In front of the door to the Libertad.  It is the museum of the history of the revolution in the early 1800's, with freedom from the Spaniards coming in 1825, the last of the countries under Spanish rule to gain independence.

The Casa Verde is a Bed and Breakfast where we stayed for 3 nights in Sucre.  The breakfast was great, but the rooms left a little to be desired.  We stayed in the "superior" room, which had a little loft and a TV - of course, there was nothing to watch.  We had hot water in the shower, but not in the sink and the stairs were concrete and went up in the bathroom so Elder Dibb bumped his head often when backing away from the sink.  It was "an experience".

In one of the museums we went to there was this harpsicord that was made in the 15th century.  Sister Dibb was fascinated with the keys.  They were made with 2 separate pieces.  It still plays.

This is the side view.  It was very interesting.

There was a beautiful plaza in the middle of Sucre.  We walked around and through this plaza many times during our 5 day stay in Sucre.  We ate at a great restaurant across the street on the balcony 3 different times.  Loved this.

In a textile museum, there was a movie with the men wearing these shoes While dancing.  They have to be careful that they don't rip their legs apart as they make the moves.

It is fascinating to watch her weave.  The ladies still do their weaving this way.  She uses her left hand to lift the warp to help create the pattern in the finished product.  It takes about 3 months to finish a piece this size.

We got to put on a couple of the native hats in the museum.  Neat, huh?  But not much sun shade for Elder Dibb.

Here is Elder Dibb with the guide in his native costume.  Loved learning more about the history of Bolivia and the people.

First day in Sucre

The temple is closed for maintenance for two weeks.  Some of the missionaries went to Machu Picchu and Cuzco.  We had already been there with Andrew, so we decided to go to Sucre with President John and Sister Chris Norman.  We flew from Cochabamba to Sucre.  We were in the air for 25 minutes - my kind of flight.  After we got into our "Bed and Breakfast" (Casa Verde) we walked down to main plaza.  This is the principal and largest of the 26 cathedrals in Sucre.  We went to a Thursday morning mass with the Arch Bishop giving a special address on the day the Pope retired.  It was very interesting to say the least.

We are on the sidewalk looking toward the cathedral again and a government building.  On the right is the very edge of the big plaza.  It was beautiful.

President and Sister Norman and Elder Dibb on the street across from the plaza.  We enjoyed a nice lunch on a balcony overlooking the park and then visited a famous home just to the right of Elder Dibb.

Our first stop was the Recoleta on a hill above the city.  It is an old convent that has been converted into a museum and a Catholic Church remains on the sight.  This is a picture of Sucre from the Recoleta.

Across from the Recoleta is a large plaza with a fountain and people selling their woven purses, bracelets, etc.  This little mother has her daughter and you can see her son just walking out of the picture.  She is weaving a bracelet.

This is the wishing tree.  It is hundreds of years old.  If you go around it 3 times to the left, your wishes have to do with matrimony.  If you go to the right, you can wish for anything else.  Since we are already married, we all went around it to the right and made wishes. 

These are beautiful, carved seats in the church.  They represent the 26 Jesuit priests that were killed in the 1500's in Japan.  The Jesuit priests had a strong presence in Bolivia.  The seats are very beautiful, but would be very uncomfortable to sit on for very long.

This is the chapel at the Recoleta.

A mansion in Cochabamba

On a P-day a few weeks ago, we went to this mansion.  The man who built it was one of the big silver mine owners.  He had a lot of things imported and had a ballroom inside, along with individual bedrooms, offices, bathrooms, game room, etc.  It was quite the place.  We were restricted to taking photos outside.  We found out that the family never lived in the house, but lived in Europe.

This is outside the house and is an outdoor theater with a stage and dressing rooms, etc.  They put chairs in front of the stairs for the audience.  The picture is taken from the patio.

Some of the grounds surrounding the mansion.

Dale in front of the "big house"  It has three floors and a basement that they use for an art gallery.

This just shows the patio around the house and one of the flowering trees.

They had their own grotto that had lots of roots and plants growing in it.  Because they never lived there, it wasn't used for the purpose that it was built.

Some more of the grounds.

A pond with lily pads on the grounds.

We've been working on the morning shift at the temple so we haven't been to the Saturday market since we have been in Cochabamba.  We went last week and this week we decided to take a few pictures.  This lady pointed at me and said "no photos",  just after I had taken the picture.  Well this is how they sell chicken, pork, beef, and fish at the market.  I didn't get any pictures of the other things since this lady told me "NO".

This is the egg stand.  The eggs are really fresh, but you have to bring your own cartons or baskets to carry them home.

This is the cheese stand.  There are all kinds of cheese and you just have them cut off what you want.  It is really good cheese.

This is just a picture of some of the people and stands.  Notice the scale.

There are a lot of young kids with wheel barrows.  People fill up their wheel barrows with food and then these youngsters push them out to the waiting taxis.  They earn some money and people don't have to carry the heavy bags.

Down one of the streets with stands on both sides.

We loved this banana stand.  There were all kinds of bananas.  Interesting!!  It was a great day at the market and we got a lot of good vegetables and fruits for not too much money.  We'll miss the fresh produce when we get back to the U.S.

We saw this lady with her 4 children and asked if we could take a picture.  The baby looks like a doll.  She was sitting on the street, begging.

One of the huge trunks of an old tree.

There are flowering trees all over in Cochabamba - yellow, pink, purple, red, etc.  They are really beautiful.

We take the bus most everywhere.  In La Paz, we never got on a bus or in a mini.  But here, the buses run on schedule and are we have to travel quite a ways to get to the store or any place else - as the temple is on the outskirts of the city.  So we travel by bus - 3 bolivianos for both of us, whereas a taxi is 10 bolivianos.  Some of the buses have very short ceilings and if it is crowded, Dale has to duck to keep from hitting his head.

We were walking one day downtown and saw this 1952 Ford.  Elder Dibb had to have a picture by it.

Cochabamba

Cochabamba is known as the Garden City.  There are flowering trees all over the city.  We have included pictures of some flowering trees.

This is the Universidad Stake Center/Institute, the chapel we attend for Church.  It is about 15 minutes away by bus from the Temple.  The temple missionaries are assigned to attend different wards in the Cochabamba Stakes.  We are assigned to the Barrio Universidad.

Elder Dibb waiting for bus #3.  The Temple grounds are in the background.  The fare for the  bus is 3.40 Bolivianos for two seniors.  We qualify as seniors.  That is fifty cents.

We had to show you a picture of the Coke Christmas tree.  It is made of two liter bottles of Coke.  You can see how big it is compared to the cars in the picture.

Another of the trees.

This is a pink one.  We didn't get any pictures of the purple and red ones, but these three pictures give you an idea of the beautiful trees in Cochabamba.  Sorry for so few pictures, but we are having issues with getting the blog site to download our photos.  And since we are so electronically challenged, we have no idea how to remedy the problem.