Sucre is the second city we’ve visited with the nickname ‘The White City’, the other being Arequipa in Peru. The white buildings of the historic centre are of course the main similarity, but the European-style feel and obvious (historical) wealth are also shared across the two cities. It’s therefore a very comfortable and relaxing place to spend time, especially after the chaos of La Paz!
The main square is lovely, and a walking tour showed us the highlights, ending with a fantastic sunset view from La Recoleta. We enjoyed some fantastic gelato on the square, coffee up an old church tower, and a (sort of) mini Eiffel Tower.
Weather:
Perfect! Great mid 20’s and clear skies. Cool evenings and warm days. No signs yet of the Bolivian winter!
Where we stayed:
A traveler’s hostel run by an Australian called Robbie or Ollie (jury’s still out on what he said). We booked out a 4 bed dorm for the 3 of us, which worked really well – our 4th guest naturally being a pile of bags and clothes on the spare bed.
Best thing we ate:
Sucre has lots of good food on offer, and we sampled a little variety. Shout outs to Keiseki (Japanese), La Taverne (French) and Bienmesabe (Venezuelan).
However the top spot goes to Tierra, an exceedingly cute veggie/pesci place. The waiter was a real foodie who delighted in explaining the different dishes, the regional origins of the ingredients, and the notes in the wine.
Coolest thing we did:
Sucre had two fantastic guided museum visits on offer: the Treasure Museum and the Para Ti Chocolate factory tour.
Having been past many gold & silver museums across the continent (and not going in any yet), we imagined the treasure museum would be the same sort of thing. We quickly discovered it was much more, showing us the full range of metals, gems and precious stones mined in the country. The guide turned off the lights to show us the incredibly well-presented lit up cabinets of geodes, crystals, and gems. The Bolivianite gems were stunning.
The chocolate factory was great too, showing us the full process from harvesting wild cacao pods, demonstrating the machinery, and controlling ratios for dark, milk and white chocolate. Our guide Wonka Bryan presented it all very well. Of course at the end we tasted some – delicious!
Bonus:
Not previously on my bucket list but fun to discover – the largest collection of dinosaur footprints in the world! The Cal Orck’o fossil bed, raised vertically by tectonic plates, shows over 12,000 footprints from a range of dinosaurs, and viewing them up close drives home how big dinosaurs were! At the other end of the size spectrum, our guide’s toy dinosaurs were a fun addition.
Bonus bonus:
Sunday saw us take a local colectivo bus to the nearby town of Tarabuco, for the Sunday market. This market is well-known as a central point for artisans in the region to exhibit and sell their handwoven textiles. After a fairly early arrival and hearty breakfast, we explored the market – through the standard market areas of clothes, homewares, flip flops made from recycled tyres and food – until finally reaching the textiles section. Between us we bought a good few items, from modern place mats to antique rugs!
Our last adventure is a tour of the salt flats in Uyuni… stay tuned for another belated post!
Chris & Florence