Saturday 25 October 2008

Sucre'

South America - Day 30

Exploring Sucre' & Orphanage


Today, with nothing overly interesting to do, we wandered the streets aimlessly to fill in time. We did find a couple of nice looking buildings to photograph along with a long park (pictured is the entrance to it) just outside the city centre. The green was a welcome relief after weeks of arid landscape.
I could easily have caught the plane to Santa Cruz that morning, but we had to wait. Come to think of it, I could have caught the plane to Santa Cruz after the 4x4 trip. Instead of the hellish trip to Potosi, returning to Lapaz would have been a better option then fly to Santa Cruz from there. I guess that's the sacrifice you make when you go on an organized trip.

Sucre Orphanage


That afternoon there was an option to go to an orphanage. I'd had enough of uncomfortable meetings with locals and decided against it. Kerri was keen and went with about half the crew. I don't know that much about what went on, but the photos tell some of the story.

Kerri hadn't been at work for some months by that time and hadn't had her kid fix. She particularly likes the ones that aren't sick like at work. (Sounds weird doesn't it? Nothing sinister I assure you.) This orphan (above) didn't look like she was doing too bad.

Apparently this little guy wasn't at all happy. Nothing the crew did could make him smile. I guess he had reason.

That night we had to say good bye to Polly, Richard and Melissa. They were flying back to Lapaz early the next morning before doing their own thing. Polly was headed to Rio de Janero and coastal Brazil, and Melissa & Richard were on their way to Argentina (if I remember correctly). It was all a bit sad having spent a month with them at close quarters and we'd all become quite close. It had to happen at some point. Most of the tour group went to a fairly decent restaurant and enjoyed some nice food and wine.