Category: Bolivia

The day started with a lovely breakfast in our hotel with amazing views of the city. We then spent the rest of the day basically just walking around the old town.  Lots of lovely white walled building and one way streets. The local market was as fascinating as all these markets are, full of all sorts of fresh produce, raw meats and a huge array of miscellaneous products. 

We decided the University of Sucre, founded in the 1600’s would be worth a visit so spent an hour walking to the campus only to be incredibly disappointed at what we found.  It looked more like an industrial zone than a place of learning. At least we got to explore another part of the city. 

We had read good things about the nightlife in Sucre given the backpackers and student population so we headed out at 6 to find place to drink.  Two lessons here. Firstly do not walk around old Sucre at 6pm as its effectively rush hour and the streets are clogged with lung busting fume throwers. Secondly, if you are planning on partying with backpackers and students, their night does not start until 9.30pm.  A Sucre Sour at Joy Ride Club followed by several Sucre Mojito’s at the very long named Kultur Berlin Hostel Restaurant Bar Nightclub (and some chicken wings and Brushettas) and we were ready to leave as the place was starting to wind up. I wonder if anyone even noticed the two wise nomads playing cribbage in the middle of the pub?

The next day we headed into town to grab the local dinosaur bus to Parque Cretacico.  Sitting on the top deck of the bus was interesting, not because of the sights but because of observing how close the bus came to taking out power lines running across the road and the odd shop sign. 

The park, in a word, was incredible.  The park was (is) part of a concrete factory that was built in the 1940s to help rebuild Sucre after an earthquake. They factory basically cut vertically away a mountain of limestone until it reached a layer that was high in magnesium and hence unsuitable for concrete. So they moved to another area and left the cliff to get eroded by rain and gravity. 26 years later, In 1994, the first dinosaur footprints were exposed. Turns out the cliff was once the shore of a freshwater lake that was pushed vertical by tectonic plates over 50 million years ago.  The footprints of sauropods, tetrapods and others were preserved in the lakeside mud.  The footprints were roughly 60 million years old  – at this stage 12,092 of them.  

The tour started with a walk amongst life size replicas of dinosaurs whose footprints are on the cliff – the Titanosaurus (Argentinasauros) was incredible in both size and the noise that emanated from it. We then walked down to the cliff-face to get up close to the footprints. A local guide provided a lot of detail and made the guided tour a must.  Bolivia is looking to have the site listed as a world heritage site in order to get the funding to preserve the footprints – failing that they will be lost by 2020 through erosion.  Interestingly the concrete factory is increasing dramatically in size which appears at odds with the preservation argument.

The day finished with a climb to the Recoleta to watch the sun set over the city. Once again we were amazed at the number of kids playing in the square – waiting to be picked up by working parents was my guess. There are that many kids that the schools here in Bolivia operate on 2 shifts – morning and afternoon. 

Our last day in this lovely city was spent walking around the place. First we visited the local Cathedral museum – I reckon there is a strong dose of masochism in the local Catholic community given the gruesome artworks in the Cathedral and it’s museum. No photos allowed unfortunately.  We then walked to the lovely Parque Bolivar – the Eiffel Tower replica is not a replica!!   The afternoon was spent reading and kipping in preparation for our busy 4 days in La Paz, where we head to tomorrow morning. 

We finally got out of Rurrenabaque, even though the weather remained dodgy with low cloud cover and were told when checking in they were uncertain as to whether the plane could land.  An hour and a half later we landed in Santa Cruz and in no time we were in a taxi on our way to Expresso Samaipata – the shared taxis going to Samaipata.  When I say shared, I mean shared.  The taxi was a normal minivan and in our case had 8 passengers plus the driver. I guess you get what you pay for – 30 Boliveros per person ($6 for a 3 hour drive).

The road to Samaipata was pretty brutal, having to navigate multiple slips, huge trucks and loads of dogs.  Turned out they had had an unusual amount of rain for the area over the previous and hence the number of slips. We arrived in Samiapata as the sun was setting but thankfully it was only a 10 minute walk to Casa Lynda. Lynda wasn’t home but she had emailed us instructions to find our room.  A quick turnaround and we were back in the village square looking for a pub.

The town had a good vibe which was reinforced as we entered a pub called The Bohemian.  Our host Lynda was sitting at the bar and introduced herself as we entered.  She was from Toronto and had been traveling through the area 5 years ago with her son when she fell in love with the place and bought the house on her second day in Samaipata. She had been home once in the 5 years. I asked her whether her parents were still alive (we guessed her to be in her 60s) – she said that was a vey odd question, particularly since her mother had died on this day 23 years earlier. I told her my ancestors were witches.  The pub was owned by 2 Aussie’s and was run by a Kiwi lad from Wellington. Certainly the number of expats in the bar far exceeded any indigenous folk.  The prices may have something to do with it.  It was our most expensive night in Bolivia so far – 4 pints of beer, 3 wines, 1 whiskey and 2 burger and chips came to a whopping 270 Bs ($54). 

Samaipata is at the intersection of 3 cultures – Inca, Andes and Amazon.  The statue in the main square said as much. The next morning we walked about 2 km on a gravel road to a small animal refuge, set up by a local family and helped by volunteers.

The entry fee was 20B and you get to walk around freely to see the different animals they have rescued from illegal trafficking, road accidents and some that were unauthorized pets. In some cases you can enter cages with the animals – the Toucan and Llama enclosure had a cool tree house we climbed. In addition to Toucans and Llamas we saw monkeys, tortoises and a variety of birds. On the way back to the village we stopped at a small cafe called la Vaca Loca, “the crazy cow” for delicious ice cream.

Prior to dinner we booked our trip to the Fern Forest at the local tourist office.  In this case it was manned by a very young girl (11 or 12 was our guess) who needed to be schooled by Deryn that 2 x 175 = 350, not the 300 she first stated. Dinner and cards followed including a soup for me that reminded my very much of Aunty Divina’s famous pea soup. Any thoughts of getting up to mischief after dinner was dispelled by the vast number of kids running around the main square. The prior view that our stay in Bolivia would be wild has evolved into more of a family holiday. It’s not surprising when I found that 30% of the population are 14 and under. 

After another dodgy night sleep (not a great bed and the odd rogue mossie), we rose relatively early for our excursion to the Fern Forest.  We had to sit in the main square until 8 for a brekkie joint to open – the one that did though did a cracking, no pun intended, omelette.  We were joined on our trip by 2 other couples (one couple older, the other about the same age).  Our view of Samaipata is changing from the original bohemian to a bar-bell of young and old.  Our planned 3 nights will be enough.

The drive to the start of our walk was on a very bad dirt road and we travelled mostly at walking pace.  One couple was from Brazil, the other from France but they both knew Spanish so chatted the whole way.  We arrived at the start of the walk and was given some background by our guide in Spanish first and then English on what to expect on the walk. Within 5 minutes of starting he stopped to talk about some of the plants. Nope, this was not going to work so Dits and I headed off on our own, stopping every now and then to let them catch up to make sure we were on the right path before heading off again. Walking through the giant ferns certainly made us feel like we were back in NZ – the main difference being that there were very few birds.  The view from the top was pretty cool – a vast expanse of forested mountains and deep valleys. 

When we arrived back at the van we decided to start walking down the road rather than wait for the others at the van.  After 30 minutes of walking we waited at the entrance of the national park for another 15 minutes before the van caught up with us. Slow pokes.  I was feeling a bit dodgy so it was an early dinner (vege burger and chips) over a couple of games of cribbage and then finish up our GoT binge.  

I was still feeling a bit dodgy the next morning so was not sure about joining Deryn for the waterfall excursion. I was glad I was talked into it although only made it to the first of 3, before deciding to retire to finish off Dickens “A Christmas Carole”.  How that is rated as Dickens best book beats the hell out of me.  Deryn enjoyed the other 2 waterfalls and even got in a swim.  Another early night althoughI spent the entire night scratching the slow release sand sly bites from the waterfall.  

We arranged a shared taxi to pick us up at 930 and to drop us off directly at Santa Cruz airport. The drive back was easier than the drive down here as most of the slips had been fully cleared.  Once again the Bolivian health and safety standards were on display – no seatbelts and the lady in the front seat holding an infant on her lap.  No helmets and 4 on a motor bike is one thing, but unconstrained infants. Eek!   It still took us over 3.5 hours to get the airport .  We both agreed, on reflection, that Samaipata did not really live up to the time and effort of getting there. Once again our flight left 20 minutes early – we have noticed that in Bolivia with both busses and flights, once all the passengers are on board, they leave. It was a short 30 minute flight to Sucre Alcantari International airport – the landscape out of the plane window was once again incredibly hilly and dry.  The airport was 22 km from Sucre.  Both the airport and the road into Sucre looked new.  Our hotel, Mi Pueblo Samary Hotrel Boutiquewas in Old Sucre, a world heritage listed area.  Our hotel was stunning, built to resemble a village. It was previously the Brazilian embassy in Sucre.  Felt good to be here. 

And to finish again with our favorite topic, dogs. This pup was our companion and endless entertainer at Casa Lynda. A real gem.

We spent a couple of days hanging out in Rurrenabaque, staying at the delightful Hotel Maya de la Amazonia. Found a nice little cafe that became our place to hangout and play cards.  Interesting the number of Israelies around the place and also the locals love of very loud music.  It’s also the first time on our travels that we felt like we could be in Asia – except the food is not as nice. 

We met with Norman, the owner of Madidi Expeditions https://www.madidiexpeditions.com on Monday night to talk us through our 3 days in the Pampas.  The pampas are basically low lying grasslands that flood during the wet season and then slowly drain during the dry months. They are teeming with bird life, monkeys and other smaller mammals. 

Norman and his driver, Michael, picked us up the next morning at 9.30 (was meant to be 8 then 9) for a 3 hour drive to Santa Rosa del Yacuma.  The Chinese are building a road connecting eastern Bolivia with Brazil – at this stage the road is still unsealed with lots of work ongoing. Hence the drive was incredibly dusty, quite scary at times as the visibility was zero while overtaking another vehicle. Anyway we made it safety to our idyllic retreat in Yacuma.  At this stage it was just Deryn and I, with another couple joining us for the second day.

We had a great lunch (love the fried chicken) and then headed out in a longboat into the pampas for some viewing and piraña fishing.  Norman told us that this pampas wears one of the 1000 plus tributaries that flowed into the Amazon. Amazing. First to be seen was the Caiman – basically a croc.  Also we saw lots of the very shy, but noisy, Serere.  They looked like a cross between a vulture and a turkey.  We saw heaps of cranes, herons, kingfishers and even got invaded by a troop of Yellow Squirrel Monkeys. We then stopped for some fishing and before long was hauling in red belly piranhas (the most dangerous – no way were we taking the hook out of their mouths!) and some sardines. We kept some of the bigger ones for dinner. Eat or be eaten!  On the journey back we saw some Howler Monkeys, not howling at this stage.

We sat on our private little deck playing cards with the teeming birdlife all around and some pink dolphins frolicking in the lagoon in front of us.  After another fine feed (Pino the cook is great), including some very tasty piranha, we headed out into the pampas for some night viewing. We finally figured out that our torches were best held in our hands and not fastened to our heads – it stopped us getting a face full of insects – which Norman found very funny. The setting sun was spectacular as was the glowing red eyes of the Cayman. Sleep was steamy but thankfully we did not have to sleep under the mosquito net as the room was reasonably insulated. 

The next morning we drove to another part of the pampas, including crossing the Beni river in a hand drawn ferry, to look for anacondas. We did not manage to see any anacondas but saw a lot of Capybaras – basically giant Guinea Pigs. We returned to base for some hours chilling on the deck watching the wildlife at play while reading. Our other guests turned up around 2 – Swiss banker was my guess. We heard them talking German over lunch so asked where there were from. Switzerland.  Damn I’m good. 

Back into the boat after lunch for some more viewing. We got to see the rare Jabiru stork and even a sloth (sort of!).  We also got to hear a troop of Howler Monkeys howling in the distance.  Quite an eery sound.   We flagged the night trip and instead decided on an early night – this viewing stuff is exhausting – plus we were heading out at 6am for a sunrise trip. The mosquitoes were brutal before dawn but once out in the boat, not too bad. Watching the sun come up was great, as was getting to hear properly the early morning wake up calls of the Howler Monkeys.   

We then spent a few more hours chilling and reading on our favourite deck.  Pretty special being in the middle of all this wildlife. Could spend days just sitting there.  Unfortunately our time had ended and it was back into the car for our drive back to Rurrenabaque.  It had been raining so the trip was not as dusty but the water filled potholes made it potentially even more dangerous. It was a bit sad saying goodbye to Norman – he seemed to enjoy us as much as we enjoyed him. A mutual love of humour!  Another night in the lovely Maya del la Amazonia before heading to Santa Cruz in the morning. 

It was raining when we woke up so were a bit concerned the flight might be cancelled. We were assured it was OK so headed to the airport only to find that our flight was actually the next day.  Duh.  Oh well, back to the Maya for another day of chilling in the rain. I have managed to download the final Game of Thrones series so maybe a G o T binge. 

We arrived at Copacabana around 5.30pm – just in time to see a spectacular sunset.  Copacabana is a small town in northern Bolivia, nestled on the edge of Lake Titicaca, the highest (3850m) navigable lake in the world – the lake is huge (58,000 square kilometers).  We arrived at our beautiful, and funky little hostel called Los Olas.  It was perched on the hillside with amazing views of the lake.

Both Deryn and I struggled once again with the altitude and hence did not do a lot for the first couple of days.  We explored the village on the first day and did very little else. We did bump into a couple of fellow Kiwi nomads from Wellington (Graeme and Julie) on the first night while waiting for dinner so ended up sharing a table. It was was a real pleasure.  As was the cost of the meal – things certainly are cheaper in Bolivia. 

On the second day I managed to find a local bar that was showing the second leg of the Leeds Derby promotion semi. I really wish I hadn’t.  At least I did not have to share my misery with anyone as the bar was completely empty.  By the end of the day we had enough energy to climb the hill behind the village to watch the sunset – spectacular. Although we were a bit premature in descending the hill as the colours continue to look incredible a good 30 minutes after the sun had gone down. 

We bumped into a couple of Brits earlier in the day (Ian and Nikki) who recognized us from Humahuaca in northern Argentina. Nikki said she recognized my face but I suspect it was my t-shirt which I remember her commenting on at the time.  We met up for dinner and had a very pleasant couple of hours swapping nomad stories.  They had been traveling for 4 years blogging, mixing up back-packing with house sitting. This house sitting definitely sounds like something to explore further.  https://www.aboveusonlyskies.com

Day 3 we got up early (ish) and caught the local boat out to Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun).   Apparently the birthplace of the first Inca.  We clambered aboard the boat for a 80 minute journey to the island – its wasn’t that far, its just that the boat travelled at a slow walk in order to preserve fuel.

We jumped off at an old Inca ruin and then after a bit of a climb walked along an elevated path that took us to the main village on the south of the island called Yumani.  We then took a path along the top which took us close to the northern part of the Island – we were not allowed to enter as there was an ongoing dispute between the north and the south and tourists were banned from entering. A Korean tourist was killed last year after wondering into the north.  The island was beautiful – very rural but dry. We were amazed at the number of eucalyptus trees, which I guess goes with dry!

We then climbed to the Cerro Palla Khasa, the highest point on the island at 4065m.  The views from an abandoned house were amazing.  We wandered back into the village for a lovely meal overlooking the vast expanse of Lake Titicaca.  There were a few fun and games getting back on the boat to Copacabana before the mind numbing crawl back to port.  We met a couple of young Brazilians who were biking around Bolivia who gave us some tips where to go in La Paz.  Deryn and I kicked on a wee bit that night after having a couple of fantastic Pisco Sours over our Thai meal.

We grabbed a bus the next morning to La Paz – 35 Bolivianos ($A7) for a 3.5 hour journey.  The drive across the peninsula was spectacular. Snow capped mountains and lake everywhere. We had to jump of the bus and catch a small boat across the lake at Tiquina – the bus went on a separate tiny ferry.  Once in La Paz – the city looked incredible, can’t wait to get back there – we grabbed a quick feed before catching a taxi to the airport and our flight to Rurrenabaque, a tiny town on the Beni river where we were going to head into the wilds.  The 35 minutes flight over the mountains in a small 30 seater plane was great.  Rurrenabaque was both very warm and only 270m above sea level – bliss. 

We caught a tuktuk to our hostel El Curichal Hostel, at which we only lasted the night before moving to the much more comfortable Hotel Maya de la Amazonia. Once again a lesson learnt that it does not pay to go too cheap (US$25 for a double room with en-suite).  I’m the fussy one, not Deryn mind. We spent a couple of days chilling in the village before heading off on our Pampas adventure. 

And finally, to finish with a donkey and a pig, rather than a dog!