So we left Cochabamba, and headed for Santa Cruz!! Woke up on the bus just before we arrived and it was so hot!! So excited about the sunshine!!

We got to a hostel, this one had a pool, which was lovely, but the staff were very grumpy and not so friendly. We ventured into the town a few blocks away, and it was lovely.

The shops and restaurants were all very nice, and the main square was always filled with locals and their families. One evening there was a band playing in the square and all of the local children danced around as the music played, quite a family orientated place.

Although everywhere we have been there are always homeless women, and men, but mostly women, begging on the streets, nearly always with their children or babies, really sad to see. The children are most of the time, dressed in traditional clothing and some dance around for money.

We were pretty lazy in Santa Cruz and just chilled out. We explored the huge markets. On the way to the market on the second day there, a woman tapped my leg, and demonstrated someone pulling off my necklace, then pointed down the street we were headed down, she shook her head and gestured for me to remove my necklace, i did, and turned around and went the other way!!

One day we jumped on a microbus to the zoo!! Now i´m not sure if i like zoo´s. They seem a bit cruel, all the animals always look depressed and too enclosed. So it wasn´t a great trip!! ha! Although we did see some parrots, and tucans, and turtles.

The most exciting animal we did see was a SLOTH!! But this wasn´t at the zoo, it was in the local square near to our hostel!! Its really rare to just see one like that, so we were really lucky! It was well ugly though (sorry sloths) and moved really slow as it climbed up a tree!!

We tried to get a bus to leave, but were unsuccessful, so on our way back in to town asked the cabbie for a good place to eat, he showed us a place, so that evening off we went. It was a buffet type place, and they had everything, even Bolivian food!! You would think it would be easy to find, being in Bolivia, but it isn´t. So anyway the waiter told me what everything was and even wrote some stuff down for me!! We tried yuca, which was a fried plant, a bit similar to potatoe/parsnip, We also tried Matadito, which was a rice similar to paella, with meat strips in it! Very tasty, meatballs, a brocolli quiche type thing, small pieces of pasta cooked in the meat juices, very nice but all very filling and lots of stodge!

Jon has had his flowing ginger locks, all shaved off!! ha! He was a bit fed up with the growing bald patch so went for it! It cost 3 quid! So he was a happy boy!! It looks good, it suits him!

We headed for Sucre yesterday (9th Jan) at 4 o´clock, a 17 hour journey!! The bus was without a toilet, and a woman slept in the aisle, and a bloke slept under the bus with the bags! We had two stops for the loo, one had bathrooms, but self flushing loo´s, with a parrot keeping watch! And the other was the road!

So now in Sucre, will tell all in the next entry.

Hope your all good.

Lots of love

Kate and Jon xxx