Bolivia

I'm all back safe and sound from Peru! I got in at about midnight from Panama. Officially back in the states, and today was my first Sunday. I still have a few things I want to cover about the trip! I'm not too far behind considering I was there for 2 months... Only about a week and a half. :) 

Friday on the Gira in Puno, we headed that morning to Desaguadero. That is the bigger town about 30-40 minutes away where we got to the first night and we stayed at a church there. We would go to that church the next Sunday night for their service. 

We stopped off the road a bit to Asencio's house. He used to be a pastor, but through very confusing circumstances that I don't fully understand, he isn't. He invited us to breakfast though, and was it good! We drove as far as we could to get to the house, but we had to walk through a few more fields before we got there. Rachel mentioned something about the walking, and we were like, "This is nothing! You should see where we walked on visitation!" We got there though, and we ate outside. (the sun was intense!) 

I think it was the best food in Puno! It was delicious! We had rice, salad, and a stuffed potato with meat and peppers and onions and things like that inside. It was amazing! We also had a hot drink made out of grain called quinoa. That took some doing to get down. The taste wasn't too bad, but the texture was worse. When I finished the grain drink though, I could have tea. I finished it and quickly made my tea. It was some great tea! Cozy with lots of sugar! 

Next we headed off to a family's house downtown and parked the jeep there. We parked, got our stuff for the day in our backpack, and then divided up into groups. We went out in groups of 2s and 3s in all different directions in Desaguadero. We had about 15 people from our group and the church. 

It was market day, and so people would come from all over to sell their produce, wares, or goods. It really was an amazing sight! We took a few hundred tracts in our bag each, and I was like... we will never get all these tracts handed out! With 15 people and 4,000 tracts and a very large market day, guess how long it took? ...20 minutes. 20 MINUTES! Wow! That was an amazing 20 minutes to watch though. Thousands of people walking along and we would pass them out to everyone as we walked along. All the ladies sitting with their vegetables, the ones serving food and the ones eating, the people being driven around on these bicycle contraptions, and their drivers. We could stand in one place, and just pass them as people walked by. People would walk up to us and ASK us for a tract!!! It was so very different than in the US. And with all those tracts we passed out, when we were done, we went back and retraced our steps to see if there were any on the ground that we could reuse. The whole day, we found 3. If we stood in a shopping center and passed out 4,000 tracts, we would see them on the ground all around us. It was very different, but an awesome sight to see! That made all the work of folding and stamping those worth it! We could have passed out 10,000 and needed more! :-)

Next we waited for our group in the town square. It was a neat people watching experience! All the ladies have a specific outfit in general. They wear these long, very poofy and very gathered/layered skirts with layers and layers under them, sweaters, a blanket used as a shawl, and the Puno hat. You can tell where a person is from by their hat, and you can see that everyone is wearing that type of hat. When Rachel walked around with hers, she brought smiles to people's days... It's unusual to see a 6ft white girl wearing one of those. :-)

We got everyone together and then headed to the boats. These boats that cross a small piece of river take you from Peru to Bolivia! There is a bridge too, but you have to pay $150 to go across. This is 50 Peruvian cents. We got to go across the bridge later, but it was free. 

We had a snack (the best oranges ever!!! ...from the Bolivian jungle, and bread) and did some shopping before we went back over to Peru for lunch. It was delicious, and some more people from the church joined us for lunch. We really filled up the tiny restaurant, and so I got put at the table with people that I didn't know and didn't speak English at all. I got to talk to the girl Naomi a bit, and enjoyed my food. I had rice, chicken, salad, and tea. 

We went back over to the Bolivian side to do some shopping, and then that evening we headed back to Naomi's house for dinner. We stopped by the market to get some eggs, bread, tea, and a corn drink for dinner. We were really tired, and Ariel and I splurged and got a Coke and I got a Kola Real (peruvian brand). It tasted...amazing!  (one other time that week we had Pepsi after church the first Sunday, and then the next Sunday they had soda and I had a green apple flavored one. Rachel didn't care for it, but I thought it was really good!) 

I do not care for fried eggs... at all. My mom only makes them scrambled dry, so fried is a bit different. We had fried eggs in bread with cheese on the side, with a hot, thick, grainy, purple corn drink. You could have tea when you finished that, but I had enough trouble during the meal getting that down, that I just had the corn. It was the best fried egg I ever had! I picked one with thicker bread, so more bread, and less egg. :-) We were really tired, and it was late by the time we headed back to Cacorco. The next day, Saturday, we would head to the floating islands in the afternoon. That was fun, and that post is coming up next. Sorry it has taken so long to finish these up. Still have a few more to go!

Favorite picture of the whole day! In Desaguadero market handing out tracts. You can see the ladies reading them with their traditional dress and wares. I just love this one!

That was one packed market. We could have passed out 10,000!

Talking to a family in the square while waiting for other groups

On our boat to Bolivia

Traditional ladies in the market. (hat, apron, skirts, blanket and all)

The Bolivian oranges from the jungle are the best I have ever had!

Bolivian street

All our girls

Roxana, Naomi, Hna. Wendy, Elena, me, Ariel, and Rachel

One of the pastor's daughters from the church in Desaguadero

They wouldn't let us go... esp. Ariel!

It's a good place!

Elena handing out tracts

In the indoor section of the market... meat section

breakfast at Asencios house

Everyone that handed out tracts that morning. We had our group, and then some people from the church and Rev class were there too

Group picture...

standing - Pastor's wife and Pastor from Desaguadero church, and Pat and Wendy

Sitting - Ariel (holding their daughter) Pastor Jose from the Cacorco church, Juan, Raúl, Roxana, Elena, Naomi (holding other daughter) and me!

Those bicycle things that transported everything! He was a guy from church that happened to be there then so we got a few pictures. He also took the Rev class

Pat and Wendy

I was really in Bolivia!

Group picture on the bridge

Enjoying a Kola Real (cheaper coke) and relaxing after a long day. We were really tired!

That was a good dinner!

Enjoying fun times!