So, we finally managed to escape from La Paz and experience a different part of Bolivia.

Joe managed to catch the Flu at some point between Peru and Bolivia so we spent an unplanned extra couple of days in La Paz - with Joe lying in bed feeling sorry for herself and Mads out and about exploring the city a bit more.

On Friday night we got ourselves onto a bus down to Sucre - the experience was far less traumatic than the journey out to Copacabana and we arrived in Sucre, on time, Saturday morning.

The city is the constitutional capital of Bolivia and is absolutely beautiful. There are, of course, plenty of colonial churches, plazas and parks but there is also sunshine (we have been frozen since Arequipa), plenty of benches for lots of sitting and a generally relaxed atmosphere. And because it is lovely and warm we have managed to get all of our jumpers and trousers washed - it is unbelievable just how excited we get now about small things like clean clothes (sometimes even smelling of washing powder) and hot showers.

Yesterday we mainly chilled out (Joe´s quote of the day: I have had to get up AND dressed EVERY day for the last 8 weeks!) but in the afternoon we went to the Casa de la Libertad, which purported to be a museum but in reality was a couple of rooms with pictures of old Bolivian leaders. The one interesting thing there, however, was the declaration of independence which was signed here in the 19th century.

Today we have become paleantologists (well, we would have done if we could spell it) and been to look at dinosaur footprints. There is a cement works near Sucre where they uncovered a vertical cliff covered in dinosaur footprints - we have been informed that the dinosaurs couldn´t actually walk up walls and that the wall was once the floor. They have built a little park around these prints where we were treated to an episode of ´walking with dinosaurs´, some life-size models and then the footprints themselves - a cute little afternoon out, and an opportunity for Auntie Joe to make Carter very jealous by having her photo taken with a T-Rex.

Now we are waiting for another bus to take us to Tupiza - where we may or may not be doing a tour of the Southwest, including a trip to the salt flats. The company we are trying to book with have tried to embrace technology and want an online payment, but the system crashes every time we try to use it, so I guess we will just see what happens tomorrow.

Sending our love to everyone at home. xx