Sucre

Leaving behind the craziness of La Paz I jumped on a bus with Hayley who I had met in Copacabana for a 12 hour night journey to Sucre and was pleasantly surprised at how bad the roads weren't! Sure there were a few bumps here and there but I managed to sleep through most of them with a shockingly flat reclining seat - not bad eh? (This was to be the last of such luxury......)

Arrived in Sucre at 7 in the morning after waking around 5 and being treated to a beautiful sunrise and a very thorough drugs check by the local gendarme. Found somewhere to stay, dumped the bags and went in search of some breakfast - very nice it was too! Had a wander around town to get our bearings, found an optician's and ordered some ridiculously cheap prescription sunglasses, sat sunworshipping in the main plaza and bumped into a lady I had met 3 months previously in Rosario.....small world eh? Busy morning! That afternoon back to the hostel to clean up and have a little siesta...when in Rome as they say. That evening it was out to dinner with people we met whilst enjoying the local brew out on the patio - Caroline and Niamh, Sean and norweigian guy who's name I can never remember but has the thickest Manc accent I've ever heard and Veronico from Argentina. These turned out to be the dining and general frivolity companions for the next few nights as we all kicked back and relaxed.

In terms of things to do - there is a place just outside of the city which has visible dinosaur footprints which were uncovered by the local concrete factory approx 10 years ago and are known to be millions of years old - whilst now you can only view them from a platform as they are attempting to protect them until such time as they get silicon or something similar, until a couple of years ago they actually let people go right up to them and touch, etc. Fair enough that its limited but I was a little disappointed at how far away it was. There is also hiking and horseriding as far as the eye can see, but as a place to just hang out, take it easy, shoot the breeze with the locals and all that its great. The karaoke bars are also good - particularly when we had finished with them! I don't think the people will ever forget my magnificent attempt at singing Shakira in spanish - I however am attempting to forget it everyday!

Next stop Potosi and its famous mines.