3 days in Sucre
I remember Sucre as a sleepy relaxing town which I loved. Hotel Independencia was just half a block away from the main Plaza 25 de Mayo. After checking in, Charlotte and I went out to have a good breakfast of crepe with fruits and cream and ice cream. Then back to the hotel to rest and use the internet forever, ate 2 packets of my instant noodles which the people in the kitchen kindly cooked for me and then went out for a walk with Matt and Stacey around the plaza where we bought some designer chocolate but not from Para Ti as it was closed.
We then walked all the way up to – where we chilled at the Restaurant called Mirador where we had a great view of the city. Stacey and I shared a jug of lemonade whereby we each had 3 glasses for only $1 each.
Horseback Riding in the Andes
The next morning, we took a cab to the top of the hill where the starting point of our horseback riding trip was. I got Emilia who was the perfect horse throughout the day. It was a really hot day and everyone of us was sweating but it wasn’t too bad because there was the breeze. It was a spectacular sight and ride across the Andean mountains but way too long for my liking. We stopped a couple of times when our guide Harold wanted to tell us some information about the area like how there was an area where the rich people would come during the weekends to shoot rabbits and I’m not sure what other animals, how there were 4 families working together on a farm in the valley we saw and would sell their goods in Sucre, etc.
It got really tiring after a while and by the time we stopped for lunch, I was ready to head back to Sucre. It was too long for my liking. At times it got quite scary because we were going downhill and if you’re not careful you can seriously fall off the horse. Thank God my horse was a very well behaved one. At one part, we had to get off the horse and walk it down slowly because it was too steep. Then at the flat road, I kicked my horse a couple of times and it galloped a few times but my waist couldn’t really handle it. It really did hurt (suffered a bad fall running down the Inca Trail and at the Death Road in La Paz). We finally reached some old lady’s house around 2.45pm having started at 10.10am where she gave us chichi (alcoholic local drink) which I obviously couldn’t have.
Going back in time to see the dinosaurs
The next morning, we set off for the Plaza 25 de Mayo where Tim, Matt, Stacey, Charlotte and I got the Dino Truck to get to the place which had the best collection of dinosaur footprints in the world. The guide explained about how the footprints got there and how it was actually horizontal but the movements of the plates, the same movements that created the Andes, was what made the footprints now appear to be on the huge vertical wall we saw. He told us about the different kinds of dinosaurs there were there, the paleontologists that came to the site, how it was discovered, how the place fits the 5 laws of geology, etc. It wasn’t much. That huge wall of what was cement before (but after having “peeled” 49 times hence we can see the footprints since it was some millions of years ago) was quite a distance from us and so some of the footprints didn’t look too spectacular. He showed us a picture of someone climbing the wall and that was when I understood the size of the footprints; some were probably as big as me.
An afternoon with the local kids
We visited 3 day care centres in the afternoon. It was a nice visit where we each pooled in 100Bolivianos each to buy some things to bring for the kids like cookies, chocolate milk, footballs, and just money contribution for one of the day care centers which still did not have a roof for the kids’ area. It was a simple visit whereby the person in charge would explain what the mothers there do everyday from 3-6pm, mainly learn how to do handicraft work like sewing, knitting, the more complicated version of sewing and knitting, making sandals, jewelery, etc. At the second place, I fell in love with a girl called Carlita who was 6 months old and she didn’t cry at all the whole time I carried her. She was muy bonita. At the last place, the kids made this thing to keep things in for us and one girl clearly wanted to choose me to give hers to and I was very touched. Before I left she came to hug me and I took some pictures with her.
Great Post.