Day 53-56 / Sucre

There was a beautiful park with a small Eiffel Tower right in front of our hostel.

There was also a big dinosaur playground further back, which we were all very excited about. After that, we went to the cemetery, which is also very beautiful like a park. All in all, Sucre was a very beautiful city. And since it is the capital and it was Saturday, we went out to a bar that evening where we even got a drink from the bartender because we were the life of the party 😏 It ended at quarter to 3 because bars in Sucre have to pay a fine if they stay open longer.

The next day, the program was just sleeping in. In the afternoon, Kiran, Lenja, and I went to the park for a picnic, where the stray dog, who had been following us the whole time the day before, joined us. We would have loved to adopt him!

The next morning, we went on our own (because it was much cheaper than taking the tour that tourists are offered) to the 7 Cascadas (small waterfalls). We had to take a bus to the outskirts of the city and then walk a good distance along an almost dried-up riverbed until we reached the first waterfall.

The water, which flowed down about 4 meters from the rock, had formed a kind of depression, so it looked like a naturally formed slide that led into a small pool filled with turquoise water.

We girls, especially Kiran, also slid down. The water was pretty cold but luckily the day was nice and warm. To get to the next waterfall, we had to walk/climb further upstream, which became increasingly difficult from waterfall to waterfall, but we all made it!

However, we only found 6 of the supposedly 7 waterfalls, which were all very similar and beautiful!

At the most beautiful one, we had a lunch break with snacks. On the way back, some of us just jumped from the waterfall into the pools, as it was easier than climbing down. After shopping at the market, we had homemade tomato soup for dinner. We all had sunburn and were pretty exhausted, but I think it was one of the most beautiful days!

On the last day, we visited dinosaur tracks in Carl Orck'o.

We had to pay an entrance fee and then got a tour from a very enthusiastic guide. The tracks were in a partly 100-meter-high sloping rock wall, which used to be the shore of a lake and then moved upward due to plate tectonics.

As our guide explained to us in great detail, even with small plastic dinosaurs and a lake drawn in the sand, the rock used to be a muddy lake shore where the dinosaurs left their tracks about 16 million years ago, which then dried over time and were covered with dust and other debris, which in turn turned into mud and the process repeated itself. This created several layers, which could be seen quite well at the edge of the wall, and there are dinosaur tracks on each layer.

Unfortunately, the wall is located unprotected next to a factory, which also accidentally found the tracks during stone mining. At the moment, efforts are being made to make the factory disappear and protect the wall with a kind of plastic layer against the weather, as the rock is very fragile and the tracks will disappear layer by layer over the years. I hope, especially for the enthusiastic guide, that something will come of it. Otherwise, you could also look at life-size plastic dinosaurs that have been recreated. On the same evening, we took the night bus to Cochabamba.

~ Velina