has had some! The newsagents here are small rooms with bars across the windows - you have to ring a bell for attention and ask for goods, very bizarre!
That night we went to Joyride Cafe where you can book activities from - we also ate there and Claire´s meal came last and was wrong! Spot the theme!
Julie is going to dry out in Bolvia because it if so high which is a shame because it is very cheap! A meal for 2 with drinks can cost as little as 3 pounds.
A scary dinosaur in the cement works
Sunday
Today we went to Tarabuco, a town 60km SE of Sucre where they hold a weekly market. Hand made and machine made are on sale here at very cheap prices - it is too tempting! We went on a bit of a spending spree and spent a whole 15 pounds! How are we going to get it all home!?!
In the afternoon we decided to visit the dinosaur footprints - discovered at a cements work in 1994. You had to walk through a working cements works to get to the site. We saw some on the outside but decided against going in because it was too kidified.
Monday
We went on a 16km walk up into the mountains and to see cave paintings. We were driven to 3,000 metres where we started our walk and we reached 3,706 metres which was the maximum height we were going to reach. For Julie it was very tough going - she was still suffering from altitude sickness. Half way through the walk we discovered it was only 10km - thank god!!
To get to the cave paintings - you have to walk down a series of steep steps which have been placed into the hillside. The steps were nearly vertical and quite terrifying - one wrong move and you would fall quite a distance or to your death (no exageration!) The cave paintings were worth it though.
However, what goes down must come up! We had to reclimb the steps - sheer hell. You could only manage 3 steps before you felt helplessly out of breath and dizzy. Julie gave up half way up, so I carried her rucksack and coat along with my own (sistely love!)
We eventually made it to the top and then make our way down a gully for lunch - some rock climbing was involved. Not the easiest!
We eventually made it to the bottom of the mountain, Julie came round during the last hour and sped off desperate to have a Hot Chocolate in the cafe! We had to cross the river to get to the transport - you could either use stepping stones or ride in a basket over the river with the guide using a pully system. We chose the latter.
The car ride home was the bumpiest i´ve ever had to endure - not the best with a sickly headache but Julie was in the front which was a very smooth ride for her.
