We began our adventure checking into the Adventure Brew Hostel where we stayed for two nights while exploring La Paz and we got to share a big room with a bunch of European and Australian tourists. We put down our bags and headed right out the door to eat some tasty pasteles with api for breakfast, and then we strolled over to a big park where we played giant chess, slid down the slide, and then I saved Katie from a huge alligator. Then we just wandered around the city the rest of the day. The next day we just wandered around some more in the morning, but in the afternoon we went up to El Alto to see some professional wrestling:
Early the next morning we got up and took Katie to the airport, said our goodbyes, and then Ann and I sat down and tried to figure out what to do. We wanted to go to Sucre, a 15 hour bus ride away, but we noticed a 40-minute flight to Sucre was leaving in a couple hours, so we decided to treat ourselves for Christmas and we were going to have breakfast that same morning in Sucre.
We ate breakfast in Sucre. And then we went to the Supreme Court, 
stayed in a cool hotel, 
where we later realized that we were sleeping where Che Guevara had stayed, 
we made friends with the locals, 
saw lots of churches, 
saw a big 1500 year-old tree that was also Simon Bolivar's favorite place to sit and write, 
and we got our hands on (a couple) of Sucre's famous sausage sandwiches. 
After a couple of days of doing this in the city, we wanted to explore some of the surrounding villages we had heard so much about at all the museums we went to. The people around here are famous for their incredibly intricate weavings and we wanted to see it for ourselves. So the next morning we jumped in a truck headed for the mountains. 
I was sitting up top and Ann was packed like a sardine down below with lots of campesinos and everything you can (and can't) imagine that they would bring with them. She explained to the women that we wanted to go to Maragua, and one woman, who only spoke Quechua, indicated that she was headed that way and we could accompany her. So after a couple hours in the truck, we hopped out. Before starting the hike we had a little lunch and after finishing and getting a large-enough wad of coca in our mouths we head out for a 3 1/2 hour hike. 
We eventually made it to the woman's house where she told us that we were still an hour from our destination and she gave us directions to get there. On the way, Ann had to get over her fear of walking on the edge on high cliffs with nothing to hold on to. Who's afraid of such a silly thing?
The hike was really beautiful and we finally made it to Maragua, which is actually in the middle of a giant crater. The surrounding mountains looked like the ripples from a puddle of water frozen in place and the rocks were violet, green, and red.
The people of Maragua were very friendly, fed us dinner and gave us a place to stay in a cabin they had built for passing tourists. The next morning they showed us some of their weavings in their homes and we got to see their weaving workshop built by an NGO.
After the morning tour, the woman we had hired to take us to the next town (a five-hour hike through the mountains they said we neede a guide for so we wouldn't get lost. They were right.) had still not shown up so the guy said, "Why don't you go walk over there and see the Devil's Throat?" No explaination. Ok, why not? So we just went walking in the direction he pointed and only a few minutes later we were looking over the edge of a huge waterfall. I don't know how tall it is, but you can see me sitting at the top if you look close.
Finally our guide got back from wherever she had gone that morning and we were off to Potolo.
To make an already long story a little bit shorter, we got to Potolo in the pouring rain, it wouldn't stop raining, and we decided to hitch a ride from there back to Sucre. We miracualously ran into a truck on the road at 4pm (we were told they usually all pull out of there by 10am) and headed back to the city. 
The plan was to go straight to the bus station and ride all night back to Cochabamba to arrive on the morning of the new year, but of course the terminal was closed and there were no busses to home until the second. Shoot, two more nights here? Sucre is cool, but we wanted to go home. Luckily we got a bus the next day that was picking up stranded people like us outside the terminal for a high price, but it was worth it to be home today and not be on a bus right now.
I was sitting up top and Ann was packed like a sardine down below with lots of campesinos and everything you can (and can't) imagine that they would bring with them. She explained to the women that we wanted to go to Maragua, and one woman, who only spoke Quechua, indicated that she was headed that way and we could accompany her. So after a couple hours in the truck, we hopped out. Before starting the hike we had a little lunch and after finishing and getting a large-enough wad of coca in our mouths we head out for a 3 1/2 hour hike. 
We eventually made it to the woman's house where she told us that we were still an hour from our destination and she gave us directions to get there. On the way, Ann had to get over her fear of walking on the edge on high cliffs with nothing to hold on to. Who's afraid of such a silly thing?
The hike was really beautiful and we finally made it to Maragua, which is actually in the middle of a giant crater. The surrounding mountains looked like the ripples from a puddle of water frozen in place and the rocks were violet, green, and red.
The people of Maragua were very friendly, fed us dinner and gave us a place to stay in a cabin they had built for passing tourists. The next morning they showed us some of their weavings in their homes and we got to see their weaving workshop built by an NGO.
After the morning tour, the woman we had hired to take us to the next town (a five-hour hike through the mountains they said we neede a guide for so we wouldn't get lost. They were right.) had still not shown up so the guy said, "Why don't you go walk over there and see the Devil's Throat?" No explaination. Ok, why not? So we just went walking in the direction he pointed and only a few minutes later we were looking over the edge of a huge waterfall. I don't know how tall it is, but you can see me sitting at the top if you look close.
Finally our guide got back from wherever she had gone that morning and we were off to Potolo.
To make an already long story a little bit shorter, we got to Potolo in the pouring rain, it wouldn't stop raining, and we decided to hitch a ride from there back to Sucre. We miracualously ran into a truck on the road at 4pm (we were told they usually all pull out of there by 10am) and headed back to the city. 
The plan was to go straight to the bus station and ride all night back to Cochabamba to arrive on the morning of the new year, but of course the terminal was closed and there were no busses to home until the second. Shoot, two more nights here? Sucre is cool, but we wanted to go home. Luckily we got a bus the next day that was picking up stranded people like us outside the terminal for a high price, but it was worth it to be home today and not be on a bus right now. And sorry if you have a crick in your neck from trying to see my pictures sideways, but I have no idea how to fix that.
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