Hotel Caparuch Santa Cruz

... Nous prenons un vol pour le 11 novembre de La Paz. Nous irons en bus a La Paz le 10.<br>Soirée billard avec 2 Irlandais rencontrés a l´hostal.<br> <br><br>09/10/09 First day in Santa Cruz<br><br>Arrived around 9am after a bumpy ride. Going back a bit, we entered the train with a few minutes to spare, found our seats and sat down. Infront we had a TV splurting out some michael jackson videos. Following this we also got to ...

... see what you get.<br><br>As well as being flat again, the land is now dedicated to farming on a much larger scale. Gone are the little Haciendas eeking a living out of growing a few bits and pieces, now it's acres and acres of sunflowers for oil with large, Southfork-style ranches with fancy arches and gateways welcoming you to 'el rancho'. The advertisements along the way tell me that G23 and G35 are very good hybrids if you want more oil from ...

... some of them were a tad off the rails, necessitating (or not?) a raft of somewhat heavy handed and broadbrush rules to keep them in line. Perhaps it was only like that during the weeks i was there and i´m sure it will be very different in 3 or 4 months when the rainy season is in full swing - 45C heat, humidity, clouds of mozzies, swamp everywhere and not enough volunteers. I certainly want to come back sometime in the future, and that would be the time i´d pick for a return trip.

... and dead fetuses the rest turned into clothing markets. I ended up buying a thick coat for thirteen dollars and am satisfied with my bargaining. Darius and I run into this man who has been traveling for 3 years and has about 3 more to go. He holds the record for the longest travel in my book. The next day i take a 17 hour bus ride to Santa Cruz, east of Bolivia. I do not know why, but i just wanted to enter into sub jungle terrain and ...

... charge in the projects that are being worked on in their church. She shared how they do not desire for groups to come and just do things, but that they want to get to know the people who serve with them, to build relationships with them. We discussed how often as North Americans we have tended to think we know better and imposed our views on others whom we have served, and that we have seen service as something we do for others. From our ...

... centrale est tres charmante avec ses bancs, ses arbres tropicaux et ses vendeurs de cafes ambulants. La population est tres differente du reste de la Bolivie andine : plus riche, plus chic et moins typee (surement plus coloniale). Nous nous posons dans un cafe puis marchons un peu avant de rentrer epuises par le voyage de la veille. <br>

... They had a sign that said "$100 US Bills, Series # "CB and B2" Year 2001, and all Series "D" Year 2003 are not accepted here.") So we finally were on Bolivian soil at 02:00am. The plan all along was to take a taxi to the Plaza de Independencia to look around until we needed to fly back. But this was going to take Bolivianos to do. So after looking around fruitlessly for a few minutes, I asked the at the customer service ...

... name to Santa Hummer! We really didn´t do a lot, just hung out a bit, I met her family and her little brother Freddy (diablo) and on my final night we went to watch a rally about the upcoming Bolivian Constitution vote. The new and first indigenous president Eve Morales was voted in on the platform of improving the position of indigenous people and taking back control of Bolivia's natural gas resources. Most of ...

... to the train platform, buying salty dried bananas, and hearing the same woman say mandarin for sale 100 times, they announced that the train was having mechanical problems and would not leave until 3. There was a general crowd groan, but most people stayed put, prepared to wait for three hours. My friend and I went back into the train station in search of something to do. After writing emails and eating pretty horrible food in the little restaurant (rice and something fried, not sure ...

... their toll. My god I was in pain but I knew by doing this we would be closer to our aim of being at MP ahead of other groups and visiting day tourists. Most of the trek was through low cloud so I didn´t really get to see too much of the surroundings but when there was just a slight break in the cloud you could immediately see the amazing mountains and fauna all around. When we arrived at the 3rd and final pass of the trek, Bruno our guide asked ...