Back home in Victoria

I am finally home - tired; but happy and healthy. Thanks Susan for meeting me at the airport and for supporting me to go on this trip.
Thank you to the staff at PROINPA who hosted me so well, to Carlos and Daysi who took care of logistics and to the people of Cochabamba and Bolivia who really are so friendly. I will be back.

Overnight in Texas

It takes a while to get home from Bolivia particularly going against the time zones. I flew through Santa Cruz and Miami; but was only able to make it to Dallas, before giving up and getting a hotal However I was rewarded with this morning with a breakfast waffle made specially for me in the shape of Texas. Now I know I am in North and not South America!

Farewell to Bolivia

On my last day I took a bus tour around the city and got lots of pictures. La Paz really is an amazing place. Built so long ago and grown so much in what many would consider to be an inhospitable environment. The hills are so steep and the area so built up that they now have the largest network of aeriel tramways in the world to get people around.

Plaza Murillo

This is the plaza with the presidential palace and surrounded by important buildings. Sundays are a time when people get dressed up for church and then walk in the plaza. Greta place for people watching and I met this lovely bambino.

Back in La Paz

It's good to be back in La Paz, with its mixture of old and new. The hills and the ravines, the modern clothing styles and the traditionally dressed - everything is contrasts. I am still getting used to the thin air at 12,000 feet and two hours of walking around was enough for me- I had to go into a cafe for coca mate.

Finishing my assignment in Cochabamba

This is my hotel - tucked into a busy area; but very quiet with its own garden at he back.  Antonio and Rolando came over this morning and we reviewed the draft plan, which we will sign between the two organization to agree on the working relationship over the next five years. I think we've all done a good job. When we had finished Jorge joined us and we went for lunch at the most traditional of the Cochabamba restaurants: Casa de Campo, before flying off to La Paz

Sexing Quinoa Moths

I had no idea the effort that people like Reinaldo Quispe of PROINPA make to ensure that our Quinoa is organic. His job as an entomologist is to find an organic solution to the quinoa moth,  which will eat most of the local crop if it could. 
The solution is to isolate several virgin female moths and remove their genitalia. These are then sent to Holland, where pheromones are produced to put into traps to attract the males and kill them before they breed. First he has to breed the moths, which takes several months, then sex them before they have a chance to breed. Next he must remove their genitalia - can you image how difficult that is! When he gets the pheromones from Holland they have to be tested for several years to choose the one that is most effective. The testing takes several years. Next time you eat organic quinoa, please thank Reinaldo and the scientists like him for the incredible work they do.

Fresh Orange Juice at the market

Left the office early today and Rodrigo took me to the traditional market where they sell everything. This woman takes fresh oranges and squeezes then in an ancient machine while you wait. It was delicious.

CIDRE Microfinance

I knew about CIDRE before I came to Bolivia. I had invested in them through Oikocredit and Kiva. I met Santiago at an Oikocredit event in Victoria a few weeks ago so when I came to Cochabamba we wer able to have dinner one night and talk about how CESO and PROINPA could work with CIDRE given that are goals are so similar - supporting small Bolivian farmers.

Quipaquipani Center.

Today I visited Quipaquipani 42 km outside La Paz on the Altiplano. A very different environment from Cochabamba. At 3,880 metres above sea level they often get frost at night and burning sun during the day. At the experimental farm and labs, they research the growing of Quinoa and Canohoa along with their pest and soils etc and the integration of forage crops which protect the soils, feed the llamas and create green fertiliser.

Gardens at the Palce Portalis

I am so lucky that my hotel is just across the street from these gardens. Cochabamba is a busy city and it is so nice to be able to go into the gardens and wander around. There are never very many people there as they are only open a few hours a day and you have to sign in every time you go, although there is no charge.

Coca cola is everywhere

Met this little girl today. She was playing with her sister and a coke bottle while her mother was selling fruit on the street. There are a lot of women from the countryside in traditional dress, trying to make a living by selling wares on the streets.
In general, it seems to me that  people are better off than they were when I was here 10 years ago. There is certainly lots of construction going on, new cars and bust restaurants in the area where I am staying; but there are of course people getting left behind.

Potato sacks

In Tiraque we went to the market where the farmers sell potatoes. They pack them in 100 kg  sacks which are open so that the buyers can see what they are getting and then the women sew them closed and the porters carry them onto the waiting trucks. Its amazing to see these guys most of whom are smaller than me, man-handle 220lb sacks onto their backs and carry then up the ramps. I was impressed.

In the Field

Today, I went up into the hills to meet some of the farmers that PROINPA serves. At 12,000 feet, this man was ploughing his fields in preparation for planting his potato crop. His family has probably been doing this for generations. He would not stop to talk, of course; but as he effortlessly turned the oxen at the end of each row, keeping the furrows straight and even, I had the thought: "I could learn a lot from this man".

My working day

There's not much to photograph at the PROINPA centre. The offices and labs are modern one story buildings that could be anywhere.
The one unique characteristic is the woman with a basket of potatoes that sits outside the main entrance to remind people about what they are there for.
My days are spent in meetings and writing up notes for my report which will form the basis of a five-year agreement between CESO and PROINPA. It is a privilege to be associated with two organization made up of such dedicated people.

The King of Tin

Across the road from my hotel is the Palacio Portales a mansion built by Simon I. Patiño- the King of Tin, one of the richest men in the world. It is estimated his total net worth was around USD 81.2 billion in 2008 dollars. That amount placed him in number 26 of all time wealthiest individuals in human history, ahead of Bill Gates, Carlos Slim, Warren Buffett and J.P. Morgan.
The gardens are beautiful and a very secluded place to go and walk. I went today and intend to make it part of my daily routine.

Watching the Blue Jays

Baseball is not the most popular sport her. On Tuesday the Bolivian Soccer team played Ecuador and every TV in every bar was tuned in. On Wednesday for game five. I went to the most expensive hotel in the area and even then I had trouble finding someone who could speak English and figure out the channel. Anyway it worked as wasn't it  a great game? I now have two bars that know how to find Blue Jay games; but I haven't found any other people to watch with me.

Wiphala - the Andean Flag

The Wiphala is a square emblem, commonly used as a flag, representing some native peoples of all the Andes that include today's Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and parts of Argentina, Chile and Colombia.
It was flying in the city over the weekend as the Organization of American States was hosting a climate change conference.

Beethoven in Bolivia

On Monday evening Carlos suggested that we go to the La Orquesta Filarmónica de Cochabambawho were presenting Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. I haven't been to a classical concert for years and loved the young orchestras rendition of my favorite classical piece.

Starting work at PROINPA

 Monday morning at 8am, Rolanda Oros from PROINPA picked me up at my hotel and took me 40 minutes drive to the head Office and laboratories where I got my itinerary for the two week stay which included 4 meetings on the first day. Luckily most of the staff speak English and Carlos was there to translate for those that didn't.

My favorite statue

This is my favorite statue in a City with lots of monuments. I smile every time I see it - it really says something about the country.

Wedding season

The noise of 20 motorcycles riding down El Prado and then realizing that they were all in leathers with scarves covering their faces was at first quite alarming; but then I realized that it was a wedding procession. There seemed to be a lot of weddings yesterday and many of them had their pictures taken at Plaza de Las Banderas, where there is a fountain, flowers and flags. At 8pm I saw three wedding parties there. one of which arrived in the longest Hummer limousine that I have ever seen.

Beautiful Cochbamba

It is spring here, south of the equator. The trees and flowers make a wonderful display in the parks and boulevards. I am staying a Hotel Luxor just off El Prado and was able to take a walk this afternoon to the church at the end and take this picture. El Prado is delightful with lots of trees and flower beds and statues with benches walkways separating the two lanes of Traffic.

My Suitcase

Started my trip at 6am today by delivering my suitcase to WestJet Their job will be fly it from Victoria to Vancouver and then on to Las Vegas where they will carefully hand it to American Airlines. American will be responsible for the next 18 hours to take it to Miami and then on to La Paz. While I will be flying along on the same planes, I wont actually be able to see it until it rolls out on the baggage claim 24 hours from now.

Who are PROINPA?

Just to let you know about the NGO I will be working with, I took this photo and information from the materials they have sent me.

The Foundation for the Promotion and Research of Andean Products (PROINPA) is a non-profit organization working in the generation and dissemination of technology to promote agricultural innovation in order to meet the demands of farmers with limited resources. PROINPA was founded in 1998 and is based in Cochabamba but has regional offices in the highlands (Altiplano), North Valley and South Valley. PROINPA’s mission is to promote conservation, sustainability, food security and innovation within Bolivia.

Oikocredit in Bolivia

Here I am preparing for my trip to Bolivia, when Penny Pattison of the local Oikocredit group emails me to say that there is a presentation at UVIC on Bolivia and Microfinance.
Oikocredit is a great organization that I have been associated with in the past. They are  a Coop that receives investments in the developed world and makes loans to Co-ops and microfinance organizations in places like Bolivia to support people and projects that banks won't finance. I met Santiago, Alvaro and Luis who all live in Cochabamba and I will be able to visit when I get there next week.

Training for the Mission

I was in Toronto with 47 other LVA's this week to be trained on our role as Lead Volunteers. I was so impressed by the energy, enthusiasm of the volunteers and staff as well as the professional way the organization is being run now. I got to meet staff, recruiters, and other volunteers and feel like we have a commonality of purpose and the basis of relationship for the ongoing success of our projects.

CESO apoints Sam Weller as LVA for PROINPA

I have been chosen to be the Lead Volunteer Advsor (LVA) for the next five years for PROINPA, an agricultural NGO in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
CESO selects LVA's to draw up and monitor partnership agreements with each of their long-term clients. As LVA, I will make approximately three visits to the client over the five year period of the contract; one to set up the agreement, one to monitor progress after a couple of years and a final one, close to the end of the contract, to evaluate the results. During the contract I will help select Canadian volunteers to go an assignment, brief them on the situation and get their feedback after they return home. I am excited to have the opportunity to enter into a long-term relationship with this great NGO.

Back home safely (2005)

Arrived back in Vancouver noon Saturday. Long but beautiful flight back through the Andies, and over the Amazon. Glad I had a window seat. Spent the night in Miami, where I was able to sleep so arrived home refreshed and awake. It was wonderful to see Susan again and reasuring to see the sun in the south again.

It was a fantastic trip, I know I made a differerance and have expanded who I am in the world. Thankyou all who have supported me and followed my adventures. Signing off, Sam

The flight home

I was able to see the Amazon river and as the photo shows: the coastline of Cuba from my window seat on the way home

Hasta Pronto Amigos

Well, my assignment is over and I'm sad to to goodbye to new found friends; but am looking forward to seeing Susan, my family and friends. The trip was even better than I imagined it would be. Tomorrrow up at 3:30am spent the night it Miami and back in Vancouver on Saturday noon.

Thanks for reading and staying in touch

Sam

My buddy Alf

Well I'm starting to wrap things up here - finishing my report and making a final presentation tomorrow. The only other VA here is Alf Savage, 75 years old 6 foot 6 inches tall and a force to be reckoned with. He offers to fight any of the youngsters here with one arm tied behind his back. Nothing stops the guy. We go out for a walk most evenings and often stop in at the Cafe Berlin for a dessert.

The BIG meeting

Well I did it. We had the meeting this morning. There were 13 people present from the five different agencies resposible for running and regulating airports and air traffic control in Bolivia. From what I understand, this is the first time they have all been in the same room since the three big airports were privatized in 1997.

I'm not sure what I did, just talked for about five minutes and then opened up the discussion. I only understood about half of what was said; but at the end two hours they had come to an understanding about how information was to be exchanged and agreed to meet again next week without me.

This was something that was not possible three weeks ago, my trip make a difference.

The street vendors

I won't write much today as I am not feeling well and am going to bed early

Bolivia 1 Brazil 1

I was lucky enoughh to be able to go to this world cup qualifying game. The Bolivians are no longer in comtention for one of 4 South American spots in the World Cup; but they put on a great game against the world champions and were unlucky not to win.

Working on my airport report

The other Vounteers went off to see the pre-Inca ruins at Tiawanaku today; but I am getting worried about my final report and my presentation on Tuesday so I stayed at the guest house and worked. The expectations here a fairly high regarding a useful deliverable and as the report has to be presented in English and Spanish, I must get a good portion of it drafted this weekend.
It rained most of the day so staying in was not too onerous. I did manage to get out and for a walk and take a couple of pictures. This one of the river in flood from 24 hours of rain does not start to give you an idea of how polluted it is.

Bolivians like their dessert

There are lots of cafes around here were you can go for coffee and dessert. We go too often in the evenings rather than watch BBC world news or the baseball playoffs in spanish.

Road blocks

The way that Bolivian protest is to block the roads. They do this when they are upset and have toppled three presidents in five years. This week they are upset because the only company that sells propane is reportedly selling it illegally in Peru where they can make more money, causing shortages at home. As most people here rely on it for cooking this is a problem. The government has responding by sending out propane trucks to the neighbourhoods with police escorts and selling propane by the roadside. But people wait for hourss and hours for the truck to come. This blockade is on a busy street just two blocks from here. I saw them set it up. They had been waiting all day and about 3 o'clock there was a gap in the traffic and with almost no warning the women quickly picked up their tanks and set them down in the middle of the road. The police were there but didn't even blink. The traffic just diverted itself onto the side streets, there was no yelling or rudeness. One person actually moved their tank so that I could walk through. Then half an hour later they moved their tanks back to the side of the road to wait for the government truck.

Cochabamba

Up at five today to fly to Cochabamba, where I had meeting with the finace director of the airport company and their auditors whose head offices are in this small central city half way between the two great rivals of La Paz in the mountains and Santa Cruz in the Amazon basin. We didn't fly back until 9pm so were able to spend a few hours sight seeing. The great claim to fame here is "el Christo" 100 foot high monument on a hill overlooking the town.

My interpretor

At last. I have convinced the key person at the ministry that it's a great idea to get all the parties together to discuss exchange of information. Some of them haven't communicated for 8 years. The meeting will be Tuesday at CESO house. I have a lot to do to prepare over the weekend. A lot of credit goes to my interpretor Carolina, who reminds me a lot of Katie - same age, same fun attitude and very smart.

El Alto Airport

La Paz airport is at the top of the hill in El Alto, a sprawling city of 600,000 which did not exist 20 years ago. La paz itself is in a huge ravine sheltered from the cold and the wind. I was given a tour of the airport today

Devils Tooth

This morning Alf and I took a car up to a tiny village in the mountains and walked up towards the Devils tooth. I got almost to the base, when I had to turn back because of time. This famous granite outcrop is visible from everywhere in La Paz and one of the highest points in the vicinity.

Witches market

This is one of the most famous markets in Bolivia where you can buy a dried llama fetus to bury beneath the cornerstone of your house for good luck or a dried frogs as well as many herbs and remedies for a series of occasions. One of the witches (I know she was a witch, because she said she wasn't) posed for me with a stone carving. This one once heavey , so I bought a smaller version to bring home.

My assignment (The Airports of Bolivia)

For those of you who are interested in the actual work I am doing here, read on. For others this reading is optional.
There are four entities in Bolivia who are all involved in operating or regulating airports for the benefit of the Bolivian people.
 The Vice-ministry of Transportation through the Director General of Civil Aviation. (DGAC)
 SABSA a private company that operates the three largest airports
 AASANA an autonomous government entity that does all the Air Traffic Control and also operates 31 smaller airports.
 Superintendencia de Transportes (STR) regulates tariffs and quality of service at all 34 airports
My client is STR. They have been having a problem getting consistent information from the airport companies and want me to advise them on an accounting manual for the airports to follow in supplying the information. In turn the airport companies want to be able to coordinate the financial information that they supply to STR with their financial statements which are prepared in accordance with GAAP (or Bolivian public sector standards in the case of AASANA).
I have met with the key people in all the entities and have prepared a schedule of data needs. If I stick to the strict terms of my assignment, I can do the technical advice on preparation of a manual in the next two weeks. However, I sense that the real problem is the terratorial attitudes and the lack of communication between the entities.
Therefore I am going to jump in with both feet and attempt to coordinate a meeting with representatives of the three groups, with the idea of getting them to agree on a data exchange rather than just supplying a bureaucratic solution.
Its a risk; but if I can keep them focused on the common goal, I can make it work.

Goodbye Harold

My buddy Harold leaves at 4am tomorrow morning to go back to Ottawa. He has been here for three week developing an e-commerce website. I have really appreciated the time we spent together. The photo is from the time we spent on Isla del Sol.

The city in a bowl

Looking down on La Paz from El Alto

The fountain of eternal youth

On Isla del Sol, a sacred place since pre-inca times, we were invited to drink at the fountain of eternal youth. I drank some and poured some over my head so you can judge whether it worked when I get home.

Back at work

Wow, today I had to get down to work after the weekend. Dig meeting with the Guy from the private company that runs the three big airports in Bolivia. He is really supporting what I am doing and invited me to Cocha bamba next week to tour the airpost and meet with the staff at the haed office. Don't have time to take more pictures so am including some of the previous ones I have taken.

What a weekend

A jam packed weekend. We left La Paz at 6am saturday and drove to lake Titicaca where we board a hydrofoil to Cococabana. See photo. Then to the Island of the Sun where we stayed in an incredibly peaceful "Ecolodge". On Sunday we went to the Fountain of eternal youth and drank from the waters. and then on To the Island of the Moon wher we walked through 2400 year old ruins.

Lake Titicaca

Must be one ofthe most beautiful places on earth

Downtown La Paz

I had a big meeting today with the Deputy Minister of Transport, so I had to wear a suit. Took the opportunity to visit the San Francisco church, founded in 1548.