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Published: December 24th 2006
Christmas Eve in Bolivia...what can I say; the sun is shining, its about 25oC with a nice breeze, and still we´re missing home....must be mad. It just doesn´t feel like christmas......then I guess it is only one out of our lives and we are in a beautiful country. Shouldn´t complain!!!
Ok, forst of all I should appologise for the lack of intersting pictures, or any at all for that matter. The bloody computers here don´t have USB ports, and even if the did the connection is so slow, I don´t think they could handle downloading photos. So, sorry about that....will try and add some at a later date.
Right, where was I....
We flew in to Santa Cruz from La Paz, last wednesday, and t was like coming to another country. When we left La Paz it had just finished snowing, we were surrounded by mountains and it was pretty cold. On arival in Santa Cruz I could tell it was going to be different; we flew over the mountains and onto the flat of the beginning of rainforest. Getting off the plane was that "walking into an oven" feeling, and if it wasn´t for the wind we would have just melted away.....
Got a taxi into the city and then straight out again to a town 2 1/2 hours drive away called Samaipata. This taxi ride was an experience - the car used to be right hand drive, and still was, except for the movement of the steering wheel and pedals!!! As usual, the driver was in a race to get us to our destination as quickly as possible, and we did, just after sunset. It was an incredible ride, both for the views and the lack of suspension in the taxi....
On arrival at our paradisical retreat, we were shown to our cabin....very sweet with a bed area covered by mosquito net (more like a little den) and a kitchen/living area, and a patio outside with deck chairs. A lovely place - it consists of 4 cabins of various size set in an organic farm on the side of a hill, there are even 3 horses and a few cute dogs to befriend. However, what we didn´t realise was that the cafe shut at 6pm and we had no food...didn´t fancy the 1.5km walk to town with a thunder storm approaching...so we beged some food and a bottle of red from the kitchen and settled in for the night!! Not a bad evening really. The rain didn´t stop all night, and the roads (if you can call them that) were muddy tracks the next day - however, it hasn´t rained since...touch wood 😉
We have mainly chilled out...seem to be doing a lot of that!...Pierre was ill (again!!!) for the first couple of days, but we managed to find some echinacea in the herb shop on the farm so he is now in good health. Yesterday we went on a tour with a crazy german guide callled Franck....very annimated and good fun. We drove for a couple of hours in a 4x4 on the same mud roads, and visited a local family en-route to a waterfall. Totally self-sufficient family, chickens with lots of chicks, pig, sheep, ducks, cows, horses....but no electricity and a very old, basic kitchen wich had no light and just a small hole in the roof for the smoke to escape...it was black inside from the cooking and couldn´t breath from te smoke....don´t know how they do it. I suppose if you don´t know any different you manage with what you´ve got. Very friendly people who made us coffee and a tasty snack which I think was just flour and egg batter deep fried.
We had to leave, so we continued with the drive, and arrived at the waterfall which was beautiful. In the middle of nowhere, no one else around, really special. We could have swum but the water was pretty cold, and we were going to walk up the hill next to the waterfall and have luch looking down onto it. It was a steep climb and the wind ear the top nearly blew me off!!!! We stopped in a sheltered part and had lunch....watched condors in the distance and parakeets flying past noisily. Then contineued up and over. Right at the top Franck started shouting at us to look behind us...and less tan 10 metres away was a condor soaring above our heads. It was an amazing experience, these birds are quite rare and HUGE!!! Though we were going to get eaten....but it wasn´t interested in us. Well, that kind of made our day. We finished our walk and made the long drive back to Samaipata.
Dont know if any of you have heard of or read a book called "The Trail to Titicaca", its about three British guys who cycled from Tierra del Fuego to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. They wrote about the place we are staying in here - La Vispera - and talked about the Dutch owners Pieter and Marga. We had a beer on our return yeasterday with Franck anf Pieter and told him about the book....think he was quite impressed that he was famous!!! He is trhe only piano tuner in Bolivia...quite a thing to be.
South Americans seem to celebrate christmas today, Christmas Eve, instead of tomorrow. So, we shoyuld be able to find somewhere to eat christmas dinner, otherwise its chorizo and spanish omelette in our cabin!!! At least we have cuba libre to keep us happy. That reminds me...must go and buy another bottle of rum...and some chocolate - well it wouldn´t be christmas without that now, would it?
Merry Christmas
P and Nic xxx
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mum
non-member comment
Happy christmas
Well all we can say hurray for chocolate and booze and we hope you enjoy it all. The condors sound amazing and we hope to see the pictures of your adventures up the mountain if not on here on the travelblog then when you get back. Anyway have a fab xmas and a brilliant new year Love Mum and Dad xxxxx