The Pantanal - Santa Cruz, Sucre, and Potosi (Bolivia).

From the Pantanal we got a bus to Corumba which is a border town with Bolivia. From here we crossed the border, without getting an entry stamp (customs decided not to return to work after lunch) to catch the ´Death Train´ to Santa Cruz. The ´Death Train´ was by far the worst made track I have been on with the carriages jumping up and down constantly all night (it was a 14 hour night train). Apparently it got its name because of the passengers who used to sit on the roof of the carriage, and unsurprisingly bounced off as the carriages jumped.

Santa Cruz was not what we expected Bolivia to be like. I was expecting the towns to consist of mud huts and holes in the ground for toilets, rather than the hotel like hostels and upmarket bars and restuarants. This has been the same throughout Bolivia but to give you an idea we are paying 10 pounds for a very clean double room with en suite, 1 pound for a large beer and 2-3 pounds for a main in a nice restaurant. Our first hostel in Santa Cruz also had a pet Toucan, which I shall post pictures of.

After a couple of days of not doing very much apart from explaining why we have no entry stamp and making sure we got one, we moved on to Samaipata. Rather than catching a local bus on the potholed and un fenced cliff roads we got a minibus at 13 pounds for a 2 and a half hour journey. We were also travelling with an Australian couple, Alex and Mary, since Santa Clara so this was split 5 ways, cheap, cheap.

The plan for the first night was to stay at a place called, ´Gingers Paradise´ I of course did the right thing and had a picture taken under the sign. Not that we stayed here after we realised that it was a weird little hippy retreat, where the residents were expected to help out with farm work. Instead we did the brave thing and had lunch there, swam in the river and did a runner. Problem was it was in the middle of no where and only one bus passed a day. There were however plenty of cargo trucks which all the locals hitch in, so we gave it a go. 30mins passed before the ingenious idea of the lads hiding around the corner whilst the girls held the sign looking helpless. Sure enough 10mins later a truck stopped and we all jumped in the back with the rotten veg and staring locals. This was probably the best journey I have done, it was only 2 hours to Samaipata but stood up in the back of an open top wagon around cliff roads is the way forward, good fun.

Our time in Samaipata was not as eventful, but our accomadation was the best of the trip. We did do a treck to see some Condors and went to an old fort dating back from 1500 bc, but otherwise took things easy. Next was the most unconfortable overnight bus ever to Sucre, not because of leg room or seats, just that Bolivian roads are crap. Any how Sucre was a beautiful city but not so much to do apart from museums, we did the textile museum, which displayed traditional Bolivian weaving, but that was more out of boredom than anything else. Our next destination was Potosi, and again we managed to get a taxi for 15 pounds split 5 ways. 1 in the front, 3 on the back seat, bags on the roof, and Jo kindly in the boot (it was a 5 hour journey 4 on the back seat would be uncomfortble).