Advertisement
Published: August 6th 2005
Death train? pfft. It was a bit dissapointing actually. 14 hours, two american films (in spanish, though we got subtitles for the second one... then fell asleep) and some bad food. It was nothing more than a slightly bumpy train. If anyone died on it it was probably from some nasty meal rather than any train induced injury.
One nice thing about it was the people selling things at the stations - when we arrived we would open our windows, lean out and buy cakes, breads, drinks, set meals.. it was great. Super-pullman class (one above 1st class) turned out to be little more than British Rail´s 2nd class, but it was good enough to survive the journey with some sleep to boot.
We were tired when we arrived here, so booked into th first hotel we saw. I remember thnking it was too posh for us, as the lobby is pretty impressive-marbe and all. However the rooms are really not that great at all. Oh well, it was only 4.90 in british money for the both of us.
We went into town after that, and had a look around; bought some ice cream and a burger and a cheap
guitar (finally! and only 14 quid) and a nice case.
The next day we did some serious shopping, and came home with about a million things - rugs, ornaments... and pressies galore. We blew the budget a bit, but we hadn't reached it the day before so we earned it!
Then, of course, it was time to visit the Santa Cruz zoo. Yikes.
What a horrible place! There was a grizzly bear in cage only about 15 feet by 10... 100% concrete. The same for a pair of lions, cheetas, tigers... jaguars... everything you could think of from the worst zoo in the world. The concrete in the tiger's cage even had paw prints in it - they must have been in there before it had even set properly.
On the plus side, we shook hands and played games with some monkeys... some of which smelt really really bad (and i think one had downs´ syndrome). We also spotted, completely by chance, a sloth crawling around the floor, freely, which was great, We took some great photos (on their way sometime soon) and watched him climb a tree.
As bad as it was, the zoo did look like it
was in the process of improving. New averies were under construction for the huge eagles that literally couldn´t fly in their cages.
Also we saw turtles doing it... bahahaha (pictures soon)
The following day (yesterday) was pretty similar. We ate some really good ice cream and bought some really great, really cheap things... then felt bad about haggling people down by 2 pounds or however much, which is nothing to us, but substantial to them... so we gave some beggar kids moneys.
Bolivia is such a great place to be. Everyone is amazingly friendly (though the men are real perverts) - an old lady on the death train changed up some Brazilian money for us so we could buy some food, and a lady helped us work out how much it cost.
There's such a big difference between Brazil and here - here is about 10 times better... and we loved brail! It´s impossible to describe quite the feeling that being here gives, but it´s fantastic!
There is a lot of poverty though, which is nasty to see, especially when it´s chidren... and a lot of the time it is.
We also spotted
a pet monkey chained to a fence today, which was kind of depressing, but I guess no more unusual here than a pet guinnea pig or rabbit in England. Then we bumped into a guy from our pantanal trip, Sam, who we also bumped into in Corumba. It´s good to see familiar faces, and we saw no tourists at all for the first few days. He spent 600 dollars visiting a girl he met in the pantanal... to see her for two days..max. How sweet.
We were going to send our splurge purchases back to robby today (we're staying with him the night before we fly back to england), but the damn post office was closed! Now he have to find another bag to put them all in so we can take them to Cochambamba and send from there. Oh well, who cares when you´re in paradise¿
Now we´re in a net cafe waiting for our bus to Cochambamba (leaves at 21.15 and arrives at 7am... for 3 pound 50 each full cama(bed)!) where we have arranged some language lessons to take that step forwards.
Speak to you all soon
Dom and Laura
ps Mum, Dad are you away at the mo? and are you back on the 18th? let me know soon thanks! Laura!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.114s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 19; qc: 77; dbt: 0.0736s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
TOURISIMO A LA RODRIQUEZ
non-member comment
POOR JULIO!!!
SOOOOOOOOO!!!!ATA LAST YOU AV TRAVELLED THEE "DEATH" TRAIN ANNA SURVIVED THEE FOOD...GRINGOS!POOR JULIO WAS ONNA THEE TRAIN BOT HAPPENED TO RUN INTO A LARGE GUARD,HE HAD LOST HEES TICKET ANN WASA THROWN OFF!,FORTUNATELY JULIO MANAGED TO CATCH HOLD OF THEE LADDER ANNA PULLED HEEMSELF ON A THEE ROOF...HE TEXT ME ANNA SAY HE COULD SEE YOU BOTH SAFE INNA THEE CARRIAGE HAVIN YOUR LONCH!!!THE LAST THEENG I HORD WASA JULIO SHOUTING ABOUT APPROACHING BREEDGE!!!POUR FAVOR!!IDIOT!!!(NO WORRY JULIO HASA WAY OF GETTIN OUTTA DEEFICULT SEETUATIONS HEH! HEH!). ZO!!ARE YOUS GOIN TO VEESIT LAKE TITITACA, NAZCA,ANNA MACHU PICHU?,EET IS NO XTRA CHARGE WHEN YOU TRAVEL WITH "RODRIQUEZ TOURS!!!" ARRIVA!!,HOLD IT,I HAVA MESSAGE COMIN TO THEE OFFICE,EETS FROMA JULIO!!!,HURRAH!!!HURRAH!!!SPEAKA SOON AMIGOSSSSS!!!!!