say it in blogs

First off, happy 2009 to my trusty readers – all 6 of you! 2008 was a pretty wild year and I think most are happy to have it behind them. Let’s keep it posi for 2009.

Last weekend flew with the folks to Sucre, which is the constitutional capital of Bolivia and situated in the Chuquisaca department (province). It’s often referred to as ‘la ciudad blanca‘ (the white city) because of the vast amount of white colonial era buildings. It was favoured by the Spanish aristocracy that made their money from the mines of Potosí because it is lower in altitude and therefore has a much more pleasant climate. Sucre is historically significant because it was the birthplace of Latin American independence. Though Bolivia was the last country to gain its independence, a lot of the revolutionary thinking originated in this city. Part of this is due to the fact that the first university of the New World was established in Sucre: Universidad Real & Pontifice de San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca. Whoa, what a mouthful.

It’s a pretty small city and you can pretty much cover it in one day. We went to the ‘Casa de la Libertad‘ which is a museum dedicated to the history of Sucre and Bolivia. A cool artifact they possess is the first Argentinian flag which has the inverted colour scheme of the current one. The flag is in Bolivia because the Argentinian army came to Bolivia to help fight the colonialists. Upon retreat a soldier hid the flag behind a painting and it was recovered years later. It stayed in Sucre as a symbol of friendship between the two countries.

We stayed in the Parador Santa Maria La Real Hostal which is a beautiful hotel in a restored colonial house. To give you an idea of how cheap Bolivia is this 4 star hotel costs $50 a night. Mental.

The next day we woke up early for the 3 hour drive to Potosí. We had a guide, Harry, and Chauffeur, Daniel. I knew we were with a good group of dudes because Harry was wearing a Kenora jacket and a Helloween shirt. When Daniel started the car, no joke, Megadeth cranked out of the speakers. Stoked. The drive was amazing, carving in and out of the Andes, every turn leaves you breathless. As I mentioned earlier, the roads in Bolivia are pretty sketchy. People don’t turn on their lights, whip by you at ludicrous speeds and use stop signs and lights willy-nilly. It can make the trip a little nerve-wracking but we were lucky to get a quiet and dry ride.

Potosí is a mining town in a department of the same name. This article describes the current and past state of the city with some great visuals. We checked out the Museo De Plata (Silver/Money museum) which had a lot of great artifacts from the glory days of the silver mine known as the Cerro Rico (now mostly mined for trace amounts of minerals). My pops loves religious art so we ended up spending the afternoon checking out some ancient churches and a Carmelita monastery. The town is ancient complete with impossibly narrow streets that are hard to navigate, but luckily our heavy metal guides got us around no problem. In Potosí you really get a glimpse at the poverty of the country so it can be a little disheartening, but that’s an important part of travelling.

Heading back to Buenos Aires on Saturday which means I won’t be posting until I return to Toronto in February. Meeting up with K on the 10th and we begin our travels through Argentina where we’ll be checking out Mar del Plata, Corrientes, and Mendoza. Can’t wait to see all my buds again in 2009. mph out!