Sucre has a population of around 300,000 people and sits at about 9,500 feet of elevation. It is often called the “White City” because of its white colonial buildings. As I mentioned in a previous post, Sucre is the constitutional capital of Bolivia where the Supreme Court is established, whereas La Paz is the administrative capital where the executive and legislative branches of government function. According to my Spanish teacher Gaby, Sucre is a city of government, education, and tourism; but there is not too much commerce and business.
The Spanish founded the city in 1538 and named it La Plata. During the colonial times, it was an important center of political, judicial, and religious for the Spanish Empire. In 1809, Sucre was one of the South American cities to rise up against the Spanish. After Bolivia gained independence, the city became the national capital in 1839 and was named after independence hero Antonio José de Sucre.
Getting In
I took the 9pm night bus from Tupiza and got into Sucre a little around 6:30am. I walked the 20 minutes to my hostel/Spanish school and Gabriela (Gaby), the owner and my future teacher, let me in. Luckily my room was already ready to go and I went back to bed until 9:30 before my 10am Spanish lessons started. Since it was the day after the election, it was hard to commute to Sucre so I was the only person in the hostel and school on the first day.
Lodging
I stayed at the Spanish Friends School which was both a hostel and a school. The first two nights I had the three person dorm to myself then the next two nights I had two Israelis in my room and the final night a South Korean girl. The hostel was about 20 minute walk from the city center so it was less popular for people to come and do Spanish school at. For this very reason Gaby was moving locations closer to the center and in a bigger building. She was going to be moving the following week so I was one of her last students in this location. I actually liked where the hostel was located because it had more of a local feel and was less touristy. It was an easy walk to center. Plus it was right next to Avenida Las Americas, a busy street with cheap restaurants, bars, a grocery store, and people grilling meats in the streets. There was still lots of activity at nighttime.
New Good Friend
My Australian buddy Mark, who I met on the final day of the Uyuni Salt Flats tour (the well traveled gold miner who works two weeks in the mine then travels two weeks; and has been doing so for over a decade) started classes on Tuesday, based on my recommendation, so we ended up becoming even better friends (his level was more basic than mine so he was in a different one on one class). He had an Air Bnb apartment less than five minutes from the school on Avenida Las Americas so it was easy to go hangout with him in the evening. Two nights we hung out at his place drinking beers and chatting endlessly. We had lots of good convos about travel and politics. He spent six months in Venezuela back in 2019 and had some wild stories. It only cost $1 per night for hotels and he couldn’t take phone out in streets, malls, on buses. He would bring fake money around with him as a ploy and one time got robbed at gun point where they took his broken phone and fake money. Suckers! The crazy thing is that he doesn’t even really know Spanish. I’m an independent traveler but damn this guy really has no problem putting himself out there. He prefers to avoid crowds and get off the beaten path. He has been all over SE Asia including Philippines and Indonesia 10+ times so he had some good recs for my future travels to Asia. He’s a very chatty guy with lots of good stories and easy to converse with so we got along great. There I was previously bitching about not being with backpackers on my Uyuni tour and I ended up making a great friend. I’m realizing that at my age, while I still get along quite well with backpackers, I’m actually more close in age and mindset as older more seasoned travelers like Mark.
Spanish School
There is not a lot of routine in backpacker life but Spanish school is a good opportunity to get on a schedule. Most my days went as follows:
Salteña breakfast > class 9-1 > lunch > be a tourist 2-5 > chill > homework/spanish practice > dinner around 7 > read in Spanish or hangout with Mark at his Air Bnb apartment
The school was more focused on speaking than grammar which was good for me since that’s what I needed the most practice in. I had originally signed up for group lessons but since there wasn’t anyone else taking classes the first day, it was four hours of one on one. It meant I wouldn’t meet as many people, but I was okay with that since the main focus of this week is working on my Spanish.
I really liked my teacher Gaby. She reminded me a lot of one of my teachers in Montanita that I loved. Gaby and I had a great connection. She was very bubbly and easy to talk to. We were constantly making jokes and laughing. It really helped improve my Spanish confidence to be able to have a sense of humor. I liked that we constantly got off subject and just talked. The conversations were very fluid and she did a good job getting me to tell stories and talk in more detail about different topics. It would normally take the first three hours of class just to go over my couple pages of homework because we got off topic every couple of examples and started talking about who knows what. On the fourth day during our break Mark asked me what I’ve learned so far today and I go “nothing”. No new grammar, we had just been talking and laughing the entire time. We were on the second homework question two hours into class…that’s how far off topic we got. But it was amazing! I came to improve my confidence in talking and Gaby certainly brought out the best in me. We did do a LITTLE bit of grammar throughout the week and on the last day we promised to make less jokes and focus more on areas of grammar that I struggled with. There was still lots of laughs but we stayed more on track than the previous day.
Of course I don’t remember every conversation we had but some topics included:
- our families
- my previous travels to South America and around Europe
- my love of the mountains and hiking
- her moving locations to the center
- Bolivian politics: left is less educated than right (opposite of us). At first people liked Eva Morales for being from a poorer indigenous community and his nationalistic ideals, but he was poorly educated and after a few years it became evident his policies were misinformed. Times were very tough during the pandemic especially since tourism plays a huge role in Bolivia’s economy
- how I became a software developer after studying finance. More of a logical person who likes to solve problems: math, science, and history lover in school. Not a fan of grammar
- Bolivian holidays including one where they fight each other in the streets
- my love life. She was very interested in all my stories with Latinas from my previous trip. She was quite nosy, but in a fun way. It would lead to nonstop laughs and jokes. And if I wasn’t mistaken, I think she had a little crush on me. They were all fun and games, but some of the comments she made felt like more than that. If she wasn’t my teacher then things might have gone a little differently.
Mark’s teacher Veronica was also very funny and easy to get along with. She would sometimes walk into our classroom and be like are you learning anything or just laughing. Can’t it be both?! On Thursday I went to lunch at the market with Veronica and Gaby further solidifying our relationship outside of school hours. On the way back from lunch Gaby bought each of us a cherimoya, a sweet Andean fruit with green scaly skin and white flesh. It’s very delicious and worth eating again.
I’m so happy I did Spanish school early on in this trip. Four hours a day of 1 on 1 conversation greatly improved my confidence and gave me some good “scripts” for conversations to have, but it still would require more time and effort to get to the next level. And as much as I would like to continue my Spanish studies while I’m here (especially at a school where I’m already comfortable with the teacher), I was ready to start hiking more afterwards. Hopefully I can keep up with it during my travels to Brazil and Asia. I think the best thing I can do to keep up during those travels is to read books in Spanish.
Last time I came home from South America I said I was going to keep up with my Spanish studies, but it didn’t take long for Spanish to take a back seat in my life. While I occasionally practiced some grammar and vocab, or would watch a tv show before bed, it was all passive practice and never consistent enough. When I lived in Steamboat I did end up volunteering as a receptionist at La Comunidad Integrada which helped immigrants find jobs, fill out medical and financial paperwork, learn English, and anything immigration related; so that was a step in the right direction. I only did it for six week but I greatly enjoyed being surrounded by the Latin community. My five hours per week made me happy to be slightly involved. All the people at the organization were super friendly and appreciate of me for volunteering. And I had a few good interactions with the people coming in. And some difficult ones (it’s a different conversation than I was used to when people coming in aren’t happy about their situation). My goal when I come home this time is to truly foster my love of Spanish and the Latin community and actually make some friends that I can spend time with and talk to.
The nice thing about being in South America surrounded by Spanish and having daily conversations is that I constantly think of words and phrases that are actually useful to my day to day life and write them down in my phone. That way the vocabulary I learn is relevant to things I will actually talk about.
Food
So far I haven’t talked too much about Bolivian food to put it into its own section, but Sucre had much better food than Tupiza…although this is not that surprising. While I still find Bolivian food average, Sucre had at least more speciality plates worth mentioning and some of them were pretty good. Every morning I would walk to a street vendor on Avenida Las Americas to eat a salteña for breakfast. On the last day of class, Veronica ordered us salteñas from her favorite spot in town and wow was it good! I learned that a true one from a salteñeria (and not a street vendor) is so juicy on the inside that it’s kind of soupy and you need to put a spoon underneath to catch the juice. Sucre also has many churrasquerías (steakhouses). Some traditional dishes I tried were silpancho (large thin piece of beef breaded and fried served over rice and potato’s and topped with an egg, tomatoes, and onions), pique macho (mix of beef, sausage French fries, onions, tomatoes, locoto peppers, and egg topped with ketchup, mustard, and mayo…sin mayo for me), sopa de mani (broth made from ground peanuts, beef vegetables, and potatoes), and sopa de zapallo (broth with butternut squash, potatoes, onion, garlic, and cumin).
I went to two churrasquerías that were slightly more upscale than my hole in the wall menu del dia meals ($8-10 instead of $2-4) where I got delicious pork chops and a steak that was so big it folded over itself. I got an entire pitcher of peach juice (pretty sure there was an entire tree’s worth) with my steak dinner. One night I made my first home cooked meal – purchased steak for $2.50 from nearby butcher and vegetables from the market…the most expensive part was buying butter and spices but now I have those going forward. It was nice to have a hearty amount of veggies. Mark and I were also a big fan of this little burger stand by his apartment where you got a burger with an egg on top and a mound of French fries for less than $2.50.
Wandering Around Town
Spending five days in Sucre gave me plenty of time to get to know the city more intimately. It’s very clean and safe compared to La Paz. I never felt worried walking around, even at night. It’s known as La Ciudad Blanca (the white city) and that’s very evident based on the old colonial style white buildings with red shingled roof tops.
Plaza de Armas 25 de Mayo
This is the main plaza in the center of town named after the first cry for liberation against the Spanish on May 25, 1809. The center of the plaza has a statue honoring Mariscal Antonio José de Sucre, the founder of the city and key independence leader. I found myself in the plaza four of my five days to sit on a bench and people watch, buy orange juice off street vendors, and enjoy watching the cleaning crew sweep up the sidewalk with giant palm fronds. The plaza is surrounded by historic landmarks, restaurants, cafes, shops, and museums. There was always a lot of people and it was especially vibrant at nighttime.
Casa de la Libertad
Bolivia’s Independence Hall where the country was born as an independent nation on August 6, 1826; and Sucre is Bolivia’s first city. I did the tour in Spanish because I didn’t feel like waiting 30 minutes for the English one and I figured I’d understand most of it. Plus let’s be real…I usually forget everything I learned from visiting a museum within ten minutes of leaving.
The first room contained the original document of the country’s Declaration of Independence. In America we are so focused on our own history of independence that we never think about the stories behind how the countries in South America came to be less than 50 years later.
In the next room, the guide told us stories about some of the key players in the Bolivian independence and how the country’s flag came to be. It had various artifacts dating back to the early 1800s.
The final room of the tour contained a giant statue of Simon Bolivar’s head (first president) and headshot paintings of all the Bolivian presidents. Their current president, Rodrigo Paz Pereira, is number 68 in their 201 years of independence. It shows the difficulties they have had in leadership of the country blowing through a lot of presidents in a short time period.
Cementerio General
Going to the cemetery seemed like a strange thing to do, but it’s actually listed a top tourist attraction in Sucre and I see why. It was a beautiful green space lined with tall trees and impressive tombstones. They really go all out on honoring their dead. It seemed like a great place to take a dirt nap. A funeral procession was going through the cemetery while I was there so I sat on a bench and spectated from afar.
Para Ti Chocolates
My Tupiza horse tour guide had recommended this chocolate store to me so I had to check it out. They produce their chocolates in a factory in Sucre (you can do a tour but I never did) and the company uses 100% Bolivian raw materials featuring wild cacao from the Amazonian regions. I ended up going here five times (they had a location by the plaza and another nearby my hostel on Avenida Las Americas) so it was hard not to go daily. You can buy individual pieces or entire chocolate bars. I preferred the individual pieces so I could try more things, but I also bought a few bars. It was very reasonably priced especially for the quality of the chocolate – individual pieces were $0.35. On Wednesday morning I brought some chocolate in for Gaby which set the precedent that I would do that every day the rest of the week. She loved chocolate and it was always a nice way to start class on a good note. I would also get extra pieces for Veronica and Mark.
Viewpoint of Recoleta
The viewpoint in front of the Monastery Recoleta and the surrounding plaza is a place so nice that I went twice. It has some of the best views overlooking Sucre. The first time on my way to hiking Cerro Churuquella and the second time to sit at the cafe during sunset to drink a glass of wine.
Cerro Churuquella (1.8 miles, 741 feet)
Short hike from the square in front of the Monastery Recoleta that first goes along the road and then up a stone stair case and ends with a Jesus statue at the top. There were a few good views along the way, but the city views are blocked at the top by trees. Oh well still a good workout.
On my way down there was a group of early 20s Bolivians hanging out that started chatting me up so I talked to them for a bit. They gave me some of their booze and showed me their rap videos around the city. It was fun to chat with the locals, but they also kept trying to sell me on doing a private tour around the city with them, so after about 15 minutes I exited the situation.
Callejones de los Gatos
Picturesque narrow cobblestone alleyways surrounded by white buildings with red roofs, where the streets all had Gato in the name and doorways with cat figures. It reminded me of some of the alleys I wandered around in Arequipa, Peru. A local legend says that women whose husbands left for war and never returned found solace in the abundance of cats that inhabited these narrow, secluded passageways, and they matched the cats’ eyes with those of their lost husbands. I had the alleyways to myself when I walked through them, but Gaby said that on Fridays vendors set up chicha stands and they get quite busy with people.
Mercado Central
Not the most exciting market compared to others in Bolivia but it’s a good place to get a cheap lunch and drink a tasty jugo. I ordered a jugo de tumbo and chatted it up with the juice lady. They seem to love talking to me when I order the juice and sit at the counter (rather than doing take out). Another advantage of sitting at the counter is that they give you “la yapa” which is the leftover juice in the blender since they usually make too much.
Museo del Tesoro (Treasure Museum)
This was a funny experience because the rest of my group was French so the guide asked if it would be okay if he switched between French and Spanish for the tour. I wasn’t expecting to get a tour in French in Bolivia but sure why not? Luckily I know some of both. He would talk about one case in French and the next one in Spanish. His French was perfect, including his accent; and he was even able to answer their questions on the fly. I complimented his French (in Spanish) and he said that they get a lot of French tourists. Plus he clearly enjoyed speaking the language.
The tour started with a video discussing the history of the building and Bolivian mining. The focus of the mining industry over the past few decades has gone from Silver > Gold > Tin > Sodalite > Bolivianite. Then the guide took us to a few different rooms with minerals and jewelry. Some of the information was a little dull but I enjoyed looking at the geodes and the massive amethyst. There was also a case with all the precious rocks from around South America such as Obsidian, onyx, tourmaline (black and pink), amethyst, lápiz lazuli, pink quartz, etc. But the most impressive gem was the Bolivianite (also known as ametrine – a mix of citrine and amethyst). We were supposed to take photos but I snuck a few of the Bolivianite.
Parque Simón Bolivar
“Paris of Sucre” – the park had a mini Eiffel Tower with Heladería Paris next to it playing French music; as well as a mini Arco de Triunfo. They were almost as impressive as their Paris counterparts…almost.
Massage
After my fourth day of school I decided to treat myself to a massage. There was a place nearby the hostel that had a 5.0 review on Google with over 50 reviews so it seemed like a good bet. I walked by and it didn’t look like it existed so I message the WhatsApp number I found online. They answered immediately and scheduled me for an appointment later in the afternoon. It turns out the massage was just in a married couple’s apartment…no wonder I couldn’t find it earlier. It was an amazing 1.5 hour fully body massage for $36 (this is expensive compared to some others I saw but so worth it). She even massaged my stomach! This was a first for me. Dani did an incredible job! It was truly one of the best massages I’ve ever had.
Inca Trail: Chataquila – Potolo (24 miles; 3,652 feet elevation gain; 5,474 feet elevation loss)
Day 1: 11.89 miles; 1,286 feet elevation gain; 3,186 feet elevation loss)
After a week of school it was time to get outside and explore the Bolivian countryside. While you could do this trek as a guided tour, I had read that it wasn’t needed as long as you downloaded the map beforehand (which I always do on AllTrails anyways). Mark was down to join me so I was glad to have a partner in crime. We took a taxi to Plaza San Juanilla and after asking a few trufis (Bolivian name for the mini vans) if they were headed to Chataquila, we finally got pointed to the right location. Then we had to wait for the trufi to be full. And full means 150% capacity. We started waiting around 8am and were on the road by 9:30. We made friends with a French couple from Strasbourg while we waited and chatted it up with them. The four of us had to squeeze in the back of the van (I counted 20 people for the 12 seater…although two were children) and the ride to the trail head was just over an hour.
The trek was a point to point hike that started from the Virgen de Chataquilla church and ended in the town square of Potolo. The trail head immediately had an impressive view of the valley and rolling hills. It was very green coming off of the rainy season. The first 3.2 miles were downhill on rock steps that were formally an Incan trail. Mark and I chatted the whole time recounting more travel stories. He prefers off the beaten path travel and it was cool to hear more about countries that not many people go to. I learned more about Georgia (which is becoming more popular and high on my list), Armenia, Azerbaijan, Tunisia and Lebanon; to name a few. He had previously spent six months working in San Diego, but I also gave him some recommendations for various U.S. cities worth visiting outside the normal big ones foreigners go to such as New Orleans, Asheville, Austin, Bozeman, Charleston, etc.
The next 3.5 miles of the hike were flat or slightly downhill as we walked along the river and continued chatting. There was a nice contrast of colors between the murky brown river, red sediment cliffs, and green plants. Some of the cliffs were very sheer rock faces.
Seven miles in we stopped just before a bridge to eat lunch in a shady spot. I’m an advocate for quality sandwiches during a long hike, so I brought a baguette, ham, salami, cheese, spinach, cucumbers, and mustard. Paired with a bag of chips and a chocolate bar; and I was eating the best lunch in town.
After lunch it was time for the uphill section. Over the next 2 miles we gained about 1,100 feet with the hardest part being that it was the peak heat of the day. The sun was scorching us as we worked our way out of the valley and up to the top of the hill. Some sections were fairly steep and others were less incline, but there was little to no shade the entire time, which didn’t bode well at 2pm. The views of the river cutting through the valley and the steep rocks faces were fabulous. We walked through some farmland and encountered a few protective farm dogs.
We made it to our hostel a little before 4 and drank a nice cold Coca Cola when we got there. The lodging was actually quite cozy for being in the middle of nowhere. Within the next 30 minutes, two French couples showed up as well (one of which was the couple we met on the trufi in the morning). After resting for about an hour we went on a short walk to the Garganta del Diablo viewpoint of the valley which looked beautiful in the golden hour. When we came back to chill, the owner’s little boy (probably 5-6) came up with his uno cards and sat down next to me and mark. After a minute I asked if he wanted to play…of course he did. It was so cute! I bet this is the best part of his day playing uno with the tourists. We played a few rounds by his rules (and sometimes lack there of). Afterward we had tea before our dinner with soup and pasta. It was nothing special but at least dinner and breakfast was included in the lodging fee.
Day 2: 12.11 miles; 2,366 feet elevation gain; 2,288 feet elevation loss
We woke up at 7am and had a very plain breakfast of bread and jam/butter plus a banana served with tea. It was enough to get the day started. Mark and I started walking through this dried up river bed for a while before I noticed we were off the AllTrails track. But at least we were heading in the right direction, and it was a cool walk, so we continued to do so for another quarter mile before linking up with the trail. We wondered what it looked like in the peak of rainy season. The next section was uphill along a road gaining about 1,000 feet to get us to the top of the hill.
Then we walked a little over 3 miles through relatively flat farmland where we saw a few people working in the fields and a guy walking his bull. It was a brief uphill section before coming across some dinosaur footprints that had been preserved mudstone on a flat surface then tilted up by tectonic forces so it appears as if the dinosaurs were walking up or down steep surfaces. A woman came running up from the hillside to ensure she got her 20 bolivianos before we reached the dinosaur footprints but then we were left alone with them.
The final uphill section was difficult to follow the path, but general direction hiking got us to the top of the hill. Then it was about 6.5 miles more of downhill hiking along farmland to Potosi. Sometimes we walked trail adjacent as the actual path AllTrails had was hard to find before finally hitting a road the last few miles. There were some stunning views along the way.
We got to Potolo and got super lucky with the trufi ride as it was already nearly full (our French friends from the original trufi ride were also on it). I asked the driver if we could buy a drink before the ride and he said yes but quickly. When we came back with our delicious ice cold Powerades, the trufi immediately left. I was lucky enough to get the front seat to enjoy all the incredible views, but it was also kind of scary because the road had lots of cliff edges and the driver would get dangerously close to the edge. He was also continuously on his phone. The views were stunning, possibly even better than the hike, as we worked our way higher and higher up the road and saw all the surrounding area with its lush greenery and sheer cliff edges. We kept picking up more people along the way as the trufi once again reached nearly 150% capacity. It was a 2.5 hour drive that felt even longer before finally making it back to Sucre.