Sucre

Each of the well known names represent a specific era of the city's history: Charcas was the indigenous name for the place upon which the Spaniards built the colonial city. La Plata was the name given to the emerging Hispanic city of privilege and honor. The name Chuquisaca was bestowed upon the city during the independence era. Sucre honors the great marshal of the Battle of Ayacucho (December 9, 1824), Antonio José de Sucre. "La Ciudad Blanca" is a nickname that was bestowed upon the city because many of the colonial style houses and structures are painted white.

Prior to Spanish colonization, Sucre was an Inca town called Chuquisaca, a name that remains an alternative designation for the city today. The name Chuquisaca possibly derives from the Quechua words chuqi, meaning 'precious metal' or 'silver', and shaqa or saqa, meaning 'abundance', 'a heap', or 'a pile of small things', thus translating to 'a heap of precious metal' or 'a pile of silver'. Chuquisaca was the provincial capital of the wamani of Charca, established after Topa Inka Yupanqui conquered the Aymara kingdom that originally occupied the area and imposed the Quechua language on them. According to Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, the Inca ruler received ambassadors from the kingdom of Tucman (Tucumán) while in Charca. …

Geographically, Sucre is located at the head of valleys with a warm and dry climate, at an altitude of 2,798 meters above sea level. Specifically, it lies in the geographic region of Bolivia's inter-Andean valleys, between the highlands of the Andean plateau and the lowlands of the Gran Chaco plains. Likewise, the area marks the boundary between the Amazon basin (the Chico and Grande rivers) and the La Plata River basin (the Cachimayu and Pilcomayu rivers). The city is situated in Oropeza Province of the Department of Chuquisaca, at the foot of the Sica Sica and Churuquella hills (two ancient extinct volcanoes), in the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes, near the point where the mountain ranges decrease in elevation and provide a warm and dry head-of-valley climate. …

This city was one of the main driving forces behind its spread, since some of the oldest and most beautiful pieces of this genre were composed by authors from Chuquisaca, such as Miguel Ángel Valda Paredes and Simeón Roncal. Two types of cueca stand out: one of a popular character and another known as the salon cueca, the latter with a slower rhythm, similar to the meter of the Argentine zamba. This dance emerged in the bars and chicherías of the White City and was performed by student ensembles (estudiantinas). This rhythm became very widespread and eventually became part of other regional identities, as in the case of Cochabamba, which today has adopted it as a characteristic rhythm of the region. …

The capital's economy is based primarily on: Chocolate production: Chocolates Para Ti, Chocolates Taboada Cement Manufacturing: FANCESA National Cement Factory, Sucre Manufacturing of Sheep Wool and Rabbit Fur Hat Shafts and Bells: "Chuquisaca Hat Factory" Beer Production: Sureña Natural Food Production: Productos Naturales Sobre La Roca Tourism: Sucre Municipal Autonomous Government Soft Drink Production: Salvietti S.A. "The taste of our own" Dairy Production: PIL Chuquisaca Sausage Production: Cobolde. The Mercado Campesino marketplace is the largest in Sucre.

About 30 km southeast of the city lies Alcantarí International Airport, with regular services to the cities of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, La Paz, Cochabamba, and other connections. This is the city’s third airport, built after the Lajastambo airports (an old airfield constructed during the Chaco War in the late 1930s, now demolished and urbanized) and the former Juana Azurduy de Padilla Airport. The bus terminal was inaugurated in 1975 and is located on Ostria Gutiérrez Avenue, offering regular national and departmental services. By land, the city is connected to Potosí via Route 5 to the southwest, which then continues to Uyuni, while the same route heading north leads to the cities of Cochabamba and Santa Cruz.