Las Americas Santa Cruz

... jaguare og ozelotter, og det er den park med flest katte. Nicki blev sat til at arbejde med en puma ved navn Carlos sammen med en pige, der hed Mary, mens jeg blev sat i "Quarentena" altsaa karantaenen hvor jeg skulle arbejde med aber og lidt andre forskellige dyr, hvilket jeg var lidt skuffet over da jeg havde regnet med en stor kat. Men Quaretine viste sig nu ikke er vaere saa slemt. Hver morgen stod vi op og gjorde vores daglige opgave ...

... refuge, dealing primarily with big cats - Jags, Pumas an Ocelots.<br><br>Getting there involved long bus ride to Santa Cruz, a sweaty meandering walk into the center, a pricey night there and then a 5 hours bus to Guarayos. Whilst both lacked anything to do, Santa Cruz as a pretty big city with nice parts and lots of amenities. G-town, on the other hand, was the end of the world (almost) - a hot dusty one road town. I decided to spend the night here before making the final ...

... a good extra 30 minutes of running around. And in Bolivia, well... it just took me a good hour of running in circles gathering stamps. I teased the boarder guards when paying my $135 American visa fee that it was very expensive. He looks up and says "un dollar = siete bolivianos" he has got a point. Finally after i received my stamps and said adios they all looked at me and wished me luck. Now my rant.<br><br>So far everything in America ...

... br>I did enjoy staying at the Jodanga Hostel, however, as I met a lot of very interesting travelers there who had tons of advice on traveling around South America as well as some great stories.<br><br>Other than that nothing too interesting to report from Santa Cruz, we had to stay there a little longer due to us being in Bolivian Time ( a concept I have learned to know and love, people here really take their time with things), so we got out of the city and went to Samaipata...

... are on the outskirts, but Santa Cruz is probably the most affluent place in the whole country. You do regularly see beggars and he told me that there it is much worse in Sucre and La Paz. We were only due to spend a day and a nght in Santa Cruz but our local flight to Sucre, which stands at 2,750 metres, was cancelled while we were in the departure hall due to the weather over the city. There was heavy rain and at that altitude it makes it too dangerous to ...

After a more pleasant trip back to Sta Cruz (we had a woman driver this time!), I relaxed and returned to my favorite restaurant. The day following, I went to the train station to check out the train situation and try to buy my ticket. Well, I found out I had to go to the statation the day of departure to buy the ticket, so the next day I trekked to the station about 6:30 AM for a ticket as far south as I can go, a little town called Yucaiba???? Oh well.

... seen a lot of life, as well as a lot of other prisons. (he'd spent time in prison in Pakistan (on death row) as well as the US.) As well as Stuart and myself there were also a lot of other tourists in the room. Stuart started off by telling us about the foundation that he has set up to help the foreign wives and children that also live in the prison. He then allowed us to ask him whatever questions we so wished. One thing to note is that every ...

... otherwise jammed with mostly quite modern cars. Priceless! The centre itself is quite nice - the city spreads around Plaza 24 Septiembre which is an attractive, tree filled square and was literally rammed despite it being about 4pm on a Wednesday afternoon when I arrived there. A large red-brick cathedral dominates one end of the plaza, and it was the obcious gathering point for the obligatory South Amercian protest. I have no idea what this one was about, but they had nice green ...

... family could receive a portion of fruit along with their current portions. I am also returning in 2 weeks and am taking and taking 90 of the kids to the Circus!!! Will be unreal and a real treat for them!!! <br><br>If host families are not your style then from September 4th FAMUNDi will have 2 X 6 bed dorms available for volunteers on the grounds. They are beingt built right now, i saw the construction and they look great. One dorm has an on suite bathroom with ...