South by South America Tour – Bolivia Part 13
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Sucre, Bolivia
The entry to Parque Cretacico in Sucre, Bolivia.
The wall of dinosaur footprints at Parque Cretacico in Sucre, Bolivia.
A trio of humans in front of the wall of dinosaur footprints at Parque Cretacico in Sucre, Bolivia.
A non-string quartet of humans passes by the wall of dinosaur footprints at Parque Cretacico in Sucre, Bolivia.
Susanna poses for a photo in front of the wall of dinosaur footprints at Parque Cretacico in Sucre, Bolivia.
Action-packed was the phrase for today. Around 12:00 noon, I headed down to the center of Sucre with five other Beehive Hostel guests to hail a couple of taxi cabs to a dinosaur park several miles north of town. Joining me were Susanna from England, another girl from Holland, Leonard and Hanna from Germany and someone else I can’t remember. Upon paying our entry fees, we walked over to the entrance of the path down to a cliff face containing the biggest collection of dinosaur tracks in the world. Before we descended, we were forced to don dorky red helmets to ward off falling pebbles, and then we were given a history of the place by a guide. It’s interesting to note that he spoke in Spanish and English, but not in tongues. His accent was so sharp, though, that even when he spoke in English, I could only make out about half of what he said.
A model of Tyrannosaurus at Parque Cretacico in Sucre, Bolivia.
Pole position with dinosaur tails at Parque Cretacico in Sucre, Bolivia.
A model of Corythosaurus at Parque Cretacico in Sucre, Bolivia.
A cast of a Carnotosaurus skeleton at Parque Cretacico in Sucre, Bolivia.
A model of Carnotosaurus at Parque Cretacico in Sucre, Bolivia.
Following the short lecture, we were cut loose to walk on our own down a series of steep steps and dirt trails until we got up close and personal with the ginormous wall of dinosaur tracks. Originally a muddy lake shore when the dinos walked on it in the late Cretaceous period, over the eons the wall was pushed up to a 70 degree angle by plate tectonics. In the 1980s, it was inadvertently discovered by a concrete company and confirmed by a Swiss paleontologist in 1996. Down at the wall of tracks, everyone in our group took turns taking photos of each other. Then a fight broke out between Susanna and Hanna over the fact that their names rhyme. It was pretty much like an intense sword fight, but with selfie sticks. Just kidding! That never happened.
Carnotosaurus takes a bite out of crime at Parque Cretacico in Sucre, Bolivia.
Looking back at the entrance to the Cementerio General in Sucre, Bolivia.
A wall of caskets with awnings at the Cementario General in Sucre, Bolivia.
An immense wall of foliage at the Cementario General in Sucre, Bolivia.
A palm tree and a crypt at the Cementario General in Sucre, Bolivia.
When everyone was finished shooting photos and contemplating their place within the vastness of the space-time continuum, we hoofed it back up the trail, burning off several donuts in the process. Next, we sauntered through an outdoor “theme park” containing numerous life-sized dinosaur models, which were a really swell sight, and a cast of a Carnotosaurus skeleton inside a mini-museum. After we had our fill of that, we jumped back into a couple of taxi cabs and cruised down to the Cementerio General, which is like a miniature version of the huge cemeteries in Buenes Aires and Santiago. In the late afternoon sunlight, we enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the cemetery, which is mostly filled with those graves that are stacked above ground, looking for all the world like apartment buildings made out of caskets. The only place I could spot any of the large fancy crypts for wealthy families–complete with columns and statues–was along the main drag, where walls of immense foliage reigned supreme.
Words and photos ©2019 Arcane Candy.
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