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Published: March 19th 2010
The tally so far...
hostels/hotels: 9
plane rides: 3
long haul bus trips: 6
long haul train rides: 1
dorm rooms shared with chronic snorers: 1
injuries: 1
rainy days: 3
weather under 30 degrees: 2 days
So the Bolivian border was crowded and hot. We couldn't figure out which office to go to for our Brazilian exit stamp. Luckily we seem to meet exactly the right people to help us wherever we go, so we found some english speakers and figured it out. We knew the right words in Spanish but of course whatever question we asked they said 'si, si'... so we couldn't be sure if they were bullshitting or not. Luckily we only had to walk 100m to get to the Bolivian border. Getting through there was a breeze. Caught a taxi from there to the train station to board El Tren de la Muerte (The Death Train). Its only called that because of several derailments and deaths.. but that was years ago so don´t fret mum and dad!
The train didn't look like anything special from the outside, and that was a correct assumption. The guy who sold us the tickets assured us there
was air-con and seats that laid back.. but of course we didn't get that. The train was rickety and the seats uncomfortable. It had window air-con, in other words you can get a bit of a breeze if you put the window down. It was so awful hot on there, Aaron had to put up with his cranky girlfriend until the sun went down. The toilets were pretty gross, you could smell them from half way up the carriage.
The first bit of the trip had pretty interesting scenery. We went through one part that was a real Doctor Seuss scene. It looked like the land had been cleared at some point, with only a few trees left standing. then some sort of creeper or vine had grown over the whole field. It grew all over the trees making weird shapes. Unfortunately we didn't get the camera out fast enough for a photo. Every time we stopped, hoardes of local kids would get on the train to try and sell us food. They were soooo cute. They sold drinks and home made lemonade, bags of limes, empanadas. They would get on yelling 'limao limao!', 'empanada queso' at the top
of their voices, over and over. We got on the train with only 35 bolivianos (AUD5.45). During the whole train trip which took a whopping 20 hours, we bought 2 cokes, 2 waters, 2 empanadas... and we still had 11 bolivianos change! We love Bolivia already, sooooo cheap.
So overall the train trip was rather average. We tried to read for a while and then to sleep, but it was too difficult on the bumpy train. Finally arrived in Santa Cruz at 9am. We walked about 2kms to the hostel we booked, which sucked big time in the heat. The hostel was in a nice, quiet street and we had a big private room to ourselves. We didn't get up to much while in Santa Cruz. The hostel was comfortable enough to hang around for a while, with decent internet and a big pool. We braved the streets and went in search of markets. They were total chaos and only sold pirated dvd's and mobile phones, so no purchases made there.
We stayed in Santa Cruz for 4 days then decided to head to Samaipata where we had read about some ruins called El Fuerte, built by the
Chanes (a pre-Inca culture). We caught a shared taxi all the way there, 2.5 hour ride for only 60 bolivianos, less than $10. The ride was bumpy and squashed with 6 people in the car. Arrived at our place to stay, which was a cute little place up a rutted dirt road. They had a mother cat and two teeny kittens so Nicole was happy! Samaipata was a tiny little town, so quaint and quiet. All of the roads were dirt or cobblestones. It is on the tourist route though, so lots of gringos in town.. but that also meant there was good food to be found. On our first afternoon we wandered the town and spotted a sign for an animal refuge. It said only 2kms so we decided to walk it. It started to rain lightly but we thought nothing of it. We ended up getting totally stuck out in the rain on a dirt road. Both only wearing shorts, tshirts and thongs. So of course in the rain, we got mud all splashed up our backs no matter how carefully we walked. We eventually arrived at the refuge looking like drowned rats. The place was really small
but they had some neat animals there. They had blue and gold macaws that said 'ola!' when we walked past. There were also toucans and loads of monkeys running free. They had a gorgeous cat and this weird little night monkey that was the cutest critter I've ever seen. We met another couple who were waiting out the rain there. They had two howler monkeys hanging out with them, it seems howler monkeys get a bit depressed when it rains. So they were curled up on any human lap they could find, not ours though since we were soaking wet. Luckily the owners of the zoo were nice and ordered us a taxi to get back home.
Next day we did a whirlwind visit to El Fuerte. We got a cab for only $10 and he took us up the scary, winding dirt road in his bomb of a taxi. The roads were all rutted and muddy, I've no idea how his shit box car made it.. but make it we did. The cab driver said he would wait 2 hours while we walked around the site... that would cost hundreds of dollars in Sydney! So while he had
his siesta, we had the whole site to ourselves since we arrived first for the day. El Fuerte was a massive mountain top made of rock, with all sorts of patterns and alcoves and places of worship carved into it. The site was quite big and took quite a while to walk around. The views from up there were beautiful and it was so quiet. We saw our first snake there too, but kept a safe distance. Check out the photos.
So once we made it back down the dirt roads and into town, we headed back to the hostel to pick up our bags. We had to get another taxi to the next town so that we could start our journey to La Paz. We made it to Mairana and ran into the couple we had met at the animal refuge. They were useful to have around as they spoke spanish and portugese. We got ourselves booked on the only bus to Cochabamba. The nice lady assured us there was a bano (toilet) on board, but of course there wasn't. It was also without air-con which was just lovely. But hey, it was cheap and our only option.
The lady told us we would leave at 3pm and arrive at midnight. We felt pretty safe since there was a group of nuns on board too, being a bit apprehensive about our first Bolivian bus ride.
We had prepared for the trip and had our little bag of toilet paper and hand sanitiser, plus a bag of snacks to keep us going. The trip was horrific if you ask me. It wasn't long before we started climbing mountains. The road was dirt the whole way. The view was amazing, but the roads were scary! I spent a bit of the time with my head buried in Aaron's shoulder, hoping for the best. As we climbed higher and night fell it became freezing. Lucky us were sitting next to a window that was broken and it kept on rattling open and letting in the freezing air. We hadn't planned for the cold so only had shorts, thongs and hoodies.. which weren't enough. We couldn't sleep since every time we came near a town the driver would blare the horn over and over in case somebody wanted to board. We stopped several times for toilet breaks but myself and the
other girl we were with declined since there weren't actually any toilets and we sure weren't up for squatting in front of a bus load of people. After hours and hours we finally stopped in what looked like a large city. We figured we were in Cochabamba, just not at the bus stop yet. We checked the time and found it was 2am which we found weird. Most of the people got off the bus, except about 10 including us. Our friend tried to talk to the bus driver but he didn't seem to want to tell us what was going on. He then got himself a blanket and went to sleep on the back seat! Us 4 gringos were sitting there looking at each other wondering what the hell was going on. Everybody else went to sleep so we figured we weren't in Cochabamba yet and the driver needed a rest. So we did the only thing we could do and tried to sleep. 2 hours later, the nuns departed and we started to panic. Our friend got off the bus and tried to talk to the driver. Turns out we were in Cochabamba and only 10 minutes from
the bus station, but we weren't going to drive there until midday!!! Bloody Bolivian bus drivers. By some wild coincidence there was a taxi driver waiting outside the bus so we agreed on a price and he took us to the bus station. By that point it was starting to get light and we said goodbye to our temporary friends and headed into the station to try and find a bus to La Paz....
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rosie
non-member comment
you lucky ducks!
you both look like you're having a well deserved lovely time!!! xx.