Nigel: We had only planned to go to two places in Bolivia and then make a sharp exit out of the country. After feeling a little safer in La Paz and not being mugged, we decided that it would be unfair to not visit somewhere else in the country. Sucre is situated around 15 hours south of La Paz and our guide book describes it as "Bolivia's most beautiful city, and the symbolic heart of the nation". We thought we would give it ago. With its white wash buildings and its historical roots (where independence was proclaimed) we were glad we made the trip...just. The bus journey to Sucre was the first one which we took in South America other than Peru hop. We had heard stories of drivers speeding, drink driving, and possessions being stolen from your bags which were under the seat by the passengers behind. This, coupled with the fact that there had been a fatal bus crash 2 days prior, resulted in us having very little sleep. We were waking up every so often, either to check on our bags or to see what speed we were going. Alison on occasions would look out the window, only to see shear drops on that side. We made it and we got to our hostel early morning. The hotel was situated down a long narrow alleyway and was great. Our room was clean, comfortable, had good WIFI, and overlooked a Spanish style courtyard.

The city had a nice feel to the place and it was good to be able to relax a little without any fear of being mugged. In the city we walked around many of the streets and admired the old colonial buildings. The place had a feel of Spain. We also ventured up to the top of a hill which was a good view point of the city and visited one of the city's museum's. Within the museum there are several rooms containing old artefacts found in the area, paintings by local artists, traditional consumes, and other things. For us the main attraction was the mummified bodies which were housed in there. Thousands of years old, it was good to see how they had been kept well preserved until they were found. We said that when they had lived, they mustn't have thought that years later, people would be staring at them in a glass cabinet. At least they laid there with dignity .... that was until Alison pops her head next to the cabinet and asks for her picture to be taken with with one of them!!!!

We also went to the Government State building which is situated in the main square. The main reason for going there is that everyday after 2pm you can enter free of charge and climb to the top of the building to have a roof top view of the city. The building inside was also impressive. You can see how back in the day it would have been a grand building within the city. Today though it is not as busy and several business' operate inside.

Another big attraction local to Sucre is a dinosaur park which has both replicas of the dinosaurs and also one of the largest collections of fossilised footprints in the world. After a painful journey going through the local traffic, we arrived at the entrance of the park. The park is situated in a working cement factory and it was whilst they were mining the quarry that they came across the prints. The fossils were located on the side of the mountain but they were not always on the mountain. When the dinosaurs roamed the area, this had been a lake and the prints were made when they walked through the mud. It was only when the tectonic plates collided and the Andes were created, that the prints went from horizontal to vertical (diagonal). At certain times of day there are tours where you can go down and get close to the footprints. To do this though, you have to have appropriate footwear and not flip flops. With the exception of Kim (who must have done his homework and forgot to mention or out of sheer luck!!!!), we all had flip flops on. So as Kim ventured off for the close up viewing, we had a tour in the park only. To be fair it was a good tour and you were still able to see the prints from a distance. There was also a set of prints which had fallen down from the mountain and they had placed the fossilised rock in the park.

We did also have a slightly embarrassing moment when walking around the market. In Bolivian Spanish, the word for avocado is "Palto". So after spending quite some time wandering around the market looking for the fruit, I decided to say "Palto" to one of the rather large ladies who was serving on one of the stalls. When I asked though, I didn't get any response from her and she just stared laughing at me. We took that as being a no and continued searching. It was only later that we realised that I was saying the words "Parto" and not "Palto" to her and after looking the word up, it transpired that I was actually saying "Childbirth" to her and not Avocado.....no wonder she started laughing at me. Gringos!!!