Blogs from Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia, South America - page 2

Urubamba to puno We set off just before 8 and road with Jeff and Deane to the Salinas de Maras to check out the inca salt flats. We were pleased we went as they were pretty impressive. I played tour guide and read out information about the history and how they were formed which I'd previously screen shotted. Travelling today it was interesting to note the extreme poverty. It seems a lot of the people spend their days sitting on the side of the road minding their stock. The women carry large loads of wood on their backs, presumably firewood. It certainly is a different world than the one we live in. We then set off for Puno stopping a few times for photos, petrol and snacks. We arrived around 3.30 where we settled for the ... read more

Geo: -18.1789, -63.8752Brazil to San Ignacio Bolivia 7. - 18th OctoberHow did we come to be living on the park bench for the day (hopefully not the night)? It's a long story and a few miles down the road from where I left the last blog so I will pick up from there first.Our excursion from Bonito was worth the effort of getting it set up. We started early in the morning and went to Barraca das Araras, a huge sinkhole where red and green macaws nest in the cliff walls. It is a kilometre walk through the woods to circumnavigate the sinkhole. It was raining so the macaws that did not have the sense to stay in their nests looked very bedraggled. Then we were driven on to Rio La Prata. Here the organisation, if ... read more

There is one word to describe the Bolivian train network - bloody fantastic. Ok that's two words annnnnd that's based purely on our experience which was different judging by various reviews and blogs we read. We have traveled on both lines first from Uyuni to the Argentinian border in May 2014 and then in September 2014 we traveled from Santa Cruz to the Brazilian border. We'd read a number of notices and blogs describing the service as poor, delayed, unrealisable, prone to last minute cancellations and it has the rather unattractive name of The Death Train. We, however, had a very different experience on both lines and really couldn't recommend the services enough. In this blog I will be writing about our trip on the train between Santa Cruz and Corumba, Brazil. We were in Santa ... read more

24. Oktober, Cochabamba - Buena Vista - Santa Cruz Morgens um 5:30 Uhr hat uns Mazedonia, unser Guide in Toro Toro, im Hostel abgeholt. Er, sein Bruder und die beiden Freundinnen mussten an eine Hochzeit nach Santa Cruz, weshalb er angeboten hat, uns nach Santa Cruz mitzunehmen. Auf dem 450 km langen Weg haben wir diverse Stopps gemacht: Morgenessen am Strassenrand, Besuch in einem Eco-Park in der Nähe von Villa Tunari, Mittagessen in einem Fischrestaurant entlang der Strasse nach Santa Cruz, Zvieri in einem Städtchen unterwegs, Besuch und Degustation in der schweizer Käserei in Bueno Vista. Die bolivianischen Mitreisenden fanden die Käserei und den Käse faszinierend, denn sie kennen den gelagerten Käse gar nicht. Wir sind spät Abends nach ca. 11 h reiner Fahrzeit im Hostel Loro Loco ohne Reservation angekommen. Wenigstens hatten sie ein Bett ... read more

We took a 12 hour bus ride on one of the famous Argeninian buses from cafayate to the border of bolivia where we waited for about 2 hours in the que to cross the border once over the border we hailed a cab and went to the bank where we met a Norwegian girl, Camilla and a New Zealand guy, Scott who agreed to share the 2 hour cab drive with us in which ride we climbed approximately 1800m to reach an altitude of 3000 metres. We knew that the altitude hadn't effected us because upon arrival in the little town of tupiza we were famished and grabbed a delicious burger with bacon on it ( first time in South America I found bacon). John and I treated ourselves to a hotel with a pool and ... read more