SUCRE -- Who doesn´t like dinosaurs? You´d have to be on heavy medication or just plain blue-nosed not to get excited about the world´s largest collection of dinosaur tracks (5,000 in all) here in Sucre. The Cretaceous Park and Cal Orko Dinosaur Tracks is just a 10- minute cab ride from the main plaza. A variety of big-footed dinosaurs rambled through a muddy lake in Sucre millions of years ago, and thanks to a few serendipitous volcano eruptions these footprints are preserved for all time. Scientists at the site, discovered in 1998, believe 294 different dinosaur species made these tracks during the second half of the Cretaceous period, including sauropods -- the largest animals ever to have lived on land. The lake bottom is now a vertical wall thanks to the sparring of two tectonic plates, which have pushed it up over eons. The tracks are amazing, but the real fun is in the life-size dinosaur models in the park, especially the Brontosaurus! Sure, there was a replica of a T-Rex and Stegosaurus too, but the Brontosaurus is tops in my book. Yes, I know the scientists long ago renamed the Brontosaurus ¨Apatosaurus¨, but I refuse to bend to such an injustice. To an 8-year-old (which I was once) on his first visit to the Museum of Natural History that lumbering plant-eating goliath was the best thing ever! I know most heroes tend to be of the human variety, but those types never live up to the title. With an average length of 75 feet and a mass of at least 25 short tons, the Brontosaurus is most certainly worthy of hero worship. Anyway, to make a long story short I made Meghan take about 50 pictures of me and the towering Brontosaurus model. I kept asking myself what it would have been like to chomp down on some plants in the tops of trees with these mostly gentle giants, unfortunately I was born a few million years too late!
Meghan and I had a visitor for about four days this week. It was our old friend Andrew from our time as reporters together at the Palm Beach Post. Back in the old days, Andrew and I used to drown our worries after a long day of work with a ¨birch beer¨at the Frank ´n´Steins hot dog joint in Stuart, Florida. Fast forward a few years and Andrew is living it up and working in Buenos Aires. It was good to see the man. We hope to meet up again in a few weeks. Incidentally, Andrew will be the subject of our first Globe Gators Poll. Just scroll down this blog tomorrow afternoon to make your vote count!
3 comments:
I can see Will, but where's the Brontosaurus?
I remember when you got your blue Brontosaurus shirt at the museum and it was your absolute favorite shirt for years! :-)
First of all - looking way sexy in the beard, Will, looking very South American chic! You're like Motorcycle Diaries re-lived! But what I really wanted to say was, I loved this:
'born a few million years too late.'
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