From Santa Cruz to La Paz

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Our second to last stop on our way back to La Paz was Samaipata... a little town set in the foothills of the Andes - situated beside a few national parks. Apparently its where the people from Santa Cruz go for holidays and its definitely a winner. We arrived and were told we could camp in the backyard of a Belgian guy's house... he seemed fine with the idea and we had a great night sleep. The next day we headed to Bella Vista (about an hour away) for a 2 day hike. The views of the mountains at both the beginning and the end of the hike were spectacular (hence the name Bella Vista) and the walk through the rainforest was very pleasant. Until we discovered the ticks...

James noticed half way through the next day that he had lots of little dots all around his ankles which our guide informed us were little ticks. So he spent the next half hour trying to rid himself of the dots. But we both discovered that little ticks can walk quite well and had gone EVERYWHERE!! So for the next few days we have been discovering them and scratching them off. And we just found out that if you pull them out there head stays in your body... so we probably have the remains of many ticks entrenched in our skin.

On our way back to La Paz we were stopped at a checkpoint by a policeman asking for a document saying that we have permission to 'move' our vehicle. No other department had required this document and it looked pretty shady - especially the twinked out parts. But this policeman was quite sure we needed it and said we would have to pay 10 bolivianos ($1.50NZ) since we didn't have it. We argued with him a bit and then he lowered the price to 5 bolivianos. We paid him 4 and he seemed quite happy. Although its not much money its just strange and frustrating that the police (who are meant to be protecting you) are able to make up whatever infringement they feel like to find ways to extract money from you (especially if they see you are a foreigner).

But on the whole the roadtrip has been great - we both really enjoyed seeing the other side to Bolivia - the diversity was amazing - in the landscape, vegetation, wildlife and in the culture. James was extremely happy that his beast (the landcruiser) behaved very well the entire trip... there were a few minor breakdowns, but nothing the rising-star mechanic couldn't deal with. So now there isn't quite the same panic attack when we break down in the middle of nowhere! And now that James has a how-to-fix-my-landcruiser book he is all prepared and is even declaring that he will fix the brakes!

We are now back into routine life in La Paz. James is back at school for a few teacher-only days before all the students start back and I'm getting back into the work I was doing before we had vacation with the NGO and with Word Made Flesh. So the adventures might go on hold for a little while...

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Photos

The Tucan
This tucan was a resident at our hostel in Santa Cruz. It liked to be part of the action

Comments

[Sarah Pellett]

Ew ew ew ew ew!!!!!!!!!!!
Urgh ticks! I am wriggling with grossed-out-ness all over! I could not (and I will not Ryan!) deal with the things you deal with. Are you actually having fun? Everytime I read your blogs I thank goodness that it's you and not me. Give me a tropical beach any day.... (I think I just destroyed Ryan's spirit).