La Paz to Sucre

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Yesterday we spent our last night in La Paz with Mauricio´s uncle and his family. The greatest adventure of the evening was the unbelievable taxi ride from the travel agency to his uncle´s house! Okay, let´s summarize by saying that it was like a rollercoaster. The driver skillfully drove the wrong way on a one way street, executed an illegal turn and almost killed several people from what I could see from the backseat. Mauricio and his uncle assure me that this is normal driving in La Paz and throughout Bolivia. The entire taxi ride cost 1 dollar! Yup 1 dollar! We even sat in traffic. I could live a very good life here on a not-for-profit salary! This morning we arrived in the BEAUTIFUL city of Sucre. His mother and brother met us at the airport. It was a tearful reunion after 6 years of seperation! Javier (his brother) looks so much like Mauricio it is unbelievable. His mother is sweet as pie feeding us until we can´t eat any more. All terrifically prepared Bolivian dishes. We went to the market with her and Javier today to do food shopping. It was a huge outdoor market and you negociate everything! I have pictures that I will email in the next several days. It is unbelievable. Sucre is terrific. I am not a huge fan of La Paz but Sucre is a place anyone could live a lovely tranquil life. It reminds me of a small town in Spain, very clean with lovely architecture! It was settled by the Spanish. We have been helping with the wedding invitations. Mauricio´s mom and brother will help us have our invitations done here! They are amazing and better than anything that I have seen in the states. They are exquisite and so inexpensive. They will help us get wedding favors as well. I think that we can do a lot here in Sucre. There is a large medical school so the city feel very much like Boston... very academic. I love it! I feel so much better and the altitude is not affecting me here at all... it is a lot lower then La Paz and Copacbana. We will tour different areas after the wedding and his mom has 2 weeks from work off so that she can show us around and spend time with Mauricio. Okay I have to run my hour is almost up but I will write more tomorrow and hopefully mail you some pictures of the beautiful city and our adventures. Love you all... Dawn I hope that you are doing well and I miss you and the perritos mucho! We miss everyone!

Love,
Jessie and Mauricio

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