Learning Tour adventures

This past week has been quite the adventure. Sunday morning arrived the learning tour, greeted by a bright sunny Santa Cruz day. After a 26 hour journey and despite a 4 hour time difference, the 11 weary travelers were in good spirits. These fine folks from the West Coast came to see the fruit of their labor – they are folks who work to organize MCC relief sales in their regions and were coming to see the MCC work their hard work helps make possible.

After getting settled in and resting we were off to the Sunday afternoon market. By this point the sky warned of rain, but we were not to be deterred. The rains came down and the wind kicked up, we got wet, but still spirits were not dampened. After the market we were off to Alexander’s Café for dinner and a good cup of coffee. Folks then headed to a baptismal service at the local Mennonite church, arriving home to rest at 10 pm after a long, but good day.

Monday morning came bright and early. A quick jaunt off to the airport to pickup the one lost piece of luggage and then it was off the Guardería Samuelito to eat lunch with the staff and kids. Since it had rained quite heavily the day before, getting to our next stop was a bit of a challenge. We were headed to the Plan…and I wasn’t sure I had memorized every twist and turn of the micro route to get to where I needed to go and the micro driver head never been to where we were going. My faithful learning tour Laurie and I were a bit concerned, but once we got our bearings there was no stopping us! We arrived safely at San Silvestre just in time to learn about MCC’s Urban Program and then off to visit Centro Menno, the resource center for Bolivia’s more than 50,000 colony Mennonites. Dinner rolled around and time for the always helpful and interesting chat with veteran MCCer Phil Bender and then a bed time snack of coffee and cookies to end the day.

On the way to Moro Moro...

The following day, Tuesday, we were off bright and early in our little rented micro, headed to Moro Moro. The heavens smiled down on us with a gorgeous day to highlight the natural beauty of the already ostentatious scenery of mountainous green and brown earth tones and the occasional donkey, of course. A quick picnic in a small town plaza and back on the road we went. We were making excellent time with our fantastic driver at the helm…until we hit a 2 hour roadblock for construction. It gave us a chance to stretch our legs and get out of the micro after 6 hours in the micro. A couple of hours later, and numerous twisty-turns in the road, Moro Moro appeared through the misty fog. We arrived in Moro Moro just in time to get settled in and have a chili and baked potato dinner with the folks of MCC’s Rural Program.

A herd of goats joins us on the hike!

We awoke Wednesday to a rainy, cold day. The once dusty streets had converted into mud, but there was no stopping us from going further up the mountain to visit an MCC water project in the small village of La Senda. Our faithful little micro finally reached an impasse and we had no choice but to go the rest of the way on foot, a 40 minute hike through the mud and the rain. We arrived at La Senda and ducked out of the rain into the mud brick house to dry off and enjoy some home made wheat bread with a steaming hot cup of api (a purple corn drink with sugar and cinnamon). After a few hours we made our way back to La Abra where we had left our micro and after a first hand trial of MCC’s dry latrines we were off to Moro Moro once more for a quick lunch and then on to Samaipata.

A view from the driver's seat...

The road back to Samaipata, now quite muddy, was quite an adventure to navigate for our micro driver. The micro slipped around quite a bit on that precarious road, but gracias a Dios, with our heart rates a bit elevated, we made it safe and sound to Samaipata about 4 hours later.

Samaipata is an adorable little mountain town that has become home to many folks from other places, in large part because of its breath taking scenery and its paradise-like climate. We had the pleasure of staying at an organic farm with guest housing, called La Vispera.

The Gorgeous Gardens of La Vispera

La Vispera is a charming, idyllic place with gorgeous herb and vegetable gardens after my mother’s own heart. The owner, a very friendly Dutch gentleman named Pieter, was most gracious to us and the view was as good as the organic breakfast we were served the next morning. After coffee, a trek around the plaza and lunch, we headed up to the pre-incan ruins known as “El Fuerte” and then back on the road for the 3 hour drive to Santa Cruz. We arrived back safely last evening just in time to go eat some argentine steak at Los Lomitos (I had grilled vegetables and cheesy rice :).

El Fuerte

The view from El Fuerte

The adventure continued for the group today as they visited a Mennonite Colony and tomorrow they will be off to La Paz to visit a Ten Thousand Villages partner. My part of the adventure ended on Thursday evening, but it has been a real pleasure to share part of my week with such fine folks!