Incallajta

[August 28, 2015] Friday

Today, eight of the other missionaries here at the temple went with us in a van to the Incallajta ruins, about 135 km east of Cochabamba, about 25 km off of Highway 7 to Santa Cruz. It's about 10 km from a little town called Pocona. Here's what the countryside looks like between the Punata valley, and the turn of to Pocona. It's taken from inside the van, traveling 50-60 miles an hour, so the quality is a bit lacking:

Farms in the valleys on the way to Incallajta.

The ruins are from the Incas, dating from about the same period as Macchu Picchu. They aren't as elaborate, and they aren't as developed, nor as touristy, either. Which made it that much more interesting.

The area is cared for, cleaned, maintained, and administered by the residents of four Quechuan communities that surround it. It is located in a narrow valley, and from the base of the valley, you can't see anything to clue you in that there are ruins near. Here is a view up the valley from the site. You can see some cultivated plots on the hillside across the valley. We saw a lot of these along the way.

Looking westward, up the valley from the Incallajta site.

There is a little building at the base where you pay the entrance fee (the Centro de Atención al Turista in the map below) that has some bathrooms - much needed after a three hour ride from Cochabamba, with the last 25 km being over a cobblestone road. Mind you, it is a nice cobblestone road. Nevertheless, the availability of bathrooms was welcome.

Site map of Incallajta ruins.

The entrance fee was 15 Bolivianos per person, with an additional 50 B's to have the guide accompany us through the site, explaining everything. It was well worth the extra cost (50 B's = $7.50 USD). The fees are shared by the communities, and they take turns cleaning, and maintaining the site. It has no government involvement, although the Cochabamba governor sent them some funds to help with maintenance and signage.

The guide was a tiny man with a big heart. It was clear that this site was special to him and his community. In the area, Quechua is the dominant language, and only the men who have to take products to market, etc. speak Spanish, in general. He learned his Spanish from the archaeologists that come to research and investigate. He was immensely well-spoken, and as generous and friendly as all the Bolivian people. He told us he has six children, with the oldest being thirteen years of age. We met his wife - she spoke no Spanish whatsoever.

Our guide at Incallajta.

The central feature of the ruins is called the Kallanka. It is a building 78 meters long, 26 meters wide, with 12 doors, and 44 "hornicias" or niches. They may have placed torches, idols, etc. in these niches during community gatherings.

The Kallanka

Here's a view of the outside of the Kallanka. The sun position made it a bit difficult, but you can see the scope. The green tent on the left covers the last remaining stucco-like covering that was plastered on the inside walls:

The Kallanka

This is a view of what they called the Casa de Dos Pisos - the house of two floors. They suppose that this must have been where the King lived. It doesn't look like it has two floors now, but I believed our guide:

Casa de Dos Pisos

A bit to the west, there were living and administrative buildings:

Living quarters.

View of the living quarters in front, and the Kallanka in the distance.

Towards the west end of the site, there is a waterfall - the Cascada. You have to descend down some very steep stone stairs to get to it, and climb back up the opposite wall with similar steps. Fortunately, they have a very secure handrail to hold onto.

The Cascada with some of our missionaries.

Here's a final view of the whole site from the west end. You can see the living quarters towards the front, and the Kallanka way off to the east.

Incallajta site from the west end

Our group descending from the site to the road back on the valley floor.

All in all, pretty impressive.

De Gonzalo Ribero Art Exposition

[August 27, 2015] Thursday

Today, we went to the Centro Pedagógico y Cultural Simón I. Patiño. Simón was apparently a very wealthy Bolivian due to tin mining. He had a huge home, surrounded by a lovely garden. We wanted to have a tour of the home, but that will have to wait, since there was an international conference for addressing the archaeology and ethnohistory of the Bolivian Andes and lowlands. We did wander around the gardens, and the exposition of artwork for an artist named De Gonzalo Ribero, that was in the basement of the home. 

This picture is a photosphere taken on my Nexus 4 of one of the rooms of the exposition. I'm not sure how it will render in the blog, but I'm going to give it a shot:

Exposición Picapedrero de Sueños - De Gonzalo Ribero

While we were looking around, the artist himself showed up, and answered all kinds of questions that we had. He was very interesting, and has had his work shown in the United States and Europe, as well as South America.

This is one of his paintings, flanked by the artist, and by Molly:

De Gonzalo Ribero with one of his paintings, and Molly.

We'll see if we can get back and get a tour of the house sometime in the future.

Printer with CISS, Cristo de la Concordia

[August 25-26, 2015] Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday
Molly and I went to La Cancha today to buy a printer. We've leaned on the Runquists next door a couple of times to use theirs, but that feels like a bit of an imposition. Since we want to print our talks, and sometimes that takes a few revisions, we figured it would be best to get one for ourselves. In addition, they have a modification that they make here that makes the ink a thousand times cheaper. So, I figured I'd have them do that, too.

The modification adds a Continuous Ink Supply System. Apparently, it's pretty well known and used outside the United States. Here's a couple of pictures showing the modification:

New printer with CISS ink reservoirs

Ink supply tubes routed into the printing chamber

The result required a bit of tweaking, some additional tape to hold things in the right place, etc., but promises to reduce ink costs tremendously. You could buy the kits to refill the cartridges, but this makes adding ink much easier than that - just buy the ink and pour it in. We'll see how well it works, but the ink system only added $15 to the price of the printer. Less than one additional cartridge, and the reservoirs hold about 400 ml total (four inks), as opposed to about 2.5 ml per cartridge. So, we'll see.

Also, Molly whipped up some papas rellenas. Very good (tasty, just to be consistent in my terminology). She's very creative with the resources she has here for cooking.  She thinks I'm losing weight, but if I am, it's because of all the walking we do, not the food. I think we're both as healthy as we've been in a long time.

Wednesday 
Today, we took the tram up to the Cristo de la Concordia statue on the hill to the southeast of the temple. It's a little over 100 feet tall, and stands on a very prominent hill here in the valley. It was built in 1994, and is a little bit taller than the one in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

You can get to the statue via the tram, which costs 10.5 Bolivianos (about $1.60), or climb 2000 steps. We chose the expensive route, which only takes 5 minutes. Another benefit. Here are some pictures. The time of day wasn't really conducive to getting the lighting right. We may have to go a bit later in the day next time.

Cristo de la Concordia statue in Cochabamba, Bolivia

Molly at the base of the Cristo de la Concordia statue.

Tram up to the statue. You can see the stairs to the right of the tram pylons.

Here's the link to the video of the tram ride down from the statue.

Here are some pictures from the park at the tram station at the base of the hill. It was quite the nice little park.

In addition to the statue, we got a great view of Cochabamba. Here are some pictures:

Panorama of Cochabamba from the base of the Cristo de la Concordia statue.
LDS Temple is about 1/3rd from the top of the picture, about 1/6th in from the right edge.

2015 - Cochabamba, Bolivia. Airport is to the left. Compare to the next picture.

1976 - Cochabamba, Bolivia from the air. Airport is in the upper right.

All in all, a very interesting little trip.

Johnny Chambi - My Final Missionary Companion

[August 24, 2015] Monday

We walked down to Av. Padilla to the Peluquería so I could get my haircut. My normal barber, Molly, didn't bring her hair cutting implements, so I have to settle for second best.

On the way, we saw this building with a living wall - quite interesting, so I took a picture and pasted it together to make a vertical panorama:

Beautiful building on Av. Pando in Cochabamba.

This evening, we met Elder Johnny Chambi along with his wife and son. They took us out to dinner so we could visit and reminisce. Elder Chambi was my companion for three months in Punata, right at the end of my mission. One of the most memorable aspects of his personality was his absolute joy in serving everyone. We finished our missions pretty much the same time.

He reminded me of a number of experiences we had had together. One of them reminded me of how well we got along.

Elder Chambi

There was a woman who cooked breakfast and lunch for us. We called her Doña Julia - I don't remember if we ever knew her last name.

For breakfast, we'd go to the market where she cooked papas rellenas for us. She'd put cooked vegetables, like carrots or peas, inside a ball of mashed potatoes that she'd then deep fat fry. We really liked these, and ate them every day. She'd change them up enough every day that it never got boring.

She also cooked us soup for lunch, but she made it differently from day to day, and it was very good, and very healthy. She'd make it from rice, potatoes, lentils, or pasta, and include vegetables, and chicken or beef. It had a clear broth, and she always cooked more than enough to fill us up. Her "house" was right on a corner, and as most, was merely a room separated by a hanging blanket that separated the eating area from the sleeping area. Since the climate was so mild, she never closed her door during the day - we'd just come walking down the street, and walk in when we arrived. The table we ate at was just inside the door.

When we got to her house to eat, the soup was on the table, and always hot. At first we couldn't figure out how she could do that, since our schedule was always variable. So, one day, Elder Chambi and I decided we'd see if we could figure out how she did it. So, we approached her house from a different direction, and were careful to sneak up on her house.

As we came up the street, we saw her come out into the street, and look down the street in the direction we usually came. Then she'd go back in the house, and repeat her investigation in a few minutes. We were able to get to her door without her seeing us, and when we stepped in the open door, she was surprised, and chewed us out for startling her. As we suspected, the soup wasn't on the table, yet. We all had a good laugh over that one.

Doña Julia cooking lunch for us.

He had other stories of how she would always insist that we eat all of our lunch, and how I turned the tables on her once when she was ill, and we went to visit her. She didn't feel like eating, but Elder Chambi remembered me insisting that she eat, just like she always insisted for us.

He also told us the fascinating story of how he met his wife.

Beatriz and Johnny Chambi, and us.

After his mission, he and a group of friends decided that they needed to go to Europe to find better jobs, etc. They decided Germany would  be their goal (none of them spoke German or English, but they figured it would work out), and that they would go through Argentina, and take a ship to Europe to save money. They went in small groups, and Johnny was going with his nephew. When they got to the border between Bolivia and Argentina, Johnny became aware that his nephew didn't have the right papers and couldn't cross the border, so they stopped there for a time.

While there, they needed to make some money while they waited, so, remembering the California Donut shop in Cochabamba, where we could get hamburgers (pretty much the only place in the country, and all the missionaries tried to stop there on transfers, etc. if at all possible), he started a little business making hamburgers. Since no one in the adjoining areas of Bolivia or Argentina had ever seen such a thing then, it was quite successful. He said that people came from parts of northern Argentina just for the hamburgers.

After being there nearly a year, he returned to Oruro (I'm not remembering why, now), and while there, he attended a church function. There was a young lady there that he recognized, but couldn't, for the life of him, remember her name. He figured he knew her from his mission, or school, or something, but just couldn't place her. Not wanting to show his forgetfulness by asking her directly for her name, he asked a friend. The name wasn't ringing any bells, so he introduced himself and asked where he could have known her from. When she indicated that she had only been a member of the church for less than a year, and had just lived in Oruro, he realized he couldn't have met her anywhere else. He concluded that he had known her in the pre-existence. (Whether true or not, they obviously are well suited for each other.)

They married, and within a year, he was called as a Bishop, and later as a Stake President, being set apart as such by President Jensen, who was in a position of Area Leadership at the time. Johnny moved here to Cochabamba just a few months ago, and is going to talk to his Bishop and President Jensen about becoming a temple worker. So, we'll be seeing more of each other in the months to come.

His wife, Beatriz, is a lawyer, but has put her career on hold to help him develop a business selling Quinoa products. Their son served a mission in Santa Cruz, and was studying medicine, but has started studying marketing and publicity to help with the family business.

All in all, it was a sweet reunion. Johnny's testimony is strong, and his desire to serve is as great as ever.

Stake Conference with Elder David A. Bednar

[August 23, 2015] Sunday

Today was quite special. It's pretty rare to have an Apostle come to a regular Stake Conference. I suspect it's a bit more uncommon to have a Stake Conference come to an Apostle. Let me explain.

President Jensen (the Temple President) told us a week or two ago that one of the principal areas of focus in the Church this year is on encouraging more family focus on the Sabbath Day and making it a "delight" (Isaiah 58:13). As part of that, the Apostles and Area Presidencies are conducting training throughout the church. Here in Cochabamba, we were blessed to have Elder Bednar come to Bolivia with Elder Juan Uceda, who is the Area President, to conduct training for the Stake Presidents and Bishops here. It almost seemed like an afterthought to have a special Stake Conference where they could both speak to the members of the Church here in Cochabamba. The first we heard of it was only a week or two earlier than last week.

So, we decided, along with the other missionaries here at the Temple, that we would show up an hour and a half early, figuring we'd probably get a front row seat. Were we ever wrong.

When we arrived at the Stake Center, we were seated outside under some tents. We were a bit concerned, wondering if they had already filled the entire building. It was just to help them organize and keep everything ordered, it turned out. About 60 minutes before the meeting, all the seats outside were filled - we figured there were probably 600-700 people there, and we had at least 500 in front of us.

They allowed us into the chapel then, row by row, and we were 3/4 of the way back - in the cultural hall. By about 15 minutes to the hour, all the rooms were filled in the Stake Center, we think all the seats outside were filled too (they had a bunch of TV monitors set up so those folks could see everything), and there were people we could see through the windows standing. We figured there were easily 1500 people or more.

One of the most amazing things, though, was the reverence. Even with children, there was hardly any noise. I'm hard pressed to remember any Stake Conference in the States that was this reverent an hour before the meeting started.

At about 15 minutes to the hour, Elder Bednar, his wife and son, Michael (more on that later), and Elder Uceda and his wife came in. After everyone sat back down, the Stake President got up. It was still 10 minutes to the hour, and we figured he was going to give some instructions or such. But, since everyone was already there, and so reverent, he just started the meeting. Ten minutes early. I was really impressed by the organization, the reverence, and everything.

The Stake President and his wife spoke, Elder Uceda and his wife spoke, and two youth were invited spontaneously to share their testimonies. Michael Bednar spoke next. He served his mission here in Cochabamba, and his mission President was Elder Tim Parker, who is here serving in the Temple with us. It was special to hear how much Michael's experiences paralleled mine, and how sweet it was for him to return here. He's only been gone 15 years, though. Having served 40 years ago, and still being able to find such faithful members has been extra special for me.

Sister Bednar spoke, and emphasized the importance of husbands and wives working together, and helping each other.

Then Elder Bednar spoke for the final hour. He talked to the investigators who were there, and emphasized the Restoration of the Church, Joseph Smith's seeking for knowledge, and the First Vision. Then he talked to the youth, and encouraged them to keep their Temple Recommends current. He promised them that if they would do that, and go to the Temple often to do Baptisms for the Dead, that they would be protected from the evil forces in the world.

Then he talked a lot about the saving power of the ordinances, and how Christ had emphasized these ordinances of  Baptism and of the Sacrament as some of the last things he taught both in Jerusalem and here on the American continent. He talked about the saving nature of the ordinances, and encouraged the members to go to the Temple.

After he finished, the reverence continued. He had to leave for a flight to La Paz for other meetings this afternoon, so he apologized for not being able to mingle and greet everyone. Everyone stood and waved, and waited until he was gone. Not a peep from people, from children, nobody. I'm not sure I've ever been in a more reverent meeting.

So, that was Sunday morning for us. Quite special.

[This is Molly. I just wanted to add a little bit here. Charlie did a great job of telling about the meeting, etc., as he always does and I agree completely. Sister Bednar talked about being in Bolivia with her son 15 years after his mission and meeting some of the people he taught. She talked about the joy that she feels in seeing those sweet relationships and hearing him speak with the people he has loved who have changed his life. Because of his love for them, the people of Bolivia have been a part of her life as well and she, too, has loved them for 15 years. I really related to her feelings. We have been married for nearly 36 years and I have loved the Bolivian people for all 36 years. But the joy I see in my sweet companion as he reconnects with people who have meant so much to him and to be able to hear him talk with them and feel the love between them is impossible to describe. As we have Skyped with our children and parents each week, many have mentioned how happy Charlie is and some have even gone as far as saying they have never seen him happier. It's true. We came to Bolivia to serve The Lord in whatever way we could, but we are the ones receiving the blessings. I'm so grateful to be here. I know this is where we are supposed to be. I have felt many times that there are people here that need Charlie especially, right now. As we pray about our children, grandchildren and parents, we are given peace and comfort in knowing they are being taken care of. I'm so grateful and so happy.]

In the afternoon, we came home and spent the rest of the day preparing our talks for next Sunday on, guess what, the Temple. A bit intimidating when an Apostle of the Lord has spoken about the Temple and Temple ordinances just the week before. Fun. We'll let you know how our talks went next week.

Here's another picture of the temple - this one at night. (Just so you don't get overly bored with all the words in this post.)

Cochabamba Bolivia Temple at night, following a rain storm.

Santa Cruz Trip

[August 18-21, 2015] Tuesday to Friday

Tuesday
We flew from Cochabamba to Santa Cruz today - first flight for me out of Cochabamba in nearly 40 years. When I served as the mission Historical Secretary from February to August of 1976, I'd travel from time to time with the Financial Secretary to audit branch records. Whenever we stopped in Cochabamba (sometimes as a stop between La Paz and our final destination of Sucre, Camiri, Potosí, etc.), we'd try to run downtown because Cochabamba was the only place that had something akin to hamburgers and ice cream. There was a restaurant (long gone now, I'm sure), called "California Donuts", where they made hamburgers that were quite tasty. Quite the rare treat.

We left at around 11:00 am, and arrived just before noon in Santa Cruz. What a change has taken place! When I was here before, the area between the second and third rings (Segundo y Tercero Anillos) was developing. Roads were typically dirt, but some were in the process of being paved - like this:

Street pavers in Santa Cruz

These are concrete blocks that are fitted together over a base of sand to pave the streets. Interestingly, these streets are still paved this way, and it seems to be a pretty good way to do it. It may help that it never freezes here, making any pavement longer lasting.

Anyway, development now extends out towards the ninth ring on the north side of the city (towards the newer Viru Viru airport), and everything within roughly the fifth ring is completely filled in, with even more development to the north and south:

Santa Cruz today. Development extends well outside the area of this Google Maps screen capture.

In the picture above, you can see where we stayed - the Torre Hotel Ejecutivo. The star towards the bottom is where Hna. Alvarez and her son live - just outside the fifth ring (Quinto Anillo).

When we got to the Hotel, we called Hna. Alvarez and made arrangements to go and visit her tomorrow. Then we went exploring.

Each day we were there, we walked as much as we could stand. It was a real memory jogger to see all the things that were the same, and the many more that were different. This first day, we walked over to the street where the missionaries lived, and tried to see if the house we lived in was still there. There was one that looked like a viable candidate, but when I checked my journal, and some old pictures, it was clear it wasn't the one. The place where we lived has been razed, and a multi-level building has been built in its place. But the streets around it have some places that still exist. Here's one - a picture I took in 1975 of a horse drawn cart on Av. Irala, compared to now:

1975 - Av. Irala with horse drawn cart.

2015 - same building with minor modifications and modern traffic.

We walked past the Rama 1 chapel, again, here's the before and after:

1975 - Santa Cruz Rama 1 Chapel under construction.

2015 - Santa Cruz Operations Center - mission offices,
Distribution Center, Seminaries and Institute offices.

It has been extended and remodeled, but the chapel inside looked nearly the same. Lots of memories here.

We continued on down to the Plaza Principal, and the main Catholic Cathedral on the Plaza. Both have been upgraded, and looked really nice:

1975 - picture of the main cathedral on the Central Plaza.

2015 - Cathedral now. Plaza has been extended right up to the Cathedral.

Here's a panoramic shot of the side of the Cathedral, and a nice little plaza that has been built since then:

Cathedral from the west side, and a new little plaza.

We also saw lots of more mature trees, like this one, right in the middle of the Second Anillo (Ave. Trompillo):

Beautiful tree spanning Av. Trompillo

On the way back to the hotel, we walked through what was probably the tourist trap area of town. Lots and lots of little shops selling just about anything you could want. There was one store, called Fair Play, that sold shoes, and was having a 70% off sale. There was a long line outside the front door. As we walked we saw quite a few more Fair Play shoe stores, all with long lines for the sale. Kind of interesting.

We bought an Alpaca shawl for Molly - very soft, and it will be nice for her to keep warm in the sometimes chilly chapels in Cochabamba. Although the weather is very nice here, the altitude (8500 feet) means that the atmosphere is thin. Anytime you are in the shade (at least in the winter), it can be a bit chilly.

Alpaca shawl purchased in Santa Cruz

For dinner, we just ate at the Hotel. Not being very daring, we just had their version of sweet and sour pork and chicken. It was pretty tasty.

Wednesday
Today, we walked some more, going a different route. We went to the Northwest on Av. Trompillo, and towards the center of town on Av. Grigotá. It was just like a smaller version of La Cancha in Cochabamba.

2015 traffic at the intersection of Av. El Trompillo and Av. Grigotá

Side street - vendors of furniture

Along the main avenue - need some chickens?

Enough mattresses for the Lyon family, no?

All very interesting. For lunch, we tried a pizza at the hotel - it had ham and cheese, but no tomato sauce, and they added corn as a topping. We'd probably recommend against eating that again. Not real tasty. They did have some very good juice drinks. There is one called maracuya, that is tart. We liked that one quite a bit.

Hna. Alvarez and Marco Antonio came and got us in the afternoon. You can read more of that visit in the post about them.

Thursday
Hna. Alvarez had to go to  Cochabamba for some medical treatments today, so we had the day to ourselves. We walked some more - this time to the Parque Urbano, past the Cemetary, back past the central plaza, and had lunch at a nice little Italian restaurant. This time, the pizza was very much better - a Hawaiian pizza with lots of ham, lots of cheese, and a few pineapple pieces thrown on as an afterthought, it seemed. It tasted right, though, unlike the corn pizza from yesterday.

Here are some pictures of trees in Parque Urbano (Molly really wanted to pose with the second one - quite the interesting tree):

This is a picture of coconut palm trees just outside La Bella Napoli Italian restaurant:

And here's the restaurant: 

Friday
We flew back to Cochabamba today. Just to cap off the memory lane aspect of this post, I figured I'd add a picture of the missionaries working in the Santa Cruz/Montero area in January of 1975. I'm trying to hide behind President Allred:

The drive from the hotel to the Viru Viru airport way north of town was very nice. It goes through some undeveloped areas with much more of a tropical feel. We got back to Cochabamba (after an hour delay at the airport - who knows why) at about 4:00 in the afternoon. It felt good to be back to our home base.