Sucre and Tarabuco

The 156 km drive from Potosi to Sucre is paved and incredible over the high mountains and plateaus.

We passed through another toll and the ladies there were very interested in where we had come from.

On the way there were several castle like buildings in the middle of nowhere.

Sucre is said to be the most beautiful city in Bolivia and is considered the symbolic heart of the country. It has many white washed buildings hence it’s nick name “ the white city”.

Our Moto concierge Charlie was checked into a cheep and nice Hostal 2 blocks from the square and where we could park our bikes in the courtyard. Lulu fit in just, but Dan had to remove a pannier o get in the door. This is where the mini metal tape measure his mom gave him comes in very handy.

We did a small walking tour of the city center and climbed up onto the roof of a fancy hotel for an amazing view. You can also pay to get into the convent school and climb up the bell towers and onto the roof.

Since today is Sunday we headed to the nearby town of Tarabuco for the famous Sunday market.

Many people here are wearing traditional Yampara costumes. It is only 66 km by the rt 6 which we found was blocked 10 km out of town for a car rally and so is 76 km away via rt5 and dirt connector and rt6. The round trip was 144 km.

The main square was filled with vendors selling traditional wares for tourists, but all the side streets were packed with vendors selling almost anything you can think of to the people who have come from the surrounding villages. The most interesting were the women with the bowler type hats and those with the caps with the fringe of white beads. We hung out just people watching until the road was open at 2 pm. Daniel made friends with two of the male vendor and talked with them for hours.

Back in Sucre the guys checked out the very good local artisanal beer sold by a Belgian restaurant and then we had dinner for the second night in a row at the very good French restaurant La Taverna. They have amazing steaks with NYC service and presentation.