I can see why Che came by this area
Trip Start
Dec 07, 2005
1
23
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Trip End
Apr 10, 2007
Samaipata,
Bolivia
Sunday, April 23, 2006
from santa cruz, we took the two hour taxi ride along a winding moutain road to the small town of samaipata. just before his capture and execution at the hands of the (CIA/US special forces trained and assisted) bolivian army in october 1967, che guevara and his trusty band or merry men stopped outside samaipata. che sent some men in to get some medical supplies (he was pretty sick at the time), and they managed to capture a few government troops while they were at it.
now samaipata is the jumping off point for backpackers wanting to make excursions into the surrounding wilderness. the scenery is beautiful; the town is surrounded by the eastern foothills of the andes, which back up to the western edge of the bolivian amazon river basin. as a result, the surrounding terrain is full of stunning views.
we did two day trips while we were there: the first day we took a cab to el fuerte, which is an incan site thought to be a ceremonial site, and then we went to see some small waterfalls (around 10 meters high) down the road from el fuerte
BellaVista
. we did this trip with some travellers we had met at the cafe chakanbol the night before: tommy and janine from holland, and tomer from israel. we had a good time hiking and comparing travel notes with them. during the first day, we worked on putting together a more intense hiking trip to bella vista with tomer for the next day. we talked our taxi driver into driving for us for another day, and he also helped us find a local guide. when we returned and told trent (one of the owners of our hostel), he was kind of skeptical, telling us to watch out for cut-rate tours that cut corners with safety. but we weren´t sure if he was really concerned for our safety or more concerned that we were booking a tour on our own (with locals) rather than with one of his friends in town (all of whom were foreigners). but when he found out that our guide was a local named boris, he was at ease and said that boris is a really great guide. trent was still skeptical about the fact that we were trying to take a taxi to bella vista, saying that the roads are only accessible by 4 wheel drive. but i recalled trent saying that ¨taxi drivers don´t like to go up there because it beats up their taxis¨. so i figured this was him still trying to drum up some more business for his friends with 4WD.
when we turned off the paved highway and onto the dirt track leading up to the bella vista trail, i started to think that trent might have been right about needing a 4WD. even the taxi driver had told us the day before that the roads were ¨un poco feo¨ (literally ¨a little bit ugly¨) up here. but we were patronizing the locals, dammit. so i held my breath as our driver navigated across small ravines carved in the road by rain and forded at least 8 shallow streams with his trusty toyota carolla wagon
Las Cuevas
. after about an hour of tough driving, we arrived at a beautiful lookout spot just up from where our hike would begin. we stayed here while our driver and boris went up the road to register at the park´s office. when they returned, we walked down to the trail and began our hike. i won´t bore you with every step, and the pictures do a much better job of explaining the scenery than i could. but we hiked down and along stream beds, feeling like we were in the rainforest. we saw two rattlesnakes--one just chillng on the bank of a stream and the other one was sitting right in some leaves on the trail. boris almost stepped on him. luckily, both snakes were persuaded to move out of our way and we continued without a problem. we saw a couple of waterfalls in the middle of the forest, and hike up to the crest of one of the mountains to a spectacular view of the surrounding andean foothills. the last hour or so of our hike was spent trekking along the ridge of a mountain and back towards the park´s entrance road.
by the time we left, darkness was quickly enveloping the park and the road we had taken in looked infinitely more ominous. luckily, we only got stuck once, and tomer, boris, daniela, and i were able to push our trusty little taxi through the mud pretty easily
the biggest parrot ever
.we felt safer once we got back onto the paved road, but bolivian taxi drivers don´t seem to care about passing on curves very much, and once we came a little too close to getting sandwiched between a car we were passing and an oncoming truck. i was kind of angry that the driver was taking stupid chances and was ready to tell him ¨ya, basta¨ with my limited spanish (which is like, ¨enough¨), but luckily daniela was more diplomatic, telling him ¨no te podemos pagar si no llegamos vivos¨ (we cannot pay you if we don´t get the alive¨). this made our guide chuckle and give a big ¨she´s right¨ nod to our driver, and we spent the rest of the ride at a more relaxed pace.
we spent our last day in samaipata lazing around the town, buying our bus tickets to sucre, hustling to get a good book in english (there are book exchanges all along the ¨gringo trail¨, which includes all the popular backpacker destinations in south america). at a little before 7, we caught a taxi out to the gas station on the main road where we would catch the overnight bus to sucre, and said our goodbyes to samaipata.
Housing
ACCOMIDATIONS: We stayed at Bolivian Romance La Posada. 1/2 a block formthe main plaza 944-6218 www.bolivianromance.net This is a cozy bed and breakfast, we payed 56 bs (US$7) per night for a double room with breakfast. La Posada is run by a bolivian/american couple, very sweet and helpful. They are both bilingual, know almost everyone in town and help you set up tours and answer all your questions.
Eating
If you are looking for good cheap vegeterian food go to ¨La Chakana¨ a wonderful cafe on the Plaza. They have menu del dia for 18bs (a little over $US2): a large soup and a good sized-meal. We had tofu and veggies that were really tasty. their website is: www.geocities.com/chakanabol
