Monte Blanco Day 1

After the delay in Jamaica and a night spent in Miami, and the flight through Panama to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, I spent a few hours of sleep at the guest house. Then Tim R., Gene F., and Omar (Bolivian driver), and I drove the 4 hours to the Monte Blanco Children and Youth Camp at Monte Blanco. The camp is in the Andes Mountains at an elevation of above 5000'. It is considerably cooler here than it was in Jamaica. About the highest elevation we traveled through to get here was above 7500'. The camp has about 34 buildings that are of mixed voltages and our mission is to assist in designing infrastructure to connect the entire facility to the national grid at 220-volts 50Hz. Gen, Tim, Vico, and I walked around the facility yesterday to assess the situation and are formulating a plan. Today we will be looking at the remaining buildings and the farm and will begin to put our findings into an AutoCAD format for the purpose of estimating the materials needed for the job. The national power company CRE has already run power into the campus and will be installing new transformers on their pole to power the campus. Vico said they are coming today, but "today" is a relative term. ITEC will possibly be sending a team of electricians and linemen here later thios year or early 2013 to do the work needed.

Tim and Pico while we were on our tour.