New experiences!

Hi lads! After a few city days in Potosi and Sucre we headed up to the mountains looking for new adventures, and hell, we really experienced them!
Potosi, a colonial gem that has seen better days, is a delightful city, perhaps the most Bolivian one, full of churches, palaces and colonial architecture. Perched at 4,070m. is the highest city in the world and three centuries ago became the largest and welthiest city of the Americas thanks to its mines. But its glory did not last, the silver extraction declined and the city was left in absolute decadence, its population dropped and nowadays is one of the poorest areas in Bolivia. Our two days there where easy, just wondered around enjoying its charm.
Next stop was Sucre, the country judicial capital, and more than likely the nicest city of Bolivia. It has not the same character than Potosi, but his purely white-washed elegant buildings and his compact lively city centre can get you easily fascinated and somehow stuck here longer than you planned.
Anyway, we organized a three days excursion up a mountain range populated by a minority group called Jalq'a. They live scattered around small villages almost isolated from the world. We got there independently and walking around 25Km through incredible Inca trails and unpaved roads. Randomly, and on the way we teamed up with Sharon, Gidon, Suzanne and Marc. A really nice bunch of people that made things easier!
After a tough day trekking and almost at dusk we arrived to Maragua, where we planned to sleep the first night. Five years ago a project was outlined from Sucre to develop the tourism around this area, and some cabins where built up to accomodate the visitors. What happen here is that it was not the project of the local people and basically they do not care about it.
So, we arrived and one guy received us, he was totally wasted and stoned, yeah the combination of pure alcohol and coca leaves can smash anyone easily... He could barely speak, the cabins where left pretty careless, no food for us when they were supposed to cook traditional meals... We managed to get some potatoes, pasta and eggs so we improvised some dinner. The communication was almost impossible, think about the language barrier and on top add his pitiful state! The rest of the town seemed to hide behind their doors. It was a really weird situation and we felt unwelcomed. We never had been in such situation and things did not get better when Jordi fell sick that night with diarrhea, vomits and fever. The isolation of the place was not any help... Luckily Nuria found a jeep in the afternoon and they rescued us from the hole and gave us a lift to Sucre. In a way, we felt bad having to leave such a beautiful landscape where we were planning to walk for 3 days from village to village but we needed medicines and some food. We did not take many provisions as were misleaded and told the locals would cook for us...To far from reality! Anyway, the whole experience was positive and fulfilling!
Back to Sucre more things happened, when our path crossed with Lourdes, a Catalan woman who is doing some volunteer work in a orphanage. We decided to do something with her and help out painting the playground! Nuria can express herself there and she is full of happiness drawing the walls while Jordi is painting them. On top of that we can play a little bit with the kids! They are all so cute! We feel happy to contribute to a nice cause like this. This year is not just about travel, and experiences like this give more sense to our days and life!
That is all lads! At least we will be in Sucre until next week. We hope to find a decent connection to upload some photos and show you our artistic creations.
A bag full of kisses! All the best!