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Hello!
I am currently in Sucre, Bolivia. Apparently this is the real capital city, but the international capital city is La Paz! And they all hate the President here! Anyway, I think my last blog was in Rio de Janeiro. Rio was AWESOME! would love to go back there for Carnaval. I managed to go up Sugarloaf Mountain and the view from the top was epic! You could see the whole city stretched out infront of you. Amazing. Also went on a night out in the samba sector called Lapa which was a great night out. Probably the biggest party i´d ever seen! Met an Australian guy called Dave who was working in Lima. We went up Sugarloaf, and went to the Botanical Gardens too, with their massive Imperial Palm trees. Managed to see the Maracana football stadium too!
I flew back from Rio to Santa Cruz in Bolivia, spent a day there (not much to see in Santa Cruz), then got the bus straight across to Cochabamba. I found out in Rio that I wouldn´t be able to do the volunteering in the rainforest, which is where Steph and Sally are at the moment. Apparently they are full up, and overflowing with volunteers so they can´t accept any more right now! Did not expect that at all! Pretty gutted as I wanted to do it.
I met up with Kat in Cochabamba, and we found a hostel to stay in. There really wasn´t much to do in that city, as nice as it was! Very pretty place, really nice weather too. I tried to find some Spanish classes to do but they were either too expensive or all booked up. So we just spent time eating and drinking delicious Cafe Caramelos! Whole lumps of melted caramel at the bottom, yum! In Cochabamba, we went up to the massive Christ statue (bigger than Rio´s apparently), and went to an old mansion called the Palacio Portales. Simon Portales was some businessman who had made a fortune from tin mining in Bolivia apparently! Then we went to cinema a few times and managed to catch some films in English which was great - Iron Man 2, Robin Hood, and Clash of the Titans in 3D! After a while in Cochabamba we decided to move on. We got the bus to Sucre (it was a horrible bumpy night journey, along roads similar to Death Road). On one side of the bus there was often a sheer wall of rock/mountainside, and on the other there was a sheer drop into darkness! Sucre is very pretty , lots of nice cathedrals and churches etc. We managed to get out to Parque Crustacico which is basically a quarry, and in 1994 they discovered the largest collection of dinosaur footprints in the world on the side of the rock face! It was awesome to see the footprints, they were massive! They had lifesize models of the dinosaurs too. It was all quite typically Bolivian though! Quite basic! There is some parade going on at the moment, celebrating the founding of the city. Apparently the President Evo Morales is coming here today! Anyway, we are moving on to Potosi (the highest city in the world at over 4000m) tonight! Can´t wait! Get to go down the silver mines there too! and maybe play with some dynamite...!
Thats all for now,
Paul
- comments
Geoff Nicholson Agree about Rio, fantastic beaches and girls no doubt. Wish I could be with you, but would slow you down.
the Godfather Hi Paul, You appear to be zig-zagging that continent like a drunken man! Talk about coast to coast! Your trip sounds absolutely fabulous, especially the cafe caramelos. Keep the blogs coming and go easy with the dynamite!