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

Part 1 - The Bus Journey Our bus from Ascuncion to Santa Cruz cost 400Bs for a 22 hour trek through the Chaco (huge wasteland once fought over by Bolivia and Paraguay) It was a bumpy ride!!! This country is in need of some tarmac, large sections of the road were completely un-surfaced and just consisted of dirt tracks, not ideal for a huge coach. At one point the driver had to stop to make some running repairs, he fixed something under the front with a bit of rope. Bus didn´t feel too shabby when we got on, but it was dark. On closer inspection in the morning it was in serious need of a good clean (It was filthy - KP)!! Several stops throughout the night for various army checks. It was a LONG journey ... read more

After a horrendous nights sleep, I got up at around 7.30am. It felt like I had turned over to see what the time was almost every other hour last night, and it wasn't because my dorm was next to the main road. I dragged my body out of bed to the other end of the hostel to wake myself up with a shower. After I had fiddled about with the shower, trying to get the temperature between scalding and freezing, I was awake and ready for breakfast. I set about frying the blood sausage and scrambling the eggs that I had bought at the market last night, just as Justine came into the kitchen. We exchanged good mornings, and she asked if i would like breakfast. It was almost an awkward question, as though I had ... read more

Jaeja jaeja Tíminn flýgur, vid erum búin ad vera meira en thrjár vikur í Santa Cruz en finnst samt eins og vid sérum bara nýkomin. Hronn fór adeins of geyst í ad láta Svenna prófa local mat, thad vildi ekki betur til en svo ad hann naeldi sér í heiftarlega matareitrun eftir eina markadsferdina og tók nokkra daga í ad jafna sig. Vid vorum sem betur fer heima hjá Ceci og vorum thví med eldhús og sjónvarp til ad stytta okkur stundir í veikindum og vegna thess ad fyrstu vikuna rigndi naer stanslaust. Eftir viku hjá Ceci fórum vid í tíu daga ferd út fyrir borgina og thar sem dvolin hjá Ceci og Marce var ekki alveg eins áaetlad hafi verid, krofdust thau thess ad vid myndum koma aftur til theirra og vera viku í vidbót. ... read more

Tha erum vid komin til Boliviu. Vid vorum i tiu daga a Algodoal, thad var guddómlegt. Engir bilar, goturnar eru sandur, menn fara um a hestvognum og thad er ferskur fiskur i naestum thvi hvert einasta mal. Thad búa fáir a eyjunni og allir thekkja alla, naer oll gistiheimili og veitingastadir eru fjolskldurekin og andrúmsloftid er mjog afslappad. Vid gistum hja ungri konu sem býr ein med syni sinum og pínulitlum gomlum manni sem ég geri rád fyrir ad sé pabbi hennar. Gamli var mikid krútt og nokkrum dogum adur en vid fórum fékk hann útvarp sem hann stillti a haesta styrk allan daginn, vid erum thakklát fyrir thad ad hann átti ekki útvarpid allan timann sem vid vorum tharna. Bornin hlaupa frjáls um og leika ser, oft a tídum nakin, amk litli strákurinn thar sem ... read more

Back in La Paz The journey back from Rurre to La Paz was much shorter than the outgoing trip. Instead of 24 hours, it only 19 hours, which included 2 hours at a service stop after our driver noticed out bus was missing a wheel. Our one day back in La Paz was haggard, slow and long. The four of us, Ciaran, Maria, Mattis and I wandered the city for a while, before I led Maria and Mattis to the various viewpoints in the city. I got bored of Ciaran's constant attempts at chatting up Maria and so walked on alone. After travelling together for quite some time, some holes had definitely formed in our travel relationship and I was looking forward to leaving for Santa Cruz alone the next day. As seems to be an ... read more

Reason 1: Barb wire puts holes in clothes Reason 2: Barb wire rusts Reason 3: Barb wire could be very dangerous during an electrical storm And the Final Reason: It can cause head wounds to tall American women... Oh yes, we had an on the job injury today and I will start by saying that Marci is doing just fine. After a very touching women's ministry the ladies headed back to the Barrio Bolivar Nutrition Center for lunch with the men. They were doing various construction jobs at the actual center today. I must admit that the Nutrition Center is such an amazing place and something that was greatly needed by the Ayore at Barrio Bolivar. The story is extremely sad but I will share...every year children under the age of 5 were dying of malnutrition. ... read more

Well its been an 'ìnteresting' 24 hours....! We left Corumba for the Brazillian border hoping to get our stamps then go to the Bolivian airport Peurto Suarez and catch our 3pm flight to Santa Cruz. However the first spanner in our works was the immigration office which didnt open until 2pm - meaning we would miss our flight. After much deliberation we found out we could get our stamps in Santa Cruz so went to the airport to get the flight. However we pulled up to a shabby looking deserted warehouse type building, which made us feel a bit uneasy and our fears were confirmed when we went in to the empty shack and found out our flight didnt exist.... We were slightly unsure how to proceed, but we thought we might as well go and ... read more