Day 4 - July 21, 2017 Sucre, Bolivia

It took less than 45 minutes to fly from Santa Cruz to Sucre, the official capital of Bolivia. This is a much prefered way to travel as it would have taken us over 10 hours to go by bus twisting and turning and bouncing up and down on the unpaved road.  We were also surprised at how frequent the flights are between the two cities - almost on the hours. And our flight was totally full! It was also fascinating to see our plane landing very close to the top of the mountain ranges as the city is situated at 2800m. The air views of the mountains were spectacular!

Sucre was warmer than expected and much better developed than Santa Cruz. The city was clean and much more lively. Its colonial architecture is beautiful and impressive. Our hotel, Samary, is part of the Brazil consulate and very nicely decorated. After checking in, we spent the rest of the day to visit a few attractions.  Richard put on his commando hat again as many of the attractions close for siesta from 12:30 pm - 2:30 pm and then close at 6:00 pm.  In essence, we only had limited time to tour around different attractions.

We first visited Museo del Teroso (treasure museum) and learned about the gold rush in Bolivia in the 70's. Some of the mines are still operating. The techniques and some other minerals and precious stones (silver, quartz, etc.) were part of the display. We didn't know that Bolivia produces the biggest supply of tin. Bolivia is also the only country in the world that produces Bolivianite which is a mixture of amethyst (purple) and citrine (muster green colour). I was so impressed by it that I almost bought a necklace but at the end decided not to as the design was not quite to my liking. The decision certainly delighted Richard and our bank account. He was ready to dash out to exchange more money.

The next stop was to the Casa del la Libertad which traced back the history on how Bolivia became an independent country and the number of battles and concessions made to Peru, Chile, and Paraguay. There is a tribunal appeal in Amsterdam about a dispute beween Bolivia and Chile on a section of the land north in Chile (Atacama desert) and access to the sea.  There was a woman general in the 1800's who fought a number of wars in defence of the country' territories and she is regarded as one of the country hero's! 

The last stop was to the Convent San Felipe Neri and we were quite taken back by the beautiful design and the panoramic view of the city from the roof top.  The various shades of blue sky, the city's red roof tiles, and the sunset were breathtaking!

We had dinner at El Solar which was recommended by the hotel. Initially, we were quite impressed by the salad buffet it offered but the main courses were disappointing. It was either too bland, too salty or too sweet!  If this is one of the best restaurants of the city (according to the hotel and TripAvisor), we better lowered our expectations for the rest of the stay.