Return to Urubichá

I recently had the opportunity to visit Urubichá again after almost 3 years.  When our ministry plans changed direction in 2013, I made a rather hasty exit -- packed up the Patrol, threw all my tools and gear in the trailer, and hit the road for Santa Cruz.  Although the transition to ministry at Etnos has been bittersweet at times, I haven't truly regretted that decision.

However, I was excited to go back for several reasons:

1.  Since I left, Emilio and Marlen have finished culture/language study and started writing chronological Bible lessons.  They have a small group of believers meeting in their patio each Sunday and have a kids' program on Saturdays.  I was eager to see and hear how things are going for them.
2.  Margarita joined the team about a year and a half ago, and Eliana moved out there in June.  The purpose of the trip was to evaluate their progress in the Guarayo language.  My role was to accompany Judy, our language consultant, and learn how to do evaluations, a natural extension of what I am already doing in the training center!
3.  My parents are here for a few months to visit us and help around Etnos and I was able to take them along.  They haven't spent much time out of the city on this side of the country, so it was a great opportunity to introduce them not only to a place so important to me as Urubichá, but all of the countryside along the 210 mile trip as well.

The Guarayos team (l-r): Eliana, Margarita, Esteban, Emilio, Ninoska, and Marlen

On the trip out to the village, it occurred to me that this was the first time I was going to Guarayo country without planning to live there.  That realization gave me the freedom to look at everything through different eyes and I found myself much more relaxed.  I definitely took a lot more photos (Click here to see 80 of the best).

We drove on Saturday and arrived just before the kids' program.  They were having a special game day to encourage more kids to come, and there were a ton!  The younger ones and the gals played board games while Emilio reffed a soccer tournament for the older boys.

On Sunday, we joined the group in the family's patio. Unfortunately, most of the congregation was at a big event at another, Spanish-speaking church in town.  Even so, we enjoyed our time and were treated to several Guarayo worship songs, a violin duet by Esteban and Ninoska, and Emilio teaching in Guarayo.

On Monday, the work started.  Judy and I spent a couple hours with Eliana that morning, asking her to do a variety of activities using the Guarayo words and phrases she knows.  Then, in the afternoon, we invited a bilingual Guarayo lady to come listen to the recordings and talk to us about how Eliana speaks.  We also visited a couple from the church, Hermenegildo and Matilde, to get their perspective.  She is doing great!

Judy, Eliana, and Rafaela

Urubichá is known for making the best hammocks in Bolivia. Matilde is finishing the one in the background.

On Tuesday, it was Margarita's turn!  She is also advancing very well!  She is fairly well conversational and speaks rather fluidly.

Judy, Margarita, and Esther

Of course, no trip to Urubichá would be complete without going to the baroque music institute!

A highlight for us was to find Esteban giving a violin lesson to a 5-year old student.

Behind the music institute, there is an artisan institute that offers woodcarving classes for the men and weaving, sewing, and needlework classes to the gals.

Guarayo men hand-carve wooden boxes to sell

Guarayo girls with their needlework samplers

Eliana is using the weaving institute as an opportunity to spend time with the ladies, building crucial relationships and listening to language as she weaves.  She recently started a new bag and showed us the process of setting up the vertical threads on the loom.

That evening, we spent some time on the plaza and stopped in to see the church and watch the Urubichá youth choir practice for the following night's performance.

The region's reliance on timber and woodcarving shines through, even in the Catholic church

On Wednesday, our final day in town, Judy and I spent some time talking over the results of the evaluations with the gals, giving them suggestions for how to continue improving in their studies.  We visited the Rio Blanco in the afternoon.

That evening, we went back to the plaza and joined a packed house for a performance by the choir.  They sang an amazing rendition of the Kyrie from Domenico Zipoli's Missa in F.

Our plan for Thursday was to take some final photos of the team and hit the road by 8:00am for the ~7 hour drive home.  We had been gone for 5 days already, and I was eager to be back with Kaylee and the girls.  We were also taking Eliana and Margarita back to Santa Cruz with us, for a missions conference that started that evening!

However, first thing that morning we got news that there was a big blockade in San Julian, a town about halfway home.  Apparently, the soy and sunflower growers were upset about prices, among other things, and applied Bolivia's normal form of protest:  block the highway until the government agrees to help.  I was unsure how to proceed -- whether we should stay another night and see if it died down, or go look for a way to go around.

Then Emilio got a phone call, in which he learned that a group in Urubichá was planning to block the highway in Ascención due to a timber dispute.  So we decided to get out of Dodge.

We drove as far as El Puente, home of Bolivia's nicest gas station (in my opinion). After fueling up, I asked about a way to get around San Julian and one of the old timers told me about a route that cut cross-country to Montero.  I have often wanted to find a way through there, so of course we decided to try it! :D

Lunch in Nucleo 29

It was an exciting, crazy drive through farm country on bumpy, dusty roads.  We had no map, no GPS (mine was stolen recently), no road signs, and for most of the journey, no cell coverage.  I lost track of how many times I stopped and asked people for directions.  We had to flip a couple of U-turns, but we never got truly lost and never got bad directions.

For me, the highlight of the trip was crossing the Rio Grande on a barge, my first time!

The AC conked out around noon, so the inside was just as dirty as the outside!  We made it home in 10.5 hours, hot, filthy and exhausted, with just enough time to shower, change, and grab a bite to eat before the conference started!!

I spent some time on Google Earth figuring out as much of the route that I could. Due to a recent, significant change in the course of the river, I was unable to complete the center section, but it gives the idea. :)

Sucre!

What do a capital city, a crypt beneath a historic church, and paleontology have in common with a romantic adventure?  No, it's not National Treasure, it's our anniversary trip to Sucre!

Freedom! :)

In December, Kaylee and I celebrated 10 years of marriage, so when my parents came to visit, we took the opportunity to celebrate by spending 3 days in Sucre, the capital city of Bolivia.  It was a very fun trip, not only because of the time alone together, but because Sucre is a pretty amazing place.

Sucre is the home of Bolivia's independence from Spain and is one of the oldest Spanish cities in South America.  The center of town is full of great colonial architecture that attracts tourists from all over the world. It would be impossible to tell about it all, so we selected the best of our photos and put them in our Picasa Web Albums, separated by place:

La Casa de La Libertad: "The House of Freedom" is where Bolivia's resistance government met and where the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1825, announcing their formal separation from Spain.  Today it is a museum dedicated to Bolivia's political history.

La Casa de la Libertad

Plaza Principal:  The Plaza 25 de Mayo is the physical and social center of the city.  It is where you find the heads of both government and church.  As in all Bolivia, the main plaza is also a place to meet people and spend time just being together.  We made the most of that tradition!

Hostal de Su Merced:  Our hotel was conveniently situated just 3 blocks from the plaza in a colonial-era house that has been converted for guests.  It came highly recommended on TripAdvisor.com and we were not disappointed.  Perhaps the best feature was the terrace, which has an amazing view!

La Recoleta:  One morning, we took a walk up the hill east of the city center to the Iglesia de La Recoleta.  It has a great overlook of the city and some fun architecture of its own.

Overlooking the city from La Recoleta

Dinosaur Tracks at Cal Ork'o:  Supposedly one of the biggest paleontological sites in the world, Cal Ork'o is a set of fossilized dinosaur tracks found in a limestone mine.  Because of tectonic movement, the tracks are now on a vertical rock face. 

Iglesia de La Merced:  This church across the street from our hotel is one of the oldest building in the city.  It has long been neglected, but they are now letting tourists in (at $1.50/person) to help cover the cost of renovation.  We liked the old altarpieces and the organ!

Iglesia de San Felipe Neri:  This was my favorite building of all, I think.  It is kitty-corner to our hotel and is just a massive, imposing structure.  We got to see it from the crypt to the belfry!

Cupola above the alter of San Felipe Neri

Supreme Court and Parque Bolivar:  Although the administrative branch of the government resides in La Paz, the Supreme Court still convenes in Sucre.  We didn't go in, but we wandered past and down through Parque Bolivar.

Military Museum:  The army headquarters maintains a museum that explains their not-so-glorious military history which features a sizable collection of historical weapons which I enjoyed. 

We also made an album of interesting doors and windows, of which there were many, and one of unusual vehicles.

Buena Vista Coffee Adventure!

For the last couple of months, we have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of my (Nathan's) parents and our friend Beth.  My folks have come to spend 3 months working around Etnos and Beth came to spend a week with us.  As a coffee barista, she really wanted to have an opportunity to see a coffee plantation.

Unfortunately, Bolivia's best coffees are produced in the Yungas region on the other side of the country.  I put some feelers out anyway and found out that a coffee I occasionally purchase is produced only 2 hours' drive away from Santa Cruz on a plantation that includes a cabaña-style hotel with a swimming pool and a tour!

We thought we could only spare one night of Beth's week-long trip, but we wanted to make the most of it.  So we rolled out first thing in the morning and headed north!

Packed into the Patrol.  Kaylee rode in the jump seat with Addi and Lydia.

About two hours and 65 miles later, we arrived at the little town of Buena Vista, which means "good view" in Spanish.  Our hotel, Hacienda El Cafetal, was just a couple miles off the highway, and boy did it have a view.  It overlooks a national park that is reportedly full of jaguars, monkeys, and incredible birds.  Throughout the 24 hours we were there, the weather changed quite a lot, making for some great scenery.

The main buildings of the hotel, as seen from the lookout tower

(Click here or here to see a 360-degree view from the lookout tower!)

It was a great way to get out of town and relax a bit.  Of course, the girls were mostly excited about the swimming pool and we stayed in it a good portion of the afternoon, in spite of a rain storm.

We were delighted to find out that, because it's the off-season, we were the only overnight guests and had the place pretty much to ourselves!

Once the weather cleared up, we inquired about the coffee tour.  We were guided by Mario, who has been working at Buena Vista for 25 years in all aspects of production.  He was very personable with a dry sense of humor that Kaylee and I enjoyed.  Unfortunately, we had to translate to English for our guests, so some of it was lost, but we all had a good time.

We started with the coffee plants themselves and learned about the process of growing plants, caring for them organically, and harvesting:

Mario explaining details about the coffee fruit

The girls, with some 7-year old coffee plants

After we asked a lot of questions, we moved to the industrial side, where they service 1500 hectares of family coffee production.  The plant processes 180-200 metric tons per year (harvested April-June), about 90% of which is shipped to the Netherlands as raw beans.  The other 10% is roasted and ground for the national market.

The dryer brings the moisture level of the beans from 40% down to 12%

Looking into the roasting, grinding, and bagging room

The tour ends with an espresso served by our host, Abel.

Mario (r) chats with Abel (l) as he serves up espresso

Beth said, "It's not bad, just not very interesting."

We ended the day with Pique Macho in the hotel restaurant.  The next morning, we had another swim, checked out, and went into town to see what Buena Vista had to offer.  It was pretty quiet, but we found a cool place to take a photo on the plaza.

As usual, we took lots of photos, the best of which are in our Picasa Web Album.
 

Fun in the Sun: Güembé Butterfly Park

On Monday, we played hooky and took a long-overdue free day with friends.  We're about 2/3 through the semester and I (Nathan) have been very focused on my job and needed to set it aside for a day with Kaylee and the girls.  When our friends Dan and Jenny invited us to accompany them for a day off, I couldn't say no.

Spring has roared in like a lion (it's 100*F outside right now) and we wanted a pool.  The only place we could find that was open on a Monday was the Güembé Biocenter, commonly known as the mariposario (butterfly park).  We have heard about it for a couple years, but had not visited yet, in spite of many pleas from our daughters, who are very interested in butterflies.

Click here for all of the photos

We had to drive almost an hour to get there, since it's on the other side of the city and across the river, but we were very pleased at what we found.  The park covers 60 well-sculpted acres and features an orchidarium, tremendous aviary, a swamp (with capybaras, deer, and rheas), 2 lakes (one with monkeys, one with kayaks), lots of swimming pools, and cabins.  It's a beautiful setting and evidently taken care of.

The girls are avid butterfly chasers/catchers, so we had a look around before jumping in the pool.

Once we got in the water, though, they just wouldn't quit!

It was a great day to relax, have fun together, and experience something different!

Toucan in the walk-through aviary

Looking out at the city from the looking tower in the aviary

Macaws in the walk-through aviary

Lomas de Arena

One of the places we have recently heard about here in Santa Cruz is a place called Parque Regional Lomas de Arena (Sand Dunes Regional Park).  Donya, who came for the CLA English program and stayed an extra 3 weeks, was getting ready to leave that night, so we decided to have one last adventure before she left.

It was an adventure just finding the place.  Although it is on the map and I had my Garmin GPS, it is on the southern edge of the city and you have to go through some very under-developed barrios to get there.  We finally got to the park and paid $6.50 for all of us to get in.

Then the fun started.

The sign at the gate said "4x4 and 4-wheelers Only" and it was no joke.  We spent half an hour going 4.3 miles on a sandy track with lots of mud holes and we still didn't know where we were going.  Here's a short summary video (720p) of the drive in, complete with music (from Christian parody band Apologetix) and charming conversation:


As I said, it was the most fun I've had in a long time.  Even better than going to the store.

We had the place entirely to ourselves.  Unfortunately, it was super windy (welcome to Santa Cruz) and it was too late in the day to stay long, but we had fun anyway.  Here are a sampling of photos (see the rest by clicking here).

  I took some more video on the way out, with the GoPro on the hood, where it got a good soaking (1080p this time!):


We will definitely be going back!