#51 Moving back to Cochabamba

In the middle of February we loaded up all our belongings and
moved back to Cochabamba.  Here are a few pictures of our
trip.  We took two days and enjoyed the adventure.  We decided
to try a different road this time.  This is a sign you see often along
the highways in Bolivia.  

 

 

We saw a lot of rock slides on the road.  The rain causes these.
They don't get into a big  hurry to clear them away so everyone
just drives over them or around them if possible.

The country was beautiful.  Everything is blooming and green
this time of year.  This is the mountains between Tupiza and
Potosi.  

We stopped an ate lunch on the tailgate of the pickup. 

Another interesting road sign along the way.  

We drove to Sucre the first day.  It was about a 7 hour drive
from Tupiza on good paved road.  It is of course over
and around the mountains.   This is the patio area
of the very nice Samary Hotel we stayed at.  

In the morning these two young women were cleaning and baking
bread in the oven at the Hotel.  

A rawhide trunk at the Samary Hotel.  

A beautiful; leather trunk at the Hotel.  

The Dinosaur Museum in Sucre.  

The road out of Sucre.  Up and over the mountain. Beautiful country. 

The truck's trailer lifters were high centered.  It was blocking
the bridge.  It didn't take too long before he got it moving again.  

The road was paved about a third of the way from Sucre to Cochabamba.
The next few miles was gravel road and then we finally drove on a
cobblestone road for about 2 hours.  

All along the roads in Bolivia people build these memorial to
people who have been killed on the road.  This was one of
the fanciest ones we have seen.  It was close to the top of the
mountain.  

The cobblestone road was up and over some high mountains.  It
was wide enough to pass on and beautiful farm land.  

Just one of many small house and farms we saw.  They are all
high in the mountains.   The raised potatoes, grain and some corn
down a little lower in the valley.  

 

More pictures of the beautiful country here.  We finally came
back to paved road about 80 to 100 miles from Cochabamba.
It took us 9 hours to drive about 320 miles.  It was a
memorable trip. 

#50 Makiing Goat Cheese in Quiriza

On our way to Quiriza we stopped to visit the Alcazar Family in Monte.
Ronaldo and Jona were sliding down this hill on 2 liter plastic bottles.
Who said you need snow to have a sleigh ride down the hill??

We had the Zone Leaders with us.  Of course they had to try it.
Elder Mitchell made it in one piece.  

Elder Avilla made it down the hill without a scrape too.  

These children do no have a lot of fun toys and bikes to play with, but
they are happy with this life and were pretty smart to think of this to
have some fun.  

We slept at the chapel in Quiriza and the next morning we went
to milk the goats so we could make goat cheese.  

Elder Mitchell trying to milk  a goat.  The goats were in a coral
and they would hold them by the head while we milked them.  

This billy goat was not real happy with us being in the herd.
He had great looking horns.  

We all had a turn milking.  I did pretty good. My aim at the bucket was
not very accurate and squirted the milk
all over Mabel Flores's leg.

Lloyd had no problem hitting the small bucket.  

Marlena Flores showed us how to use the goat milk to make cheese.  

First she strained and cleaned the milk.  

She then added just a few grains of  cuajo and a couple tablespoons of salt.. 
 This makes the milk jell.  

The milk is then put on a few hot coals for about 1 to 2 hours. This
is the kitchen area where  Mabel does a lot of  her cooking.
Mabel also had a small nice gas stove, but I think they use
this area more. 

Mabel checking the milk.  

Marlena brought two molds for the cheese.  They are round and made
from a special grass.  They are each setting on a plate.

When the milk looked like jello, we put our hands in it and slowing
gathered the solid milk into balls.  

We then pressed it into the molds.  The grass molds allowed the
excess water to drain off the cheese.  

We worked right on the dirt floor.  Bending down like this is
not easy to do.  The women in Bolivia seem to bend better
than I can.  You can also see Marlena sitting on a small
wooden stool.  They have these everywhere.  They are not easy to sit
on or get off of.  

Liliana Catacata cut up the lamb for the barbecue. We are in Mabel
Flores's kitchen.  You can see her gas stove.  We made brownies
for dessert.  Liliana had to light the oven.  I don't think Mabel has used
this stove too much.  She said she bought it a year ago.  It looked
brand new.  

Mabel grinds some herbs and garlic on a stone to
put in some tamales.

They cooked the lamb on a grill over some wood coals.  

A pan of tamales we made.  We cut the corn off the cobs, ground it  in
a meat grinder.  Then wrapped a spoonful of corn and a slice
of goat cheese and wrapped it in the corn husk. They steamed
them in a pot over the wood fire.  

This was our meal.  Barbecue lamb, tamale, corn of the cob, rice and
a boiled potato.  They heap their plates with food.  We could not eat
it all.

The members of the Quiriza Branch on our last sunday there.
We were very sad to say goodbye.  These good people
will always hold a special place in our hearts.  

This was our Relief Society Meeting our last sunday in Quiriza.
.  We sat outside under a large palm tree located in the Church yard.

#47 Quiriza/Villazon members January 2013

Isabel Martinez from Quiriza wanted to show us her good grape
crop this year.  They will soon be turning black and ready to eat.

We were waiting at the Plaza in Villazon and watched them working
on this large building.  They are bringing up cement in these two
buckets.  What a hard way to build.  

There are pretty hollyhocks growing everywhere.  

We took the Zone Leaders to Villazon for  a baptism.
Alan Soza was baptized by his father Wilson.

Here we are in Quiriza with a great group of members in our
pickup.  We pick them up each week so they can attend church meetings.  

Lloyd with two young Alpacas in Tupiza 

Adan Cano playing along the road in Monte.

Ronaldo, Nayeli, Jona Alcazar with Lloyd helping their neighbor, Omar,
clean ajo (garlic)

Ivan and Omar Alcazar working on their fathers farm.  Ivan is carrying
a heavy sack of garlic. It weighs about 80 pounds.  

We helped them cut corn to feed to their burros and pigs.  Here
Omar is carrying  a heavy load while Ronaldo carrys his tool for
cutting the corn.  

Lloyd carried a load up the hill too.  We really enjoy helping these
good people.