I had the chance to visit the other capital of Bolivia… the White city of Sucre. The city has four names: La Plata, Sucre, Chuquisaca, and Charcas.
I slept all the way up to the time the bus had to make a technical stop for WC. It stopped at a coffee shop in a small town. The shop had no lights, only a few candles. It was raining at that time and there was a huge hole on the middle of the yard, if I had not brought my cell phone lights, I might have fallen down there..Finally we got to Sucre at 8 30 a.m., after almost twelve and half hours on the bus. When the bus arrived, there was marathon happening and the streets were closed around the station, instead of waiting; I decided to directly walk to downtown.
Sucre, as most Latin cities, has its downtown as one the main attractions for tourism. Sucre’s downtown is full of white buildings colonial style; it is clean and less crowded compared to La Paz. The architecture is very beautiful, and the buildings are well maintained. The main plaza, 16 de Mayo is a nice place to relax and contemplate local people who are just hanging out for a walk.
Even though it is very easy to find hostels and hotels around the downtown, the closer to the main downtown Plaza, 16 de Mayo, the higher the hotel rates becomes. Following the recommendation of my travel advisor book, I stayed at a hostel that is close to the San Francisco Church. As most buildings, it was an old style house that belonged to old-times rich family.
It had a Spanish and colonial architecture; lot of rooms and a big main yard in the middle of the house. Although the place was clean and comfortable, it was kind of freaky at midnight as the furniture was very old, the place had strange noises, it was very scary for me on the dark.
The day after I decided to shop around to see the hotels, I found out many places far nicer that the ones published on those travel books, I recommend hanging a bit around and checking the rooms before checking in a hotel. The second and third night I stayed in another hotel, far nicer and with the same rate that the first one.
Even though the city is only around 700 kilometres south of La Paz, it takes around 12 hours by bus to get there. The bed bus ticket costs around 135 Bolivianos (19 dollars), with very comfortable seats and TV. I heard some bus lines are not very reliable and safe, people recommended me Copacabana or Bolivar lines. Even though, I purchased my ticket at Bolivar, as it supposed to offer the best service, on the highway the driver was stopping to pick up people along the road (who I supposed did not purchase a ticket at the station, and paid him instead)… the inconvenience was that there were no seats available, so they had to sleep on the stairs or on the floor.
I slept all the way up to the time the bus had to make a technical stop for WC. It stopped at a coffee shop in a small town. The shop had no lights, only a few candles. It was raining at that time and there was a huge hole on the middle of the yard, if I had not brought my cell phone lights, I might have fallen down there..Finally we got to Sucre at 8 30 a.m., after almost twelve and half hours on the bus. When the bus arrived, there was marathon happening and the streets were closed around the station, instead of waiting; I decided to directly walk to downtown.
Sucre, as most Latin cities, has its downtown as one the main attractions for tourism. Sucre’s downtown is full of white buildings colonial style; it is clean and less crowded compared to La Paz. The architecture is very beautiful, and the buildings are well maintained. The main plaza, 16 de Mayo is a nice place to relax and contemplate local people who are just hanging out for a walk.
16 de Mayo Plaza
Even though it is very easy to find hostels and hotels around the downtown, the closer to the main downtown Plaza, 16 de Mayo, the higher the hotel rates becomes. Following the recommendation of my travel advisor book, I stayed at a hostel that is close to the San Francisco Church. As most buildings, it was an old style house that belonged to old-times rich family.
It had a Spanish and colonial architecture; lot of rooms and a big main yard in the middle of the house. Although the place was clean and comfortable, it was kind of freaky at midnight as the furniture was very old, the place had strange noises, it was very scary for me on the dark.
The day after I decided to shop around to see the hotels, I found out many places far nicer that the ones published on those travel books, I recommend hanging a bit around and checking the rooms before checking in a hotel. The second and third night I stayed in another hotel, far nicer and with the same rate that the first one.
There a lots of old government buildings, convents and churches. The City is UNESCO World Heritage Site for its historic importance as well as for its beauty. Most of the buildings and houses roofs are red and their front is painted white. Some streets have posted Cuecas Bolivianas, lyrics of famous romantic songs and dance, on their walls. It is a relatively small city, with lots of narrow streets. It does not have traffic
jams as La Paz, it is famous to be a students town as it holds the oldest University on the region.
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Tourism is one of the main activities of the city. A great deal of tourists are foreign, mainly English speakers. For this reason, it is very common to see adds and brochures in English (in some places more than in Spanish).
I thought that it was nice to have foreign visitors; however, it is unfortunate that for different reasons, mostly economic, nationals or even Latin people have less chances to see this place.
During my visit, it coincided with a long weekend, for that reason, I had only Saturday to find places open to the public. I went to the tourism information office, where a nice lady gave me a lot of information and brochures with information about the city. There are a lot of interesting museums, and towns around the city. She suggested me to visit first the Castillo de la Glorieta.
a very sincere and easy-to-read dairy, keep it up!
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