Q: What is the capital of Bolivia?

A: Sucre*

Q: What is the only country in the world where there is no MacDonalds?

A: Bolivia**

Sucre is known as the white city, evidenced by this view from the roof of an ex-convent.

Amazing facts right? So we spent the weekend down in Sucre, not eating MacDonalds. It is a 9 hour bus ride south of Cochabamba, slightly higher in altitude but neatly set in a valley. As Rose described the climate there - "Sucre is like a woman right? Always changing.." Of course I disagreed with her.

The declaration of
independence in Sucre.

A giant head of Simon Bolivar,
carved out of one cedar tree.

It is a very interesting city - full of museums about the independence of Bolivia. I got pretty confused, but basically Simon Bolivar (one of the great 'liberators' of South America) went around liberating all sorts of countries from the Spanish - Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru.. His intention was to have a unified state - much like a United States of South America. This dream never worked out, but he did succeed in removing the rule of the Spanish. Peru, modern-day Bolivia and parts of Argentina were one country, but under the command of General Sucre, Bolivia gained independence from here in 1825. Bolivar got to name the country after himself, and Sucre got the capital.

Other museums in Sucre recounted about the tradition of masks - there are SO many festivals and parades and parties in Bolivia all the time, at least when there aren't blockades. And there are always masks to be worn - ranging from the humorous elephant or cat masks to more sinister masks depicting the devil and his subordinates. Sadly no photos were allowed.

The view over the rooftops.

We also saw a painting of a virgin from guadalupe who I think is the saint of the cathedral in Sucre? The painting is actually covered all over with precious stones extracted from mines nearby - rubies and diamonds and silver and gold.. Making the picture 'the most expensive virgin in the Americas'. I was distinctly underwhelmed. Luckily no photos were allowed, to maintain the illusion of this amazing painting.

Climbing up to the
top of the bell tower.

One of the best bits of Sucre was all the views. We climbed a hill on the first day to see the white roofs spread out from us, and the second day we entered what used to be a convent and what is now a school. It's an amazing setting for a school! We climbed up to the roof and up the bell towers, and we spent 2 hours sitting up there as the light softened enjoying the peacefulness and the views.

Sun going down on our time in Sucre

It was a good weekend. My only regret was letting that shoe-shine boy shine my shoes. I knew that it was a bad idea to put polish on trainers. I knew it wouldn't work. And I told him that. But he was so persuasive, and I thought - what harm can it do to let a poor boy earn a bit of money..

A little boy sabotaging my
shoes. All for 50p.

We arrived back in Cochabamba at 4.30 on Tuesday morning after another overnight bus that felt like a slow motion roller coaster for 9 hours. We knew we were back in Cochabamba because there was another strike going on and no trufis (minibus buses) were running. Eventually a renegade driver turned up and we all piled in merrily, ready to go home. Fired through the first 10 red lights and then when he saw another blockade up ahead, we of course did a neat three point turn and barreled back down the 3 lane 'motorway', angrily beeping at anyone who dared to be driving up the correct side. After some nifty back roads and dirt tracks we managed to circumvent to blockage and get safely back to the hospital..



*Sucre is the original constitutional capital of Bolivia, where the declaration of independence was signed. La Paz is now the main seat of government and often erroneously considered to be the capital, but is in fact not.

**This fact comes from a local Bolivian friend of a friend, whom I consider to be highly trustworthy. Despite that, this fact may not be entirely factually correct.