Punata

Punata

Where to begin..... Our day at Punata had enough material for 2 blogs, and we were only there 3 hours. Before I begin I have to preface with an explanation of transportation in Bolivia. There are 3 types of transportation. Taxi's, Trufi's and Micro's. Taxi's are what you would expect anywhere else, except you may or may not have floorboards or tires with any tread. Most of the cars here run on CNG, compressed natural gas, so some of them have the big tanks in the back or the trunk along with a huge woofer so they can blast their music while you are being transported. If you are going to the airport or need to haul a lot of items, you need to check first for trunk availability. Trufi's are like minivans that have designated routes. They pick up people and let them off  along their route. One of the temple missionaries said a Bolivian lady brought a family name card to the temple. When she looked at the address for the lady it said "Trufi # 10", so Trufi's can also be used for addresses, give or take 5-10 miles. Trufi's are less expensive than taxi's. The bottom of the food chain of transportation are Micro's. They are the size of a small school bus and are painted with bright colors, flames and most of the time a picture of their favorite Virgin  (Guadalupe, Urkupina, Carmen etc) on the back window. Always a lot of fringe and the back end is jacked up. They ascribe to "might makes right" attitude while driving and can often be seen driving on sidewalks, running red lights (always) and cutting people off. Micros were the same when Jack was here in the 70's only they were one step higher on the food chain. 

Micro

 So anyway, back to Punata. It is a small town about 25 miles south of Cochabamba. There are 6 missionaries in the general area. They wanted to set up one of the tiendas at the Tuesday market there so we left about 7:00 am to head out to take it to them. Since it was early, we had to stop for a breakfast Coke (nothing has changed), so Jack pulled over to this little tienda. An old Cholita was out in front in her walker sweeping the sidewalk with a tree branch and yelling at one of her realitives. Since it was obviously hard for her to get around, she asked Jack if he could get his own coke, which he was happy to do. After he got them and was walking out, she yelled at him and told him to stop " Didn't you take two cold ones out of the cooler? Then you need to put two warm ones in the cooler. Don't you think other people want cold Cokes?  The warm coke zeros were on a higher shelf so that you needed to climb a ladder " So now Jack can add tienda stocker to his list of accomplishments!

 We stopped at a light about a block from the tienda and the next thing we knew we had been rear-ended by a Trufi, Coke spraying all over the inside. Jack jumped out and saw that we had very little damage, but the front end of the Trufi was totally smashed in. The driver was really upset and sorry, but said it wasn't his fault because he didn't have brakes that worked! The trufi was full of people and we were blocking traffic. I got out and called 911, which I later found out is 110 here and it is supposed to transfer over. No one answered anyway. By now everyone is honking their horns and Jack realized the poor guy didn't have insurance and the police would just make things worse. What do you do? So we left. We had to get to Punata!  Tuesday is the big market in Punata. Not only do they have the usual market items of fresh produce, meat, hand made items and a lot of junk from China, but it is the animal auction. People come from miles around with cows, sheep, pigs, chickens. Some are in trucks, most are led by rope, whether they want to come or not.

We parked on a side street and Jack got out to find the missionaries. I watched as a man was yolking two bulls in front of the pickup. I watched as he yolked them and started leading them by the passengers side to the back of the pickup

 

The rest happened so fast I couldn't get really good pictures. Apparently the bulls had a different idea about what was going to happen. They got out of the yolk and started fighting towards the rear of the pickup ramming it and slamming into my side. They were pretty heavy and the pickup received a few good jolts. The man finally got them under control, but as they were leaving, one of the bulls gave a parting shot and rammed the side of my door. I was laughing so hard. This place is like something out of Bible times with animals on the loose everywhere. The pickup had had a bad day already and it wasn't even 8:30!
I can't describe in writing to give Punata justice. It must be experienced. Also, most of the pictures have to be taken on the run, because most of the people don't like their picture taken, so I will just leave you with pictures with captions. We finally met up with the Elders near where a lady was selling parrots.

This picture is not photo-shopped. I took it. Like I said, you have to experience Punata market for yourself!

 

 

This was a piglets in a sack. The Cholita had it tied with a rope to her tienda. It was squealing and snorting and moving all over the sidewalk. I don't even want to know what she had in mind for it Jack said when he was a kid he was with his dad and Bert Webster and an extremely fat lady walked by in tight pants, Bert remarked that it looked like two pigs in a sack. Now he knows what he meant.

This meat market was next to where we were parked. The dog had his head stuck under the table all day. I guess he was waiting for something to be dropped.

Pretty sure this lamb ate up most of the days profits.

These fish were a hot item. They were everywhere and they weren't for bait. From the looks of things, I think they were eaten raw and whole.

This is real hair, most likely Cholita hair. It was fairly inexpensive. I guess if you got it, you could pick and choose which days you wanted to dress Cholita.

Produce at the market.

One of many

 

We had to hurry back to Cochabamba for a meeting at the office. We found out we weren't the only ones with animal stories. There was a lady in Quillacolla, on the way to our Bella Vista branch, whose sheep had been stolen. Apparently her husband had been taking it out on her, so Obispo Davila and the AP's Elders Avila and Tanner decided to buy her some new sheep. Once they made the deal, Obispo said he wasn't going to haul them in his car, so the assistants paid extra to put them in the back seat of their taxi with them. One of them got loose in the car! You never know what you will end up doing here in Bolivia!



Elder Avila - Guatemala



Elder Tanner - Mesa AZ

TUPIZA Butch & Sundance Country

 

On August 9th we left Cochabamba and flew to Sucre, with the Dyers and the assistants Elder Avila and Elder Tanner.  Bi-polar was waiting for us at the airport, fresh out of the shop.  We were told that the security system had been un-installed, and on the bench for repairs.  Apparently the only thing that was unhooked was our partial ability to stop the sirens.  But like those of us who are or who have worked with Bi-polars,  you just learn to deal with it.  Anyway we left immediately for Tupiza.  The Assistants rode with us, which made it a tight fit with all the luggage. Also we felt sorry for them since the last time we went to Potosi, we didn't have room and they took a 3 hour taxi ride.  Before leaving Sucre a drunk miner who was riding with them  in the back, threw up all over them and they made the whole trip wet and smelly.  We arrived in Potosi in time for lunch, then made the 3.5 hour trip to Tupiza. After leaving town, and returning to the restaurant to retrieve Christy's, purse and phone (SOME PEOPLE). Christy thought these crown looking pastries covered with syrup would be good,  so we bought about 4 of them.  The syrup was actually super glue and the pastries were adobe bricks, after breaking them from our grip and being turned down by several dogs on the road, we threw them at to a guy walking down the highway.   BUEN PROVECHO
  We  checked into the hotel and went to the chapel for a fireside.  Jack showed some slides of his  first mission and spoke of the difference in the church. I spoke about the few missionaries from South America that served missions and those that did were not endowed since the closest temple was Washington DC and prohibitive for most members to attend.  Afterwards a missionary who I served with came up and talked to me and said he was one of those missionaries.

As you can see from the pictures, Tupiza looks a lot like the St George- Bryce canyon area,  It is south near the Argentine border.  A lot of cactus and furniture made out of cactus wood.  ( I never knew cactus was wood.)  Tupiza looks like a small Arizona town of the 1800's  quite a few tourists because its the gateway to the Uyuni area.  Butch and Sundance stayed here for awhile and are allegedly buried between here and Uyuni.  The next day we had a zone conference for Tupiza.  Below is a picture of the third link of the trio in Queriza.  The mutt has been following the Elders for weeks, and walked to Tupiza with them (a 3 hour walk)

 The dog was upset that he didn't get to go to the zone conference. Late that afternoon we left for  Villazone for another fireside.  It about an hour to the south, right on the Argentine border.  Best way to describe it is it is Hamer ID with the downside of everything Bolivia.  We checked the apartments for the missionaries, found out they were heating the apartment with a makeshift propane torch for a heater.  So after buying them a mattress and a new heater we went to a baptism and then to a members house for dinner.  We had the BEST steaks from Argentina.  These are their two boys  who President Dyer calls Rayo y Relampago. (Bolt and Lightening)  very properly named. After the fireside which Lorna also gave a talk we went back to Tupiza.


 Relampago and Rayo (Lightening & Bolt)

 



Sosa family Villazon with Dyers  Tanner &Avilla



GREAT STEAKS

 

QUERIZA

road from Tupiza to Queriza

On Sunday we drove an hour to Queriza.  President Dyer opened up Queriza in about 1968. It has  Bolivia's first real chapel which he helped build.  He was there for over a year, and the chapel was dedicated by then Apostle Kimble. They owned horses which were necessary to go to Tupiza since the river had to be forged.  When Jack was here the first time, the missionaries still were riding horses.  We knew the area was primitive, but much more than we thought.  Members were waiting on the road for a ride to church,  no one has cars, there is no public transportation.  The members are great,


Queriza Chapel, only LDS Chapel with a bell

Queriza

. 
Lorna and Christy held relief society outside.  The church normally holds one meeting that lasts about an hour.  OUR KIND OF BRANCH                                                                              

Missionaries have recently been brought back here.


Diogones  Martinez taught by President Dyer first member outside of La Paz

Elder Eyer riding on outside of Bi-Polar

 

Member of the Branch
 

 

 

Elder Eyer   on running board ( His  parents were related to the Shaw of Iran and left Iran at the time of the fall)



Elder Vasquez holding on, (I'm sure this is church approved)

 

On the way out we had about 13 people in Bipolar which can seat 5 or 6 comfortably as you can see two missionaries had to hang onto the luggage rack and their toes on the small Nerf bar.  One member only went has far as the river to show us a safe place to cross.  Others had medical appointments in Tupiza, Others were dropped off along the way.  In a small village on the way back, President Dyer contacted Eduardo a man  he taught 45 years ago.  He said he was still a member of the church, but couldn't get to the branch in Queriza. Dan asked him when he quit attending.  He said right after Dan left.

 

 

On the road to Queriza





 EL MIRADOR

 

The next day we left Tupiza and arrived in Potosi for lunch,  eating is what we do best.  We decided to try something new.  We went to the Mirador a totally out of place space needle with a revolving restaurant. Like most revolving restaurants, it was over priced and not very good food.  For overpriced , I mean it was nearly $5.00 a plate.  The restaurant wasn't revolving at the time, which was probably a good thing.  The view would have been fantastic expect for the dirty windows.  As you approached the outside edge the floor would bounce from probably too much weight, but not because of their dining furniture, all pvc plastic..  The indoor outdoor carpet on the floor, looked like they had been overhauling engines at night. Jack had the best choice typical Bolivian Milanesa and rice.

Typical Bolivian Dish



At the Mirador with "Cerro Rico" in the back

 

 

It took over 24 hours. Elder Tanner was the first to get sick. He was sitting towards the front of the plane on our trip back to Cochabamba from Sucre. After landing, there was some discussion between the ground crew, flight attendance and pilot.
 Most of the passengers were escorted to the rear of the plane to disembark. We may be exaggerating just a little. The humor we saw in it was short lived.  Dan became sick, and Lorna spent 3 days extremely sick.

 

 

OLD SUSPENSION BRIDGE BETWEEN POTOSI AND SUCRE

 

 

 

After leaving Potosi we drove back to Sucre. On the way  we stopped at the suspension bridge, Jack Dan,  Elder Tanner and Elder Avila, hiked down and walked across the bridge.  In the tower on the other side they climbed the outside to the top of the towers.  

 



Ladder on outside of tower

GLORIETA  MANSION   SUCRE



The next day we had zone conferences in Sucre,  Christy took us later in the afternoon to see the Glorieta mansion.  Built on the outskirts of Sucre at the end of the 19th century during the Gilded age by a tin baron.  He had traveled in Europe and he had made each tower to represent a different place.  He had more than 100 orphan children living nearby whom he educated  During the 33 years of the orphanage he educated over 6000 children