Sunday was my favorite holiday in Cochabamba. There were no cars to be found as it was "pedestrian day"...well, there were a few rule-breakers. It's a day where no driving is allowed and everyone walks and bikes around. From my understanding it is actually an attempt to be environmentally friendly for a day and it's fun to see the city in a new light for this day. It is very strange to hear no car noises and so very odd to be walking down streets that are usually filled with traffic. Maybe Matt and I will spearhead a pedestrian day in Chicago...who's gonna join us?

This is usually one of the busiest streets...it's kinda like walking down Michigan Ave with no cars.

And this is one of the busier rotundas.

Last week was also our 3rd wedding anniversary. We had a wonderful day and we still can't believe it has already been three years. What's even weirder is that we have been in Bolivia for about half of that time...whoa, time flies.

Here we are on our anniversary right before we went to dinner...
this is the only picture we took that day.

And some of the beautiful flowers Matt gave me...

Wallgrens in Bolivia

My parents, Linnea and Eric were able to come for a visit to Bolivia and it was so fun having them...although we did miss Greta and Scott, Cam and the girls...you know, the rest of the family. Anyway, we were able to meet them in La Paz and go for a few days to Copacabana which is a town on Lake Titicaca. It was so beautiful there even though it was cold. We also spent one of the days there on Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) where there are some Incan ruins. This island was very important to the Incas because they believed it was where the sun was born.

After this little trip we all went back to Cochabamba together. We showed them our ministry and our city. I think we packed a lot into the time they were here but we also had some down time too. All in all, it was great not only being able to see family but to bring our two worlds together. Thanks for coming!!! We hope you had a good time!

Some pics from the week...

We had a little bit of time in La Paz. This is at a park there that has a
great view of the city and of the mountains.

Eric was attacked by a mosaic alligator.

We fed some pigeons and they kept landing on Linnea.

This was on the way to Copacabana. We took a bus and there was one part of the ride where we had to get off the bus to go across some water. The bus went on this ferry...

And we went on a smaller boat.

On the other side some guys were loading up these bulls and we were taking
pictures when they started yelling, "Move back!" Dad almost got mauled.

This was in Copacabana. This small city is a pilgrimage city for many Catholics. When they come they get everything blessed by the priests...including cars. The guy in the robe on the right was blessing this car with holy water, inside and out. There were so many people waiting to get their cars blessed that there was a traffic jam.

We hiked up a hill that gave us an awesome view of the city and the lake.
This is almost at the top...you can see the city behind us.

The way up was marked with the stations of the cross and there were a bunch at the top too.

At the top. I wanted it to look like I was about to fall which wasn't that far from the truth because if this rock fell then that was it...little nerve racking.

Copacabana from the top of the hill.

The next day we went to Isla del Sol in a boat just like this.

The boat ride was freezing...

but Mom was tough in her flip-flops next to everyone else that
looked like they were ready to climb Mt. Everest.

On the island in one of the museums. Linnea and I took this cause we just felt
like we had never been given the opportunity to be so close to an actual human skull.

Lake Titicaca on Isla del Sol

Hiking to the ruins

This was a spring that the Incas considered holy water. We all washed our faces with it which was apparently the thing to do with this Incan holy water. Our guide, Jaime, told us that we were supposed to think of our deepest wishes while doing it. Our collective deepest wish was to make the boat in time because it seemed like he lacked concern with how close we were getting to the only departure and the fact that everyone else was on their way back to the boat.
Our wish came true...we made it back in time.

These were some of the ruins called the Sunset gate, I think, because you can see the sun set through the last small hole. While we were standing in here Jaime told us about some of the concepts that were key to the Incan community like "half for me today and half for you tomorrow". It was interesting to learn more about the Incans and to realize how much they strove to work in harmony with nature and not destroy it. I think we can learn from some of their values of selflessness and respect of nature.

Sitting and waving

A girl with her llama. This was on the other side of the island.

The Incan gardens

When we got back we watched the sun set from our hotel.

This was in the Botanic gardens in Cochabamba.

View of the Cristo from the Botanic gardens.

The other day it was cold and rainy which was so odd cause its dry season right now and it hasn't rained in months. After it rained all the mountains surrounding us were covered in snow and it was beautiful...and I realized that we have a direct view of Mount Tunari from our backyard...don't know how I missed that all this time.

This is just a building close to our house and you can see some mountains in the background.

This is the view from our backyard. One of the two peaks there is Mount Tunari. Its the one on the right because its slighly higher...and we climbed to the top of it last year.

Closer-up

And these pictures are for you, Christine. They are of the girls making bracelets and necklaces with the beads you brought. They loved it! We used the beads for a week everyday because they kept going and going til they were all gone. And everyday they would fight about who got to use what and so I had to remind them that they were a gift from you and you would want them all the share.

Working hard

Brenda working and being a goofy as usual.

Leny with her finished necklace.

Isabel being a little camera shy...but look at those bracelets.

Me and Brenda

I just want to say that we are not weirdo dog owners that make blog posts about our dog as if it was our child. That being said...here are a few cute pictures of our dog Luka. I guess the reason why they are so cute to us is because she usually sleeps outside and doesn't sleep much in the house. She has a dog house built by a prisoner at the local jail...no joke. But this day she had come back from being out playing with her stray dog friends for way too long and she passed out on the couch for a while.

Our friend Christine just left on Monday after being here for about two weeks. It was wonderful to have her here and be able to show her what life is like for us in Bolivia. There is something great about bringing your two worlds together...it helps me feel more complete. We definitely kept her busy between having her come along with us to work, meetings, hang out with friends and also taking a trip to a town about four hours away called Torotoro. Torotoro is so close to where we live yet so drastically different from Cochabamba. We thought it felt like Colorado meets Arizona meets Mars. We couldn't quite pin down what kind of land it was since it was so different then anything we have known.

The town is known because there are hundreds of preserved dinosaur tracks close by. The tracks were made in soft mud then solidified into mudstone. The mudstone was then exposed due to tectonic shifting after a meteor struck in the area. It is very clear that tectonic shifting has taken place because the land around Torotoro looks like huge slabs of land shooting into the sky. I can't even find the right words to describe the land it was so interesting looking. Because of that there are also a lot of canyons and caves we got to explore.

There are a lot of pictures...I'll describe more as I go...

On the way to Torotoro

A truck full of people also on the way. Notice the guy with one leg outside of the truck.

This almost looks like a fake scene to me...but it was real.
It was a little town we passed by on the way.

We came by this on the way hiking down a canyon. It's a little tough to see but if you can see the red drawings, zig-zags and other things, they are believed to be from a group of people that lived in caves around 8000 B.C..

In the field just outside the center part of Torotoro.

The main plaza in Torotoro

Matt hanging out with Javier, one of our guides, outisde of the hostel where we stayed.

In Torotoro. The town was not so far from Cochabamba but it felt pretty remote. Maybe its because its difficult to get there...hardly any buses go there and you have to drive through a bunch of rivers on the way. They didn't even have any milk in the whole town. But it was a very pretty and charming little town. It made us think that this town in the US would have been turned into a tourist town long ago because of the dinosaur tracks but in Bolivia it was still a very quaint, almost untouched, town. It felt like you were somewhere very special and taking part in something very unique.

This is the entrance of the first cave we did. Whats the word? Spelunking? Whatever. At the bottom of this one we saw blind catfish. It made me want to catch up on my Planet Earth-Caves.

Inside the cave.

There was this little cup-shaped rock that collected water dripping from the ceiling of the cave. Our guide told us we could drink it if we wanted so I asked if it was clean and he just said "You want to try it?". So we all did! Here is Matt sipping it from a straw. We got a little sick later but its hard to tell if it was from the cave water or the food we ate.

This is the entrance to the second cave we did. We hiked about an hour to get to the entrance which was pretty high up in a canyon. I almost didn't do this cave because I was scared of the small spaces but our guide Mario (in this picture) gave me a talk the day before about how we need to confront our fears to get over them. So I did it and I didn't get as nervous as I thought I would be.

This was the first challenging part. We had to get in this hole then wriggle down about 10-15 ft through a very tight space then be lowered down by rope through this space...

Can you see Mario's legs?

And then there were a lot more small spaces. Most of the time the walls were lined with what seemed like solidified bat poop. It was black, shiny and slippery.

But there were some beautiful stalagmites and stalagtites inside.

We had to swim our way out then exited through this waterfall. It was a cool experience and I'm glad I got over my fear and did it.

This is the biggest canyon in the area. We hiked down to the bottom of it and climbed our way out of it.

Here Mario is explaining something to us just before we went down the canyon.

We thought these stairs were steep but then we climbed out of the canyon a WAY steeper route...involving rope at some points.

These were the waterfalls at the bottom of the canyon.

And we went swimming in this natural pool.

So here is the longest set of dinosaur tracks we saw. Mario told us they would've been made by a long-necked herbavour. I forget what they are called...brontasaurus?

An inverted track by a three-toed dinosaur...I think he said triceritops. Can you see the three toes? The one on the right is broken off a little.

A trail of inverted tracks. They are so far apart you can get an idea of the size of the dinosaur.

Another three-toed dinosaur.

This was the biggest track we saw...also made by a long-necked herbavour. You can see that the dinosaur was so heavy that the mud around the foot came up as it stepped down.

We were A) acting like dinosaurs and B) standing in the tracks to show how big they were. But I guess Matt just didn't care. Matt is standing in the foot print and I am standing in the smaller hand print. I don't remeber what Christine is standing in...I think another hand print. The reason why I forgotten some stuff already is probably because it was explained in Spanish.

Here is another three-toed dinosaur but they said the print is just the tips meaning that it probably running fast and just the ends of the foot or hand made a print. There were tons of different kids of tracks but it would probably bore you to put them all on the blog.

This is back in Cochabamba at a national park where we took a hike.

On the hike also

And still

This is from one of the days Christine came to the Center with us. She was teaching some girls how to play a game and they loved it. Christine just threw herself in at the Center and was a big help to us also. Thanks Christine!

Me and Christine with Leslie, Rocio and Abril from the Center.

Just before the service started at church, Christine was asked to give her testamony. She did it and did a great job. I was impressed! Howard translated for her.

Kate, me and Christine at lunch after church.

That same day we took a trip up to the Cristo in Cochabamba. We waited a long time to take the gondola up but it was worth it. We reminisced how it was like our Jr. High days of going to Great America together and waiting forever for Batman.

Inside the Cristo looking out

And this was the view looking out

I took this picture of the right hand of Cristo from inside

The gondolas we took up

The walk down

Thanks again for coming Christine! It was so fun to have you here.