Concepción y Santa Rita

So after what seemed like approximately no time back in Cochabamba after our La Paz excursion we left for our Santa Cruz trip. They called it our Santa Cruz trip but in reality we spent most of our time outside of the city in a small town called Concepción and one night in a village stay in Santa Rita.

As soon as I stepped off the plane, I could tell that we had entered Las tierras bajas. The lowlands. It was as humid as Connecticut in August and could not have been more different than the cold rain we had left behind in Cochabamba. We got right on the bus and headed to a reforestation project outside of the city. Most of what I remember from that visit was the amazing food: yucca and cheese on a stick, fried and boiled humitas (ground corn cooked in husks), juice and FRUIT. So good. After that I was in a food coma. We planted some trees, took a tour, and got back on the bus.

Maddy mid-bite at our hotel in
Concepción

Something like 6 or 7 hours later we finally arrived in Concepción. Everybody was overheated and exhausted but before we had even dropped our stuff off in our rooms, we were informed we had class. Rude. Oh, also, our stuff had been tied to the roof of the bus and obviously it had been raining for a good part of the trip so our bags were mostly soaked.

Laura, Erin, Maddy, Olivia and I were in a room together and it immediately began to smell like must after all of us and hung up our wet clothes in every part of the room. Wow, I am making this sound really unpleasant when it wasn't. Our room was awesome, Maddy and I shared a huge bed (because I wouldn't sleep in the uncomfortable twin bed by myself) and the other three were in the loft. Our hotel also had a patio area with hammocks and a pool. Also, the food was AMAZING. Life was good. Minus having to go to class.

The next day we were supposed to go to our village stay. We all packed up all our stuff only to be told that because of all the rain there had been a change of plans and we were going to be going to the village stay the next day instead. It is Bolivia, where plans are meant to be changed and people are supposed to be flexible. That day nobody had any idea what was going on until we arrived wherever we were going. We got to listen to some baroque music, visit a sawmill, go swimming in some sort of laguna, visit one of the most amazing churches in the world, and go to a museum. Also, we once again had an awesome dinner.

The best meal ever

The next day after eating approximately an entire papaya at breakfast I packed up my stuff and we finally actually went to our village stay. When we arrived we watched some of the kids from the village dance and then danced with them, played some games, listened to some drumming. After getting a brief introduction to the village we had the best meal I've had since being in Bolivia. There were fried platano and cheese balls (sounds weird but they were awesome), this really good cabbage stuff, some type of amazing fried rice, yucca, vegetables. Basically, it was great. After eating myself into yet another food coma Olivia, Maddy, Laura and I were introduced to our host mom and left to go get settled.

Our room

Our house

Our host family was AWESOME. All six of the host mothers that my group was with were part of the weaving cooperative in the village. They make amazing scarves and sell them at the baroque music festival that happens once a year in Concepción. We also had several host siblings including one who rivals my sister Kate in the incredibly tight french braid department. It was really interesting to spend time in a chiquitano village after having spent time in Tocoli, an Aymara village. There are so many different indigenous groups in the lowlands in Bolivia and their culture is completely different from the indigenous quechua and aymara people of the highlands. For me, the biggest difference was how open the people of Santa Rita were. They were friendly and excited and it didn't take any time to break down walls.

Us and the family, minus the older kids who were at school

My host mom and her
weavings

We spent the afternoon swimming in a pond (?) and eating pan de arroz and super sweet coffee. We also watched a weird soap opera with our host family. Our room had a double bed, twin bed, a hammock and no walls. I got the hammock so that was cool. My mosquito net was not very secure and I didn't feel like I could move much in my sleep for fear of getting dengue or falling out, but it was a cool experience.

The family hanging out on my bed

Our attempt to take a picture of our host sisters.
Everybody ended up wanting to be in it.

The next morning we had homemade empanadas that were fried in approximately 8 cups of oil but could not have been more delicious. After breakfast we left the village and started our long bus drive to Santa Cruz. We found out a little ways in that there was a road block on our route and the alternate route was too muddy from the rain. We weren't sure what we were going to have to do and ended up walking over the blockade and finding other buses to take on the other side. It was a pretty unique experience to walk over a road block and our director told us it was the first time in her 15 years of working for SIT that she had had to do that with a group. So basically we are famous.

Overall my time in Concepción and Santa Rita was awesome. It was a lesson in flexibility and going with the flow. Also in dealing with an absurd amount of mosquito bites and class in the amazonian humidity. The one thing I did not learn to do was to not eat until the point of feeling ill. So worth it.