04 May 2025 5 min read

Relaxation and dinosaurs in Sucre

Sunset - Sucre, Bolivia.

After a lot of travel, activity and exploration recently we enjoyed a few days’ of rest and relaxation in Sucre, Bolivia.

Bolivian overnight buses

We arrived in Sucre at about 8am on an overnight bus from Uyuni. Overnight buses are a very common mode of transport in Bolivia They are cheap and thankfully, because you are asleep most of the time, you don’t notice the terrible roads and steep drop offs as much.

Unfortunately, our first overnight bus was a lemon, breaking down at 3am in the morning. After 1.5hrs on the side of the road we transferred to another very old bus and finished off the last 3 hours to Sucre with no sleep and doing our best to keep warm.

Great food and company

Most people that visit Sucre take the time to enrol in Espanõl school. Due to our tight timeframe, we didn’t have the time, unfortunately. We will have to progress with our Spanglish outside of the classroom.

We spent most of our time in Sucre with friends, eating and relaxing decompressing after a busy period and resting ahead of another upcoming busy period.

We visited the same cafe 3 days in a row, indulging in a full cooked breakfast with eggs, bacon, toast, a pancake with syrup and fruit, orange juice and coffee for just NZD$8.

Delicious chicken sandwich from our local cafe NZD $7. — Delicious chicken sandwich from our favourite cafe NZD $7.

Never said no to a cafe stop. Nicole, Fletcher, Laura (L-R).

We also visited the local markets and indulged in plenty of street-side empanadas, as well as barista coffee. Everything in Bolivia was very cheap and it was so nice to not hold back in trying all the different market and street food without worrying about blowing the budget. Plus, the food was great!

Always amazed by the work ethic of the Latin American peoples. The women are always dressed in their traditional clothing.

Everything on offer at the local markets.

The markets were amazing and provided a good chance to test our Spanglish (with little success).

Dinosaurs

Sucre is renowned for having the world’s largest collection of dinosaur footprints. Footprints from 8 different species of dinosaur were discovered in the quarry of a limestone factory. There is a strange juxtaposition between the very heavily protected dinosaur park, Parque Cretácico, and the adjacent industrial limestone/ concrete factory.

We caught the iconic “Dino bus”, which our hostel host advised us we couldn’t miss if we turned up to the main square at midday. Right on cue, the Dino Bus arrived and we chased it around the square on foot before jumping on board. The bus ride was actually one of the best parts, giving us a great view across the sweeping hillsides of Sucre.

We spent the afternoon at the Dino park doing a tour of the museum and archaeological site. It was a very cool experience and great to have some eduction too.

Spanish cooking school

We joined a cooking school with our friends Toby and Bella that was tied to their Spanish school. Implicit in the description, the cooking school was entirely in Espanõl. It was a real test of our culinary and Espanõl skills.

We won’t even pretend we could understand the instructions, but luckily the visual demonstrations were enough. We cooked a chicken vegetable stew cooked in a fermented corn broth served with potatoes, pasta and rice.

While dinner was cooking we played a Spanish card game. Despite not understanding any of the instructions due to our lack of Espanõl, I managed to win the first game and a few that followed.

The dinner host took a liking to me calling me El Niño “little boy” and impersonating my “grumpy” persona. We became good friends and she shared her desire to travel to NZ because of Lord of the Rings. Laura and I have found ourselves in many situations now shamelessly having to explain to LOTR fans that we have never actually seen any the LOTR films.

Our cooking school host and El Nino (little boy).

We enjoyed too many of the NZD $3.70 espresso martinis on offer at happy hour back at the hostel with Dani, Fletcher and some Duchies. Fletcher and I were engrossed in a 90min lesson from Dani on the history of colonialism, democracy, geo-politics and culture. We found out the next day that we both fell asleep reading wiki history on Latin America colonialism.

Reset and ready for the next adventure

Our last day in Sucre involved yet another visit to our favourite cafe, walking about the city and a massage before jumping on the overnight bus.

Our three days in Sucre were bliss. A beautiful Bolivian town with a lot of culture, not overriden with tourism and a lot to offer. We left feeling relaxed and ready for the next month of travel, locking in some key dates and logistics for our final two months in South America.

We had to say a very sad goodbye (for now) to our good friends Fletcher, Dani, Bella and Toby who we had been travelling with for the past wee while. We will hopefully rendezvous in La Paz.

Despite almost missing our night bus (jumping out of the taxi early in the traffic and running through the bus terminal as they were closing the cargo hold), we made it aboard for the 11hr journey to La Paz. Fingers crossed for a smooth ride this time.

Up next; a lot lined up in La Paz, the highest capital city in the world (3700m). We hope to catch our breath, explore the sights, ride the Death Road, climb Huayna Potosi and visit the Amazon Forest. Action packed!