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!

40 Days in the Wilderness

Okay, I admit that the title of this post is largely symbolic.  Perhaps entirely.  But it is what sprang to mind as I was contemplating the past six weeks and the massive changes that are happening in our lives.

In case you haven't noticed, we have been preparing to move to a little jungle village called Urubichá, populated by Guarayo people, to learn their language, plant a church, and do some Bible translation.  As you can see from my previous posts, I spent a couple weeks working out there, prepping a house for us.

And then everything changed.

How do you know what the will of God is for your life?  How do you decide where to live?  What job to take?  What church to go to; which ministry to get involved in?  What are the factors that you consider as you make decisions throughout your life?

I am going to guess that most of you will answer with a combination of several factors that take your God-given abilities and desires into consideration, tempered by family needs.  Bathe it in prayer and move forward, to see what God will do.

We are no different.

It has been about 7 years that we have been formally on this road.  Along the way, we have seen God lead, provide, and modify our plans.  Although the magnitude seems much greater this time, He continues to show His faithfulness.

We are not going to Urubichá.

Frankly, I think the details are rather unimportant.  Suffice it to say that, thanks to a lot of very difficult conversations with various coworkers, we now see that we should change direction, at least for now.  I do find it very interesting that the latest post on my personal blog ties in so neatly.  Little did I know at the time. . .

This has not been an easy conclusion to come to.  In fact, it is by far the hardest plan modification we have experienced yet, and is quite possibly the most difficult trial we have faced as a couple.  The past few weeks have been full of a wide variety of emotions, tears, meetings, prayer, and Bible reading as we seek God's will.

The big question is, "Now what?"

We are still committed to making disciples.  We still believe that reaching the unreached people groups of the world ought to be the Church's highest priority.  We believe that God has brought us to Bolivia for a purpose.

During this time of transition, we have been living in Santa Cruz, at a missionary training center called ETNOS.  It exists to provide Bolivians and other South Americans the same type of cross-cultural ministry training that we received, equipping them to make disciples and plant churches in unreached ethnic groups.

 

We already knew that they are short-handed and most of the staff wear at least two hats, so we asked the leadership team in which areas they were lacking.  We want to use the gifts that God has given us, not seek just any slot to fill.  A main part of the reason we were moving toward tribal ministry is that I have a love of language, teaching, and tinkering/fixing/building.  The big question was if there was a place for me to fit into at ETNOS, with those skills?

It "just so happens" that they have been trying to recruit someone to help teach the technical language-learning classes.  They also need more help with the practical skills classes (how to "make do") and campus maintenance, particularly in the "fixit" department.  Those areas are being filled by people that, if I stepped in, would have more time to focus on their other priorities.

We see too that Kaylee's gifts will be more useful here, particularly hospitality.  She would also be involved in discipling the female students, without needing to learn another language.  This would give her more freedom to fulfill her responsibilities as a homeschooling mother and still have an involvement in ministry.

After many conversations with the ETNOS staff and directors, as well as with our sending church, we have decided to jump back into academic life, on the other side of the coin.  It is going to be a difficult transition in some ways, but we have peace in the decision and are confident that God will continue to direct us as we move forward.

We would appreciate prayer as we make this transition.