Sucre was a strangely wealthy city surrounded by a country that doesn't have enough money to properly feed itself. With a politically left stance, an attitude that it should be the real capital of Bolivia, not La Paz (President Morales moved all the judicial decisions to La Paz when he was elected) and a bit of an inferiority complex it makes for an interesting experience when compared against the rest of the country. A bit like Cork then...
Sucre was a comfortably welcome break while we beat off a brief second bout of sickness. Our medicine was provided by an unashamedly Gringo bar/restaurant called Joy-Ride situated off the main square. Lots of "normal" food, yay! Noodle soup, nachos, spagetti bologonese. At night it came alive with backpackers and wealthy Sucre yuppies with Daddy's drug money.
Another of Sucre's attractions is real live (dead) dinosaur footprints! Quite some time before the Incas were stomping around building roads and eating llamas, dinosaurs were stomping size 200 footprints and eating each other. Every so often they would step in molten lava (probably just the once) and their imprints were saved so that millions of years later a Bolivian tourism student could pay his way through college by showing them to Irish backpackers.
Initially suspicious, I was even more so when I saw a picture of them in a brochure. I'm no Ross Geller when it comes to dinosaurs but I'm pretty sure they never climbed vertically up walls... Apparently, the explanation was that these ones didn't either but rather that tectonic action............. wait! don't fall asleep!........ earthquakes, God, whatever, pushed rock up, eventually making horizontal stuff vertical. In the end they turned out to be pretty interesting. We hiked up along a river for an hour, passing locals washing their clothes, cars and kids in the water before arriving at a cliff that looked like a 5 dinosaurs had a brawl. HUGE prints were detailed enough to show the direction they were walking and even what type they were, very cool.
Well sick of Bolivian buses and roads by this stage we decided to treat ourselves to a flight to La Paz, Bolivia's capital. Andreas and Aynur accompanied us on the quickest flight and checkin procedure I've ever had. Security consisted of a guy in a t-shirt lazily peering into hand luggage as it was presented to him by each passenger. I'd say if I had a bag with "explosives" written on the side he'd have waved me on just so he could go back to his newspaper quicker.
A 20 minute spin in a half empty plane dopped us onto the runway of the world's highest airport. At 3800m, and with half the air that exists at sea-level the runway in La Paz needs 3km to allow planes to slow down safely. A scenic taxi drive displays the stubborn sprawl of the city as it wedges itself between huge mountains on all sides. I think the taxi driver probably spotted us gawking out the window and pulled over to allow us to take some photos. I'm hoping my camera thief might upload them flickr at some stage, but for now you'll just have to search for images on google to believe me...
Our timing for La Paz was to catch Carnaval. South America's biggest celebration, its a bit like Paddy's day times ten. Shops, restaurants, everything shuts down for parades and lots
of drinking. Kids run around with bags of water balloons and cans of shaving foam. No one is safe. "There's a Gringo, GET HIM!" "There's an old lady who can barely walk, GET HER!"
I'm not sure at what point in the Bible Jesus ran around spraying the Apostles with shaving foam but it must be there as Carnaval is supposedly a religious celebration. I guess its similar to us celebrating the lack of snakes in Ireland on Paddy's day by spraying take-away food on O'Connell street after 12 pints.
The best place to enjoy Carnaval in Bolivia is a town called Oruro. After asking around about accomodation during Carnaval there and getting laughed at back in Sucre (apparently you need to book months in advance) we opted to do an early morning bus, spend the day, and get the "nite-link" home. A package was offered for this in our hostel so we packed our water pistols and headed off. Carnaval in Ororu is celebrated by people in funny costumes dancing down a main street for 16 hours, after a while the novelty wears off. It was payback time for the kids with the water balloons though. At the start you feel you're doing the right thing by not throwing a water balloon back at the 7 year old that just soaked you, but that novelty wears off too.... We got back late that night, drenched having no clue what the point of Carnaval was exactly.
Our last stop was in Bolivia was Lake Titicaca. Often claimed to be the highest navigable lake in the world, it turns out that's a bit of lie (it isn't even the highest in South America). Nevertheless its nice spot. Isla del Sol is the main draw, an island about 90 minutes from our hostel in Copacabana by boat. With almost 200 Inca ruins its a great spot to wander about for a day. Choosing the option that would let me and Karen sleep in for the morning we went the half-day choice. There haven't been too many days we've wasted on this holiday but the "visit" to Isla del Sol was one of them. Setting off at lunch on a few planks of wood with a motor attached the "ferry" was slower than Bolivian restaurant service. I think ducks swam past us a few times. Finally arriving to the island we were told to be back in 40 minutes! Barely making up the first hill after 20 minutes we needed to turn back. After another 90 minutes back (I swear we went backwards at times, the coast seemed to get further away the more I watched it) we were back on land looking up Isla del Sol on Google to see what we had missed. Oh well.
Border crossings are dodgy experiences at the best of times, in South America, even more so. We hopped on our bus for Arequipa (our first stop in Peru) and then hopped off 10 minutes later to cross the border. The border consisted of a gate that you kind of pushed open yourself, no one supervising. Karen (seemingly eager) was 1st in the queue and got her passport stamped. Next up an American couple you who the border guard seemed to take an instant dislike of and demanded $180 from both of them (some sort of Visa charge but I'm gussing he just need new wheels for his car). Standing to one side while everyone else filed past they pretended to search their bags for the cash obvious to me they weren't carrying it. Meeting up with Karen outside we skipped into Peru and onto the bus, glad to be Irish (US citizens always have a tough time crossing South American borders) and eyeing up the free seats beside us the yanks would not be filling. As the engine started they appeared, breathless but evidently not in jail. Apparently as he passport office emptied of witnesses they managed to bribe the guard with $50 which he begrudgingly accepted and kicked them out the door. I sat back into my seat thinking how, for once, we had a straightforward experience with South American procedure. Or so we thought....
After 6 hours of driving through some of the crappiest looking towns I've ever seen we arrived to Arequipa pleasantly susprised with what we saw of the city centre. We headed to hostel (recommended by Dee and Dave) and ordered some Dominos pizza to quiet the rumbling bellies. Arequipa is a great launch spot to visit the Colca Canyon. Bigger than the Grand Canyon it offers treks, white water rafting and beautiful views of Inca terraces still used today for agriculture. An overnight bus trip provided us with plenty of great photos and a really enjoyable couple of days.
Back in Arequipa we visited another of Dave and Dee's suggestions; Santa Catalina Monastery. Good call Dave. This was a lovely, almost town-like, secluded place of worship over the last 500 years now open to the public. Beautifully restored to give a true insight into the spartan existence of the resident nuns it presented a stark example of the role of Catholicism in South America and the dedication of those who wished to devote their lives to God.
Back to the hostel that evening we packed our bags again, looking ahead to one of the highlights of the holiday; Machu Picchu and the Lares trek!
PS. Two last acknowledgments: Thanks to Karen's mom for checking the photos we sent back, reassuring to know we have backups of what we lost (and that they survived a spin in the DVD player).
Also quick word on Karen's brother, Stephen, who is into the last 5 of the Empire Online short film contest. Register and vote for him here. His film is Jerry Maguire.
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