DAY 11, NOVEMBER 7, 2007

Early this morning we left for the airport in Santa Cruz to catch our flight to Cochabamba, ‘lake plain’ in quechua.  Located in a valley of the same name at 2,500 meters in the central zone of Bolivia, Cochabamba is the third most important city in economic terms in the country. From the airport we drove to the hotel, our centre of operations during our brief stay in Cochabamba.

We began with an institutional presentation from the Centre for Investigation and Regional Development CIDRE, a private, non-profit entity which promotes sustainable development through the investigation of financial services and consultancy. The theme of the day was risk capital.  CIDRE works with two modalities, investment in risk capital and shared investment in risk capital.

Following the presentation we had the opportunity to exchange experiences with members of CIDRE over a delicious and abundant lunch in a restaurant serving typical food from Cachabamba, including fried yucca and fried plantains, staples of the region.

We then made a field visit to Sacha Runa, a local lumber company, which functions according to a risk capital agreement.  We met the Accountant-Administrator of the business, Vladimir Rojas who, together with Raúl Aparicio from CIDRE, answered the group’s questions regarding the risk capital modality and recounted Sacha Runa’s development.

Returning to the hotel we had a short rest and ate pizza.  Yvrose Joseph (Haiti) and Luis Arturo Llacctahuaman (Peru), the secretaries for the ANED case, presented the lessons learned from the case study.

We then went to the airport where, owing to a delay in our flight, we passed the time talking, drinking coffee or a beer and getting up to date with our email.  Our plane left at 12:30, four hours delayed!