Blogs from Samaipata, Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia, South America

Tina Writes The taxi ride was ok but my arse was killing me by the time we got there as my seat was in the middle of the two back seats. When we got to the town of Samaipata, the driver didn’t know where our hostel was, so he and the other passengers all talked between themselves and asked passersby. We finally found it and quickly discovered it was the best hostel we had stayed in so far. We had also booked the best room they have, a little more expensive than most but at $140Bs (£13) a night it was really nice. La Posada del Sol is set in lovely landscaped gardens, the owners, an American from Texas and a Bolivian. So English was spoken fluently, making things so much easier and we feel less ... read more

After crossing the border from Brazil into Bolivia, we took an old train to Santa Cruz, the most modern city in Bolivia. We met some cool people from Vancouver, Wash. DC, and London and left town after a few hours to the mountain village of Samaipata. The scenery was stunning on the way up there. Thick lush green jungle clinging to steep cliffs carved out by waterfalls and rivers red from the crimson earth of Eastern Bolivia. The ride was a bit scary, passing trucks at high speeds on muddy roads with 100 ft cliffs everywhere. We stayed at the first hotel we could find as it was pouring and it only cost US 2 dollars. The rain kept us indoors so we went to a small family restaurant and ordered beers and played cards for ... read more

Depuis Sucre, nous avons pris un autobus direction Santa Cruz, mais qui en chemin, arrêtait au environ de 4h30 du matin, à côté d'un petit village nommé Samaipata. C'est là que, pour une petite poignée de touristes, moi incluse, la course se terminait. Dans les environs de Santa Cruz, mais plus près encore du village de Samaipata, se trouve le parc National Amboro dont nous désirions fouler le sol. Ayant entendu que du mauvais concernant la grosse ville de Santa Cruz, et ayant, heureusement, rencontré des voyageurs qui eux étaient passés par Samaipata et n'en avait gardé qu'un bon souvenir, nous avons opté pour cette dernière option. Ce fût là une bonne décision. Samaipata est petit et agréable. Nous avons séjournée à l'hostel Vargas, modeste et peu cher, où, Thérèse, la propriétaire, est plus que sympathique. ... read more

Rano bylo hodne neobvykle - zadny kohout, ani papousek, ale dnes to byl pan domaci zatloukajici v 7 rano nejake hrebiky ve vedlejsim pokoji...Celou noc proprselo, spis prolilo tak jak jen v dzungli se to povede a ani to nevypadalo, ze brzy prestane. Dneska jsme se vypravili na El Fuerte, predspanelskou pamatku, jakesi ceremonialni misto - v desti. Prodejna listku byla zavrena, stejne jako hlavni brana, kterou jsme ale prelezli. Po ceste jsme narazili na rozvodnenou ricku, nastesti jsme nasli dve desky, ktere jsme polozili napric a nakonec se na 2.stranu dostali - jo, Cesi a Slovaci si poradi se vsim... Na samotnem El Fuerte nikdo nebyl, jen jsme to tam prosli, ale nezustali dlouho, protoze uprimne receno tam toho prilis k videni nebylo. V 5 jsme byli zpatky, koupili si vyborne bolivijske cervene, udelali testoviny ... read more

After the first day in Santa Cruz, whether it was the food on the train or the 38degree heat, Laura wasn’t feeling good so Stuart went out to get some dinner. Feeling confident about his tolerance to the heat and his strong stomach he ate some mystery meat (could’ve been guinea pig as that’s a Bolivian delicacy!) from a street stall with some of the locals. Stuart soon discovered he wasn’t invincible. Blaming the heat we decided to head up the mountain to Samaipata where it is cooler. This didn’t seem to help Stuart and after a trip to the local hospital he was told he’d got salmonella. We spent a week in Samaipata most of which was spent recovering but at the end of the week we went for a trip to see the Inca ... read more