Samaipata - La Paz

---

On arriving in Samaipata, a 3 hour taxi ride away from Santa Cruz on a standard Bolivian road, ie dirt track, we headed to a campsite, which, although full of hippies making their bracelets or paintings to sell, was actually a very nice spot. That evening, after eating a good meal out for 1 pound, it's hard to get over the prices here in Bolivia, we constructed a camp fire along with Kass and Alanna, the two Canadian girls we have been travelling with, and proceeded to enjoy toasted marsh mallows, although upon offering one to a Bolivian student we were met with a face of horror as he tried desperately to get the sticky blue goo out of his mouth! The following day we headed off on an unguided walk around the surrounding mountains, only to go terrible wrong and end up walking for three hours along a cow track. Although scenic we were petrified of asking the farmer how to get back to the village after walking over all his land, as it turned out i think that he was mainly glad to have someone to interact with! That night around yet another camp fire we were introduced to the Canadian/American tradition of smores, a toasted marsh mallow with a chunk of chocolate sandwiched between two biscuits then heated over the fire until the chocolate melts, very sweet but a delicious treat!

In the morning we headed off into Amboro National Park with a guided group, getting taken to an entry point, we don't think the official one, on the back of a flat bed truck with another 6 people. We climbed through a fence and began the 6 hour trek, it was rather gruelling but very worthwhile, amongst giant tree ferns for much of the way, stopping for lunch on top of a mountain where we could watch the clouds forced at high speed through valleys, a truely amazing sight. Needless to say that by the end of the walk we were utterly shattered and 'glad' to be back on the truck. On our final day in Samaipata we all headed to some waterfalls nearby, despite the weather being less than ideal, although it did mean that for the most part we had the whole place to ourselves. After I braved a quick dip under the 2nd set of falls we all trekked down the river to the next set, where it started raining, forcing us to shelter under a huge tree. After lunch the weather cleared up, and, joining the lizards lay on a huge rock by a set of falls basking. When it came time to go we made sure we were down by the road in good time to catch the bus, however the bus, being full simply drove past, with no more for the next two hours! So we started hitching and soon got a lift back to the village (30mins away) on the back of a truck carrying boxes of tiles, which rocked from side to side round each corner, us hanging on for dear life along the spectacular road cut into the side of a mountain.

The next day we all left Samaipata, although not wanting to spend all the money on getting back to Santa Cruz by taxi decided to take a camione (hitch a ride with a lorry), and soon climbed into the cab with the driver of a fully loaded cement truck. The problem with this is that it was VERY slow, most lifts in camiones seem to come in the form of empty, or nearly empty open backed lorries with passengers in the back. Anyway, 5 painfully slow hours later we arrived in Santa Cruz and got a bus to the station where we didn't hang around before getting a bus straight to La Paz, which we were annoyed to find out didn't stop for dinner and had no toilet on board, stopping sporadically on the side of the road if you needed to go!

In La Paz we had a nightmare trying to find a hostel, although bumped into our friends Ollie and Dave on our search, and did eventually find somewhere with space. The hostel was in the witches market, where stalls sell all sorts of plants, rocks, dried llama foetus' and we even saw a jaguar pelt, all very grim but quite an interesting aspect of Bolivian culture. That night we all headed out to sample the La Paz night life, which was fun although full of english people everywhere. The morning after we parted ways with the Canadian girls and spent the day wandering around, going to the cinema in the evening, what a treat, and then going for a pizza with a group of friends, which was a massive 71cm (about 28")! We climbed into bed very full although content with a nice relaxing evening and a good taste of home!

---