TARIJA

 

We spent all  last week traveling with President and Sister Dyer.  5 hotels in 7 days.  We flew to Tarija with about 15 missionaries.  Some were new from the MTCs in Bogotá and Lima and some were being transferred.  This was more than a normal cambio (transfer). As of July 1st the areas of Tarija and Bermejo become part of the  Santa Cruz mission.  Most of the missionaries were sad to leave the Cochabamba mission but they were really great about it. 

As soon as we got there we all split up. Christy took one zone and Lorna and I took another. We visited 6 missionary apartments within 2 hours.   Many new areas had opened up and some of the places had nothing.  I mean nothing.  Two places didn’t have bathrooms yet. No mattresses nothing.  When we finished we left with two missionaries to go to the market.  The market we went to covered several blocks,  Jack went to buy hot plates, irons and mirrors.  Lorna and Christy bought plates and kitchens items and the zone leaders bought cleaning items.  A cold front had come through and although we were at a much lower elevation than Cochabamba it was much colder due of the humidity.  The streets are crowded.  Every street or at least a section of the street sells only one or two items.  We arrived back one hour later with loads of things, which we separated and had the missionaries pick up at the stake center. 

After a great dinner at a restaurant which featured Argentine beef,  we returned to our small hotel.  We were in the Mission SUV which was always kept in Tarija. Part of the reason for our trip was to drive it to Sucre so it would stay with our mission.  The parking garage was not at the hotel but about 3 blocks away.  We were exhausted and the hotel clerk was alone and didn’t know what to do since he had to take Dan (Pres. Dyer) down to show him where to park. Jack told the hotel clerk that he would watch the desk.  When they got down to the parking garage a vehicle was parked in the way and it seemed like hours before Dan returned.  Meanwhile, Jack set right into the hospitality  industry.  Taking and delivering orders for pizza and beer, and telling people there was no room at the inn since he didn’t know how to check them in.

The next day we had meetings,  Lorna and Christy went out to develop apartment pictures  to place  them in binders for the new mission.  Jack went out in search of more hot plates. He has become very adept in spotting quality hotplates and negotiating the best price!  That afternoon we, along with about 50 missionaries, went on a Paseo' about 30 minutes out of town and another 30 minute steep hike up to Coimata waterfalls, a beautiful place, well worth the hike.

 

Jack and Elder Gilbert

Missionaries of Tarija and Bermejo

 

That night we ate at a great restaurant called El Marques on the main plaza. Tarija is a beautiful relatively clean city.  This restaurant was a colonial mansion.  The daughter of the owner gave us a tour of the upstairs apartment and dining rooms.  You can get a great steak in a 3 course meal for 6 or 7 dollars US.

                                                     El Marques dining hall (we did not sit here to eat!)

Bermejo

The next morning we left for Bermejo,  a windy road for 3 1/2 hours  losing a lot more elevation.  On the road we passed a lot of farms. One thing unique about this area is they don't have storage facilities for their produce. The grow Chala, which looks like corn stalks, but they store it in the tops of the trees. They have probably done this for centuries.

A lot of this country reminded us of southern Utah and Lake Powell 

 

Bermejo looks  a lot like Hawaii or a Caribbean Island,  well at least the countryside does.  The town looks like  well, it’s not the most picturesque or clean.  Most of the roads are dirt and they had just had a heavy rain, so there was a lot of mud. We stayed at the finest hotel in Bermejo, The Paris. No worries about mistaking it for anything in Paris. 

 

We stayed in the best two suites, each about 40 bucks US.  The lobby had mud on the floor, and not just because it had rained. It had been there awhile and reeked with the smell of all things cat, and not in a happy fluffy way. It  really added to the ambiance of the place. There was no heat in the rooms so we decided the missionaries needed two more heaters. We bought them that night and used them ourselves before handing them over to the missionaries.

The only thing worse than the Paris was the security system on the SUV, a complicated sequence of events to  lock or unlock  push the remote three times wait two seconds enter the vehicle within 3 seconds of inserting the key stick your finger in a small hole on the steering column giving it three taps, sometimes it would work, most of the time it wouldn't. The assistants properly diagnosed the vehicle as being Bi-Polar. if you ignored it and tried to put up with the cucaracha bells whistles and sirens, the engine would kill within a matter of seconds usually when you were in the middle of an intersection, but the sirens would keep going.

After we visited the missionary apartments, we found we had to purchase many things.  Bermejo is on the Argentine border, as in you can see Argentina from your front porch!  Some things cost less ,but most things are more expensive.  That night we had a fireside with the district since its being turned over to the new mission.  The district provided a great meal at the church house and we met a lot of wonderful people.  President usually asks Jack to share his testimony and talk a little bit about ourselves.

The next day we sadly said adieu to The Paris. We went to church and left for the trip back to Tarija.  in Tarija we stayed at Los Parrales, one of the nicest hotels we've stayed in anywhere, with great views looking out over Tarija.  We stayed in our room ordered, banana splits and watched the missionary leadership training on the ipad.  The changes of missionaries using FaceBook won’t be coming to Bolivia anytime soon as most people do not have internet in their homes.  the next day we were off to Potosi!