Potosi

Hi all!

Last night we watched 'Jurassic Park' and then met the others after their day tour. Then Kate, Courtney, Anthony, Anne and I went to a crepe place. I had a ham and cheese one and shared a chocolate strawberry and chocolate banana one with Kate, yum :) Mum, it reminded me on our little crepe place in Zermatt, Switzerland. 

Then we went to a bar. We were told there was a DJ and dancing, but after an hour and a half of sitting down drinking and chatting no one in the bar was dancing! So we went back and finished 'Jurassic Park'. It was good and I really enjoyed it! 

This morning Rachel went rock climbing with a few of the others. I wasn't too keen because it was quite expensive for Bolivia, it was raining and had been all night, and my brother had a bad accident rock climbing in October. So I decided to have a restful morning. So often when I'm travelling everything is such a huge rush of seeing and doing things, so sometimes when I've done everything I wanted to in a city it's nice to chill out a bit. I had a really great morning enjoying simple pleasures that I hadn't had time for recently. I repacked my case so everything fitted a lot better, had a long hot shower, wrote my diary and read my book. 

At 12 I checked out and had some cheese and vegemite crackers for lunch, then went and had an Oreo frappuchino with Anthony and Courtney. Then I plugged in my iPod and walked the streets of Sucre. This was the first time this trip I had walked around alone for a long period of time. Altogether I walked for about an hour, and it made me realise how friendly the people here are. Apart from two beggar children who cornered me (and I quickly yelled at in Spanish) everyone in the street was really friendly, often greeting me with a smile and 'hola' (hello) or 'buenos Dias' (good day). 

Went back to the hotel and then we caught our three hour bus to Potosi. Potosi is one of the highest cities in the world at 4090m above sea level, which explains the constant stabbing pains I've experience since near the end of the bus journey. It seriously feels like what I imagine contractions would!!! Can't wait to be back at sea level in a few days. 

We went for a quick walk through town. Carnivale has begun because it's about to be February so people are in the street throwing water bombs and silly string. I managed to avoid being hit by any thank goodness!

Then we had dinner, which mainly consisted of me sitting at the table hoping my stomach wouldn't explode! Hoping I can sleep this off and be ok tomorrow. 

Tomorrow we go to the famous silver mine of Potosi. Good wifi here so easy to post!

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox

Dinosaur footprints and a castle!

Hello everyone!

Ended up going to dinner last night. My stomach has improved a tiny bit! I felt hungry by the time we arrived! It cost me $5 Aussie for a delicious burger which came with chips and a coke!

This morning Anne, Courtney, Kate, Anthony and I caught a cab to the dinosaur footprints 20 minutes out of the city. All the others except Donna and Josh went on an organised tour, but it cost $35 US ($40 Aussie) and in total our trip to the dinosaurs cost us $7 Aussie. Budget life!

We arrived and watched a short film but it was in Spanish so we didn't glean too much from it. Then we had a short tour with a guide all to ourselves. He showed us the models of the dinosaurs that left footprints here that were to scale. The largest one was 36m long and the T-Rex was 12m. 

Then came the main part of the tour. Here we ran into the others on their organised tour, and our private guide took us with them and about 20 other people down to the archaeological site. We had to wear helmets. The guide told us that 5000 footprints have been found here, of 400 different types. The dinosaurs that walked here were sauropods, ornithopods, anquilosaurios and teropods. In 1959 the cement factory that is next to the dinosaur place unearthed the footprints when quarrying the area but didn't realise. After years of erosion from machine vibrations and wind, the footprints started to show more and in 1985 could be fully see.  In 1994 the workers alerted the authorities and in 1998 palaeontologists from Europe and the USA came to take casts and investigate. 

The footprints are 68 million years old, and no skeletons were found on the site. Over the years sediment covered the footprints and preserved them. Apparently the soil here was too acidic to preserve skeletons, but a lot were found in Argentina in 1983. The wall of footprints is vertical nowadays due to tectonic plates pushing the ground up. 

Then the five of us headed back to Sucre. We had lunch at a cafe in the main square and I had the most amazing sandwich, how I miss sandwiches like home! I had brown bread with ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, olives and mayo - YUM. Also had a strawberry and banana smoothie. 

Next, Courtney, Anne and I decided to go to a castle 7km out of the city. We thought this would be a little different to anything we had done for a while. Built in the late 19th century and owned by a couple who were declared prince and princess of the Glorieta by the pope at the time, the only royalty in Bolivia's history.  We got a taxi to drive us there, wait and drive us back for $3-4 Aussie each, gotta love taxis here! The castle was quite nice but also in slight disrepair. We are in a third world country though I suppose. We walked through all the rooms and climbed to the top of the tower, which had a Russian onion dome upon its top!

We came back to the hotel and had a look in some shops. Everything is cheap here except clothes. I lost one pair of leggings and my others are falling apart but ones here cost $30+! At home I pay $7 at K-Mart. Will just have to tough it out 'til London and keep on sewing them. 

Now we are back in the room. Keeping with today's theme, Courtney, Anne, Anthony and I are going to watch 'Jurassic Park' on Courtney's laptop. Can't believe I have never seen it! I've been on the rides at Universal Studios in California and Singapore though!! For dinner we are thinking crepes!

Love to all

Claire-adactyl (Courtney's idea!)

Xoxox

Sucre

Hi all,

Yesterday after I posted, Rachel, Sarah, Serena and I went to the witch's market. It was a little creepy! There were llama foetuses everywhere in the shops. Yuck. While we were there it started pouring with rain and we all got soaked walking back!

Then we all got on our overnight bus. Rodrigo (our new guide, who is super friendly!) had told us not to expect much. But we had more leg room than ever before and the seats were huge. There was free wifi and for some reason mine was the only phone that connected! Had the clearest conversation so far this trip with Mum, Dad and Brendon - good to talk to you all! Weird thing was though while we were talking the bus kept stopping without explanation and beggars would get on board! Very strange. 

The wifi cut out after that and 'Taken' and 'Taken 2' started to play in Spanish with no subtitles! I watched 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' on my iPad and then tried to sleep. I tried, but mostly failed. It was so hot on the bus so after 13-14 hours my cold was worse and I felt awful. 

We got to the hotel and then had breakfast at a nearby cafe. I had a delicious panini and a banana and coffee smoothie. Then we went to a travel agent type place to discuss activities for the next couple of days. They were all overpriced, Courtney, myself and a couple of the others have decided we will do things ourselves. 

Anne, Courtney and I set off for the day walking around the city. Sucre is apparently Bolivia's prettiest city and is also known as the white city of Bolivia. Sucre is technically the capital, but for some reason the government resides in La Paz!

Firstly we went up a lookout. It was a good view but the weather was quite cloudy today, so we couldn't go hang gliding like we wanted to. We looked in some markets and walked back down to the main square. Here we saw the cathedral and government palace where Bolivia's constitution was signed. Then we ran into Daniel, Michelle, Rick and Rodrigo and went to a chocolate shop and the central markets. Here we all had a juice, I got banana, strawberry, apple and passion fruit - yummy!

Then us three girls walked to Bolivar Park. There was a dinosaur themed playground here, Courtney and I got very excited but were quickly told off when we got on the stegosaurus seesaw, apparently only for kids. Isn't 22 counted as still being a kid? :( So we went to another part of the park. Anne and I climbed an observation tower that looked like a mini Eiffel Tower. I got a bit scared at the top, the fences weren't very good and it swayed in the wind - eek! 

Next we all had an ice cream, then Courtney went back to the hotel. Anne and I walked to the general cemetery, apparently one of the biggest in South America. It was massive and we spent a while walking around the graves, tombs, walls of gravestones and little shrines. 

Tonight we are meeting at 7pm for dinner but I'm considering staying in as my stomach isn't the best still. Rodrigo assures me it's the altitude and it'll go away in a few days when we get closer to sea level. I hope so!

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox

Death Road Photos and La Paz

Hello all!

So I have some photos from yesterday. Can't put too many on though due to crappy wifi. 

Last night we had our tour meeting. We've lost 6 people and gained one Irish, one Scot, two Swiss and two Aussies. The Irish and Scot both live in Melbourne too though (so do the two Aussies!). We then went out for dinner. Afterwards Rachel, Ash, Daniel, Anne and I went out to Wild Rover - a hostel that Kim, Will, Nigel and Sarah had moved to now that their tour had ended. We had a great night! It was tequila Tuesday - two for $3. Bolivia is ridiculous! I also ordered a vodka lemonade and couldn't taste any lemonade, a bit different to home! Needless to say we all got pretty happy, danced on the bar and had a great time. I got home about 1am with Rach and Ash. 

This morning I woke up and (surprise, surprise!) my tiny sniffle had turned into a cold. We are such a healthy bunch at the moment - not!!! Rachel, Anthony, Serena and Sarah (the Swiss girls that are new) headed out for a sightseeing bus tour of the city. The audio commentary was funny and kept jumping places. We saw various squares, parks, views, buildings. We kept laughing whenever crappy cables kept hanging into our bus and the conductor would casually stand up and cable tie them. 

After our 1.5 hour bus tour we caught a taxi to the cable car. Here in La Paz there are three cable car lines - red, yellow and green (the colours of the Bolivian flag). We caught the yellow one up, the views were amazing! Then we caught it back down and got the green one to a shopping centre called Megacentre. Everyone we had spoken to said this was a huge shopping centre - it was not. It was dark, dingy and hardly had any shops! Very strange. But we did get subway for lunch, and got it to take away for dinner for our overnight bus too. 

Then we caught a taxi back and the four of us girls had to squish in the back! It cost us $6 to drive for 30 minutes, everything is so cheap here!

Tonight we get an overnight bus to Sucre. Wifi permitting I'll keep posting the blog!

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox