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Samaipata

Samaipata is a lovely town in Bolivia's eastern highlands, a couple of hours drive from Santa Cruz. The cruzeños supposedly use it as a refuge from the stifling heat in the city. For us it was a pleasant respite from the cold and drizzle! The drive up from Santa Crus is through a steep forested gorge. It was nice seeing trees and greenery again as (with the exception of the cloud forest around Machu Picchu), they have been rather missing for the last few weeks.

I had intended to stay just a couple of days in Samaipata, but it ended up being strangely addictive and difficult to escape. The town itself is just a few dusty streets around a beautiful shady square. Its a really chilled place that despite the number of hotels does not seem to attract that many visitors. Its like Vilcabamba in Ecuador with the tourists taken away. For the decidedly un-princely sum of $2.50 a night we checked into a hotel with a verandah overlooking the square. The food wasn't up to much, but there was a great café on the square as well as a rather nice ice-cream parlour. The scenery around is great, not as dramatic as around La Paz, but a lot greener. For some reason the town has attracted a sizable German expatriate population, most of whom seem to run tour agencies and hotels. There are also some huge villas in the hills around the town. Frank, one of the German tour guides, told me that the largest - a mock-tudor pile that looked as if it had been transplanted from Surrey - belonged to a sugar merchant. I don't doubt that he made his money from white powder, but I haven't seen many sugar plantations around....

On the first day in town, we walked up to the (pre-)Inca ruins of El Fuerte above Samaipata. A long way above Samaipata, in fact. I thought we were never going to get there. El Fuerte is another UNESCO World Heritage site and I can't help thinking that UNESCO list anything they can down here because they don't trust the locals to look after them. It's as if they listed every building in the UK over 500 years old. The ruins themselves were disappointing and consisted mostly of a huge carved rock. Perhaps I am just expecting too much after Machu Picchu. The views, however, were stunning and another example of the Incas eye for a prime piece of real estate.

On Thursday, Mary Beth headed off to brave the roadblocks on the way to the highlands, whilst I stayed in town. I went on a great walk on a ridge above town with views all around. I saw no-one else up there, just lots of butterflies, vultures and an eagle. That night I dined on a huge bowl of pasta and tried to read my book. I didn't get very far as there were a group of 5 loud young English people at the next table. After dinner I went to say hello. It turned out they were all Jehovah's Witnesses spreading the good word in Samaipata! They threatened to come and track me down in my hotel. I think they were joking, but I'm not sure.

On Friday I went with Frank, the aforementioned German guide, and two Kiwis, to the fringes of the Amboró National Park, one of the nmost biodiverse areas on earth. We walked through more beautiful scenery and finished off by swimming in some waterfalls. The next day I was supposed to be going to another area of the park with Frank again. However, there was a bit of rain and he was the most refreshingly honest guide I have met in South America, cancelling the trip with full refunds saying it wouldn't be any fun in the rain. Samaipata wasn't so attractive in the drizzle either and I decided it was time to head out of town.

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