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Hiking 12km to the entrance of the park
it was hot, and everything looked and felt just like the DR. ahh, good times.So tom randomly met up with us at the Ballivian hostel, the peace corps hostel in Santa Cruz, and we soon were on our way to hike around and camp in the nearby Amboró National Park.
Once arriving in Buena Vista, a small town near the entrance to the park, we got to work figuring out the logistics of our hike. it was a pain in the ass. after asking everyone, and with nearly nobody being helpful, we figured out a way to get to the entrance for merely 10 Bs. (about a dollar). We then were purchasing food for the hike when a little kid about 13 years old came up to us, introduced himself as Danny, and offerred his services as a guide. It would only be 15 dollars a day, he remarked, and you cannot enter the park without a guide. Well, we thought, 15 bucks isn´t TOO bad (though it seemed exorbitant considering that the average wage for a laborer in Bolivia is about 3 bucks a day), and we can make him carry stuff. We told him to meet us the next morning at our hostel at 6:30am.
6:30 came and went with no
sign of him. We ran some morning errands and even by 7:30 he was nowhere to be found. now, i understand as well as anyone the tardiness that is the disease of latin america, but when you dangle 30 dollars for 2 days of work in front of a 13 year old kid, his ass usually shows up EARLY. We sent a mototaxi to find him and drag him out for a tongue lashing. however, when the motor driver returned, he told us that the kid had flat out said he didn´t feel like helping us. the little shit!
Well, we got out there anyway, and after an hourlong taxi ride we had to hike 12km to get to the entrance of the park. those were a long, hot 12km. At one point we got lost on the way, and as we were wandering, trying to find the path, we found that little brat danny aboard a landcruiser full of gringos. livid, we continued hiking through hot jungle. it was pretty boring scenery, with only occasional spurts of interestingness when we saw a weird plant or insect. we saw no animals on the hike.
tom and i pitched
Avocado sandwiches
aguacate is known as palta in bolivia. weirdos. the tent amid swarms of black flies and swam around in the river and made avocado sandwiches. it was a peaceful ending to a tumultuous day.
the next day we made more avocado sandwiches (theyre really good btw) and hiked for about 7 hours and 20 some km to get out of there. it was a hard, rough day, including lots of rain and confused looks from campesinos, but it ended well with a free hourlong ride out of there. i just love how in latin america just when everything seems to be going wrong something comes up and the next thing you know you are flying down the road for free in the back of a pickup truck. it always brings my spirits up.
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