First published: 09/06/23.

Timonator 3.5

Sucre

Sucre (Inscribed)

Sucre by Timonator

In total I spent 11 nights in Sucre as it's a pleasant city which offers quite som activities and services even though it has a bit of a small town feeling as most places are a small walk from the city center. Some of the white, colonial houses in the city are really nice to look at during day and night and around the central plaza 25 de mayo there is a checkerboard street system. Nevertheless I can understand why some people indicated in their reviews that it's a bit weak to use these properties to make Sucre a WHS. But now that it is a WHS I will rate it not too bad as I have enjoyed my long stay here even though nothing was breathtakingly interesting. In the following I will describe my activities in town and my recommendations. 
 
I have visited the cathedral museum which allows you to visit the cathedral's interior. I was too late for the guided tour so I looked at many religious artefacts without explaination. It was interesting to learn that the statue of the Virgen Guadaloupe made among others of diamonds is standing in the chapel next to the cathedral. I only learned it after my visit though. There is a public holiday once per year for the virgin.  
 
I can recommend the guided tour that I found via freetourexpert.com that led me to Manu who gave me a really nice free walking tour with facts about the history of the places. Among others he showed us the Santa Clara convent where behind a construction nuns are baking salteñas, a good lunch snack, and only buy talking and without seeing them you can buy some from them. That was quite special and tasty. Also I liked the tour with Manu so much that I booked a two day hike with him through the surrounding Cordillera de los Frailes. We walked parts of the Inca trail towards the "crater" of Maragua where we slept in a hostel. On the second day we walked past some dinosaur footprints into Potolo from where we took a bus back to Sucre on a street that made me thought if I'm really not afraid of heights. I can recommend this hike through the landscape in which many people of the Jal'qa culture live. If you want to know more about this culture without leaving Sucre, I can recommend the indigenous textile museum next to the Recoleta area where there is also a famous sunset viewpoint and a museum in the convent of Recoleta which however was a fail when I visited. First things first in the textile museum you can learn a lot on the indigenous cultures of the area. They have a 50 page book with all text signs of the museum that are presented in Spanish by which you can read the texs also in English, French or German. The German was a really good translation of all texts which made it joyful to read. In many other museums I experienced really bad translations before. You can easily spend 3 to 4 hours in the museum if you want to read it all. The museum of the Recoleta convent however is famous for the wood carvings of the chorus displaying the Franciscan victims of the Nagasaki crucification of 1595. The room was closed for restauration when we visited and the rest of the visit going through rooms of the active convent which display Christian artifacts was again not very interesting for me. Additionally our guide from the first moment on seemed to want us leave again. She explained a few things per room and otherqise pushed us through. Not reconmandable. The plaza in front of the convent however is recommandable for the sunset view, the nice WHS sign and the small market in which I bought my llama wool (I hope) pullover.  
 
Another museum and must see is the casa de la libertad at the central plaza 25 de mayo. It's the place where the Bolivian independance has been declared and it awards the Bolivians fighting for the independance and the former presidents. Main honours go of course to the Libertador Simon Bolivar and his right hand Sucre after whom the city has been named.  
 
Next to the independance house there is a bell tower with a nice café and viewpoint on top and on the other side is the administration building for the region of Chuquisaca which looks interesting as well.  
 
Outside the core topic of the WHS we visited nice restaurants in the city like the ON, El Huerto for lunch and the Posadas with very nice ambiance, a salsa class in the joyride café which was good and some festivities like the fería aleman in the Plaza Cochabamba, a special celebration of the German schools with very bad fake German food but good vibes as well as many school parades in the streets and festivities around the 25th of May, the foundation date of Chuquisaca and Sucre. Also the chocolate festival that stood in relation with the tasty brand of para tí was nice. The café behind the old townhall during colonial times (coffee bike) is also really joyful to sit in between huge trees in a garden. 
 
Next to Parque Simon Bolivar there are also some more white buildings with official purpose for people searching for evidence that it's the white city. 
 
We also visited the dinosaur parl in Cal Orck'o in which there are tours to other dinosaur footsteps in a cement factory at 12 and 1 o'clock. After havind seen the other dinosaur footsteps in the mountains it was not that interesting anymore. But it's a nice half day trip especially if you have kids.  
 
Finally we visited the show in Origenes which is a folklore costume museum, cultural center, restaurant and show hall at the same time. While you get some dinner the dancers present many, many different costumes to you on the stage coming from all parts and cultures of the country. It's not too expensive and really entertaining especially because some costumes are really spectacular.  
 
So all in all I enjoyed my stay in Sucre and surroundings a lot and can recommend it to everyone also because the weather is really pleasant. Nevertheless it's not a spectacular WHS so I'm not rating it super good.  

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