Bolivia 2024

In March, I went back to Bolivia! Can you even believe it? I barely can. After visiting Jille in La Paz in 2012, I never thought I would be back in that country again. (After all, Bolivia was never top of my list of places I wanted to travel). But I consider myself lucky that I had the opportunity to go again, this time with MCC on a learning tour.

I was also "allowed" to go because I was going to be capturing content for social media. This fact brought about a lot of anxiety before the trip. (Like my usual travel anxiety is bad enough but that plus some expectations I wasn't sure I could meet meant the anxiety became a bit crushing. I even stopped drinking caffeine a week before the trip because I could not deal). (Turns out, things went fine. And since I am the social media person for my organization, I am the one using my content and thus am fine with what I got. lol). 

The trip was a little over a week, but it was a jammed packed week. We started in Santa Cruz, then flew to Cochabamba and then ended in La Paz and El Alto. (It also took us over 24 hours to get into the country; (the worst part being waiting in a very slow visa line early in the morning in Santa Cruz). This meant that we were trying to play catch up on sleep the entire trip. But I endured and it ended up being okay. This was due mostly to the fact that WE HAD OUR OWN ROOMS! I've been on three learning tours total now and this was the only one where we didn't have to share rooms. It. was. glorious. My introvert heart was able to to recharge at the end of every day. (And I didn't have to deal with small talk before bed or bathroom situations especially as all of our stomachs were feeling it by mid-trip).

Simple accommodations but not sharing made it completely luxurious  

Santa Cruz highlights

In Santa Cruz, we visited the MCC office, checked out a Low German colony (and I secretly pondered the question what the difference is between a colony and a cult...), attended a church service at a Mennonite church and popped in on an MCC partner organization, a day care center.

Highlights for me in Santa Cruz are mostly food (of course). While visiting the colony wasn't necessarily my favorite thing of the trip, I did enjoy the faspa (or coffee break) we had together. The woman had made all these delicious treats for us to enjoy.

At our first lunch at our hotel in Santa Cruz, we had a traditional peanut soup, which was probably one of my top foods of the whole trip. We also had wonderful juices, which, I think, were part of a digestive issue later for me. But dang were they so tasty!

Another highlight was meeting the MCC compound pets. They have two turtles, a dog and a cat who live there. So cute!

Another highlight was walking down to the main Plaza in Santa Cruz on afternoon. There were lots of things to look at and we even climbed up a few flights of stairs at the Cathedral to get a semi-okay view.

Before we left to fly to Cochabamba, we ended up at the MCC office again and had a little snack of cuñape, which was a cheese-filled bun.

Cochabamba highlights

It was a relief to arrive in Cochabamba after being in hot and sticky Santa Cruz for several days. While still warm, Cochabamba is in the mountains and thus cooler. Other highlights included, the view from my hotel room.

But I also enjoyed walking around Cochabamba. There was a lot of street art to look at. 
Between MCC partner visits, we also had the chance to go to a café (my favorite) where I got a blended passion fruit drink. So good.

There was a very tiny antique store close to our hotel that a few of us popped into one evening. I didn't buy anything but it was fascinating to see what was in there.

 In Cochabamba, we visited three MCC partners - an after school program, a center for victims of sexual violence and some gardens outside the city. Out of all three, I enjoyed visiting the gardens the most. Since this is an MCC learning tour, there was a surprise hike up a mountainside. (This has been the case in all three learning tours I've gone on now). But it was worth it to see the gardens and the views.

One of the tourist activities we did in in Cochabamba was visiting the very large Cristo statue. We drove up to see it, thankfully. And because I am in the person that I am, I found an ice cream vendor at the top and enjoyed two tasty treats. The views of the city were also incredible.

The other tourist experience we had in Cochabamba was going to the open-air market (which was actually way more enclosed than the name makes it sound). We were warned against pick pocketers from one of our group leaders. So I didn't take my phone. (The ones below are from one of the group leaders). All of us ended up being fine and it was a fun morning. I bought some sandals!

One of our group leaders, Nathan, telling us about Andean religious traditions

Here's my haul from the market. Those are definitely men's shoes because my feet are massive compared to Bolivian women's feet.

La Paz/El Alto highlights

Flying way up into La Paz is definitely a highlight. The mountains are gorgeous. I was great to be back in this very high altitude city. Plus the weather was in the 60s when we got there. It was a sweet relief.

One highlight in La Paz was taking the Teleférico, aka the La Paz/El Alto public transportation in the form of cable cars.

We visited one MCC partner in El Alto that works with climate change. (We toured some more gardens and met some students who are advocating for the environment). 

While we were there, we ate my favorite dish of the whole trip - queso umacha, which is an  Indigenous Aymara dish. It had a big chunk of corn in it, potatoes, herbs, fava beans and, the best part, a soft, home made cheese. YUM.

There were other food highlights though. Of course! I enjoyed our hotel breakfasts the most in La Paz  (there was breakfast cake!). We went out of a gourmet meal (I had fancy chicken and a herb lemonade). And then a surprisingly tasty lemon and mint iced tea at a café. Nathan, one of our leaders, also made sure we had the opportunity to get a salteña, which is like a soupy empanada.

In La Paz, we had one whole day just for fun things. We started off the morning by going on a bus tour (that I don't think anyone really had brain capacity for at this point in trip. But it was cute!) We saw a few sights around the city and then got dropped off at the artesian market. 

I spend time walking around with my colleague Sarah, before we met up with Jessica and Sue (one of our group leaders and another member of our tour group). We had a great time shopping for souvenirs. And Sarah and I actually took two breaks at two different cafes. It was excellent. The night before, we had walked through the market after dinner when everything was closed, but we looked at the lights and got pretty clear shots of all the murals around. Both of these times at the market were maybe my favorite parts of the trip.

We had the roughest time getting home, but one highlight from that time (and the 8 hour layover in Bogota) was renting a nap room for two hours! I didn't really sleep but I did lay down and charged my phone and that was worth the $20 right there. Highly recommend.

Despite the immense anxiety I had before the trip, it ended up being a wonderful experience. It was amazing being back in South America. I even enjoyed the people we were with (despite me needing a break from them every once in awhile). Our leaders did an excellent job and the whole tour went smoothly. I am so grateful that my job gave me this opportunity to go and learn and see Bolivia again.