B O L I V I A

Our "Hostal De Su Merced", an old colonial house

Zebras are all over Sucre entertaining drivers and pedestrians

La Recoleta offers a panaromic view of the Sucre

La Recoleta

Today was a commemoration of the foundation of the city in 1538 on La Recolata.

Parque Simon Bolívar: look at the red ironwork structure: while not an exact replica of Eiffel Tower,  it was designed by French engineer Gustav Eiffel.

We saw the military (here Sucre's 2nd Infantry Regiment) practicing the waist-high form of goose stepping in this military parade.

Central Market

On top of the Iglesia San Felipe de Neri

Our charming guide Erika

The tower of the Cathedral with the apostels

The beautiful weaving of the different ethnic groups, seen in the Museo de Arte Indígena

Hiking the Inca Trail from Chataquilla to Chaunaca

This Madonna is a natural stone formation

Sucre Cementery

A special Jewish corner at the Sucre Cementery

Parque Cretácico Cal Orck’o

It seems that 65 million years ago the site of Sucre’s Fancesa (Fabrica Nacional de Cemento SA) cement quarry, 5km north of the center, was the place to be for large, scaly types. When the grounds were being cleared in 1994, plant employees uncovered a nearly vertical mudstone face bearing about 12.000 tracks of at least eight different species of dinosaur – the largest collection of dinosaur footprints in the world.

On the right are the footprints (almost 1m diameter!) of a sauropod -see model below- with a person standing in front
a the front leg

Part of the wall with the footprints

La Paz

Going up to El Alto with the world's longest and highest urban cable car at 4000 m altitude!

Beautiful view on Illimani arriving in La Paz

La Paz extends from 3000 to 4000 m elevation!

Views from the Mirador Killi-Killi

The stadium in La Paz (capacity of 41,143 seats)  is at an altitude of 3,637 metres above sea level, making it one of the highest professional stadiums in the world.

Für meinen Sohn!

Strolling through the market

Our guide bought so many bananas for us to eat

Palacio del Gobierno

Calle Apolinar Jaén: the last colonial street

Look at this clock: it works  the other way round

Our guide Roberto prepared coca mate tee with 3 (!) bags like Roberto after lunch at the Oberland restaurant.

 

Valle de la Luna / Moon Valley

Offerings to Pachamama at the witch market: Lama baby and lama fetus.

Julia learning how to chew coca leafs to relief altitude sickness

Tiwanaku

Gateway of the Sun

This church at Laja was built with stones from Tiwanaku!

Pachapuma

The Ancestors of the Incas

The Tiwanaku empire is a Pre-Columbian civilisation that extended into present-day Bolivia, Peru and Chile from AD 300 to 1000.

View over to the Lake Titicaca and Cordillera Real from Lloco Lloco  (4028m)

Volker so happy to eat Feijoada Brasileira in La Paz!

Our hotel "La Casona" in La Paz in a beautiful old colonical mansion

The new airport of La Paz

10 Bolivianos (Bs) = 1,28€ on 29/09/2015
 
Tue 29/09/2015: Sucre, elev 2800m - sunny 20ºC
It's so good to be at low altitude again, just at 2800m! If feels like at sea level... At 9:15 our guide Erika came with our driver and showed us most important sites of Sucre, beginning with the Recoleta where there were the festivities for the foundation of Sucre in 1538. Visit of the Museo de Arte Indígena. The guide told us Bolivians have a break with salteñas (a kind of empanadas) at 10am, so we stopped at El Paso de los Abuelos (Bs 9 each, supposed to be the best in town) which we ate at Bolívar Park. Visit of Central Market and also the Iglesia de San Felipe Neri after having lunch in a nice restaurant in a beautiful courtyard La Posada Restaurante Paceña where we sat next to the noisy Dutchmen who were next to us in the airplane yesterday from La Paz to Sucre! After that we went back to our hotel, had a siesta but decided to organize to have organize a tour for tomorrow to walk the Inca trail. So we booked with Skyland Travel Agency (tel. 64-66255, just the two of us B$ 413 p.p.).
 
Wed 30/09/2015: Sucre - Inca Trail - cloudy
Today Volker woke up with some fever and stomach indisposition so, Julia went alone to walk of the Inca Trail with the nice guide Rosio von Chataquila to Chaunaca from elevation 3630 to 2890 m (easy walk down for 2 hours). At 1:30 pm we were back in Sucre. In the afternoon, Julia went into town for some handicraft shopping, lunch in a polleria behind the market and a quesadilla at the Metro Café at the Plaza 25 de Mayo (yes, on my own, as my husband is trying to recover in bed).
 
Thu 1/10/2015: Sucre - Flight Amaszonas 205 from Sucre to La Paz - sunny
Visit of the Sucre Cemetery which looks more like a botanical park, very well kept. Then we went to the Parque Cretácito where there are over ten thousand of dinosaur footprints (entrance fee Bs 30 for non-residents). Driver David fetched us at 11:30 am and we did the tour at 12:00 pm. There is also a tour at 1pm. There is a lot to go up and down, but it is worthwhile. Because of the rain we were not able to go very close but nevertheless it was impresssive. After the tour we drove back and had lunch at the La Taverne of the Alliance Française (Bs 55 for a 4 course menu, very good). At 4pm transfer to the airport, our flight which was scheduled for 18:10 in our documents was then written for 17:40 at the airport but we flew off at 17:25 ! Very strange, this happened already when we flew from La Paz to Sucre. Arrival in our hotel "La Casona" Room 109.
 
Fri 2/10/2015: La Paz - elevation 3860
Departure at 9am. The first thing we did this morning was to go up with the cable car to the highest point with the yellow line. We did a good sightseeing of the city, had lunch Hotel Restaurante Oberland in Mallasa, then went to the Moon Valley, very interesting!
 
Sat 3/10/2015: Tiwanaku - La Paz - snow/rain 4ºC-10ºC - cold !!
At 8am when we took off to Tiwanaku it had rained and snowed! El Alto was with snow, children were playing with snow. As usual, it took 1 hour to get out of La Paz and El Alto. We crossed the pass again at Lloco Lloco (4028m) and reached Tiwanaku at about 10am. Today was very coldVisit of the museums and the ruins. Back in La Paz at 2pm. We took a taxi (Bs 15) to the Brazilian (yes!) Restaurant "El Paladar", Calle Fernando Guachalla 359, Sopocachi (Bs. 170, very good). Back walking, not so nice).