After crossing the border into Bolivia, our next stop was to be the city of Sucre where we intended to stay and work.
We had a choice of routes and weren’t sure which was better, and in the end followed the main road to La Paz as far as we could before turning off toward Sucre. The road was mostly dirt after that, but they’re in the process of paving it and most of it was pretty fast and we enjoyed the scenery.
The road we took to Sucre was an unexpected surprise, winding through beautiful countryside.
We saw many ruins of small churches along the way. They tended to be set by themselves in the countryside rather than being in a village. They were strangely captivating.
We stopped to take pictures and explore one of them.
The roof was caved in, but you could still see the altar in the back with simple carvings.
Our first night in Bolivia was spent in a bush camp along a side road. There weren’t many people about, but those that were looked at our van with great curiosity.
The next day we passed through the dusty town of Oruro where we re-fueled. That night we made it to some thermal baths we had read about. Quinn and I enjoyed a swim in the warm waters.
Quinn’s first bath in awhile…
There was a whole lake that was warmed by the hot springs and in the morning the steam rose off the water into the chilly air.
The next morning we drove to the town of Potosi, the site of a huge silver mine. We wanted to visit a silver museum and mint in the town, but when we tried to get into the only parking lot we could find, we were told that the man with the key was still asleep. At least he wasn’t dead.
With no place to park, and since we have to come back through Potosi on our way to the Salar de Uyuni, we decided to head to Sucre. When we arrived, we found a great campsite, but poor internet connections. With winter coming and temperatures in the Salar dropping with each passing week, we decided to only stay two weeks, and to live in the van instead of renting an apartment for a month.
We were happy we did, as we got to meet lots of other travelers there.
Our first sightseeing trip was to a local dinosaur park. It was really well done and Quinn had a great time.
The park was conceived when a local cement factory was digging for raw materials and uncovered this sheer rock face covered in dinosaur footprints.
10,000 footprints have been cataloged, making this the largest dinosaur footprint site in the world.
This is the rock face where the footprints are. Imagine this as a mud plain 70 million years ago with dinosaurs walking across it. Then through geological movements it was crushed into a V shape. There’s no telling how far down it goes, and the other half exists somewhere nearby.
A Swiss visitor to the campsite brought out his alpenhorn and played a little for us. Yes, he kept an alpenhorn in his camper.
Another Swiss family arrived a few days later. Quinn had a great few days playing with their daughters.
The city of Sucre was one of the first cities in Latin America to gain independence from Spain. It is still the official capital of Bolivia, even though the seat of government is in La Paz.
The climate here is similar to Colorado in the fall. The skies are vivid blue and the sun warms things up during the day following chilly nights.