We had agreed for the following day that as Copacabana was so close to the border, at 8km, that there was no point in getting up too early, so we settled for knocking on Henk’s door at 08:45 with a view to us all leaving at 09:30.
As John and I were driving away from the garage where we'd parked our bikes towards the exit at some yard gates, I noticed that a large pool of water was actually frozen right where John and I were about to ride-so a quick deviation and a shout
to John ensured we didn’t go sliding and crashing into the yard gate.
We packed our bikes and left town. Within 3 or 4 mins we were back at the Peruvian border again, within a further 10 minutes we had all our exit stamps for ourselves and our bikes and we were off towards the Bolivian border. This we reached in 2 mins or so.
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Our final point in Peru before crossing the border.
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We had heard a few scare stories about the Bolivian Police looking for fraudulent money, thereby inspecting your currencies, and as we understand it, declaring some of your money fraudulent which then warrented confiscation. We had also heard stories of trumped up entry charges. So we started the Immigration and customs “routine” with a little sceptisism.
The first “hurdle” was immigration which was a straight forward form, similar in fact to the green one completed for entering the States . This was accomplished and the appropriate visa/stamp granted within about 10 minutes at no cost. Next we were off to customs to get a temporary import for the bikes. The official looked at all our documents and the form completed at immigration and asked us to get photocopies of the form, our log books and our passports at the local grocery store just across the road…..we think the day she bought the photocopier was the day she stopped her pension contributions……
, having said that the copying charges were fine. We returned to fill in a more complex document which included all the chassis number type details. Within a further 10 mins or so that was completed and temporary importation into Bolivia was granted. The last hurdle was a visit to the Bolivian Police. When we arrived at their office, which is part of the same small building complex as the other offices, there was nobody present. We waited for a while and then I informed another guard Policeman that we were waiting. He went off calling here and there, meanwhile the Policeman we required immerged from the back of the Office. After a series of simple questions, Passport number, Bike registration plate number etc we were free to enter Bolivia. No funny searches, no trumped up charges, just a straight forward crossing. In total, the two borders probably took about 90 mins.
That done, we head off to Cococabana, and to a hostel that Phil has recommended, La Culpa. It takes a few attempts to find it, not least of which because it is only accessible by footpath, whereas the Lonely Planet map makes it appear approachable by road. We did manage though to get our bikes up the path in the end. However, all the rooms were reserved and nothing spare. 
La Culpa is a very well favoured Hostal run by a German and their reservation system works on the principle that they will keep a room until 14:00, after that it becomes free again if the reservee has not arrived. We decide to take a late and thoughourly enjoyable breakfast 
and enjoy the view whilst we waited to see if any rooms became free. We finished breakfast and we just waiting when the Manager said we should come down to reception as it was now 14:00, although our watches still said 13:00.….aha, the penny dropped (another time change Captian Kirk !) and so down I went. The only room they had free was a triple and as our plans weren’t definite and as we’d only known Henk for a day, we didn’t want to commit to this sort of arrangement. Henk was fine about it and told John and I to take the room, which we duly did.(It turns out that it actually was a double and a single bed so it wouldn’t have been appropriate anyway!) Miraculaoulsy, another single room appeared within a few minutes and we were all satisfactorily set-up. John and I’s “room” turned out to be more of a mini-chalet with a kitchen and bathroom. Henks had an amazing view over Lake Titicaka.
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Copacabana.
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Our "Shack"
Later in the day whilst basking in the sun we meet an English couple, Giles and Helen, from Broadstairs and Sheffield, currently living away from their home in Putney on an around-the-world air & bus trip. We exchange many stories with them and we all decide that going out for a few drinks and dinner would be a good idea. Henk pops up to see us at the end of our long conversation and we invite him along as well. As we head into town there is only one real constraint, wherever we go it must be warm as it is still freezing cold at night(…we'd left our heater on in our room.!!) ! We find a bar quite quickly which fit’s the category and so we sample some of the Bolivian beers there, and move onto a restaurant which looks warm. The dish of the day was Trout from Titikaca, and there were 21 ways to have it. Four of us opted for Trout whilst John had a Pizza…..sometimes you just can’t get the friends !! A few drinks and very pleasant evening later we returned to our rooms. Ours with the heater left on from when we left, others to freezing cold rooms. I can’t tell you how nice it was to have our warm room but if I could…….”Readybrek” would spring to mind.
Our colds had now got worse and so we took the start to the next day slowly, finding a roof top patio with Henk for a Bolivian “English breakfast"
. In fairness it wasn’t too bad BUT there are no real substitutes for English sausages, bacon, Heinz beanz and some decent bread.....hhhmmmmmmmnnn
In the afternoon John and I did some Internet work sorting out various documents for South Africa, e-mails etc, and then took a stroll on the beach front and “took” a light lunch. We had hoped to visit the Isla de Sol but with our colds and ever diminishing number of days in South America, decided that this would have to be by-passed. By way of consolation we decided to climb a viewing point on the hill behind our hostal to watch the sunset. The only problem was that we got our sun-set times a bit wrong and had to “settle” for the view from another viewing point three-quarters of the way up where the sun was already half-buried in the back of the lake. The view was fine once we started breathing again and our hearts stopped looking for an exit through our rib cages. (Whatever type of hill you climb at 3,600m, you feel like you’ve sprinted for an Inter-city express train with a 100kg rucksack !) and with the colds it complicated the whole breathing process further still !
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The hard-earned sunset.
We’d lost contact with Henk earlier in the day as he went off to watch the football and we hadn’t been able to find him again. Dinner time was fast approaching, and after two failed attempts of calling for him at his room, we went for dinner at La Culpas own restaurant. When we first arrived there were no spare tables, however Giles & Helen were there and generously offered us to share theirs. We ensured that they didn’t mind and enjoyed another evening with them. John’s cold was now getting worse than mine, and with the imminent drive to La Paz the following day now drawing much closer, we decided for an early-ish night after taking our Lem-Sips……which we’d brought from England, and turning the thermostat on our heater to our night-setting so we didn’t get too hot !!!
Today we left for La Paz and John’s cold had got still worse overnight. We set off reasonably late and leisurely after another good breakfast at La Culpula. The scenery of Late Titicaka and the surrounding mountains is very scenic. We eventually come to a ferry point necessary to continue travelling on the mainland. The ferry’s are quite bemusing and there doesn’t appear to be any real order other than first come, first served. We got there “first” and were immediately waved on to the first available ferry. These ferries are more like barges with some pretty hefty planks in the bottom for the vehicles to park on. The only thing was there are very warped and the “floor” is not complete, hence it was a bit hard to know where to put your feet when gingerly making your way along it
. It was pretty well impossible for John as the planks were just too far away so I rode both of our bikes on. We’re soon on the other side, and having paid our 20 Bolivianos, we’re off on the main road to La Paz.
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The floor of the ferry !!
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Some hapless 4 x 4 driver risking his vehicle to another ferry !!
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The view from the back of our ferry.
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Bikes safetly unloaded from the ferry.
The scenery and road continue to be great and we stop at a beautiful trout restaurant overlooking Lake Titicaka for lunch. We’re low on Bolivianos and so have to be careful to not over-spend. This was accomplished by me having a trout lunch and John a cheese roll !! (…as a result of me having got my order in first !! )
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A lounge area in the Trout restaurant...as opposed to a trout in.........you get the picture !!
We kick off again and the ride continues to be interesting, it also gets a little warmer! Finally we get to the Autopista point which is where all the Collectivoes(mini-buses) for the Southern hemisphere seem to congregate and it is jam-packed with them. The Police though do seem to have some sort of order and the traffic moves, albeit slowly. Soon we are through it, having been apparently classified as a higher priority than the awaiting collectivoes, and at the start of the descent on a winding road into the city. As we start though we see the view over La Paz which is quite a sight as the whole city is built in one Canyon and so we stop and I take a few photos.
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La Paz from the Autopista.
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We get into the centre and find our choice of Hostal. It is basic but cheap and close to a few banks which was important due to our lack of cash. We sign in, do a tour of the camera shops to see if I can be inspired by any offers but the cameras are about twice what I’d pay in the UK. (..and we are aggrieved in England at what the Americans pay !) Later we try to find a burger bar recommended in the Lonely Planet but this turns our to be too much like hard work and so settle for a German-style café. We decide on an early night to assist in losing the colds and for the early start for Sucre we plan for the following morning, however as we return to our Hotel, we are greeted by two other Brits who are on a Round-the-world trip by plane and coach, and as they are also Motorcyclists (shame on them taking the coach !!), end up having a long and interesting conversation in the lobby of our Hotel. Finally we all depart and return to our previously freezing, but now heated room and retire for the day.
6th July We’re up early today and manage to leave our Hotel for 7:30 and head for the Autopista to get us off towards Sucre. We know it will be a big day and had originally estimated the ride to be approximately 350 miles(this turns out to be incorrect by quite a way.) As we get rolling it is very cold, and the further we move away from La Paz, the colder it gets. My hands are freezing and the heated grips are doing little to get through. At one point when it was particulary cold I could see that the river by the side of the road was actually frozen. To add to this my electrics start playing up and the bike refuses to idle and so at the first toll-booth for the Autopista my engine cuts out for the umteenth time and my already tired state generally diminishes my temper to a glove throwing tantrum.
That aside, the ride was quick as the roads were good and largely straight. We managed to cruise at around 70-80mph. We finally found somewhere that looked “safe” for breakfast and settled for two fried eggs in rolls and a cup of coffee. It was at this point that I learned that John had been riding with his heated jacket and gloves on, and that he’d had "no problem with the cold !!" I’d pretty well already resolved to plug my gloves in anyway as it was too painful to continue riding as I had been.
Not too long after breakfast we started our journey across the Altiplano which is largely flat but still has stunning scenery. We continued to cruise at about 80mph which gave a great feeling with such dramatic scenery, and finally stopped for lunch after a further 3 hours. Lunch was basic and quick as we wanted to make Sucre by the end of the day, and preferably in the light, albeit that a recalculation put the whole ride at around 450 miles !! 20-30 mins later we’re off again and manage to get to Potesi at about 17:15, which is the last major town before Sucre. “Tea” consists of two Snickers bars and a soft drink each, ever health conscious !!
….30 mins later we’re off again, and a further 45 mins later dusk starts to fall. We stop as it turns dark to adjust our spot lamps. The roads are now very twisty and quite pot-holed and so we have to continue at a slower pace. I stop to put on some clear glasses I bought for night riding and almost fall over as I put my feet down when coming to a stop as I hadn't appreciated just how tired I'd become.
Finally we get to Sucre at about 20:00, very tired, but pleased that we’d made it. We find Phil’s Hotel but there are no rooms left and no Phil !
, although his bike is there. Finally we find a very nice three star called the Premier. Getting the bikes in initially looks like it’s going to be a tough job as there are effectively two curbs to get the bike up, one off the road onto the pavement, and one from the pavement to the hotel-the problem was that they are so close together that the bike can’t overcome the two curbs at the same time…I discovered that when the rear knobbly started spinning on the first one and I could smell the burning rubber !! The Hotel quickly brought out their ramp which got me from the pavement the Hotel, making the whole process a lot easier. However, once inside the hotel I had to ride down a further two steps to park the bikes in their general Aitrium area. All sounds fine BUT the floor I was riding onto was polished marble and so when I needed to brake having descended the steps, the front wheel just kept on sliding ! And I thought I was going to crash into one of their pillars. The second time we tried it, John tried to help hold the bike back but he just ended up sliding backwards on the marble with the bike. 
Both bikes did get saftely parked though and we quickly changed into “civvies” and went off to find the infamous “Joy-ride” café, Sucre‘s motorcycle café, allegedly similar to Norton Rats of Cusco.
We soon found the Joy-Ride and ordered up some drinks and “dinner”. There was no sign of Phil and very little to suggest it was run by a motorcyclist. I’d started to think we’d found the wrong place. After dinner we decided to pop round to Phil’s hotel to leave a note to the effect that we’d arrived, however he was back from his evening out and still up and so we exchanged countless stories(and learned that we had found the correct Joy-ride café) before finally returning to our Hotel for a well-earned sleep.
The next three days in Sucre were a bit of a blur as the Joyride café became our morning, noon & evening venue for breakfast, lunch & dinner. On our second night there we all had a fair few drinks and were invited with Gert, the Joyride café owner, and Lettie, one of his best friends, to Safari, a late night club. We agreed to go and with that agreement ended up being taken there on Gerts quad bike…that was 5 of us, 3 on the seat and Phil & John sitting on the bonnet/fender !, Phil being none-to-happy ! We finally made it to bed by about 5 am!
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The Joyride cafe !
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The inside of the Joy-Ride.
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Whilst in Sucre we also took a few walks up to a beautiful viewing spot above Sucre for leisurely coffees. We also met Laura, an English girl from Milton Keynes who bravely introduced herself to us in the Joyride café one evening. She ended up spending some of her time with us, including another late night in the Joyride café, the football world cup final and a trip to see the Dinosaur footprints not too far from Sucre.
We had all arranged to meet in the joy ride café for breakfast, on our last morning in Sucre, before heading out on a trip to see the Dinosaur footprints at the local Cement factory!
An old truck which looked like it had last seen active service in the 50's had been painted to (try and) encompass the fun spirit of the dinosaur ?! This was the ride to the dinosaur foot-print site....for most, as there wasn't enough room for all, so Phil, John, Laura and I had to cram into an equally diminished taxi with a front door that didn't open !!
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The Dino-truck !!
The site itself is based on the land of a local cement-works who had the (mis) fortune to discover the foot-prints a few years ago. The result of the find is having to work around the area with respect to their own blasting and the arrival of tourists how ever many times a day. The land with the footprints on is actually now vertical but was apparently the base of a lake how-ever-many years ago, and now due to some sort of techtonic plate shift has resulted in the land been forced upwards.
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A cross-section of sediment layers showing the change from their original horizontal position to the vertical one.
The site was actually ok and we found even more amusement in playing with the dinosaur models that were distributed to show the original owners of the footprints.
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I didn't say a thing ...............
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Maturity !!!??
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My considered attempt to reconstruct a life-like scenario........as was .
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Our Spielberg-like attempt to put the Dinosaur back in it's tracks via technically un-enhanced hand-orama.
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The one that almost got away.......but not to my untrained eye. :cockeye
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Some of the clearest tracks we saw.
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Our new companion Laura.
After the visit was over we all returned back to the Joy-Ride for a final coffee and fare-well to Gert and Laura. We loaded the bikes and set off for Potosi, home to the highest city in the world, and one the most dangerous silver mines.
Mike
As John and I were driving away from the garage where we'd parked our bikes towards the exit at some yard gates, I noticed that a large pool of water was actually frozen right where John and I were about to ride-so a quick deviation and a shout
to John ensured we didn’t go sliding and crashing into the yard gate.We packed our bikes and left town. Within 3 or 4 mins we were back at the Peruvian border again, within a further 10 minutes we had all our exit stamps for ourselves and our bikes and we were off towards the Bolivian border. This we reached in 2 mins or so.
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Our final point in Peru before crossing the border.
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We had heard a few scare stories about the Bolivian Police looking for fraudulent money, thereby inspecting your currencies, and as we understand it, declaring some of your money fraudulent which then warrented confiscation. We had also heard stories of trumped up entry charges. So we started the Immigration and customs “routine” with a little sceptisism.
The first “hurdle” was immigration which was a straight forward form, similar in fact to the green one completed for entering the States . This was accomplished and the appropriate visa/stamp granted within about 10 minutes at no cost. Next we were off to customs to get a temporary import for the bikes. The official looked at all our documents and the form completed at immigration and asked us to get photocopies of the form, our log books and our passports at the local grocery store just across the road…..we think the day she bought the photocopier was the day she stopped her pension contributions……
, having said that the copying charges were fine. We returned to fill in a more complex document which included all the chassis number type details. Within a further 10 mins or so that was completed and temporary importation into Bolivia was granted. The last hurdle was a visit to the Bolivian Police. When we arrived at their office, which is part of the same small building complex as the other offices, there was nobody present. We waited for a while and then I informed another guard Policeman that we were waiting. He went off calling here and there, meanwhile the Policeman we required immerged from the back of the Office. After a series of simple questions, Passport number, Bike registration plate number etc we were free to enter Bolivia. No funny searches, no trumped up charges, just a straight forward crossing. In total, the two borders probably took about 90 mins. That done, we head off to Cococabana, and to a hostel that Phil has recommended, La Culpa. It takes a few attempts to find it, not least of which because it is only accessible by footpath, whereas the Lonely Planet map
makes it appear approachable by road. We did manage though to get our bikes up the path in the end. However, all the rooms were reserved and nothing spare. La Culpa is a very well favoured Hostal run by a German and their reservation system works on the principle that they will keep a room until 14:00, after that it becomes free again if the reservee has not arrived. We decide to take a late and thoughourly enjoyable breakfast and enjoy the view whilst we waited to see if any rooms became free. We finished breakfast and we just waiting when the Manager said we should come down to reception as it was now 14:00, although our watches still said 13:00.….aha, the penny dropped (another time change Captian Kirk !) and so down I went. The only room they had free was a triple and as our plans weren’t definite and as we’d only known Henk for a day, we didn’t want to commit to this sort of arrangement. Henk was fine about it and told John and I to take the room, which we duly did.(It turns out that it actually was a double and a single bed so it wouldn’t have been appropriate anyway!) Miraculaoulsy, another single room appeared within a few minutes and we were all satisfactorily set-up. John and I’s “room” turned out to be more of a mini-chalet with a kitchen and bathroom. Henks had an amazing view over Lake Titicaka. <IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/9361025/178332705.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
Copacabana.
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Our "Shack"
Later in the day whilst basking in the sun we meet an English couple, Giles and Helen, from Broadstairs and Sheffield, currently living away from their home in Putney on an around-the-world air & bus trip. We exchange many stories with them and we all decide that going out for a few drinks and dinner would be a good idea.
Henk pops up to see us at the end of our long conversation and we invite him along as well. As we head into town there is only one real constraint, wherever we go it must be warm as it is still freezing cold at night(…we'd left our heater on in our room.!!) ! We find a bar quite quickly which fit’s the category and so we sample some of the Bolivian beers there, and move onto a restaurant which looks warm. The dish of the day was Trout from Titikaca, and there were 21 ways to have it. Four of us opted for Trout whilst John had a Pizza…..sometimes you just can’t get the friends !! A few drinks and very pleasant evening later we returned to our rooms. Ours with the heater left on from when we left, others to freezing cold rooms. I can’t tell you how nice it was to have our warm room but if I could…….”Readybrek” would spring to mind.Our colds had now got worse and so we took the start to the next day slowly, finding a roof top patio with Henk for a Bolivian “English breakfast"
. In fairness it wasn’t too bad BUT there are no real substitutes for English sausages, bacon, Heinz beanz and some decent bread.....hhhmmmmmmmnnnIn the afternoon John and I did some Internet work sorting out various documents for South Africa, e-mails etc, and then took a stroll on the beach front and “took” a light lunch. We had hoped to visit the Isla de Sol but with our colds and ever diminishing number of days in South America, decided that this would have to be by-passed. By way of consolation we decided to climb a viewing point on the hill behind our hostal to watch the sunset. The only problem was that we got our sun-set times a bit wrong and had to “settle” for the view from another viewing point three-quarters of the way up where the sun was already half-buried in the back of the lake. The view was fine once we started breathing again and our hearts stopped looking for an exit through our rib cages. (Whatever type of hill you climb at 3,600m, you feel like you’ve sprinted for an Inter-city express train with a 100kg rucksack !) and with the colds it complicated the whole breathing process further still !
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The hard-earned sunset.
We’d lost contact with Henk earlier in the day as he went off to watch the football and we hadn’t been able to find him again. Dinner time was fast approaching, and after two failed attempts of calling for him at his room, we went for dinner at La Culpas own restaurant. When we first arrived there were no spare tables, however Giles & Helen were there and generously offered us to share theirs. We ensured that they didn’t mind and enjoyed another evening with them. John’s cold was now getting worse than mine, and with the imminent drive to La Paz the following day now drawing much closer, we decided for an early-ish night after taking our Lem-Sips……which we’d brought from England, and turning the thermostat on our heater to our night-setting so we didn’t get too hot !!!
Today we left for La Paz and John’s cold had got still worse overnight. We set off reasonably late and leisurely after another good breakfast at La Culpula. The scenery of Late Titicaka and the surrounding mountains is very scenic. We eventually come to a ferry point necessary to continue travelling on the mainland. The ferry’s are quite bemusing and there doesn’t appear to be any real order other than first come, first served. We got there “first” and were immediately waved on to the first available ferry. These ferries are more like barges with some pretty hefty planks in the bottom for the vehicles to park on. The only thing was there are very warped and the “floor” is not complete, hence it was a bit hard to know where to put your feet when gingerly making your way along it
. It was pretty well impossible for John as the planks were just too far away so I rode both of our bikes on. We’re soon on the other side, and having paid our 20 Bolivianos, we’re off on the main road to La Paz. <IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/9361025/178332751.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
The floor of the ferry !!
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Some hapless 4 x 4 driver risking his vehicle to another ferry !!
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The view from the back of our ferry.
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Bikes safetly unloaded from the ferry.
The scenery and road continue to be great and we stop at a beautiful trout restaurant overlooking Lake Titicaka for lunch. We’re low on Bolivianos and so have to be careful to not over-spend. This was accomplished by me having a trout lunch and John a cheese roll !! (…as a result of me having got my order in first !!
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A lounge area in the Trout restaurant...as opposed to a trout in.........you get the picture !!
We kick off again and the ride continues to be interesting, it also gets a little warmer! Finally we get to the Autopista point which is where all the Collectivoes(mini-buses) for the Southern hemisphere seem to congregate and it is jam-packed with them. The Police though do seem to have some sort of order and the traffic moves, albeit slowly. Soon we are through it, having been apparently classified as a higher priority than the awaiting collectivoes, and at the start of the descent on a winding road into the city. As we start though we see the view over La Paz which is quite a sight as the whole city is built in one Canyon and so we stop and I take a few photos.
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La Paz from the Autopista.
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We get into the centre and find our choice of Hostal. It is basic but cheap and close to a few banks which was important due to our lack of cash. We sign in, do a tour of the camera shops to see if I can be inspired by any offers but the cameras are about twice what I’d pay in the UK. (..and we are aggrieved in England at what the Americans pay !) Later we try to find a burger bar recommended in the Lonely Planet but this turns our to be too much like hard work and so settle for a German-style café. We decide on an early night to assist in losing the colds and for the early start for Sucre we plan for the following morning, however as we return to our Hotel, we are greeted by two other Brits who are on a Round-the-world trip by plane and coach, and as they are also Motorcyclists (shame on them taking the coach !!), end up having a long and interesting conversation in the lobby of our Hotel. Finally we all depart and return to our previously freezing, but now heated room and retire for the day.
6th July We’re up early today and manage to leave our Hotel for 7:30 and head for the Autopista to get us off towards Sucre. We know it will be a big day and had originally estimated the ride to be approximately 350 miles(this turns out to be incorrect by quite a way.) As we get rolling it is very cold, and the further we move away from La Paz, the colder it gets. My hands are freezing and the heated grips are doing little to get through. At one point when it was particulary cold I could see that the river by the side of the road was actually frozen. To add to this my electrics start playing up and the bike refuses to idle and so at the first toll-booth for the Autopista my engine cuts out for the umteenth time and my already tired state generally diminishes my temper to a glove throwing tantrum.
That aside, the ride was quick as the roads were good and largely straight. We managed to cruise at around 70-80mph. We finally found somewhere that looked “safe” for breakfast and settled for two fried eggs in rolls and a cup of coffee. It was at this point that I learned that John had been riding with his heated jacket and gloves on, and that he’d had "no problem with the cold !!" I’d pretty well already resolved to plug my gloves in anyway as it was too painful to continue riding as I had been.
Not too long after breakfast we started our journey across the Altiplano which is largely flat but still has stunning scenery. We continued to cruise at about 80mph which gave a great feeling with such dramatic scenery, and finally stopped for lunch after a further 3 hours. Lunch was basic and quick as we wanted to make Sucre by the end of the day, and preferably in the light, albeit that a recalculation put the whole ride at around 450 miles !! 20-30 mins later we’re off again and manage to get to Potesi at about 17:15, which is the last major town before Sucre. “Tea” consists of two Snickers bars and a soft drink each, ever health conscious !!
….30 mins later we’re off again, and a further 45 mins later dusk starts to fall. We stop as it turns dark to adjust our spot lamps. The roads are now very twisty and quite pot-holed and so we have to continue at a slower pace. I stop to put on some clear glasses I bought for night riding and almost fall over as I put my feet down when coming to a stop as I hadn't appreciated just how tired I'd become.Finally we get to Sucre at about 20:00, very tired, but pleased that we’d made it. We find Phil’s Hotel but there are no rooms left and no Phil !
, although his bike is there. Finally we find a very nice three star called the Premier. Getting the bikes in initially looks like it’s going to be a tough job as there are effectively two curbs to get the bike up, one off the road onto the pavement, and one from the pavement to the hotel-the problem was that they are so close together that the bike can’t overcome the two curbs at the same time…I discovered that when the rear knobbly started spinning on the first one and I could smell the burning rubber !! The Hotel quickly brought out their ramp which got me from the pavement the Hotel, making the whole process a lot easier. However, once inside the hotel I had to ride down a further two steps to park the bikes in their general Aitrium area. All sounds fine BUT the floor I was riding onto was polished marble and so when I needed to brake having descended the steps, the front wheel just kept on sliding ! And I thought I was going to crash into one of their pillars. The second time we tried it, John tried to help hold the bike back but he just ended up sliding backwards on the marble with the bike. Both bikes did get saftely parked though and we quickly changed into “civvies” and went off to find the infamous “Joy-ride” café, Sucre‘s motorcycle café, allegedly similar to Norton Rats of Cusco. We soon found the Joy-Ride and ordered up some drinks and “dinner”. There was no sign of Phil and very little to suggest it was run by a motorcyclist. I’d started to think we’d found the wrong place. After dinner we decided to pop round to Phil’s hotel to leave a note to the effect that we’d arrived, however he was back from his evening out and still up and so we exchanged countless stories(and learned that we had found the correct Joy-ride café) before finally returning to our Hotel for a well-earned sleep.
The next three days in Sucre were a bit of a blur as the Joyride café became our morning, noon & evening venue for breakfast, lunch & dinner. On our second night there we all had a fair few drinks and were invited with Gert, the Joyride café owner, and Lettie, one of his best friends, to Safari, a late night club. We agreed to go and with that agreement ended up being taken there on Gerts quad bike…that was 5 of us, 3 on the seat and Phil & John sitting on the bonnet/fender !, Phil being none-to-happy ! We finally made it to bed by about 5 am!
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The Joyride cafe !
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The inside of the Joy-Ride.
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Whilst in Sucre we also took a few walks up to a beautiful viewing spot above Sucre for leisurely coffees. We also met Laura, an English girl from Milton Keynes who bravely introduced herself to us in the Joyride café one evening. She ended up spending some of her time with us, including another late night in the Joyride café, the football world cup final and a trip to see the Dinosaur footprints not too far from Sucre.
We had all arranged to meet in the joy ride café for breakfast, on our last morning in Sucre, before heading out on a trip to see the Dinosaur footprints at the local Cement factory!
An old truck which looked like it had last seen active service in the 50's had been painted to (try and) encompass the fun spirit of the dinosaur ?! This was the ride to the dinosaur foot-print site....for most, as there wasn't enough room for all, so Phil, John, Laura and I had to cram into an equally diminished taxi with a front door that didn't open !!
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The Dino-truck !!
The site itself is based on the land of a local cement-works who had the (mis) fortune to discover the foot-prints a few years ago. The result of the find is having to work around the area with respect to their own blasting and the arrival of tourists how ever many times a day. The land with the footprints on is actually now vertical but was apparently the base of a lake how-ever-many years ago, and now due to some sort of techtonic plate shift has resulted in the land been forced upwards.
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A cross-section of sediment layers showing the change from their original horizontal position to the vertical one.
The site was actually ok and we found even more amusement in playing with the dinosaur models that were distributed to show the original owners of the footprints.
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I didn't say a thing ...............
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Maturity !!!??
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My considered attempt to reconstruct a life-like scenario........as was
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Our Spielberg-like attempt to put the Dinosaur back in it's tracks via technically un-enhanced hand-orama.
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The one that almost got away.......but not to my untrained eye. :cockeye
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Some of the clearest tracks we saw.
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Our new companion Laura.
After the visit was over we all returned back to the Joy-Ride for a final coffee and fare-well to Gert and Laura. We loaded the bikes and set off for Potosi, home to the highest city in the world, and one the most dangerous silver mines.
Mike
glad the adventure keeps coming 
.
