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This morning we managed to get into the restaurant in the hotel which is on the second floor and looks out onto the city. Very nice view and not a bad breakfast, although again cereal is served with no milk.
We got picked up by Dirk and taken to Dinosaur Park, which is not as bad as it sounds. It is built on the grounds of a cement factory and dinosaur tracks were found as they were cutting away at the side of a cliff. Palaeontologists were called in and discovered many hundreds of dinosaur tracks in the wall as well as a few bones. The park is built to show off the discoveries. There was an outdoor section to show a vision of what the dinosaurs would have looked like in real life, but as the guide stated, no one knows what the colours would have been and they had taken artistic license. We thought about getting a coffee in the attached cafe and this is where things became….. interesting. No coffee. Oh well says Fran and I, we’ll get one downtown but will visit the bathroom first. Charlie ignores this. Visit to the bathroom over and Fran and I look for Dirk and Charlie. No sign. Ok, we’ll go wait at the entrance for them. We do see them ahead of us and when we catch up Charlie has a go at Fran about leaving without saying where she was going and the fact that he had a big bottle of guarana drink that Dirk had had to pay for. Why? Because Charlie doesn’t carry any cash, but asks Fran to put it on the spreadsheet. Fran not impressed, obviously. He then states that everyone should have a turn in the front seat and not just me. Umm, I’ve been in the front because I speak more Spanish and therefore it’s easier to work with the driver, plus I thought that you and Fran would want to be together. My mistake. Off you go. Travelling with Charlie is like travelling with a 73 year old child. He sulks if he doesn’t get his way, does not want to take any of the responsibility and loves to tell the same jokes and stories to EVERYONE he meets. Fran and I sit in the back and discuss what we can see of Sucre, Charlie tells Dirk the same stories and jokes he has told our previous 2 guides.
We visit the central cemetery, which is one of the greenest parts of Sucre and get a chance to look at the different styles of graves, from the elaborate mausoleums to the small holes in the side of a wall which you can rent for 20 years. You do get an option of extending the lease.
Still no coffee.
From here it was a trip to the central square, dedicated to General Sucre, who was the first president of Bolivia and as such the city is named after him. We got a peek inside the original federation building, where the Declaration of Independence was signed and then got to walk to the other side of the park where his wife’s restaurant is located. And a great lunch it was. Fran and I had a spaghetti with pieces of beef, potatoes and peas in a local spicy sauce. AND a coffee!
Once again we (and of course by this I mean Fran and myself) tried to get cash out of an ATM. I had no problem with my card but Fran continued with 5 different bank ATMs with no luck. Charlie, of course, didn’t have his card with him. I led Fran back to the ATM that I had used for one last try and this time it worked, although it was a bit challenging. The correct buttons are not always where they should be.
It was now siesta time, when the shops and tourist sites close so we went back to our hotel for 45 minutes. Apparently the city wakes up again at 3 and we went off to an old Dominican monastery to have a look around. Stunning church with all of the carvings and benches made from cedar. There were 4 courtyards with roses and citrus trees suffering under the weather and then we finally came across a 1500 year old tree, at the end of a courtyard and another Bolivian sacred site.
Outside of the monastery was a piazza with a covered promenade for unwed people to come (with chaperones, naturally) to meet members of the other sex. Still happens, except now without chaperones! Attached to the piazza was a small market where we were able to get a couple of native shirts at 70BOB (about $18).
Our last stop was Simon Bolivar Park, which had been visited by Eiffel (of the tower fame) and was now a big park for children and couples. One of the buildings on the edge of the park was designed by Eiffel, and they have built a small tower in the centre of the park to honour him. We did manage to see a wedding party being photographed and when we commented on the flower girls were told that they were most probably the couples’ children. Children? The couple only looked to be about 20and the oldest child would have been about 5! But aren’t they Catholic? Oh yes, but this is Bolivia and the law doesn’t say anything about children before marriage. Politics trumps religion in Bolivia.