La Paz & Sucre

Bolivia has been a mix of highs and lows for us. La Paz can be overwhelming. It is at an elevation of 3,660 meters above sea level, making it the world's highest "de facto" capital city, or administrative capital. Whilst there we sampled some more culinary treats, such as vegetarian curries at the Indian Star, if you could eat their really, really hot curry you got a free t-shirt. Alas none of us felt up to the challenge.

Other than the mountain biking I elaborated on in the previous blog we went shopping in the witches markets, which include the sale of pretty much everything including llama foetuses (no we did not purchase one of these). We found an awesome organic, vegetarian café called Nameste which I think has possible the best Pad Thai I have ever tasted (please note I am yet to visit Thailand). This all brought us to another overnight bus to Sucre, however before we left Jane decided in order to make her Snow Boarding date in Bariloche, Argentina, she would need to fly (the alternative would have been unmanageable amount of time on buses).

Bron and I were left to take the night bus to Sucre, which was approximated to take 11 to 16 hours. In our case it was more like 19 hours, on a crappy bus with no toilet, on unpaved roads winding through what seemed like an endless canyon. You can imagine that when we actually arrived in Sucre it took a while to take in and appreciate (to change our state of mind).

Sucre is a pretty nice city, although from the outside it looks like a crap hole in the middle of the desert. Since arriving we have seen Liberty House, the building in which the Bolivian Declaration of Independence was signed. It has numerous artefacts, portraits, swords and weapons of the freedom fighters including those of Simón Bolívar and Antonio José de Sucre, now known as the liberators of South America, due to their central role in numerous countries independence. Possibly the coolest thing is the original flag of Argentina that is displayed in a glass cabinet. It is over 195 years old, made of silk and has the colours inverted i.e. white on the outside and blue in the centre. Apparently it was later changed to appear stronger.

Today Bron and I did the other Sucre touristy thing, which was going to the Dinosaur tracks. These consist of approximately 5055 prints in a limestone wall next to a cement mine. There are apparently 8 species recognisable from the prints, one of the lines of footprints holds the world record for the longest track of a carnivorous dinosaur. We had fun with all the life size replicas. The wall is pretty impressive though. Tomorrow we are off the Santa Cruz before flying into Argentina.