3-8-10: Sucre Facts: It is called la cuidad blanca (white city) due to the number of white buildings that they showcase with spotlights at night. It has an altitude of about 9,200 feet and temperate weather (mean of 64 degrees F). It is a popular city for tourists seeking to study Spanish or volunteer. Sucre is also famous for its tapestries; different indigenous tribes/family groups from the villages surrounding Sucre all have their own unique style, which is shown in their work by using different colors/symbols. Some handmade tapestries can take up to a year for 1 person to weave, depending on the size and complexity of the piece. Women are typically the weavers of the finer tapestries.
3-13-10: The amazing Parque Cretacico, also called Cal Orck’o (hill of lime), is located 5 kilometers outside of Sucre at a cement factory plant. It was discovered in the still active limestone quarry in 1994. It is the site of the world’s largest collection of dinosaur tracks. The tracks are embedded into a 70 degree wall of limestone, which used to be a lake floor, and thanks to tectonic movement was raised up as the current wall. The discovery of the footprints provided evidence that for a brief time interval before extinction, the diversity of dinosaurs was much larger than previously thought. The wall features about 5,055 individual footprints of at least 6 dinosaur species. The park has 24 life-size dinosaur replicas which includes 12 species of dinosaurs that lived together near the end of the Cretaceous period.
3-14-10: The family visited Villa Norita which is 20 minutes outside of Sucre in the countryside. For the low price of 35 bolivianos (5 U.S. dollars)/person, you could enjoy a delicious 2 course lunch with dessert and take a dip in the pool. Mike and the kids went for a swim, luckily, before we saw a young boy take a pair of underwear to the pool edge and dip them in the water and begin scrubbing them vigorously. Our desire for further swimming that day was extinguished after witnessing that event! Our bus ride back to town from Villa Norita was also an adventure. The bus was roughly a foot longer than our Honda minivan back home in Colorado but we squeezed into the nearly full bus by having Gaby and Luke sit on each of our laps. Amazingly, the bus driver picked up 4 more passengers at the next stop who nonchalantly stood or sat in the ‘aisle’ space; this brought the total passenger count to 24! We made it back to Sucre without further glitches except for cramped legs upon disembarking from the bus.
3-20-10: A visit to the Museo Charcas was a worthwhile and interesting outing today. Before being converted into a museum in 1957, the building and grounds belong to the Spanish Crown and was used for diverse purposes. The museum had 3 areas to explore: the Anthropology wing, the Colonial wing, and the Gallery of Modern Art. We liked the 1st 2 sections the best. The Anthropology section had a collection of objects ranging from approximately 1600 BC up to the Spanish occupation in 1532 AD, as well as physical anthropology and modern ethnography. It included ancient human skulls (regular-shaped skulls as well as skulls in which the cranium was deformed by wrapping the head with bandages or attaching wooden boards to flatten it), ceramic pottery of different indigenous tribes, jewelry, weapons and arrowheads, and pre-hispanic mummified bodies. The deceased were usually wrapped in a blanket and/or placed in a cave thus the dry climate of the area would naturally mummify the remains. The Colonial section had paintings, sculptures, and furniture of that era. The furniture pieces were objects of art as well since many of the wood pieces were ornately carved or inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The museum building, courtyard, and even the large, wooden, front door demonstrated the beautiful Colonial style.
3-13-10: The amazing Parque Cretacico, also called Cal Orck’o (hill of lime), is located 5 kilometers outside of Sucre at a cement factory plant. It was discovered in the still active limestone quarry in 1994. It is the site of the world’s largest collection of dinosaur tracks. The tracks are embedded into a 70 degree wall of limestone, which used to be a lake floor, and thanks to tectonic movement was raised up as the current wall. The discovery of the footprints provided evidence that for a brief time interval before extinction, the diversity of dinosaurs was much larger than previously thought. The wall features about 5,055 individual footprints of at least 6 dinosaur species. The park has 24 life-size dinosaur replicas which includes 12 species of dinosaurs that lived together near the end of the Cretaceous period.
3-14-10: The family visited Villa Norita which is 20 minutes outside of Sucre in the countryside. For the low price of 35 bolivianos (5 U.S. dollars)/person, you could enjoy a delicious 2 course lunch with dessert and take a dip in the pool. Mike and the kids went for a swim, luckily, before we saw a young boy take a pair of underwear to the pool edge and dip them in the water and begin scrubbing them vigorously. Our desire for further swimming that day was extinguished after witnessing that event! Our bus ride back to town from Villa Norita was also an adventure. The bus was roughly a foot longer than our Honda minivan back home in Colorado but we squeezed into the nearly full bus by having Gaby and Luke sit on each of our laps. Amazingly, the bus driver picked up 4 more passengers at the next stop who nonchalantly stood or sat in the ‘aisle’ space; this brought the total passenger count to 24! We made it back to Sucre without further glitches except for cramped legs upon disembarking from the bus.
3-20-10: A visit to the Museo Charcas was a worthwhile and interesting outing today. Before being converted into a museum in 1957, the building and grounds belong to the Spanish Crown and was used for diverse purposes. The museum had 3 areas to explore: the Anthropology wing, the Colonial wing, and the Gallery of Modern Art. We liked the 1st 2 sections the best. The Anthropology section had a collection of objects ranging from approximately 1600 BC up to the Spanish occupation in 1532 AD, as well as physical anthropology and modern ethnography. It included ancient human skulls (regular-shaped skulls as well as skulls in which the cranium was deformed by wrapping the head with bandages or attaching wooden boards to flatten it), ceramic pottery of different indigenous tribes, jewelry, weapons and arrowheads, and pre-hispanic mummified bodies. The deceased were usually wrapped in a blanket and/or placed in a cave thus the dry climate of the area would naturally mummify the remains. The Colonial section had paintings, sculptures, and furniture of that era. The furniture pieces were objects of art as well since many of the wood pieces were ornately carved or inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The museum building, courtyard, and even the large, wooden, front door demonstrated the beautiful Colonial style.
