An actual dinosaur print.

Bolivia, amoung its many other claims to fame, also has the largest amount of dinasour tracks in the world. Just outside of Sucre stands a giant wall oer 150 meters high which has over 600 dinasours tracks. It was descovered in 1994 by workers of the local cement factory  who were quarrying in the area. The once boggy mud flat, created over 65 million years ago, has since been pushed up platonic movement and now stands vertical. The tracks of over 150 different species can be seen, some over 80cm in diameter.

Telescopes for viewing the tracks.

The information centre also has some life size models of the dinosaurs complete with speakers throughout playing terrifying dinosaur sounds. While you can’t help feeling a little like you’ on a Jurassic Park ride at Disneyland, the giant wall of tracks is really impressive and reminds us of how short and insignificant our lives are in the grand scheme of things.

Huge.

65 million years of history. Mind blowing.

Siete Cascadas – The Seven Waterfalls

Sucre sits at 2,800 meters, which is high by some countries standards, but low for Bolivia. During the day, the sun was strong, but the nights still had a chill. One Sunday, all the students from our homestay decided to head to the seven waterfalls located beside the airport. We took a local bus which is always an adventure, but with our newly acquired Spanish eventually got there.

Five of the seven falls can be reached fairly easily, but the final two required some rock climbing, which Aoife’s knee was not yet ready for.

While it was very warm in the sun, the water, which came from further up the mountains, was icy cold. Aoife and Tiffany, homestay sisters, didn’t risk the cold water, but the boys all jumped in. The water was really clean and the surroundings were beautiful, but unfortunately there was quite a bit of rubbish. Like many places we’ve visited, rubbish doesn’t seem to bother the locals like it does in Ireland and New Zealand. Previous picnicers obviously just left their coke cans and food wrappers behind without considering how it spoils the experience for others. Hopefully this is one aspect of Bolivia which will slowly improve as more money trickles into the economy.

Bolivia is know for its festivals and celebrations and while staying in Sucre we got to see some great performances and spectacles nearly every week, all for free.
The first weekend was the festival of the dance where stages were set up in the main square and all the different dances of Bolivia were performed, modern and traditional. There was also a giant international fashion show and fireworks show, and many other smaller bands and random cultural dances celebrating anything and everything from random saints days to International Children’s Day. 

Leaving Bolivia, the main road from Bolivia to Peru was closed in part, and many other roads throughout the country, for another sports festival so the children from the local schools could play games on the road. In any other country this would and not not happen. Economists would be calculating how much money it cost the economy to have the main road closed for a day and the disruption to local businesses would be of greater concern than allowing a few children to play on the road. 

But in Bolivia these small scale, and sometimes large scale, disruptions is almost past of the culture and are accepted as past of everyday life.

While we were in the country there were giant demonstrations throughout the country, but centered in part on Sucre, to object to rising petrol costs and low wages. Many of the main roads in and out of the city were blocked by buses and trucks preventing goods from been taken into the city, driving the cost of food up. People had to get transport to the blockades, walk for up to two hours through them, and get alternative transport on the other side to continue on their journey. This continued for over a month and cost the country over a million dollars per day in tourism alone. Who knows what the total cost was. Even Sucre airport was blocked off but thankfully were were leaving on a Saturday morning and many of the drivers went home to their families at the weekend and it was possible to get through. 

While the blockades caused a lot of disruption and lots of money to be wasted it was amazing how calm many Bolivians were about the whole thing. I think the tourists were more annoyed than anyone else as many had to get to particular city by a particular date, or even had to leave the country as their visa had run out, but it was impossible. When the miners joined the demonstrations and started setting off dynamite in the city centre, we were genuinely afraid in case we took the wrong street and got caught in the middle of it, but locals just took it in their stride. 

It is one of the great things about Bolivia but also what is holding it back. The instability creates a unique culture where things are generally more laid back and people are prevented from taking things too seriously as no one knows what tomorrow will bring. But it also prevents people from making real plans and progressing. How can people expect to open businesses and employ people when there could be a new government in the morning who changes the current legal system completely, where strikes could prevent any customers from finding their business for months on end and their supply chain is cut off because of someone else´s dispute. There are no easy answers and while Bolivia does need stability and structure, I hope it doesn´t lose a bit of itself along the way.