Bolivia - Potosi/Sucre

In the center of Bolivia we visited two small Unesco towns, famous for their colonial architecture, Potosi and Sucre.

For New Year's Eve we were happy to meet again with Pedro and Basak in Potosi, one of the three highest cities in the world.

New Year's Eve Team!! :)

Plaza 10 de Noviembre just before midnight

Potosi used to be a very wealthy city thanks to its huge silver resources. It is still possible to visit the silver mines but we have heard it can be dangerous. Anyway the wealth of Potosi passed into the vernacular: one says "Cuesta un potosi" or "Vale un potosi" for "It costs an arm and a leg"!

Potosi still offers nice walks along cute streets with colonial buildings but, during the official holidays, every museums is closed and nearly every shops and restaurants.

Nonetheless the manager of our hostel advised us to go near the San Benito church where a fiesta is happening the 1^st of January. We arrived in the neighborhood around 11am, just in time to see a religious procession: a statue of Jesus Christ carrying his cross, a priest, a few altar boys, a brass band and the faithful parading, and blessing some houses..

The fiesta of San Benito church has everything of a funfair: food stalls, shooting galleries, games stalls, and many people in good spirits! A nice atmosphere!

 

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The city of Sucre takes its name from one of the independence leader of Bolivia and its second president, the Grand Marshal Antonio José de Sucre and rightly: he was one of the signatories of the declaration of independance the 6^th of August 1825 in the Casa de la Libertad, a former Jesuit Chapel.

Sucre is also famous for its university so a lot of young people lives there.

 Mobile copy machines.. ;)

Like Potosi, it is very pleasant to walk around in the narrow streets of Sucre which is "the most beautiful city of Bolivia" according to the Lonely Planet.

But what struck us the most in Sucre was on the one hand, the amazing fruit market with an abundance of exotic fruits that we had never seen before, the whole impeccably arranged in regular shiny pyramids..

.. and on the other hand the Cemeterio municipal with its strange walls.