The White City

When my bus from La Paz entered the town of Sucre after 15 hours, I was instantly charmed. The sun shone brightly on the white buildings, perfectly placed in a fertile and friendly valley east of the much harsher altiplano. And when doing my customary walk-about-town through the rustic colonial streets and the palm-lined plaza, and seeing the majority of non-indigenous people, I could swear I was in southern Spain.

Sucre is still Bolivia´s official capital, although the presidential and congressional seats have long moved to La Paz, following a civil war between the cities in the late 19th century. What is left is the country´s judicial power and a town that has the prestige of a capital but not all the dirty stuff that comes with it. No high-rise buildings here, the colonial wealth of the 16th century and beyond (mainly from Potosí´s silver mine, my next destination) is still evident here in the yearly white-washed building facades. It´s a wonderful place to walk around in.

The town is (re)named after José Antonio de Sucre, one of the main heroes of de independence struggle of Spanish South America. After failed initial attempts at independence in the late 18th century in what now is Peru and Bolivia, the main catalyst for independence was Napoleon´s conquering of Spain in 1808. Two revolutionary leaders started liberating the continent from the Spanish. José de San Martin (an Argentinian general) from the south, and Simón Bolívar, "El Libertador" from Venezuela, from the north. They converged upon Peru where Sucre, Bolívars right hand man, decisively defeated the Spanish in the battle of Ayacucho in 1824 (see history links for more on these three generals).

In 1826, representatives from all over "Alto Peru" decided not to join with Peru or Argentina, and the independent state of Bolivia (cleverly named after Bolívar) was born. José Antonio Sucre was appointed its first president. A few years after his assassination, the birthplace of the state was renamed in his honour.

His image in bronze commands the main plaza in Sucre now, surrounded by palm trees and relaxing "Sureños" in the afternoon. However, this White City has a darker side. If you spend an hour sitting on a bench in the plaza it becomes strikingly apparent. While the little children of the well-to-do innocently chase the pigeons in the, children of the same age but of a different background have a much ruder entry into life. The contrast between poor and rich is very strong.

All the shoeshine boys here are at most 8 or 9 years old, younger than anywhere I ahve seen so far in South Amerca. It is appaling. They look like they have been pulled out of a coal mine a few minutes ago. I saw a 4 or 5 year old little boy shining the shoes of a woman in the square assisted by his perhaps 3 year older brother. The little son of the woman stopped his plays with the pigeons to start hitting the little kid with his big red balloon repeatedly, to the enjoyment of the entire family. The shoeshine boy just went on rubbing, probably already sensing his lot in life.

It depressed me, and it took away a lot of the white shine of the city. This is still Bolivia, how clean and prosperous Sucre might appear. Beggar women stake out the ATMs and fancy shops, from dawn till late at night with their kids sleeping next to them wrapped in dirty blankets. That is, if they are not coming up to you with their hands held up themselves ...

Despite this I still manage to enjoy myself. Don´t worry, I am not heading into a depression here - that would surprise too many people ;-)

Walking through the streets and the plaza is a pleasure; I am thoroughly enjoying Sucre´s main delicacies, Salteñas (meat pastries) and the yummy Chocolates; my hotel has a TV with 60 channels, which I use to indulge myself in Argentinian and British football. Finally, and this is bad news for the "Hans-come-back-soon" lobby, I had lunch in a Dutch-owned bar/café with a glass of cold milk and a Bossche Bol as desert ... I can go on now for a few more months at least :-D

But the most amazing thing of Sucre is outside of the town, at a big limestone quarry. In this place, called Cal Orcko, by far the largest collection of dinosaur footprints in the world can be found. Eternalised in the limestone between 65 and 140 million years ago and then thrust up by the moving of the tectonic plates, it looks like they have been running up the huge limestone wall. There are hundreds of prints, of all sorts of dinos: velociraptor, allosaurus and especially the huge brontosaurus. Truly mind-boggling !