Charaja and Temple Preparation

[24 April 2017]

Last week, the sister missionaries in the Tupiza Branch asked us to go with them to visit an investigator and a member family in Charaja. We eagely accepted the invitation.

Charaja is a small community about 30 km (18 miles) southeast of Tupiza. It consists of a few streets, and probably less than 100 families. Here’s a picture from Google Earth:

Charaja, Bolivia

If you look closely, you can see two stars. The one on the lower left indicates the home of the investigator. The one on the right, in the middle, is the home of the member family (Coordinates -21.578760,-65.588777 if you happen to want to look more closely in Google Maps yourself). The straight-line distance between them is 433 yards. The road, highway 14, is the main route between Tupiza and Villazón, which is on the border between Bolivia and Argentina. It is another 60 km down the road to the right.

To get to Charaja, we met the sisters at the bus station, and walked around the corner to a rapidito stop (the rapiditos are basically minivans – three rows of seats that can hold 8 people besides the driver). It costs 6 Bs (about $0.90 USD) per person. So we all squeezed in with some other people and headed off.

When we got to Charaja, we walked across a cancha (fútbol field – it looks like there is a road through it above, but not really – it’s just a shortcut for the few vehicles in Charaja), past a couple of houses, and to the door of the investigator’s house (or door in a wall of adobe bricks). Her name (spelling may be off) is Severa.

We knocked and waited and waited. Finally, Severa came to the door, holding a small, butchered pig that she had to deliver to a neighbor. We waited for her to come back, which she finally did. She invited us in. The room served as the bedroom for her family, it appeared. There were three beds – a double bed on one side of the room, and a set of bunk beds on the other. Her baby and her 7-year old son were there with her. Her husband was working in the mines (about 15 km away), and her 9-year old daughter must have been in school.

All she had for us to sit on were little tiny plastic children’s stools. The sisters taught her the lesson, and Molly and I contributed when asked. Severa doesn’t read very well, but her son and daughter help her. The sister invited her to come to church on Sunday, and she committed to do that. Which is really quite a sacrifice, as I’ll explain later.

It was a sweet visit, and Severa is a very humble, caring mother. We left, and walked the 700 yards or so (we didn’t get to go the straightline distance, so it was a bit more) to the member’s home. When we got there, the mother, Gladys Martinez, was there with two of her children. The older three, a 13-year old, a 10-year old, and a 9-year old must have been in school. Her husband, Adrián, was at work in the mines.

Their house was more recently constructed, and was built from bricks covered with stucco. We visited in what was the parents’ bedroom/dining room from all appearances. Beside the bed were church manuals, the Book of Mormon, and a Bible, and there was a picture on the wall of the Cochabamba temple. We visited with her and left a message, and then headed back to Tupiza.

To get back, we had to walk to the highway, and wait for a rapidito with room for the four of us to pass on its way from Villazón to Tupiza. Fortunately for us, one came by very quickly, but I can imagine that that isn’t always the case. We piled in and drove back to Tupiza, arriving just in time to participate in the Branch Council at the chapel.

The transportation situation is part of the difficulty for members and investigators in Charaja. The cost, 6 Bs, doesn’t seem like a lot to us in the United states, but for them, a two-way trip, possibly with children, is very expensive. And, they have to start 30-40 minutes earlier than someone living here in Tupiza to get to church on time. It’s a bigger commitment than we may realize, living within walking distance of our Ward buildings in the states. The Martinez’s have a car, but I’m not sure how reliable it is. I later talked to Hno. Martinez (Adrián), and he said the brakes had a problem. I’m still not sure if they drove it to church or came in a rapidito.

So, that next day, a Sunday, all of them came to church. Adrián and Gladys were there with their children, as was Severa, with her baby and her 9-year-old daughter. The next Sunday, yesterday, they were all there again.

We had a few minutes after the Sunday School lesson, so I visited with Adrián and asked him about his family and how they came to be baptized. The usual pattern here is that the mother and children are introduced to the missionaries by a friend or family member, and sometime later, if ever, the father decides to get baptized. But, in Adrián’s case, he was baptized first, so I asked him about it.

He said that he was introduced to the missionaries more than a year ago, I think by his sister, who is a member here in Tupiza. She and her husband went to the temple to be sealed about four years ago. Adrián said that as he listened to the missionaries, he felt very good about their message. When he prayed, he said that it brought tears to his eyes. He was baptized in April of last year.

I asked about his wife. He said that when the missionaries would come to the house, she would escape and go up the hill behind their house to avoid them at first. But, in November, she was baptized with their 9 and 10-year old sons. They have a 13-year old who doesn’t want to be baptized, yet, and two younger ones – I think about 3 years old, and a baby. I’m sure Adrián’s testimony and faith helped his wife significantly.

All of them, minus the 13-year old, were in church yesterday. I was so impressed by Adrián’s openness and humility. He really has a testimony, and they have a desire to go to the temple as soon as they are able. They are such a sweet family. They are friends with Severa, and it was them that introduced her to the sister missionaries. So, they are already a missionary family. So sweet.

Speaking of the temple, Molly and I are teaching a number of people who are preparing to go to the temple. There is a temple trip planned in July. The members will go by bus or train, and it will take about 15 hours to get to Cochabamba. They will stay the week at the hospedaje, leaving on Monday and returning on Friday or Saturday. We’ll be there with them!

Among those we are teaching are three couples where one of them is endowed while the other is not.
One of them is the Vargas family. The father, Gerson, is a returned missionary. He is the first counselor in the Branch Presidency. His wife is from Tarija, and they met while he was there studying. She is a member of about seven years, and they have three children. They live in a little one-room apartment, with mattresses on the floor. He takes pictures of events at schools for a living. They are planning to go and be sealed in July.

Another family is the Duran’s. He is the second counselor in the Branch Presidency. His wife, Nohelia, is a returned missionary, and they have a baby. He was baptized in September of last year, and they are planning to go to the temple in December when he has a break from work.

The third is from Rama América. She is a member of many years, and has been endowed for a couple of years. He was baptized in November of last year, and I’m not sure what their plans are, yet.

There are a number of others in our classes, and they are eager to go to the temple. Teaching the lessons (the groups don’t line up really well, so we’ve ended up teaching to three different groups) has been very inspiring and enjoyable. I learn more each time I teach, and appreciate even more, now, the blessings the temple brings to the lives of faithful members. We’re excited to be participating in this way with the members here in Tupiza.

And, one last note of interest. We are trying to correct some of the records here in the branch, and we became aware of a member whose records didn’t show that they had passed away. It was the brother of a member here in the branch, so we asked him to meet us at the cemetery and show us where his brother was buried.

We met on Saturday morning, and he took us to the “niche” where his brother’s body is interred. It’s difficult to say “buried”, because it is just a “niche” in a wall of niches. It was on the top of four rows of niches, with many on either side. Each niche measures about 18 inches high by 24 inches wide.

Hno. Vargas had to climb up to move some dried flowers and decorations from in front of the plaster wall that closes the niche after interment. Here’s a picture of that plaster wall:

Initials and date of death of Hno. Vargas' brother.

H.N.V.D are his brother’s initials, and the 11-06-09 is the date of death – 11 June 2009. I should have taken a picture of the whole wall from further away to give better perspective.

We asked Hno. Vargas about the customs and practices surrounding death and burial, since we had just passed the Catholic church on our way to the cemetery, and a group of people followed us from the church to the cemetery. But there was no casket being carried in their procession.

He told us that the law mandated that the body be buried within 24 hours. Then, for the next eight days, the family mourns, puts out food (for the deceased?), supposedly giving the spirit of the deceased time to prepare to depart. At eight days, the family has a mass for the deceased, when the spirit supposedly leaves, and they go to the cemetery to place flowers and pay their respects.

The spaces in the cemetery, especially the niches, aren’t purchased, they are “rented”. The family pays an annual fee of 30-40 Bs ($4.50 to about $6.00) for the niche. I don’t know how much it would be for a regular plot. If the family fails to pay, the niche is emptied and the content placed in a common grave/pit behind the cemetery. We hope that things are documented in the government offices, since it would be nearly impossible to document deaths, relationships, etc. from grave markers as we sometimes do in other countries.

Some Extra Pictures from the Quiriza Trek

[19 April 2017]

Here are some extra pictures taken by others in the Youth Conference Group. I figured you might like to see another perspective:

The ascent.

Hno. Diogenes Martinez pointing out pueblos in the valley below.

The Youth Conference Group.

Molly sharing her experiences and testimony.

The descent – yes, those are people down there, and it is as steep as it looks.

Back home safe and sound, and ready for talent night.

 

Youth Conference: My best "missionary" day so far

[17 April 2017]

Tupiza District Youth Conference in Quiriza.

We have had many wonderful experiences on this mission so far, but  April 14th was my best "missionary"day. I'll tell you why.

I bore testimony of Jesus Christ and invited others to come to Him by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end (that is our purpose as missionaries).

I gave a talk without any notes and I did something really hard (for me) that required me to rely on my companion and my faith in Jesus Christ. Have I piqued your interest?

I tend to exaggerate, but I won't need to for this story, so you can believe what I am going to say.

When we visited the Quiriza Branch a few weeks ago, a meeting was held to talk about Youth Conference. They wanted to hold Youth Conference in Quiriza where the first chapel in Bolivia was built and Pres. Kimball came and dedicated this area of Bolivia for missionary work. Since Charlie and I are "old" and were youth when Pres. Kimball was the prophet, they invited us to share our experiences and memories of him at Youth Conference. Of course, we would love to.

All the youth and some of their leaders spent the night at the Tupiza chapel. One of  the branches in our district is in Uyuni -- about a 6-8 hour drive from Tupiza. Another is in Villazón -- about an  hour away. They brought blankets and a few had sleeping bags. They slept on the floor in the classrooms.

We arrived at the church about 7:30 am. to see about 25 youth and a handful of leaders all in a circle in the gym with scriptures in hand. For this activity (as far as I could gather from watching and listening after it had started), they were divided into groups of two or three people. Each group had a scripture from scripture mastery in seminary that they had memorized. When their group was called on, they stood and recited their scripture together. They then asked another group of their choosing a question about the scripture they just recited. I was very impressed with the participation, their answers and their questions. There were several recently baptized youth in the group and they participated as ably and enthusiastically as the rest.

As we walked in, Charlie and I were asked if we would share a scripture and an experience from our time in seminary after the game. Which we did.

They fed us a breakfast of yummy pound cake and hot cocoa. Then we boarded our bus to Quiriza. Here are some pictures of the bus. Don't pay any attention to the broken tail light, broken windshield, or generally dilapidated look of the bus. That's all pretty normal here.

It's hard to see in this picture, but the bottom half
of the driver's side windshield is gone and replaced with tape
and plastic wrap, it appears.

Who needs tail lights?

Dusty, run down, perfect for a trip to Quiriza!

It was the same beautiful drive as before, and this time we could even see more from the big windows of the bus. I had the same sweet feeling as I entered the chapel. It really is a special place. We sang, prayed and listened to Diogenes, the older gentleman we referred to before, who was one of the first members in Quiriza. He is so sweet and was very happy to have us there.

The story of President Kimball coming to Quiriza is very important to him and he loves to share it. As we left the chapel, we were given a banana to eat on the way. With Diogenes leading us, we headed out and up, up, up.

The hill behind the chapel (the grey one in front, not the red one behind), was our destination.

Quiriza chapel with the hill we hiked behind the palm tree.

Here's another view. We hiked to about the middle of the three bumps on the right by going around behind the mountain. There is a wash that comes around the left side of this "hill." We hiked up the wash, then scrabbbled up the loose shale.

We started up and kept climbing. It got really steep and very rocky and of course, there was no path. The rocks were not the stable kind that give you traction, but the kind that crumble when you try to grab onto them for support and the kind that move underneath you. I was in a dress and missionary shoes. I was grateful that I had on my Cholita socks that are thicker than my usual knee hi nylons, so my feet didn't slide around so much in my shoes. I was glad I had my companion with me. He took very good care of me.

The youth had no problem with the climb -- they are invincible. But the leaders didn't seem to have any problems either. The District Young Women President grew up on a mountain like this and the District President had worked on mountains carrying logs for power lines etc., so I guess it wasn't a big deal that he carried his 2 year old daughter on his shoulders most of the way.

There were several places that were very scary for me. I couldn't see where to place my feet and Charlie was trying his best to help me, but his footing was slippery as well. It almost always happened that when I felt like I didn't know where to go, someone reached out their hand for me to grab hold of, or had their arms under my armpits lifting me up. It was amazing. Where did they come from? I know they were with our group, but they just happened to be there when I needed them. They were like angels.

When I thought we couldn't go any higher we kept going. It seemed there was always more to climb. The thought of going down was daunting. Down is always the hardest for me. We finally reached what seemed like the top and Diogenes led us down a ways,  right on the side of the mountain with not much footing space. We finally came to the "spot", according to Diogenes, where President Kimball blessed this area of Bolivia for the preaching of the gospel. Because of his age and poor health, President Kimball was carried up the difficult terrain by missionaries. It was a beautiful setting.

We had a prayer and two musical numbers from Villazón Branch and  Uyuni Branch. I was so touched by these songs. One was "Nearer my God to Thee" (which I felt at that moment) and the other was one of my favorites, "Secret Prayer". I felt so close to these people and so touched by their help in getting me up the mountain.  I was so grateful that I made it.

When I got up to give my part, I was a bit overcome as I looked at them and thanked them for helping me. I briefly told them how hard that climb was for me and that I felt that they were angels helping me. My whole talk was about how President Kimball was a hero to me because he never gave up, "nunca se dio por vencido," even when it was painful and embarrassing and very hard.

I shared the story of his first speaking assignment as an apostle after throat surgery. Three times Elder Herald B. Lee, the senior apostle, asked him to speak, and every time a horrible sound would come out. Imagine after having a beautiful singing and speaking voice, to stand in front of a group and have such a horrible sound come out. He even asked Elder Lee not to call on him, but he did. He was so humble. He had faith in Jesus Christ and confidence in the leaders of the church and he was obedient. He turned his weakness, his voice  into a strength.

Because his voice was so unique it was always in my mind. Likewise, his words and teachings were in my mind too. I told the youth that I had faith and I was being obedient as a missionary, and I knew that Heavenly Father would turn my weakness, climbing down this mountain, into a strength, and I would get down safely. I felt good about it and never looked at my notes except to read the story and the scripture.

Charlie shared how before his mission he realized he needed a testimony of the living prophet, who happened to be Pres. Kimball, and how powerful that testimony came. He shared some things Pres. Kimball said, like "Do It," and encouraged them to gain testimonies of living prophets. It was very inspiring. The whole experience were very powerful for me. After we talked, a recently baptized young man bore his testimony, and the Tupiza Branch sang the closing song.

Now for the trek down. I wasn't scared. I knew the Lord would help me. Charlie was so patient with me and taught me what to do with my feet as we went down. Most of the way I held onto both of his hands from behind and just followed in his footsteps with baby steps and slides every once in a while.
However, there was one spot where we were stuck. If Charlie had been by himself, he would have been just fine, but how to get himself down and help me down too without us both sliding off the mountain was the question. I was about ready to sit down and scoot when Sister Maria came and held my other hand, with Charlie holding my hand and guiding from the front we managed for a while.

Then it got worse. The Branch President of Uyuni came and put his arm around me and put mine over his shoulder. He told Charlie he could let go that he would help me through the worst of it. He practically carried me, and when we would slide he would say that it was OK to slide and he just whisked me down the bad part.

Charlie took over then and another time I had to put my arm around Charlie and he around me to get us down, but we did it. It was amazing! A very powerful lesson for me in so many ways. I'm sure I will reflect upon it many times.

This shows the way down. Right about in the middle of the picture, you can see a small grey area in front of the red mountain. That's about 2/3 of the way down. If you magnify the image enough, you can actually see a couple of people down there.

After we got back to the chapel, I saw one of the young women outside, alone, and visited with her. She was struggling with some questions and I happened to be there, and was able to testify of Jesus Christ and gospel principles. My "missionary"experience.

They fed us yummy Bolivian chicken noodle soup on glass dishes that we brought with us from Tupiza and mocochinchi (a cinnamon drink with dried peaches in the bottom for flavor) to drink. Then they brought us a big plate full of rice, one half of a potato and chicken. It was all very tasty, and was a lot to eat. Here, they have a big afternoon meal, and little to nothing for dinner. We still are used to three balanced meals a day, though, so it was a bit much.

We had a bit of a break, and Charlie and I walked around the block to take a look at the Catholic church there in Quiriza. We visited with a cute lady who was there. The church was really run down - quite discouraging to see its condition.

While I played outside games with the youth, Charlie visited with Diogenes. He took him to his home and showed him pictures of when President Kimball came. We both had a very eventful, adventurous day.

We got back to the Tupiza Chapel about 6. Quite the day.

A Day (or two) in Our Lives

[8 April 2017]

So, what’s it like here in Tupiza from day to day? Well, let me tell you.

On a typical Sunday, we walk, take a bus, or take a mini-taxi down to the Tupiza Chapel for our church meetings. The members are very sweet, and appreciate our being here. The children really have taken to Molly, as you might imagine. She’ll usually have two or three, or more, sitting next to her or on her lap. I don’t think she minds! After church, we usually come home for lunch, and to Skype children as we’re able to.

In the evening, we go to the América Branch, and teach the Temple Prep class. We’ve done that one Sunday, now, and had more than a dozen attendees. The Branch President came, as well – his support was very evident and appreciated. The América Branch chapel is just a couple of blocks away, so we walk there, and then walk back home.

Mondays are spent washing clothes and cleaning, mostly. Washing clothes by hand takes a couple of hours. Molly does the washing, and I do the wringing and hanging out to dry part. We hang our towels, socks, sheets, pillowcases, pants, shirts, skirts, etc. outside to dry, and the rest on racks that we set up in the dining room with a fan to assist the drying. Everything mostly gets dry by nightfall, but a few things might take until morning in the dining room.

I’d say we do our shopping on Monday (Preparation Day), but since we have a small fridge, and we do all our own cooking, we pretty much shop whenever it’s needed. Everything is so close here, that we can just pick up things we need at the market on our way home from wherever we’ve gone. Our increasingly favorite market for fruits, veggies, flour, sugar, etc. is Mercado La Paz. Look back to the blog entry on March 1, 2017 to see our friend there. She is 8 months pregnant, so her mother is helping her now. She always lights up when she sees Molly.

On Tuesdays, we try to get out and visit, if we can. I’ve been combing the branch records, trying to help the clerk figure out how to straighten things out. Families aren’t always arranged together, and often are missing some children. For active families, that should be easy to fix. But, since there are over 500 inactives on the records, there’s a big task in figuring out how to clean those up. Little by little, we are finding addresses and fixing them, and finding inactive members who need some visiting. We just learned tonght of a former Branch President who is inactive, but lives close, so we’ll try and visit him.

Tuesday mornings are usually our missionary District Meeting. It’s always fun to meet with the young missionaries and offer our support in visiting, teaching, whatever. Tuesday evenings might involve a visit to a family with the Missionaries, a meeting at the branch, or working with the clerk.

Wednesday evenings, we teach Piano lessons, and the Temple Prep class in the Tupiza Branch. The First Counselor in the Branch Presidency is a returned missionary, and is endowed, but his wife is not. They have three children, and have lived in the branch for about a year. She is preparing to go to the Temple in July, and they will be sealed as a family. We visited with her for a long time tonight – she is really cute, and strong in the gospel. She has six sisters and two brothers, and is the only one in her family who is a member. Until recently, she felt like her family really didn’t care about her at all – they live a couple of hundred miles away – but recently her mother has been calling her promising to visit, and crying that she misses her. They are really good examples to their family, and I know that the Temple will be a big blessing in their lives.

As for the Piano lessons, school is making it hard for the kids to be consistent, but we have four or five who are making progress. There are two portable keyboards that they are sharing, and they practice at the church whenever they can. It’s fun to see their enthusiasm and progress.

Wednesday evenings also have us attending the missionary correlation meeting if we can. We really enjoy seeing the missionaries in action. Sometimes they get a bit discouraged, but we work to help them see the joys around them. Chocolate chip and lemon shortbread cookies often help. One of the sister companionships was having problems with their “pensionista” or cook. They have a local person cook lunch for them five days a week, and this one was kind of pushing them to loan her money every day. They were uncomfortable, and talked to me. I hope I helped them with some ideas on how to defuse the situation, but the lady kept pushing, so they’ve changed to a different one. We’ve also had some “parental” opportunities to counsel about upset stomachs, dog bites, etc. Some things come with age and seven children.

Thursdays are more of the same. We’ve had some very sweet Family Home Evenings with a number of families. One of the nice things that we can do because our Lisa gave us a book of family pictures before we left, is to share how our family is our treasure, and how the church gives us the assurance that we can be eternal families. With my Dad’s passing in the last month or so, it has also allowed us to share our testimonies about the love in our family, and God’s love for all of us in His plan that promises us that we will be able to see our loved ones again.

Along those lines, we visited the Tupiza Cemetery to see how difficult it would be to figure out if the 103 year old member of record in the branch is buried there. I assure you, we won’t find it by looking at headstones. Suffice it to say that there are many graves that have no markings. There are whole sections along the outer walls that are just for placing caskets in a little space barely big enough for it, six high by as many wide as you can see, with very little indication of whose body is inside other than a number. There will be lots of flowers, but not much else. Some are closed with elaborate glass doors, others have nothing more than a number or maybe a name.

Nearly all the graves/crypts are above ground. Some have very fancy mausoleums, others might just have a brick or adobe box around them. Many are not well-maintained. Here are some pictures. The first is a nicer section, the second appeared to be mostly for children.
 

Nice section of Tupiza Cemetery

Children's section of cemetery.

Fridays and Saturdays follow the same pattern – shopping if needed, visiting where we can, piano lessons in the evening, helping the missionaries, working with the branch clerk, combing through records. One Saturday, we spent the morning walking around Tupiza with the Branch President looking for members. We found a few, but found a number of opportunities as well to follow up. One member, a less active, wasn’t home when we went by with Presidente Alfaro, but we found her at her tienda later, and bought some cookies (like Oreos) as an excuse to talk to her. We invited her to come to church (which she hasn’t taken us up on, yet), and we plan to go by again, soon.

Saturday afternoons are usually Branch Counsel, and we go to teach, encourage the leaders, etc.
This last week was different from the normal, because we had to go to Cochabamba to get our regular visa. Our 30-day visa ran out a couple of weeks ago. So on Tuesday, after District Meeting, we walked down to the Bus Terminal with our suitcases.

The trip from here to Cochabamba took us through Potosí – a large town at 13,000 feet. To get there, we took a “Rapidito”- basically a minivan, for a four-hour trip.

The prominent feature of Potosí is Cerro Rico – a conical mountain laced through and through with mine shafts. It’s cold in Potosí, as you might understand at that altitude, and Molly didn’t feel well. So we grabbed something to eat and crashed – in a very nice motel. We flew out the next morning to Cochabamba.

Cerro Rico from our motel room window.

Our motel room in Potosi - very nice.

Molly at a plaza in Potosi.

Landmark in Potosi returning from the airport.

In Cochabamba, we got to go to the temple with the missionaries, visit with many good friends, and stay at the Mission Home. The Mission Home has a washer and dryer – how nice to have warm, soft, fluffy clothes fresh from the dryer. They don’t turn out that way drying on the line.

We had planned to return on Friday, but needed to finish some things on Monday, so we got to stay an extra three days at the Mission Home, and got to watch General Conference with Sister Farnsworth at the hospedaje on the temple property. She is one of our Temple worker friends. All in all, it was very nice.

So, Tuesday morning we got up early, caught a taxi to the airport, flew to Potosí, immediately caught a Rapidito, and got back to Tupiza by about 1:30 in the afternoon.

So, that’s a general idea of what we do around here. We really enjoy it and look forward to meeting more and more people every day here in Tupiza.

One last quick note – we have been asking various people what the best bread in Tupiza is, and where we could find it. Our reference bread, to this point, is pan marraqueta from La Paz. It is crispy on the outside, and soft and chewy on the inside. We had some in La Paz when we stayed there last year with the Pozos, and have been looking for something as good without finding it. In Cochabamba, they have something they call pan marraqueta, but it isn’t the same thing.

One day last month, Presidente Huarachi, from Rama América, told us of a panaderia (bakery) where they sold a bread called “pan de piso”(literally, bread of floor, but it translates as flat bread), but you had to get there early since it sold out quickly. We went there one morning at about 6:30 am, but a handwritten sign on the door said they didn’t have bread that day. So we tried again this morning.

When we got there, the door Presidente Huarachi showed us was open, but it looked like it just was a residence, not a tienda or store as we had figured. There were no people around, so we wondered if we’d found the right place. Not wanting to go home empty handed, we knocked, and were invited in. So we cautiously entered, wondering what we’d find.

Pan de piso.

As we entered, to the left side, around a corner, were about ten people sitting on benches. We told them that we had been told that we could buy pan de piso here, and they said we’d found the right place. (We wondered if we were going to need a secret password.)

One of the men knocked on a door, and said something about gringos through the door. A few minutes later, a young boy cracked the door open, and asked us what we wanted. I told him “pan de piso”, and he asked how much. (Cost, weight, number of pieces, etc. weren’t specified.) So, in order to be quick, since everyone else apparently knew the secret ritual, I just said “six”. He took our bag, and came back a few minutes later with it filled. I asked, “How much”, and he said “seis” (six) like I was some kind of imbecile. So I gave him six Bolivianos and we left. Turns out six Bolivianos buys fourteen panes (or rolls). We ate one on the way home, and they are as close as anything we’ve found, yet, to the marraqueta rolls in La Paz. Pretty good.

From what I surmised after we left, the others were all there to buy in bulk, and take the bread to their little tiendas to sell. We stumbled on to the bakery, not a regular store, and were grateful they let us in on their little secret cabal!