Sucre, Cochabamba, Tarija & the Valleys

The valleys were settled long before the Inca, and the Cochabamba basin was later organised by the Inca emperor Huayna Capac as a maize-growing estate, worked by colonists brought in from across the empire; the fortress of Incallajta guarded its eastern edge against lowland peoples. The Spanish founded La Plata, today's Sucre, in 1538, and in 1559 made it the seat of the Audiencia of Charcas, the court that governed a territory much larger than modern Bolivia. With silver flowing from nearby Potosí, the city filled with churches, convents and, from 1624, the University of San Francisco Xavier, one of the oldest in the Americas.

Cochabamba grew as the granary that fed Potosí, and Tarija, founded in 1574, as a frontier town facing the Chaco. On 25 May 1809 Chuquisaca, as La Plata was then known, rose against Spanish authority, and in 1825 independence was declared in the building now called the Casa de la Libertad. The city took the name of Antonio José de Sucre in 1839 and remained the capital until the civil war of 1899 moved the seat of government to La Paz; it kept the Supreme Court and the constitutional title.

In the 20th century the Chaco War of 1932–35 with Paraguay was fought on the south-eastern plains, and gas later made Tarija's share of the Chaco rich. In 2000 Cochabamba's Water War, a revolt against the privatisation of the city's water supply, reversed the contract. The Chapare became the base of the coca growers' movement that brought Evo Morales to power, and during the 2019 political crisis soldiers opened fire on a coca growers' march at Sacaba, killing eleven demonstrators.

Quechua is the Indigenous language of the valleys, heard in Cochabamba's markets and in the villages around Sucre alongside Spanish. East of Sucre, the Yampara people of Tarabuco are known for their weaving and for the Pujllay, a festival held in March in which dancers in spurred sandals and tall headdresses celebrate the harvest; it is recognised by UNESCO as intangible heritage together with the Ayarichi dance. The Jalq'a communities of northern Chuquisaca weave red-and-black textiles filled with imaginary creatures.

Sucre carries the manners of an old university and court city: formal, Catholic and proud of the whitewashed facades that give it the name of the White City. Cochabamba's identity is built around food, markets and religious festivals, above all the pilgrimage to the Virgin of Urkupiña at Quillacollo each August, which draws hundreds of thousands of people and dance troupes from across the country.

Tarija stands apart. Its people, the chapacos, are known for a relaxed, Andalusian- influenced way of life, coplas sung back and forth in the style of Spanish verse, and instruments such as the long caña trumpet and the erke horn. The festival of San Roque brings out the chunchos, colourfully dressed dancers who process in honour of the saint. In the Chaco, Guaraní communities keep their own language and customs.

Cochabamba is the largest city in the region, with a metropolitan area of more than a million people stretching along the valley through Quillacollo and Sacaba. Sucre has around 300,000 people and a large student population, and Tarija is somewhat smaller. Smaller centres include Punata and Cliza in Cochabamba's upper valley, the wine towns of Camargo and Uriondo, and the Chaco towns of Yacuiba and Villa Montes.

Cochabamba lives on trade, food processing, services and agriculture; its La Cancha market is one of the largest in the country, and its location makes it a transport hub between the highlands and Santa Cruz. The Chapare grows coca, bananas and tropical fruit. Sucre depends on government, the courts, the university, cement and chocolate, while Tarija's economy combines wine and singani with natural gas from the Chaco fields, whose falling output has hit public budgets hard.

The pace in the valleys is slower than on the Altiplano. Long lunches are normal, chicherías serve maize beer in Cochabamba's villages, and weekends are spent in the countryside or at family gatherings. The main issues are the national economic crisis, water shortages as the cities grow, and the political tension between the Chapare and the government.

Cochabamba is regarded as Bolivia's food capital. Silpancho, pounded breaded beef served over rice and potatoes topped with fried eggs and chopped onion, is its signature dish, and trancapecho puts the same ingredients inside a bread roll. Pique macho, a heap of beef, sausage, chips, onion and chilli, is also claimed by the city. Chicha, a fermented maize beer, is brewed in the villages of the upper valley, and llajwa, a fresh sauce of tomato and locoto chilli, is on every table.

Sucre is known for its chorizos chuquisaqueños, spicy pork sausages, for mondongo, a spicy pork stew with hominy, and for chocolate, made by several local companies. Salteñas are eaten across the valleys in the mid-morning.

Tarija's cooking includes saice, a spicy stew of minced beef, peas and potatoes. The Tarija and Cinti valleys produce Bolivia's best-known wines, grown at high altitude, and singani, a brandy distilled from Muscat of Alexandria grapes, which is the national spirit and the base of the chuflay cocktail.

Sucre's white colonial centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is best seen from the rooftops of the San Felipe Neri convent and La Recoleta viewpoint above the city. The Casa de la Libertad holds the hall where independence was declared, the cathedral and its museum face the main square, and the ASUR museum shows Jalq'a and Tarabuco weaving. On the city's edge, the Parque Cretácico overlooks Cal Orck'o, a quarry wall covered in thousands of dinosaur footprints. Tarabuco's Sunday market, east of Sucre, sells weavings, coca and farm produce.

Cochabamba's sights are its markets, the Cristo de la Concordia statue on San Pedro hill, reached by cable car, the Palacio Portales built for the tin baron Simón Patiño, and the Tunari National Park on the mountains to the north. The Inca ruins of Incallajta lie to the east. Torotoro National Park, just across the departmental line in northern Potosí and reached from Cochabamba, combines dinosaur trackways, the Umajalanta cave and a deep canyon.

In the south, Tarija has a colonial centre with palm-lined plazas and is the base for visits to the Tarija and Concepción wine valleys, where wineries and singani distilleries offer tastings. The Cinti valley around Camargo is known for red rock formations and old wine estates.