Three weeks of no school sounds like a wonderful idea. No lesson planning, no homework, no dress code, sleeping in...so many great things. Unfortunately though, we didn't budget for a winter break vacation or anything special, so the kids and I had a lot of free time on our hands. We had guests from the states staying with us during this time also, and anytime we have guests, we have boys stopping by ALL.THE.TIME. Don't get me wrong, some of these kids are some of the greatest blessings in my life as I get to see Christ in them as new believers. But after awhile, I just needed a day out. A day where I didn't have to hear the ring of the doorbell, or wonder what we'd feed the army of people in our house, or wash a million dishes by hand.
If you do some research, there's a few cool things to do around Cochabamba. You can visit the Cristo (larger than the one in Rio, folks!), but we've done that plenty of times. You can climb Mt. Tunari. We made plans for this, but first had transportation challenges, and then there was a big snow and we didn't have the gear (and guts) to climb it in snow up to our waist. There's Toro Toro National Park, where you can see dinosaur footprints and things like that. But its a 4 hour drive, and we've never done our own road trip in Bolivia and just weren't sure our car was up to it. (Its great for getting around the city, just not a "long road trip" sort of vehicle.) Which left us Laguna Angostura, a lake about 45 minutes out of town.
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| a view from the drive there |
We read up on it (Trip Advisor reviews), and figured why not try it. We packed some snacks and books and headed out of town with one of our teen boys in tow to help out with directions. And about 45 minutes later, we saw the lake. It was really large, bigger than we'd imagined, and very brown. We parked the car, took a quick family pic, and started to walk around and check out what this place had to offer.
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| With my sweetheart |
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| The gang |
There was a row of boats with a tarp-like roof for shade lining the side we were on, as well as water walking balls and things like that. We made a stop at a snack cart and got some stale chips, and kept walking. We found a row of restaurants and one had a particularly cute playground and set-up, so we chose that one. (Good playgrounds are essential for successful restaurants in Bolivia.) The fish was great, and of course there was a side of rice, potatoes and a salad.
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| Fun playground |
We then walked back around to the boats, and got in one for a ride around the lake. We saw a wide variety of lake houses, from small, simple shacks, to large beautiful homes. When the water started spraying us, we got a little cool and when the boat ride was over, I was ready to have my feet back on dry land.
We stopped by one more place before heading home, a restaurant that also had a nice playground, walking trails, and paddle boats. It was a little overcast, so after walking around a bit we decided to save the paddle boats for next time in case it was about to rain.
It was only about 2:30 p.m. by this point, and I couldn't go home this early on our "day off." So, we did the next best thing we could think of...we went to Burger King. We got ice creams and let the kids play for a good 45 minutes before finally going back home.
So, I called this "A Day at the Lake" but it was more like "A Few Hours at the Lake." But it was peaceful, enjoyable, and relaxing...something we needed in the midst of our everyday life.
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