SUCRE (Bolivia). A Perfect Colonial Town. 32 447 Km

It was time to head into Bolivia. As someone pointed out to me, Bolivia doesn't really do wine or chocolate but what it does do is mountains, and desert, and some jungle as well. And we were off to explore the first of these two.

Whilst San Pedro de Atacama sits at 2400m, we decided to get a little bit higher before jumping straight into the mountains and so we headed for Sucre.

The journey to get there was an experience. We went to Calama the night before to be able to catch our 6:30am bus to Uyuni. It was an easy start until we got past the Chilean border crossing. The Bus pulled off to the side of the road, everyone got off, collected their things, and loaded them onto another bus that was waiting essentially in no mans land. It seems, at some boarder crossings in Bolivia, you can't take an international bus the whole way and must change to the local one. This particular one looked like a 4WD on steroids and we soon found out why as we spent the next few hours on dusty dirt roads as we headed to Uyuni. Arriving in Uyuni we had no idea if we'd find another bus to Sucre, have to stay the night, or perhaps get halfway. As it was, there was a bus going to Sucre just after we arrived but we didn't yet have sufficient local currency to buy the tickets. "It's okay, the ATM is just 3 blocks from here, we'll wait for you". Not sure why the 1pm bus would hang around we went off to the ATM and came back to find the driver happily waiting our return. So we had a bus to Sucre.

Along the way we passed Potosi. One of the highlights of the Conquistadors exploitation of South America, Potosi sits at a massive silver mine. The town was for the most part never really developed with almost all the Silver heading back to Spain at the expense of the local Indians. The cruel owners of the mines forced locals to work the mines in harsh conditions which are said to have lead to the deaths of millions of Indians. The mine has mostly dried up but there are still miners now looking for small deposits. Most of the miners now will die of Silicosis and never find too much. The story of Potosi wasn't quite the place we wanted and we were glad to continue on to Sucre.

Sucre was the previous administrative capital of Bolivia and contained it's parliament until the end of the 19th century. This city was revolutionary in the "Independence" of Bolivia and is still known for it's approach to human rights and modern thinking.

The thing that strikes most visitors to this city is the upkeep of its colonial appearance, including the stark white walls and amazing courtyards. There is in fact a rule that all colonial buildings must be repainted white at least annually and can be seen throughout the centre of the city. Of course, the city has expanded over the years, and coming into town it has a similar appearance to many Andean towns with red mud-brick houses that rise two to floors above the winding streets.

This was a perfect town to relax in and we planned on doing just that. Each day we went wandering around the town, finding ourselves in historic places such as the Casa de Independencia, churches, and the University (above and below).

We also had a chance to visit the local cemetery. Though the idea seems foreign to us, I have to admit the way they organise the cemetery is very space efficient. Family members are not usually buried in the ground but in open and closed mausoleums, some of which are multiple stories high. There is also a strong focus on the persons working life where some of the mausoleums are specifically for people who worked for one company, university, or union.

Our favourite place though would have to be the Mercado Central (central market). This was the size of a small shopping centre and contained everything you could want to keep yourself nourished. Rows of women selling fruit and vegetables, separate potato area (given the 300 types they are selling at any given time), followed by rows of butchers, cheese sellers, bakers, cake makers, dried fruit and spices, odds and ends (like rice, oil, toothpaste), and then upstairs there was even more which included good, tasty, cheap Bolivian eatery with all the local dishes. And back downstairs, was the juice market with awesome fresh juice.

We enjoyed our few days here and agreed that this was definitely a place you could spend a few weeks to months if you were were looking for a place to chill out in for longer. As for us though, we were next off to Uyuni and the Bolivian Salt flats.

32 447 Km (14011Km Flights, 7876Km Sailing, 10 430Km Bus, 112km Hiking, 18Km Horse riding)