The weekend of Max's birthday we took a trip to Cochabamba. Our ward was doing a temple trip and we decided to extend it because we had a 3 day weekend. Tim stayed outside with the kids while I did a session. He intended to go later, but when he got there at 4:00 they were closing...oops! We'll have to take another trip there soon.
We pulled into Cochabamba at about midnight on Friday. We had made reservations at a 5 star hotel. When I walked into the room I realized Bolivia and the U.S. must have vastly different standards on their hotel rating systems! It was dark, dirty, and looked like they hadn't decorated it in about 30 years; not to mention the beds were quite hard. First thing the next morning we called the hotel we had wanted to stay in at first, but they were full. Luckily they had vacancy! Here is a picture of us in front of the hotel. It was really nice and will probably be where we stay each time we return.
Here is a picture of the town square. It was really pretty and quaint. It started raining quite hard right after this picture so we didn't stay too long.
On top of a tall hill overlooking the city is one of the World's largest statues of Christ, "Christo de la Concordia". I read on Wikipedia that Jesus itself is a little smaller than the one in Rio de Janiero, but with its pedestal it is taller. We didn't get any great pictures of our family in front of it other than one that a photographer there took.
After a fun weekend in Cochabamba, we headed back home. When we reached the halfway mark we drove over a bunch of branches that had been laid on the road and thought that was kind of strange. Just beyond that we realized there was a road block. That is how people here try to be heard by the government. They just get big rocks and such and stand in the road and don't let anyone pass by. We found out they had blocked it that morning and it would go on through the next morning. We turned around with another group and headed back to a small town a few miles back. When we got there teenage boys were "volunteering" (for money) to show us lost souls a detour. This is the back of our helper.
The detour was quite an experience. It was some major off roading and we got to drive past big trucks like this on narrow little trail. We were grateful for our tough FJ Cruiser that got us through without a problem. Just when we thought we were in the clear (after our 1 hour detour) we came upon a group of 15 men with big sticks in hand blocking our trail so we couldn't get on the main road. This is when I started to lose it. They told us they couldn't let us through. Tim gave our sob story about our little kids and not being from Bolivia. When they didn't seem affected I started begging...as the tears started to flow. They smiled and said they would let us through if we gave them enough money for a drink. So we gave them some with more to spare. I'm not so sure the group we were leading were so lucky though. We didn't see them behind us after that. I was so grateful we weren't sleeping in a riverbed with our kids and these unpredictable protesters. It was quite an adventure for our first family trip out of La Paz!
