Yotau All Suite Hotel Santa Cruz

... few days as she had issues with her ankle and was having difficulty not getting dragged when he ran - and he was giving her a far harder time than me (I think being big helps as i also got off more lightly than my two shorter replacements that i trained last week :-) Thus i was alone with him all day, which i rather enjoyed for a week. Man with cat in jungle :-) Monkeys in the trees, macaws screeching about - it was nice just spending time in the jungle and not getting rushed ...

... way. Its warm for me hovering right around freezing but others don't seem to be as excited. With plenty of energy i run around showing everyone that if they use there car matt as tire grip it works out great. Explaining i am from Alaska they eagerly test my theory and find it a success. After realizing no one will be moving in the next 10 hours I decide to reach la paz by my self. Not wanting to sleep in the bus I walk along asking ...

Ok so I was asked to write something about my experience at GYS and I thought I´d put it up here because while I was there I didn´t get to write much. Keep in mind this is just a small snippet of my experience.

My experience at GYS 2009

A school gym filled with hundreds of young people covered in layers of jackets and sweaters, speaking numerous languages is not a common sight for me. But even more amazing than that was what ...

... talking to me. After a long layover I transfered to a flight to Santa Cruz with a stop in La Paz. The weather was too windy around La Paz to land but we did get to circle around Lake Titicaka a bit which provided some absolutely stunning views. Anyway I landed in Santa Cruz and spent a really hectic night trying to find Bolivianos and a Hotel with space (I eventually found a cheap hotel).

Santa Cruz is not a very nice city. I write this now having experienced a few ...

... here for those reading from the USA. You can either apply at the Bolivian consulate or you can get the visa upon arrival. The cost is $135USD no matter where you get the visa from. If getting the visa on arrival, I suggest having an extra passport picture and already have the visa application form filled out. We had all of this, minus the cash, but our fun started when the immigration officers weren't expecting Americans to be ...

... German embassy to get a visa for Europe... Santa Cruz does feel a lot richer and more European than the rest of Bolivia, it really feels like a different country and was a great change from being in the mountains. There´s lots of wealthy people about in nice clothes, eating in nice restaurants and driving mainly 4x4s and utes.. it also had more Hummers than I´d ever seen.. I think there is a proposal to change ...

After spending 2 days in the largest city in bolivia, my friend and I were ready to move on. We decided to visit one of the jesuit mission towns that lies half way towards the brazilian border and is accessible by train. Train sounds so good after the travel on buses and crazy trufis that go fast on mountain roads and pass at insane times. So we bought really cheap tickets (3$) for a 7 hour trip and showed up an hour early like we were told. After waiting for a hour and a half and finally ...

... The only downside was that we would have to trek for longer as the better site was a further 5k´s away from the intended site. Day 3 - almost there We woke at 5, the same as every day, had breakfast and then headed off. Because a lot of the day was going to be downhill and my knee was still pretty messed up, I decided to pay another porter for the day to carry my pack. We must have trekked for 9hrs and the steps down were really beginning to ...

... plan on saying nothing - not that we really could if we wanted to as we don't have any Spanish except like please and thanks (We are well mannered!). The two lads however have a different approach they yap and yap and yap. They were ahead of us and when they went out the immigration dude was asking us like are they your amigos and we were like eh..... No. Not really, met them in last place, and of course then the two of them ...

... It is a flat alluvial plan which is generally hot and arid, but during the wet season the Chaco turns to swamp and the roads to sticky mire. Fortunately we have arrived at the end of the rainy season. Travel writers have compared the Chaco to Central Africa. It reminded us of the desert in northern Kenya but with thicker bush. Impenetrable is the word often used to describe the Chaco and that's what we saw from the road. In the ...