Tales from Cbba

Cochabamba baby!

I went with a group from Montero up into the mountains of Cochabamba. It took a whopping 9 hours to get there by coach. Finally we arrived at the Hogar San Francisco at 5.15am...

After a short nap, I went with a few of the teachers who had come along on a quick tour of the city. Overnight I found myself elevated to some 2,558m above sea level and, my word, that first morning I could really feel the altitude. It wasn't that I couldn't breathe, but I was certainly conscious of myself breathing. Put it this way, I wasn't volunteering to do any marathons up there. Anyway, after an altitude sickness pill I felt a good deal better. I can't imagine what La Paz is like, at least another 1,000m up in the Andes..!

In the afternoon we had a Mass at the chapel round the corner from the Hogar. It was the ceremony of perpetual vows for Madre Andrea, a particularly sweet nun who had been in Cbba for a month of preparation. The ceremony itself was very special - essentially a marriage between herself and God. With almost every nun from that order come to attend from across the country, plus her family and friends, there wasn't a dry eye left in the house...

Afterwards, we had a reception (as ever a mixture of good food and good banter with the nuns).

The next day we went up to Christo de la Concordia and posed for some photos. "Christo" is a statue of Jesus at the top of a mountain in the middle of the city. You can even climb up inside the statue itself and look out of/wave from various holes strategically positioned up his body. I stuck my arm out of Jesus's armpit! Fantastic.

After that we went to a kids' park. There was a rollercoaster for kids there, although it doesn't really deserve the name "rollercoaster". It was a bit pathetic. Still, the nuns had never been on one before, so they absolutely loved it and screamed all the way. (Don't worry, I do have a video... ;-D)

In the afternoon the nuns had a big and jolly important meeting to finish off their retreat, so I just chilled out at the Hogar. I managed to teach the girls "Go Fish" (or "¡Pesca!" as I decided to call it in Spanish...).

The following day (Monday) we all headed back to Montero. The coach journey took a mighty 10 hours. But at least it was during the day so I had a chance to look at the pretty vistas of mountains and valleys as we made our way back down to the hot tropical lowlands of Santa Cruz...

That reminds me of what I missed most from Cbba when I got back to the Hogar in Montero: the temperature! It was fantastically "fresquito" up in the mountains, lovely and cool. More like British Spring weather than the tropical humidity that I have suffered with for three months. It's just a shame that I couldn't breathe up there!