After completing Huayna Potosi I got sick and my body needed a break from the high altitude. So I took a bus to the cute little city of Sucre, in the southern part of Bolivia. The city is actually the capital of Bolivia and celebrations were in full swing because it was the month of May and the 200th anniversary of their independence, 25 de Mayo. To celebrate there was a concert in the main plaza every night in May. There were many lovely plazas in the city and they were always filled with people and families just enjoying the day or the concerts at night. And I found it very interesting that during the concerts it seemed everyone was eating candy, but I didn’t see anyone drinking a beer or alcohol of any kind.
The city feels like a small bussing town with a wonderful fresh fruit and veggie market (if you can avoid the slaughterhouse section) and lots of small stalls line the street with people selling jewelry or other household goods. There are an abundance of chocolate, ice cream, and candy stores, law offices and universities… and the next most popular type of shop, dentists. At least they know the importance of dental hygiene.
On the last night I was in the town there was a huge free concert located in a large field outside the city. The most famous Bolivian band, The Caporales, was playing. And people from all around Sucre turned out, I would estimate over 15,000 people, to see this band play. They played traditional Bolivian music and had great cultural dancers joining them onstage. The crowd sang every word to every song and might have been louder then the band themselves. It was an amazing experience not just to see the band but to see the joy on the faces of the local people listening to them.
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