To Pocobaya
We returned to Sorata to find the fiesta in full swing and had to walk the last couple of hundred yards back to the hotel carrying all our baggage! The music continued into the night and disturbed our sleep until the early hours of Sunday.
Sunday was the day we got ready for our second installation at the village Pocobaya. In between times we mingled with the fiesta crowds and enjoyed the marching displays of brilliantly costumed dancers and instrumentalists.
The next day the first group set off very early in a jeep for Chehe, the nearest road approach to Pocobaya: when we arrived we were deposited with large quantities of equipment, baggage and food in the village square where we were objects of curiosity to people in general, but particularly to the children as they assembled for the start of school.
Gradually a mule train was assembled and we sent off the first group just before the second group arrived. Eventually we were all underway for Pocobaya, descending steeply to the river and then ascending as steeply to the village, a climb of some 2,000 feet. We went at mule pace: if the animals stopped, which they did every ten paces or so on the steeper grades, we stopped too, and continued when they continued.
Pocobaya is built around a level quadrangle perched on a ridge with magnificent views and steep slopes in all directions. We started by a using a social centre room as our base and pre-assembled the lighting units so as to make the installation process more efficient. This was an activity of great interest to the children and the villagers alike.
Pocobaya village from the higher level
The village was divided into three parts, the higher, middle and lower levels and we divided our teams amongst the three. Installation proceeded rapidly though our supplies of wire dwindled faster than we had hoped. (More was on its way and arrived the next day.)
Again we used the school room or camped according to what individuals preferred. We ate in the school room, food that the village had partly contributed and prepared for us. Coca tea was always available, as it had been throughout the trip.
The second day continued the installation and by the end of it only a few houses were left: lights had been installed in the school and in the social centre room where our food was prepared.
In the evening we had a deputation from a neighbouring village to ask whether we would install lights there. We had to explain that we had only enough lights for Pocobaya. They asked how to apply for lights and again we had to say that we did not know when we would return and that we had to find people in Bolivia to build the lights to save the time consuming and expensive shipment and customs process. It was hard to explain to these dignified men that Pocobaya had been lucky and that they had not.
The next day was mainly spent putting the solar panels on the school roof and making the arrangements for charging the batteries. Again in the afternoon we had a formal feast, this time accompanied by brass band, and speeches, and eventually dancing.
We walked back down the hill, across the river and up the other side to find our transport waiting for us and we drove back to Sorata along the narrow twisting roads as the sun set. We knew that despite all odds that we had completed what we set out to do and that apart from a few administrative matters we could now relax.