{"id":3331,"date":"2016-05-31T20:30:55","date_gmt":"2016-05-31T20:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/?p=3331"},"modified":"2016-05-31T20:30:55","modified_gmt":"2016-05-31T20:30:55","slug":"unexpected-discoveries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/2016\/05\/31\/unexpected-discoveries\/","title":{"rendered":"Unexpected Discoveries"},"content":{"rendered":"

We had planned on seeing quite a bit while we were in Bolivia, but on the day that we went to Incallajta, our guide treated us to a couple of unexpected treats. As we drove from Cochabamba into the surrounding mountains, we stopped at a tiny village. This was the first time that our guide had taken this route and he was excited to find a little Spanish church that he’d never seen before.\u00a0 Then, after we visited the ruins, our guide took us to what he called a “ghost village” where almost all of the inhabitants had moved away.\u00a0 Neither of these stops were on our agenda for the day, but they made for some of the most interesting memories of the trip.<\/p>\n

\"Old<\/a>
Old Spanish Church<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Old<\/a>
Old Farmhouse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Main<\/a>
Main Square of Chimboata<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Church<\/a>
Church Tower<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As we drove through the countryside filled with farms where the people worked the land as they have for hundreds of years, we stopped to talk to a couple of villagers.\u00a0 Well, we didn’t talk to them because they only spoke Quechua, but our guide and driver spoke to them.\u00a0 The person who had the keys to the church wasn’t there, but we peeked in through a tiny window to see the altar.\u00a0 This tiny little church probably hasn’t had foreign visitors in all of its history, but we were excited to see the unexpected treasure.<\/p>\n

\"Our<\/a>
Our Driver with a Farmer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Picture<\/a>
Picture inside the Church<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Remy<\/a>
Remy Looking in the Window<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Side<\/a>
Side of the Church<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Visiting the town of Chimboata left us emotionally drained.\u00a0 Our guide, Remy, took us to the Spanish colonial village for us to see a traditional Bolivian village.\u00a0 He told us about an old man that he used to visit whenever he would take people to the town, but he had recently passed away.\u00a0 As we walked through the empty streets we came upon a woman laying in the doorway of an abandoned building.\u00a0 He spoke to her in Quechua and she sat up and showed us the yarn that she was spinning.\u00a0 Remy told us that she had seen our camera and had said that it was okay for us to take her photo.\u00a0 She was literally just waiting for her time to come and it was extremely heart-wrenching to see.\u00a0 As we waited by our van, Remy and our driver looked around to see if there was anyone around to take care of the woman.\u00a0 Eventually they found a man who told them that she was being taken care of, but sitting in an abandoned building did not seem like being taken care of to us.<\/p>\n

\"Spinning<\/a>
Spinning Her Yarn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The Only Other Person that We Saw<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Church<\/a>
Church in Chimboata<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Another<\/a>
Another Empty Street<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As we drove out of town, we came upon a group of children on their way home from school.\u00a0 One of them was a five year old girl named Bellina who had a three mile walk ahead of her to her house.\u00a0 So, we offered her a ride and took her the rest of the way.\u00a0 She smiled bashfully and spoke quietly as we drove her to her home.\u00a0 Her youthful smile was such a contradiction to seeing the old woman in the village.\u00a0 These people live without electricity and their only concerns are growing food and taking care of family.\u00a0 The thought of politics, world conflict, or anything that doesn’t have to do with their day-to-day living doesn’t ever cross their minds.\u00a0 Our visit to their village or farms was probably quickly forgotten by them, but will be remembered by us forever.<\/p>\n

\"Bellina\"<\/a>
Bellina<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Children<\/a>
Children Walking Home<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Crumbling<\/a>
Crumbling Building<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rainbow<\/a>
Rainbow on Our Way Back to Cochabamba<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is often the case that the unexpected parts of a trip are sometimes the most interesting.\u00a0 We are extremely thankful for our guide, whose enthusiasm for sharing Bolivia with us took us to see things we might not have otherwise seen.\u00a0 Despite all of the historical and beautiful sites that we saw, it is the people that are most fascinating.\u00a0 The thought of that poor woman laying on the floor will remain entrenched in our memories as will the smile on the little girl who we gave a ride.<\/p>\n

\"Working<\/a>
Working on the Side of the Road<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Woman<\/a>
Woman Walking to the Farmhouse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Empty<\/a>
Empty Streets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Working<\/a>
Working the Field<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had planned on seeing quite a bit while we were in Bolivia, but on the day that we went to Incallajta, our guide treated us to a couple of unexpected treats. As we drove from Cochabamba into the surrounding mountains, we stopped at a tiny village. This was the first time that our guide … <\/p>\n

Continue reading Unexpected Discoveries<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89944846,"featured_media":3385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4331],"tags":[8792,30367,14837,1098,500517262,436,594157750,36700,200],"class_list":["post-3331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-south-america","tag-adventure","tag-archeology","tag-bolivia","tag-culture","tag-el-mundo-verde-travel","tag-photography","tag-south-america","tag-traditions","tag-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/imgp8392.jpg?fit=3008%2C2000&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6pbM5-RJ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3331"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89944846"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3331"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3392,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3331\/revisions\/3392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}