A lazy day in pretty Sucre

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Day 84 - Sunday 21 September: A relaxing Sunday in Sucre

Arrive in Sucre after a draining 13 hour bus ride sometime after 8am. In fairness it could have been worse.....my stomach holds up and I get a decent nights sleep considering part of the journey is on unpaved roads. The risk in taking the bus last night was worth it! Check into the hostel nearest to the bus station....I've got a dorm to myself and the only other people here appear to be a German school group. I know there is football on (Man Utd v Chelsea) which I'd like to watch so ask at reception where they'll have it on in Sucre.......result, they have it on cable in the hostel. Manage to catch the last 10 minutes of the first half and the second half, which Man Utd lose their lead and it ends up being a draw. Its only the second game of domestic English football I've seen, and I have to say its one thing I'm missing from back home. After the game finishes at 11am Bolivian time I head down into the centre. For a Sunday its positively buzzing....the main plaza is full of people, mainly the Bolivian military. If any of Bolivia's neighbours ever wanted to invade Bolivia, now was the time to do it, half the army must have been in Sucre and Bolivia could have been taken in hours! Quite why they're all there I don't know, but it seems like some sort of fair/celebration as there are stalls throughout the square. Get some lunch in a cafe at the side of the plaza and when I come out the plaza is a very different place. All the people have disappeared and its just a very pretty, serene plaza again on a very sunny Sunday afternoon.

Want to go to Cal Orko which is a site on the outskirts of Sucre where they have found Dinosaur footprints in the rock but the 'dino truck' doesn't seem to be running today so end up reading a book and watching the world go by in the plaza. After a while decide to explore the whitewashed city of Sucre some more. Walk up the hill to get a view over Sucre from a plaza that overlooks the city. The view is good and can't have been sat long before a local guy, Pedro starts talking to me. He talks very little English, me likewise with Spanish but after an hour chatting he invites me to watch him and 2 of his sons give a short local indigenous musical performance at the cafe just below where we are sitting. Take him up on his offer and then buy him a drink afterwards. He's 7 children, and lost his wife last year, and is a subsistent farmer but seems a remarkably happy guy. Sit talking for another hour or so watching the sunset over Sucre before I walk back to the hostel, my stomach still feeling very unsettled...haven't shaken this food poisoning off totally! Say my goodbye's to Pedro......I have to decline his offer of a meal at his house tomorrow as I have other plans but buy him his dinner as a final gesture. I'm impressed with myself at being able to hold a conversation (mostly in Spanish) for over 3 hours.

Day 85 - Monday 22 September: Cal Orko

Walk down to the Plaza which is 20 minutes away from where I'm staying in search of the elusive Dino Truck. This time its there and its leaving at 10am. A group travelling together with GAP get on and within 10 minutes I realise why I enjoy travelling independently so much......you're not stuck with irritating people for weeks on end, and there is more than their fair share of them on this tour! Its not far to Cal Orko, where we get a guided tour and spend an hour learning about dinosaurs and specifically the footprints found in the rock in the quarry at the site. Its all a bit disappointing.....its more geared towards children and wasn't worth the trip to be honest. Get back to Sucre for 11.30, and buy some posh chocolates for the trip back. 10 Bolivianos (less than a pound) for 100grams.....I love Bolivia its so cheap! Pick my bag up at the hostel and then catch a bus at 1pm for the three hour journey to Potosi. In a hot bus manage to get sat next to a family who look incredibly poor, and who's hygiene isn't the best. Although I feel sorry for them (Bolivia is the poorest country in South America), this is a journey I could do with falling asleep through.

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