Sucre July 25th

TUESDAY 25th Sucre

Chocolate factory visit and Casa de la Libertad.

This morning we (six of us) took a public bus to visit the local chocolate factory, Para Ti.  We watched a video, were given a sample - yum, and then briefly walked along a corridor looking at photos and through glass windows at mostly idle equipment.  Luckily one window had two women filling moulds and then emptying them in order to create a chocolate layer in the mould prior to the next process.

Lindsey asked about fair trade and whether they paid the cacao growers enough and seemed to get an acceptable answer.  All the cacao that they use is grown in Bolivia in the lowlands near the amazon.  The indigenous growers are in a cooperative and are apparently paid appropriately.  An interesting side comment we heard was that the employees at the factory and their families all get dental cover as part of their employment package.  We wondered if that was because they got good discounts for the chocolate.  We finished up at the factory shop to buy some chocolate.  We bought some yummy bonbons, some Coca chocolate and some salted chocolate.

Back to town on the public bus and we got off early for Marisol to take Lindsey through an artisan market.  Lindsey has been looking for some cloth to recover one of our footstools and everything has either been too big or too small.  Today we found baby bear.  It was just right.  Purchase concluded and we walked back to the main square.

Sucre has a siesta time from 12:00 to 14:30.  Our next plan was to visit the main museum Casa de la Libertad which would reopen at 14:30.  

So, back to the hotel for a wee rest then off to a Saltenas cafe to feed me and then to the market for Lindsey to have some soup.

We arrived at the museum as it opened and then waited with some others from our tour group for an English speaking tour at 15:00.  These local tour guides leave a lot to be desired. I find that I'm only able to understand half of their "English" words.  They speak to fast, have a very thick accent and always seem to want to add some extra word or phrase at the end of each sentence.

Anyway I still found it of interest even though a lot of it went over my head.

Apparently Simon Bolivar and AJ (Antonio Jose) Sucre even though they were of Spanish heritage decided to liberate South America from the Spanish.  They worked their way down from Venezuela liberating countries as they went and Bolivia (the last country to be liberated) decided to name their country after one liberator and their capital city after the other.

Originally a Jesuit chapel, Bolivia their signed declaration of independence in this building in 1825.  Interestingly Bolivar and Sucre didn't sign it as they didn't want to influence the tribal chiefs in this way.

There are thirty odd signatures on this declaration.

There was a room set aside to an Argentinian woman who was also heavily involved in getting the Spanish to move on.

This museum was the actual parliament until the 1898.

Historic input over and done with for another day and we set about deciding where we were going to eat tonight.

We decided to return to Florin for dinner later so we then returned to our hotel to catch up with face time and emails.

Lindsey had my enchiladas tonight and I had pork ribs.  They were delicious. Lots of meat and very little rib bones.

Then back to the square to watch the break dancers performing again.  There were a couple of extra bods tonight so it was even more entertaining than last night.

In bed by 8.  Lights out by 9:30. Alarm set for 5am!