A few days in Sucre
From Tarija I wanted to head North. I was hoping to stop in Potosi, a high-altitude mining town, though I had a feeling finding a mine tour might be difficult because of Covid. I had done some internet searches and couldn’t find any reviews or posts about the mine more recent than 2019. I also had the option of going to Uyuni, the second most visited town in Boliva after La Paz. Uyuni is on the outskirts of the largest salt flats in the world. It’s known for its mirror effect after a rainfall. The thing is – I don’t really find salt flats all that interesting. And… if it doesn’t rain? Meh.
Really though, I would have hopped on any bus that left in the morning rather than late evening. I like to be able to enjoy the view, I don’t sleep well on busses, and I like being able to check into my hostel when I arrive. But all of the busses were night busses, leaving at dusk and arriving in the middle of the night or early morning. The Potosi bus was supposed to arrive at 3AM, which is just awkward.
I decided on Sucre, The White City. I could handle a 6 AM arrival.
Really though, I would have hopped on any bus that left in the morning rather than late evening. I like to be able to enjoy the view, I don’t sleep well on busses, and I like being able to check into my hostel when I arrive. But all of the busses were night busses, leaving at dusk and arriving in the middle of the night or early morning. The Potosi bus was supposed to arrive at 3AM, which is just awkward.
I decided on Sucre, The White City. I could handle a 6 AM arrival.
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Lots of pet birds in Bolivia. They called this guy "Doctor". He wouldn't say anything for me.
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I had read that there was a 2-day hike near Sucre through the Maragua Crater. That sounded interesting! Well, when I got to Sucre, I did a little more research. Turns out, it’s not a crater at all. No meteorite impact, no volcano. It’s just a valley formed by erosion. A little disappointing, but not a deal breaker. There was a cave along the trek with cave paintings. I had looked at some photos online, and then read that some of the paintings were added in the 1980’s by a drunk guy. That was a little more disappointing. And then I checked the GPS maps. Only about 1/3 of the trek has an actual trail. Apparently much of the trek is difficult – scrambling up and down slopes, fighting through thick brush, looking for the easiest path from A to B. Of the handful of blog posts I’d found, all of the independent hikers got lost at least once. I no longer felt compelled. It didn’t interest me enough, and I didn’t have the energy.
I was a little lazy in Sucre, but it was an enjoyable few days, and I caught up on some much needed sleep. Sucre is a nice city, easy to walk around in. There are a lot of museums, but I couldn’t get into a couple of them because they didn’t have the requisite minimum people to run tours. I did go to the Cathedral museum – saw a LOT of silver and gold and gemstones fashioned into a wide variety of Catholic artifacts. Wasn’t allowed to take photos, but the display cases had dirty, scuffed glass anyway. There was a dead guy in one of the crypts, Miguel Dlos. He was short, judging by his skeleton.
I also walked around on the roof of Iglesia de San Felipe Neri which provides some nice views of the city.
I was a little lazy in Sucre, but it was an enjoyable few days, and I caught up on some much needed sleep. Sucre is a nice city, easy to walk around in. There are a lot of museums, but I couldn’t get into a couple of them because they didn’t have the requisite minimum people to run tours. I did go to the Cathedral museum – saw a LOT of silver and gold and gemstones fashioned into a wide variety of Catholic artifacts. Wasn’t allowed to take photos, but the display cases had dirty, scuffed glass anyway. There was a dead guy in one of the crypts, Miguel Dlos. He was short, judging by his skeleton.
I also walked around on the roof of Iglesia de San Felipe Neri which provides some nice views of the city.
But the best part of Sucre was the Cretaceous Park. Just a few kilometers from the city and easily accessible by taking the “Dino Bus”, the park features a huge rock wall covered in dinosaur prints! 5055 prints in total. If I could go back in time, I might choose to go back 68 million years to watch the dinosaurs walk through that mud. The prints must have been laid down in a relatively short time frame or wind and rain would have destroyed the tracks. The wall is now 20 degrees from vertical; shifted by plate tectonics. There is a triangular section of the wall that has broken away and there are tracks in that layer too. There are probably many layers with tracks throughout the depth of the wall.
The tracks have been left by 4 different types of dinosaurs: theropods, ornithopods, ankylosaurs and sauropods. There weren’t any Tyrannosaurs in South America, but there were similar theropods. The wall contains the worlds longest theropod tracks at 581 meters.
We put on hard hats and hiked down to the base of the wall to get a closer look. Seeing the tracks up close gives you some perspective about the size of these beasts. I thought it was really neat and had a great time.
The tracks have been left by 4 different types of dinosaurs: theropods, ornithopods, ankylosaurs and sauropods. There weren’t any Tyrannosaurs in South America, but there were similar theropods. The wall contains the worlds longest theropod tracks at 581 meters.
We put on hard hats and hiked down to the base of the wall to get a closer look. Seeing the tracks up close gives you some perspective about the size of these beasts. I thought it was really neat and had a great time.
From Sucre, I took a bus to La Paz. Another night bus… sigh. But I am loving La Paz so far! And that’s for another post.