Political madness, dino tracks and gringo buses

We've finally succumbed to the lure of a cama (bed) bus. In Argentina, this would have been pretty special - fully reclining seats, meals, booze, functioning toilets, blankets and pillows. But this is Bolivia, so our seats only recline half-way, there's no food, and a sign on the toilet prohibits 'number twos'. None of that matters though. We're hoping that the extra cash we paid for this gringo bus is going to buy us safety and a sober driver. To hell with comfort.

You see, this is our first overnight bus in Bolivia - not something to be taken lightly if our shorter Bolivian bus journeys are anything to go by. Bad roads, bad vehicles and bad drivers are what we've come to expect, but we're trying to remain optimistic. We smelt no booze on the driver when we got on, so that's a good sign. But we're just about to leave and there's a young boy standing in the aisle singing (if you could call it that) about safe journeys. Not sure how to interpret that one.

We're heading from Sucre to Bolivia's capital, La Paz. Sucre was an odd little place. Nice enough, with beautiful colonial buildings, a leafy plaza and fantastic juice stands, but a bit odd all the same.

Our favourite juice stand

Anyway, here's a couple of crazy things we discovered in Sucre.

A president that can't speak Spanish?
The Bolivian declaration of independence was signed at the Casa de Libertaded on Sucre's main plaza in 1825. We visited the casa today and stumbled across an interesting fact about a past Bolivian president.

Political stability has eluded Bolivia for decades. The country has been through about 190 leaders since 1852 - their portraits fill an entire room in the casa - but one president (can't remember which one) stood out to us. This guy was born in Bolivia but lived his entire life in the United States, and he was elected as president of Bolivia even though he couldn't speak Spanish. Or at least that's what we overheard a guide telling a tour group. Crazy Bolivianos.

Dinosaur tracks?
Yep, just outside of Sucre, you'll find one of the largest dinosaur track sites in the world. The tracks were discovered by quarry workers, zigzagging across an enormous vertical rock. Apparently, the site was once the bottom of a lake which was pushed upright by the Andes. Rumour has it that UNESCO are planning to list the site next year, which means they're convinced that the tracks are real. And they looked real to us. Unfortunately, to get there, you have to ride the Dino Truck (with giant dinosaur claws on the roof) from the town's main plaza. The perfect way to humiliate a bunch of stupid gringos.

Tracks zigzag across the wall

The tracks up close