Sucre is pretty darn sweet!

After so many weeks of moving around so quickly and not feeling well with elevation, I decided to spend 4 solid days in Sucre, a beautiful, warm, lower elevation city. Best choice I could have made! I spent my first day on a walking tour that had me falling in love with this beautiful white city.

The tour included lots of information about the local cultures (Jaq'a and Yampara and their weaving/textiles), colonization of Bolivia and the founding of Sucre, the constitutional capital (La Paz, the de facto capital, or seat of two branches of government.. An interesting situation!), revolutionary times in Sucre, signing of the Declaration of Independence, and amazing views of the main square, Plaza 25 de Mayo, and the state government building, Prefectura de Chuquisaca....

We also hit up the central market, beautiful fruit galore...

And finished with a local bar for chicha (fermented corn beer) and a local coin toss type game, then a viewpoint of the city...

Unfortunately I spent the rest of the day feeling sick again. If it's not the altitude, it's the food. Which has now prompted Ellie is a vegetarian in Bolivia! When I was feeling better the next day, first stop was a vegetarian cafe for lunch with my hostel roommate and it was amazing. Fresh juice and veggies and soup. Finished off with chocolate cake for dessert. Sucre is known for good chocolate and after the cake (chocolate drizzled on chocolate cake with chocolate icing,,, heeeellllooooo) and three different chocolate bars in the last few days, I understand why it has this reputation! Mmmmm.
In the afternoon I reunited with Jeff (who I'd met in La Paz). We found a beautiful rooftop view from a church near the main square....

Then went to the viewpoint to enjoy sunset. Totally worth it!

Then had supper at the market and a few drinks with some other people we'd met, Frans, Martin, Odet and Herdis from the Netherlands.

Next day Martin, Jeff and I did a day trip. First stop was Cal Orck'o, the dinosaur theme park. The local mine has uncovered preserved dinosaur footprints in the rock face. In some series of geological events which I'm not entirely clear on, the ground has been pushed up and the discovered footprints of multiple dinosaurs are clearly visible on the slanted rock face...

It's pretty cool. They also have life-size dinosaur models in the park which are also pretty neat..

And the park had a great view of Sucre...

Our next stop was the 7 waterfalls just outside of the city, or Las Siete Cascades. A bit of a walk down into the valley and you get this view of the first beautiful waterfalls and pool for swimming....

This was where we stopped for lunch and enjoyed relaxing with a view...

After lunch we could climb/scramble up a bit to see a couple more waterfalls..

The rest of the 7 are too difficult to get to without actual climbing gear. So it was back to town for us after this. We had supper together and a few beers at the Oktoberfest celebration at Jeff and Martin's hostel.

Next morning we met again (Jeff, Martin, Odet and Herdis) to head to a market in a town called Tarabuco, about 65km outside of Sucre. Since Jeff and I joined the bus last minute, we got to enjoy the ride from up front with the driver!

We spent the day in Tarabuco checking out all the markets (that are only on Sunday's). Textiles and fruit and vegetable and meat markets...

Did a little bit of shopping of course and also enjoying walking around this traditional Bolivian town..

And the parade happening in the main square with very interesting traditional outfits (which remind me of Ewoks from Star Wars, yub yub.)

Then the bus ride back before one last supper with the Canadian and Dutch group (joined by Frans again). A good veggie meal and fun Dutch card game before yet another sad goodbye! To both the people and to Sucre the next morning. Heading to Uyuni for a salt flats tour!