Mads and I tried our hand at making cheese today. And, as promised, in return for our free labor, Jesus fed us lunch — a delicious plato tipico that his mom whipped up. Turns out, this week, Jesus was hosting a few Bolivians as part of an inter-cambio to share secrets of the cheese-making process. And, being gringuitas, we were invited along on every one of their events, mostly to add a little novelty to the whole exchange. Sort of a “hey, look at my lady friends; know anyone we can marry them off to?”

Aside from the not-so-subtle attempts at setting us up with Bolivian husbands, the making cheese and yogurt part was pretty cool. Today we only made a small batch — eight rounds of mild Swiss-style cheese with oregano. Mads and I were there for the whole process, from pasteurizing the milk, to adding cultures and salt, to pouring off the water, and finally setting them in their circular molds.