Written by Jess.

We were looking forward to stopping in Sucre, Bolivia, especially after the chaotic Copacabana and the sprawling mass that is La Paz. We were not disappointed!

Sucre, a UNESCO world heritage site, is actually the official capital of Bolivia. It is a relatively small colonial city nestled at a pleasant spring-like altitude of 2,810m above sea level.

Our priority number one for Sucre was to take it easy after quite a hectic travel schedule at high altitudes and in cold weather. We chose a hostel called Hostal Casarte Takubamba with a communal kitchen, and really enjoyed cooking for ourselves. It’s certainly important to have a bit of ‘normality’ once in a while!

Sucre is architecturally beautiful, just wandering the streets is a pleasure. The white colonial buildings contrast with the clear blue sky and there are expertly manicured plazas complete with palm trees. There is also a well stocked central market with fruits from all the climates of Bolivia.

Attractions in the city include La Recoleta which is a convent. It is situated on top of a hill which offers excellent views over the city.

We also visited a vast well-kept cemetery. It seemed to be a popular destination with locals for an afternoon walk, seeing as it offers a tranquil green space in the city.

A short ride outside of the city (on the dino-bus, no less!) there is a cement factory. Wow, a cement factory, “how interesting” I hear you say?! Well actually it is! Whilst extracting raw materials for cement, the workers uncovered a huge vertical wall of dinosaur footprints. The raw material for cement had just come to an end so they stopped harvesting. The weather eroded some of the rock face and the footprints were revealed. The wall is vertical due to the tectonic movements that formed the Andes. At the time that the dinosaurs ruled the earth, this wall was actually a clay ocean inlet. There are over 5000 footprints, made by 15 species of dinosaurs.

The Cal Orck’o wall is now a tourist attraction and is contained within the Cretaceous Park which has educational resources and some fun replicas of dinosaurs.

Luckily, a new path had opened and we were able to take a tour down to the rock face, where our guide taught us how to recognise the different types of dinosaur tracks (meat-eating and plant-eating dinosaurs).

Part of the wall fell down in 2010 and we understand that the site may be given funding by UNESCO in order to preserve what remains. It was certainly obvious when we were there that weather erosion would seriously threaten the site. Even a small gust of wind was blowing dust off of parts of the wall.

All in all we enjoyed our rest in Sucre; a laid back town that is fairly affluent and enjoys being one of the prettiest in Bolivia. Oh yes, and dinosaurs, who doesn’t love dinosaurs?!