Hello, All --

I promised pictures of our trip to Sucre over the Christmas holiday.  I discovered as I was sifting through, deleting and labeling pictures that I have over 300!  So today I'm just going to cover part of the trip, leaving the Castillo Glorietta for next week and Los Origenes for the week after that.  So here goes . . .

Monday, December 23rd we flew out of Cochabamba to Sucre.  Our plane left half an hour late, so we got to Sucre (and checked into the hotel) just in time for lunch.  Here you see Farron with our friends and fellow missionaries, Glen and Lynda Westover (from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) in the Cochabamba terminal.

This is the Plaza Central in Sucre (about 3 blocks from our hotel.)

The colonial architecture is one of the most beautiful features of Sucre.

The city has four names, one of which is "White City" and you can see why. 

This beautiful cathedral covers almost an entire block across from the plaza.

This is the oldest university in South America, and I hear, one of the best.

After lunch on Monday, we went to the Parque Cretácico (Dinosaur Park).  A huge cement company was digging up gravel and came upon this wall which has many, many dinosaur footprints on it.  Being civic-minded, they stopped excavating and called in experts to evaluate their find.  Apparently all this land was flat at one time (which is how the dinosaurs walked across it) and then in some tectonic upheaval eons ago, it was tipped up on end as you now see it.  The cement company owns all this land, so they built the Dinosaur Park as a tourist attraction and also an educational site for school children (and others) to visit.  This wall is enormous, which I'm afraid doesn't come across in the picture.  The park is built on the other side of this hole (I am standing just outside the entrance to the park, looking across the pit.)

This is another view of the wall, from inside the park.

Here's the best close-up I could get of the dinosaur footprints. Can you see them?

They look very small but we've been told that many of these footprints are a yard long.

A view of the park buildings and entrance from the parking lot.

The park entrance (at the top of hill above).

Farron and I outside the entrance.

The next several pictures are of the life-size dinosaurs throughout the park.  Yes, there are signs identifying each one but I didn't write them all down - sorry.

T-Rex from the path below.

How small this dinosaur looks next to the Allosaurus.

Below is my favorite and I believe it's an Allosaurus.  Even after watching "Land Before Time" innumerable times with Will (our grandson), I had NO concept of how big these creatures were until we visited this park. Just look at him in comparison to the trees, the people, and the other dinosaurs!  (And no, I never saw Jurassic Park because I knew it would give me nightmares.  Had I watched it, perhaps the size of this dinosaur wouldn't have been so surprising to me.)

Here I am standing by one of his legs.

Me and T-Rex at the end of the path, near the Visitors' Center,
which has much educational material.

This was taken just outside the Visitors' Center.

As we were walking from the bus-stop back toward our hotel, we saw this street-corner Santa.  We didn't get to hear him and his friend play their instruments, but we appreciated the friendly wave.

We also saw these policemen (yes, they really are) at the Plaza Central.

They help people across the street, direct traffic when necessary, and just generally

make themselves useful and entertaining.

They were very happy to pose for pictures with us.

Tuesday, December 24th, we visited the Castillo Glorieta in the morning - I'll tell you all about it next week (lots of cool pictures).  When we got back (it's about 5 kilometers outside of Sucre), we ate lunch at a place called Abis Patio.  The food was great and so was the service.  This is our group (all missionaries).  L/R around the table:  Lynn Crayk, Diana Crayk, Farron, me, Glen Westover, Lynda Westover, Dawn Hurst, Eldon Hurst, Alan Chalmers and Sally Chalmers.

That afternoon, we went up to the Recoleta - this is the view of it from the roof of our hotel.  See the long white building with the row of arches near the center of the picture?

This is a shot I took looking toward those arches from the other side.

And here is Farron inside the arched walkway or colonnade,

with a little of the beautiful view showing behind him.

There is a convent here that gives tours and that's what we were looking for.  (I've been calling it a monastery in other posts, but I found out on this trip that it's really a convent.)  Anyway, because it was Christmas Eve Day, they closed at 2:00 and we missed out on the tour.  

This is the Church of the Recoleta; the convent is to the right.

This is the church school - a private Catholic school like the ones we have at home.

And this is one shot of the amazing view from the colonnade.

This is the street you drive or climb up to get to the Recoleta.

The last block is about a 45 degree angle (super-steep), 

though unfortunately I'm not a good enough photographer

(or my camera's not good enough) to show that.

That evening - Christmas Eve - as we were walking to the restaurant where we had dinner,

we saw a large group of children performing in the Plaza Central.

This is their guitarist and below is a shot of the chorus.

They all had instruments -  mostly the native flutes but also some drums, triangles and a harmonica-type instrument.  The adults were playing guitars.Those who didn't have to blow into an instrument were singing - in Quechua.  Very cool.

Christmas Day all the museums and other tourist attractions were closed of course, so we had a leisurely breakfast at our wonderful hotel and then played board games until lunchtime.

Speaking of our hotel - Hotel Parador Santa Maria Real - here are a couple of pictures of our room.  I especially thought the sink resting on an antique sewing-machine base was really unique.  (Also the brick ceilings, which I know I mentioned back in October when we first went to Sucre.  I still don't know what holds them up.)

  

For lunch we went to a restaurant called Los Balcones which faces the Plaza Central, and of course we sat out on the balcony to eat.

While we were there, some fellow tourists we had met at the Castillo came in to have lunch also.   Where they got the Santa tunics and hats, I don't know, but they certainly were festive.  All three girls are from Australia; the tallest one is a paralegal who sold her home and is traveling for a year!  They decided they wanted a picture with us by the Christmas tree and we were happy to oblige.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel, collected our luggage, and went to the airport for the trip home.  This was undoubtedly the most unusual Christmas we've ever had - not very "Christmas-y" really - but a once in a lifetime opportunity, so . . . .

That's it for today.  Have a great week.  We wish you a happy New Year's Eve and a great New Year!