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Published: October 18th 2007
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Bolivia trip is about to end.
From Potosí I went to
Sucre. This was so nice, just only because of the paved roads and at last: a nice temperature. Sucre is not as high as all the cities where I was before. A day later the 2 Dutchies I've met in Potosí came to join me: Erik and Ton. We went for a fondue together, which was so nice and cosy. The only thing I did in Sucre was wandering around, have nice meals, enjoying being there. I had a few talks with a homeless man and some shoeshine boys to whom I gave apples. I tried to be nice and bought them a drink, within a few seconds got heaps of shoeshine boys came as a swarm bees around me,
all wanting a drink. I was happy I could tell them in Spanish that they should share.
I also did a bike ride, which was hard: at 2790m altitude and the first 4 km was uphill, uphill & uphill..between 6-12%! (MISSING)At least that's what they told me. I don't have a clue how much that should be. I
do know it was hard. Especially when a nice big fat
diesel bus is passing you at the moment you need to take big breaths! Downhill was through the 'basurero municipal' (the dump), we were lucky that it was cloudy and cold, but still the sight and especially the smell, were -let´s say- impressive! The down hills were pretty hard as well due to huge rocks and stuff sticking out on the unsealed road. But cool though. It was very cold and happy with my hot chocolate at the return.
St. Cruz is a rich city, with again paved roads. Not really worth going though but good as a stop-over. Erik arrived a day after me, we decided to go to Samaipata, which is on the south side of Parc Ambóro. Before going here we tried to get our visas extended from 30 to 90 days, as it was a Saturday we gave the international airport a try. But no, not even close of helping us. They just repeated that we as Dutchies by law have a right on 90 days, so it should be okay. Where it is written? In the law. Can we have this written or copied? Nope. Very useless.
Samaipata is a
nice and cosy village 2,5 hours west of St. Cruz. A few English people recommended a place called Andoriño ran by a couple, he´s Dutch. Nice set up and great breakfast! We went there to El Fuerte ruins, which was kind of disappointing. And from there we went to Las Cuevas, this was way better. Nice waterfalls, not a lot of tourists, a beautiful day. We did a hike through the actual river behind the 3rd waterfall, we saw some cows and birds. It felt really peaceful. Only I did something dumb: I left my sandals, and of course they were gone when we came back. The people who were there when we started the hike, we saw at the entrance again. The guy whom I approached and asked if they might have seen something, was very drunk (and going to drive his family). He started to shout that I was been robbed, that's so ugly, I am the head of the police. Yadi-yadi-yada.. We flagged down a truck and got a ride in the back together with an Italian guy.
The next day we went on a hike tour in the part of the park famous for its
'helechos gigantes' (big fern trees). That is amazing on itself because they can become 7 meters and they only grow 1-1,5 centimetres
a year. So the ferns we saw are hundreds years old and huge! And besides this it was also nice to do a 5 hour hike, after not being so active for a while! After coming back we went to the 'Jardin Zoologico', as we got told it was really worth going there. It is a refuge for hurt animals. As far you ever know the truth about it, it still it was awesome! Monkeys walking around freely and climbing up my neck and started grooming me. Entering a birds cage just sit down and wait till a squirrel is running around at my neck and a toucan who attacks my shoes. A wild pig who's first putting his saliva all over my pants and then just stands there with his mouth open leaning against you. A coati jumping in my lap and suddenly giving my face a 'good´ wash. Parrots, turtles, young foxes, dogs etc. At the end of this day we also had a nice sunset. Tired and happy! The next day I head back to
St. Cruz just for one night to leave the day after with the Death Train to Brazil.
It's called the Death Train, because they used to carry dead people on it, as far as I know, that's not allowed anymore! But besides that, it goes so damn slowly: walking speed, sometimes jogging speed, and very rarely running speed. There's a joke mentioned in the Lonely Planet that it's chanting 'I can't, I can't, I can't...
That day just before leaving by train I asked a lady who worked there if I could have my big backpack above my seat. While she was explaining where to ask this an older lady (my favourite..) just came rudely in between with her question. This happened already so many times in Bolivia, I decided to call her out on it in Spanish, she looked at me me, and just did it again! So I repeated myself and I used my length: I put my back in between her and the woman I was talking to. The old lady started swearing at me in a local dialect, the only word I understood was 'puta´, but she left, as did I.
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