2012-05-16
Sucre is the constitutional capital of Bolivia, although the government no longer resides here. It's a beautiful city set among arid hills. We enjoyed sitting at a cafe high on a hill overlooking the city playing chess and sipping amazingly cheap fruit shakes.
Through a museum, we also learned more about the history of Bolivia and the cooperative battle for independence of much of South America from the Spanish crown. Although Bolivia was the first to declare independence, it was the last to win it due to how critical the spoils of the mines in Potosí were to the Spanish. After winning independence, Bolivia was given the choice of becoming a single country with either Peru or Chile, but it instead chose to be a republic of its own, a choice that in hindsight might not have been wise.