The White City

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Sucre is the perfect antidote to La Paz. Very relaxed, long tree lined streets, a stunning central plaza, magnificent whitewashed colonial buildings and a year round perfect climte, but above all, it has oxygen! We had been above 3000 meters for nearly 2 months and it can get tiresome being out of breath just getting in the shower. Sucre is the actual capital of Bolivia and it's hard to tell that you are in Bolivia at first. Sucre seems to be pretty affluent and it felt a little like Argentina, none the less, it is Bolivia and it has its own special characteristics and it's a shame we could only spend one night there. It was so strange to be in a city that was quiet, relaxed, unpolluted and so beautiful. Copacabana had it's charms, but it wasn't beautiful. La Paz was definately not beautiful, though I still loved La Paz, but Sucre wasn't arid, it was green and white and glowed. We didn't really do much here, but this isn't really an adventure place. This is a city to stroll around, to relax in the sunshine in the plaza, to sip beer at the bar, to visit museums and to recuperate. The main governmental building was spectacular and very interesting, with old Bolivian flags, the Bolivian declaration of independence and it was a superb example of Spanish colonial architecture. You had to pay an extra 10 Bolivianos to take photos which I was appaled at and so didn't pay, but I was seen by a security guard taking a sneaky photo and was on edge for the rest of the tour for fear of facing the firing squad. Though this city seemed a world away from the rest of Bolivia, it must have been just as corrupt! Anyway, I got away with the photo! Our hostel had a beautiful veranda and we drank some nice Argentinian Malbec (I didn't trust the Bolivian red wine!). I know this blog is short, but we were only in Sucre for such a short amount of time. I must quickly mention that apparently there are some fine churches in Sucre, but they were all closed when we were there! No trip to Bolivia is complete without a trip to Sucre. It's the perfect place to recharge your batteries so to speak and restock up on oxygen which we definately needed to do before we headed to Potosi; the highest city in the world! We did Sucre in a day and a half, but I could have stayed a week and a half. They call Sucre, The White City, but unlike its namesake in Lord of the Rings - Minas Tirith, it's nice and flat and there are no orcs attacking it! People in the outside world have an opinion of Bolivia, be it good or bad, but go to Sucre and you will realize that Bolivia is a country of many faces and this city is one of its finest.

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