Around the World in 180 Days: Hike to Maragua

I have yet another gap to cover.
On Monday we set out for what we had understood to be a 6-kilometer downhill hike. It was about a 2.5 hour drive to reach a small church where the path started from. From there it was about 6 kilometers downhill, but then we had another 14 kilometers to go (not so happy about learning this). Lunch was eaten after the descent on the pre-Incan trail, in the shade of a really spiky bush that liked to stab us when we got to close.
A bus of tourists arrived, and they explained to us that the bus company had professed to take them to the town of Maragua, but had left them there to hike the rest of the way. They ended up hiking to a small town less than a kilometer away to get a bus back to Sucre.
Our walking companions were our guide, Mario, and a person named William, from France.
The rest of the day was lots and lots of walking. There was one point where there had been a rockslide and the trail washed out so, inducing acrophobia, we inched along a sandy path about a foot wide for a ways, with a drop to the river beneath of maybe 30 feet. At another point there was a suspension bridge that we needed to cross. Though my mom said to me, "Isn't all you can do look at the cables and think about how rusted they are?", the bridge was a lot wider and less shaky than we had feared.
After the bridge was when the part where we climbed constantly, as opposed to going up and down and up and down, began. It was tempting to just push through to the end of the climb, but we had to keep stopping and waiting for William to catch up--he hiked much slower than us, and stopped every few feet to take pictures of the arid, desertlike and not-particularly-stunning landscape.
At another point, there was a similar path to the washed-out one before, but narrower, longer, more eroded, and a much farther drop. For some reason Mario said that there was no way around, but we ended up hiking down into the gully and up the other side, where we met up with the trail. I will include a picture of this path later.
We arrived in Maragua at about 6.30. It seems a trait of the guides we meet to tell us that we will arrive in a place much sooner than we actually do, so we don't take much stock in their estimates.
The hostel was a one-room adobe room with mattresses that gave us bruises. I am being brief in times so that I don't complain too much--none of us thought the experience better than 'fairly awful'.
On Tuesday, despite being awake before 6, we didn't leave until 8 in the morning and it was already very very hot. We climbed up and up and up the hills around the town, and there were points that reminded us of the Lares trek where all we could think of was the next step and breath.
After climbing for a few hours, we descended again and then climbed again and then ate lunch an then climbed some more. There was a rockface with fossilized dinosaur footprints in it, and we reached this shortly after lunch. However, the prints were neat but fairly disappointing--we spent about 10 minutes there and didn't feel shortchanged.
More climbing then. Our guide kept telling us that this was the last hill, and then there kept being another hill. Finally, around 2, we reached the point where our car picked us up. When asked why we didn't leave earlier, Mario said that it was because the car picked us up at that time. This seemed like poor reasoning--I would much have rathered sit an wait for the car for a little while than to have hiked in the heat of the day for most of the time.
We made a brief stop in the town of Potolo, for no apparent reason that that the tour was supposed to stop there. The textile musem was closed and nobody was there, but William and Mario wandered off to find braceletes to buy so we sat there for a few minutes.
Arrived back in Sucre around 5.30--SO happy.
Dinner was our first night eating out since here; a cafe called joyride where we got some good food.
Wednesday we slept in a little bit, then walked around town. Stopped in a few textile stores, at the market, at a closed musem, then back home after a few hours. Using our meager but serviceable kitchen we had sandwiches, then my parents napped while I practiced some.
In the evening we went to the Recoleta area to another museum/store, and were a little put-off by the fact that, though the tags on the pieces included pictures of the artist, the same picture might appear on several different weavings with different names and locations.
Then, in the evening, we got to skype with Lillie! She ran away from the computer when it was tilted at her because she though people were trying to steal her toy, but she heard our voices and we saw her ears flicking around trying to figure out where we were. She seems really happy and settled in.
It was also really nice to see our friends who are looking after her.
Today we got a late checkout at our hotel. The bus to Tupiza leaves at 6.30 tonight, and will be awful (arrives at 5 in the morning, unpaved road; we don't plan on getting any sleep) and will be glad to have a last day in Sucre.