Our first major Bolivian cities, the cities of Potosi and Sucre, share a few major commonalities: 1) they are perched dizzyingly and breathlessly high in altitude, and 2) they drape gorgeously across a mountain valley, building up on to it’s very surrounding hills. From what we’ve seen and read about other Bolivian cities, it seems it’s a design principle around here. There were some other strange circumstantial parallels as well, namely that the orientation of our hostels to the main town square to the primary city market were exactly the same in both cities, requiring a lot of confusing and frustrating conversations about where exactly the hell we were at any given time, our realities slipping back and forth between knowledge of both cities. As many likenesses as these cities held, on close inspection the really couldn’t be any more different, and both of the made great stops on our tour north into Bolivia.

Potosi

One thing becomes very clear very quickly in Potosi – at 13,500 feet, absolutely nothing is easy. As we left the bus and climbed the half set of steps up into the bus terminal, I felt my pulse in my temples accompanied with dry substanceless air coursing through my pipes… Wheezing, headache… Welcome to Potosi! A steep and hilly city that forces you to remind yourself that each step you take downhill is one you must take again uphill.

Potosi is mainly known for its nearby mines. You can tour these things — not dead, silent, tourist mines in oar cars.. No, there are sweating, hard working men down there working in terrifying conditions, lungs full of bad news, dynamite blasts echoing through curling tunnels. We’d heard that these tours were very interesting, very immersive affairs, but also extremely exploitative — a fact reinforced by the advertising showing the blonde tourist taking a selfie with a sweaty, busy, dirt covered man. We opted against it. Call us uptight.

We spent most of our time in Potosi like we spend our time in most places along the way: wandering the streets, winding through colorful markets and trying new foods.

One of our adventures out took us upon a small witches market. People aren’t too keen on folks taking pictures of these things, but Lucy managed to sneak a few. We’ve read that 90% of buildings in Bolivia have one of these dried fetal llamas under them… For luck, I guess.

Sucre

Where Potosi has a rather dusty, blue collar vibe to it, the jewel city of Sucre is super clean and rather classy. We were constantly turning corners to find painting crews giving buildings a coat of whitewash that gives Sucre the nickname “The White City”. A cabby revealed that it’s part of the municipal code. Well, looks great guys.

There are several rather lovely parks in Sucre, none of which do we know the names of, but I dare say we are less “detail” folks and more “big picture” folks. All of them spotlessly clean, extremely carefully manicured, with elegantly scrolled landscaping features and topiary — beautiful and inviting. One long park to the north had it’s own rickety iron Eiffel Tower that overlooked a circular waterway full of paddle boats. Vendors abound, we enjoyed a slice of cake with milk poured on it, and got together the nerve to try a local specialty, papas rellenos – cheese, meat, or a hard boiled egg, wrapped in mashed potatoes, deep fried, and served drenched in savory sauces.

Sharing borders with this park is a remarkable thing that probably clenched the deal in terms of my affection for Sucre – the dinosaur park. I guess they found some fossils nearby and got excited about it at some point, the city built this incredible dinosaur themed playground, free to enter, full of Jurassicly appointed swings, slides and see-saws. Colorful, creative, well maintained, and with the coolest, fastest and biggest brontosaurus slide you’ll ever zip down.

The cemetery was huge, and again, remarkably well maintained and spotless. More like a botanical garden than a graveyard, really.

Where we would spend the vast majority of our roaming time would be the Mercado Central. In many ways, the large central market is not much different than most markets you come to expect in Latin America. Stalls everywhere selling fresh vegetables, cheeses, meats, housewares, sweets and cakes. Where Sucre really owned the situation was in its “food court”. The juice section is priceless — 20 or so stalls, exactly identical in offerings, exactly identical in appearance and pretty much equal in price. The ladies vie for your attention, corralling you into their chairs, and for pocket change, you get a freshly blended, tall glass of exotic juice… And then another one, the leftovers in the blender.

The Comidas Tipicales section had the same thing going on: about a dozen stalls, old ladies bent over bubbling cauldrons of red sauces, signs offering the exact same dishes at the exact same prices… In fact, they were the exact same signs. Just over a dollar and you get a plate full of whatever, big enough to share.

The highlight of the food situation in Sucre, however, was the discovery of a fruit we were previously aware of and always dreamed of trying, the so called “ice cream bean”. A thick bean pod, that once dug in to reveals a series of seeds surrounded in sweet, velvety, fluffy, cotton candy white fur.

Bolivia is really cheap when it comes to fresh stuff that they make, but imported and packaged stuff comes at a premium. In most cases, adding a beer or a coke to your meal will double the cost. Buying fresh made cookies and confections on the street cost pennies, while a sleeve of chips ahoy type cookies will dry out your budget.

To wrap this post up, we’ll include a couple of photos from the popular hilltop mirador near our hostel, where we got front row seats to a gorgeous sunset over this impressive jewel city.