Sucre was cool but we were kind of done with taking pictures of plazas and white colonial buildings, so we decided to get out to the surrounding areas for some fun.
The first place we went to was Tarabuco. Tarabuco was a meeting place for pre-incan cultures to meet and exchange goods. It has survived through Inca and Spanish rule, to be much of the same thing. Artisans and weavers, jewlers and nicknack makers all join forces to sell their goods to tourists with pockets full of cash. It was a pretty interesting market, but we have seen similar ones on our trip. They have an amazing assortment of hats, caps, shalls and sweaters of alpaca/llama in an equally amazing range of colors. We snapped a few shots but didn´t feel like buying anything for gringo prices. We caught the bus back to Sucre, Jon slept most of the way back.
We next tried our hand with a local guiding service, Condor Trekkers, run by a kiwi and his vegetarian lady friend. We had heard about their one day trek to the dino park (Cal Orck´o) and then to the 7 waterfalls. Jon really pushed the dino park cause he´s a big dork about that kind of stuff. The dino park was created after the cement plant, Fancesa, dug into a layer of limestone that had suspicious prints all over it. I think they would have just carried on taking down the mountain if the layer of limestone wasn´t such poor quality for cement. Some 'thinker' proposed a money making tourist idea and the park was born. They have some cool history of the region´s tectonic activities and how there came to be a layer of mud with tons of dino tracks all over it; bent up at a 70 degree angle (almost a vertical wall)full of 70 million year old tracks! They also had a few life like dinos roaming the green spaces from tiny armed (almost non-existant) t-rex like meat lovers to massive beasts that could bury a bus in a pile of dung.
After we (Jon) had dorked out enough we trekked away from the plant, park and Sucre to find a series of waterfalls. The geology of the region is really interesting to look at and ponder how layers of marine sediment are now twisted near vertical and 3000m above the current oceans. The vegetation is mostly shrubs with the occational Australian eucalyptus tree, and soil/rocks in various shades of green, red, brown, grey and purple. After three or so hours of hiking we make it to the waterfalls. Since it is wet season we expected a bit more water but this area of Bolivia is more prone to flash flooding where water levels don´t stay high. Our guide, Ivan, fixed up lunch while we explored the first waterfall and pool. There are supposedly seven but they are very difficult to get to, we made it up to the third falls, but no more.
Hunger overtook us and we wondered back towards Ivan finding a massive spread of sammie makings! Delicious bread, hard boiled eggs, lettuce and spinach, tomato, avacado, onion, a baked veggie mix, cheese, and tons of condiments!! We feasted in the shade until we were about to burst and then Ivan packed us up and started out of the valley, back in the direction of Sucre. Stuffed and nearing food coma, we stumbled into a small town where we would catch a bus back to Sucre. We ended up waiting around and getting chatted up by a local who had had a bit to drink, and a huge wad of coca leaves in his mouth. The guy was really patient with our less than perfect spanish but he was pretty difficult to understand as he slurred his way through most of the conversation. Many laughs were had before he stumbled away and we caught a taxi (the bus was really late) back to Sucre.
We had enjoyed our outing so much we decided to do their 3 day trek the next day. How lucky we were to have such a good group of people along with us too. Two couples joined (UK/UK, Welsh/Canadian), as well as a single french guy and an older gentleman from Texas. All of us met up early in the morning, split up food and we were off! The rain cleared as we munched on some tasty banana breads and amazing cookies for breakfast, and the sun came out shortly after we began hiking. Most of the hiking was on roads or small trails but the first bit was on an old Inca road. We dropped down and then back up a valley, snapping photos of the gorgeous surroundings. We, again, had beautiful layers and mutli-colored rocks all along the trail. Our first night would be spent in Managua crater, which looks like a crater, but actually is just a unique geologic formation where the crust has been bent and shifted into the shape of a bowl. We had a wet run to the store after we dropped our bags off at the cabins to get beers and chocolate, before settling back down to a delicious meal of pasta.
Our next morning had us puffing up and out of the "crater" and we eventually stopped for lunch right beside another set of dinosaur tracks! You can imagine how excited Jon was ;) This layer had been exposed by a recent earthquake and the elders had said the tracks were made by flamingos! Not too far off I guess. After a long lunch and siesta we continued on for another couple hours before we reached Potolo, walking up dry gulches to get there. Again we swung into a small shop to gather some wine and beer, before getting served a hot dinner of quinoa and soup(side note, did you know that 2013 is the year of Quinoa?). We stayed up chatting for a bit before heading to the surprisingly comfy beds. The next morning was an uninteresting 5 minute walk to the bus and heading back to Sucre. The bus ride was curvy and we felt a couple times like we might get stuck crossing a river, or rub too close to the side of a cliff, but we returned to Sucre without incident.
We head to Potosi next! (we are in Potosi, blog coming soon!)
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