Mini vacay

We spent last Thursday to Monday morning in Cochabamba and thoroughly enjoyed this lovely California-esque city.  We stayed at an international guesthouse and spent most of our days relaxing, taking walks and enjoying the weather:  sunny, 70s, breezy.  Overall the city seemed less busy, less dirty and reminded us more of home, in comparison to Santa Cruz.  Jason did spend some time making contacts around a private collection of documents, which was the original purpose of our visit.

Cochabamba is famous for its huge sprawling markets and we spent a few hours one afternoon at the Mercado San Antonio.  It was massive…thousands of stalls selling any imaginable item.  

                                                                                             

We also visited the famous Cristo de la Concordia statue (approx.109.4 ft. high), which towers above the city and gives some amazing views of the valley below.  A copy of the Cristo Redentor in Rio de Janeiro, this huge Christ figure is actually 1.4 feet taller than the Rio version, making it the largest of its kind in the world.

Of course not everything about the weekend was roses and daisies.  Traveling with an almost 10 month old presents challenges, one of which was finding a dark/quiet space for Eli to sleep/nap.  Our room at the guesthouse had a rather large bathroom, which fit the bill on most occasions. 

However over the last week, Eli’s new morning wake up time has shifted to 5:00-5:30am, which makes for some loooong days.  Apparently there are just too many exciting things to be explored and experienced…who needs to sleep??