Animal Magic

Sucre´s a strange sort of place when it comes to tourism. It truly has some of the world's great touristic gems (for example, the largest collection of dinosaur tracks discovered anywhere on earth!) and yet it really hasn´t ushered in the touristic era at all.

Take the aforementioned dinosaurs. In the US, such a discovery would surely have come accompanied by the creation of DinoWorld, featuring an airconditioned visitor center, guides dressed up as beasts of the Cretacious period and every imaginable souvenir in the shape of T-Rexes and Brontosauruses.

At Sucre however, the world´s most spectacular dinosaur track site doesn´t even have a sign! What´s more it shares an entrance with a concrete quarry and its only permanent fixture is a small shack housing a grand total of four souvenirs - and that`s only if you count each of its four black-and-white postcard options separately. Mind you, the plastic dinosaurs used by the guide to demonstrate which dinosaurs made which tracks were a nice touch. Apparently the turquoise brontosaurus made most of the big ones.

Continuing the theme of amusing attractions we went to the Sucre Natural History Museum this afternoon. Sucre´s natural history museum is about as worthy of the name as our flat in Chiswick is worthy of being called "The Stately Home of Lord and Lady Francisco of California". It was, in fact, a single room housing approximately fifty stuffed animals, many of which are not at all resident in Bolivia. Still, the snakes with right-angled coils were a nice touch.

We´re off to Potosi tomorrow, a city that was as large as London in the 16th century thanks to the discovery of the world´s richest ever vein of silver. Once again adventure travel will be taking center stage as we descend one of Potosi´s silver mines. Apparently 80% of those who worked in them never lived to receive their mining pension.

Comments

[Poddy]

I remember the dinosaur in Spain....

[Dave]

I couldn´t stop myself laughing the other day at the memory of you pretending to be a dinosaur in our attempts to find out from locals where that bloody dinosaur quarry was!

[Poddy]

If only i'd been armed with a plastic brontosaurus.