Casa Blanca Samaipata

5th november 2009<br>Hostal Andrena, Samaipata, Bolivia (110 Bs)<br>Absolutely perfect<br>Santa Cruz &#8211; Sampaita (130 kms)<br><br>Yesterday was a long day which began at 6.30 and ended at 7pm. Thankfully, the weather began a little overcast in Santa Cruz, but by the time we had left the rush hour traffic and the suburbs behind the sun was out in all her glory. round about the same time as the sun came out the scenery began to change, we ...

We depart Samaipata heading for Brazil today.<br><br>Trent and Rosario feed us another tasty large breakfast and order a taxi for us. This is apparently the best way to get back to Santa Cruz as the buses arent always on time and you can be waiting for them for a while. Trent arranges the drop off point in the main plaza of Santa Cruz and confirms the price of B$100 with us and the driver.<br><br>After a very speedy 2.5 hour trip ...

... we want window seats which we later figure must be a joke on the tourists because they put seats where seats shouldnt be - right at the back of the plane, jammed up against the wall. There was hardly any leg room and the seats were angled forward instead of back. Luckily the flight was only an hour. Every time we looked at each other we cracked up as we looked so silly sitting in that position..<br><br>Santa Cruz is so hot and humid!! As ...

So....we got the death train from Quijarro (at the Brazil-Bolivian Border) to Santa Cruz, which was actually fine! It was bumpy, but the food was good, and we got to watch Lethal Weapon! When we got to Santa Cruz we basically had a few days resting, using the internet and chilling before heading to Samaipata.<br><br>The journey to Samaipata was extremely bumpy, winding up through the mountains, but when we got there it was ...

... haben wir auch Condore gesehen..... Am nächsten Tag haben wir unsere Tour Zu den letzten Wirkungstellen Che's organisiert und nen bissel gefaulenzt.....( ich muss dazusagen das man eine Sogenannte Che Tour buchen konnte....da diese aber echt teuer war haben wir uns selber auf den weg gemacht......hat zwar alles ein wenig länger gedauert, wir haben aber so viele coole Menschen getroffen die wir auf der Tour sicherlich nicht getroffen hätten)....

... plans. Stories were filtering through the media about roadblocks (organised by the opposition parties in each district) that were stopping all traffic flow to parts of the country and some of the locals were talking about revolution. Needless to say, it was an interesting and slightly nervous time to be in Santa Cruz, the centre of most of the anti-Evo pressure, so we headed for the hills to a beautiful little town called Samaipata. (Evo was re-elected by a clear majority ...

... kreeg niemand aan de lijn. Na een boodschap te hebben ingesproken werd ik een half uur later plots toch opgepikt door 3 kinderen, die me direct bombardeerden tot de zus van Thomas (die achteraf natuurlijk totaaaaaal niet op mij geleek, maar ja, de gast had krullen). Bleek dat 1 van de 2 coordinatrices zwaar ziek was geworden en naar het ziekenhuis was gebracht, dus heb ik 2 uurtjes doorgebracht met mijn nieuwe beste vriendinnetje Nathalie (4 jaar ...

... we stop before noon at Samaipata and its ruin of El Fuerte, an archeological site that encompass buildings of three different cultures: Chanes, Incas and Spaniard. In the evening we put up at the house of...in Vallegrande, the place where in 1967 Guevara had been buried after his execution in the nearby village of La Higuera. Tomorrow morning we'll go just there!

... on the patio of this restaurant when a group of stray dogs in the town started fighting on the street near us. Latha first jumped on her chair then on me before I could calm her down. Need less to say she went inside after that. One small step at a time. (Latha´s comment: ¨The dogs were fighting over a female dog, and I was fine until the whole pack of them jumped up on the sidewalk where we were and started fighting with each other! Ugh Ugh ugh.)