The ride to Huacareta was a little bit terrible for me...squished four in the back of a 4WD/ute wasn't a problem at first until the roads were so bumpy I kept getting dislodged from my carefully carved out space and as the night grew blacker and I couldn't see anything as we drove on high beam through mountain/canyon terrain I thought it was best that I kept my eyes quite closed (has anyone seen TopGear Bolivia??). Anyway, apart from that everything was great - the weather was warm, the people were absolutely beautiful, and we had enough time in the region to bond with some of the kids while we kept their hands occupied with lots of activities.

Here are the doctors!! After that looooong 8 hour journey from Sucre to Huacareta, we thought we would be sleeping on dirt floor but to our surprise arrived at this lovely place owned by this couple who worked in the area. We were greeted with hot drinks, hot showers, and beds not to mention a fruit forest out the back, two gorgeous dogs, and a hilarious parrot who was extremely amusing to wake up to.

Here are our doctors, working wherever they could set up, and doing whatever they could do....

Godi was very high in demand!

This little kid in Monteagudo made me sad. He was barely 2 and his brother had knifed him in the eye for some reason or other but they had waited too long to get it checked out and now it was beyond much hope...

The clinic in San Miguel...

Plenty of time to enjoy each other's company and the company of the locals over massive meals, cooked over a fire...

Loved that burnt orange wall and the fact that a horse could walk by at any moment!

Hello kiddies! They were carrying cups because we told them we'd be teaching them how to brush their teeth today and giving them some toothbrushes!

Nurse makes a fantastic comeback :)

Paddlepop sticks + PVA + the gift of instax polaroids = priceless!

The little boy on the right is Jamil. I helped him make his paddlepop stick house and he was the only one who properly grinned for his polaroid.....he was kinda my favourite :P

Dental hygiene time!!

Lilli had a particularly good set of teeth actually!! Most of them were half black or simply missing by a really young age...

We travelled with a team of girls called Elijo La Vida ("choose life") who educated and diagnosed women about their health and issues related to abortion, provided counselling services, and gave assistance and support to those choosing to keep their baby. Vero (pictured here) was also particularly gifted in children's ministry and held the attention of these little ones intently!

Hello Jamil!

A time for prayer...

And a time for preaching!

Church at La Montana

"Ven, de todo bien la fuente,

Ven, eterno Salvador
¡Oh! ayúdame a cantarte

Dignos cantos de loor
Tú, Señor, por mí moriste
Quiero yo por ti vivir

Eres tú mi esperanza
Eres tú mi porvenir"

Empanadas!!! I spotted this little cart with its glowing oven out of the corner of my eye and yelled at Joel to backtrack....

Turns out we weren't the only ones enjoying these goodies - yummy pastries encasing hot chicken and vegetables with an incredibly tasty gravy that ran down your arm without fail.

Colourful markets

A typical street, there was always somebody selling something somewhere...

Making life convenient...

I do believe this was an internet or gaming place...

Patriotism

Carb loaded soupy goodness...

Oh, hello llama!

A little town we stopped at en route to Huacareta for some grilled chicken and rice...

Fish! Scary looking fish but we bought a 6kg chunk and ate it all anyway...

The fish lady's little girl that distracted me from the fish...

Lolly bar

This wasn't off the street but I didn't know where else to attach this photo. We returned home from our salt lake expedition and came home to grumbly tummies and a black out. But in no time we had the head lamps on, flipping patties for our hamburger dinner...well Alex and Tina did anyway. Just another day in the life.... :)

xx

Bolivia Mission 2010 Highlights from jc on Vimeo.

Shalom, xx

We had no sense of time or direction as we drove for hours over these lakes, if you got lost here I think it would be so easy to go nutty!

Met a salt chopper along the way, isolated but for his bicycle and tolls and he created salt brick by salt brick, one by one...

Salt lumps!

Love how the salt cracked into these rough shapes...

This is a photo taken about 1/10th of the way up the cactus mountain....after that I had to concentrate!

The 'band' shot when we all finally reunited at the top....I think we look pretty cool :)

And yes, we decided all the cactus looked a little rude....haha!

The salt hotel....someone needs to bring an Aussie flag next time, it was sorely missed!

Sunset on the lake...

My honey with his camera, can't wait to share what he has just made from the footage of our trip...it is awesome and so totally worth the impulse purchase of a Canon camera (thank you also to the lovely boys who lent him lenses!)

That's all folks, hopefully back soon...I'm heading out right now to drop in the film!