Ravens Travels

Okay so after the hassle of having to backtrack in Paraguay to get the bus we wanted we arrived in Santa Cruz, Bolivia on May 10th. Our accommodation of choice was Residential Bolivar. For a double room with shared bathroom it costs 120 bolivianos (about $15). The courtyard is a very relaxing place with hammocks to while the hours away while watching the permanent residents, two toucans. One shy, while the other is cheeky and plays biting games with guests. Don’t get me wrong he’s not vicious, just playful and Arjan swears it doesn’t hurt. Hopefully the photos turn out

The city itself is nice and clean in the center, it’s quite a sprawling city and near the bus station isn’t the nicest.

The street of our hostel was shut down, as there was a sit in demonstration for disabilities, the posters covered deafness, blindness, lost limbs and wheelchairs. From the day we arrived till the day we left four days later they were sitting there 24 hours a day. It seemed to be a peaceful demonstration made up of all ages, from a baby a few weeks old to a man in his eighties; it’s just a pity that the street was turned into a public toilet. There was also a demonstration and mini march around Plaza 24 de Septembre. It only lasted a few hours but trouble was expected. Armed riot police overlooked the group of indigenous protesters chanting anti political words.

As we still weren’t sure if we had seen condors we headed off to the Santa Cruz zoo (price 10 bol), its bigger inside then it looks. We discovered besides seeing condors from a great distance learning how to fly we hadn’t actually seen any before then. So now I just have to figure out what birds are in the photos The best part in the zoo is a large cage, which you can walk into and either take a tiny stroll or sit and watch the birds fly over and around you. It’s a very relaxing place to sit. Outside the zoo are telephone boxes shaped like parrots, though they were unique but we’ve seen them a few times now.

As the spiderman 3 movie had just come out we tried to find a cinema to see it but lo and behold the ones we knew about were either shut down for a long time (judging by the state of the buildings), had turned into churches (don’t ask) or were closed early. So we headed for a quick drink in the Irish pub, we had decided to give it a second chance. We’d been there during the week and though the layout and music were good the service was absolutely terrible. The pub has many waitresses, too many really, who either stand at the bar chatting or all shout the orders at the three equally confused barmen. The barmen all seem to try to catch all the orders and then get themselves into a knot. For example we were sitting right beside the bar but the barmen had a waitress take the order and then it proceeded to take 20 minutes to get two bottles of beer in a quiet pub... but we gave it another chance because we were told it was good and we probably got it on a bad day.... well we went back, service improved a tiny bit but if you’re in town you’re better off going somewhere else. Anyway after a few drinks we headed back to the hostel to hear some really good music coming from a balcony. We sourced it to the upstairs Lorca Cafe on the square, a local blues band, La Maga was playing. So the band and the cafe saved the night, but not counting what we drank led to really sore heads the next day.

On the Monday we caught a shared taxi (25 bol each) for the 2.5 hour journey to Samiapata. We checked into La ´Posada del sol, run by Trent and Rosario. They’re a really friendly family. The room itself was a spacious spotlessly clean double room ensuite with a separate area in the corner with laundry sink. May sound like a small point but its a nice touch. The balcony with comfy chairs enjoys a view of the surrounding mountains. The damage as they say for this was 80 bol/ $10.... not bad.... oh and they also had the best breakfasts of any of the places we’ve been to... In the town there seems to be a lot of foreigners living there, we found out later it appears this way because they’re all in the tourist or food trade, there are about 50 out of a population of 3000. It means though that the standard in a lot of the places is higher then you would originally expect from a small town. The best restaurant in town for food, drink and a really nice atmosphere is Latina Cafe run by a friendly French owner and his Bolivian wife (who doubles as chef). They told us that it took them 5 years to build the place but it looks great. The town has many agencies and tour guides but I found the best one to be the German run roadrunners. The guys are really friendly and helpful and they have a large book exchange, which I really needed at that stage. They also have weather information and can tell you all about the local area without pressuring you into buying tours. They even advised one customer that for their requirements of staying in the Omboro Park they should book with the Dutch run, Ben Verhoef tours, as they were the only group licensed to negotiate with the lodge. We were also thinking of doing one of bens tours taking the old trade route to Sucre combined with part of the Che route but at $250 it was over our budget.

On one of the days we went to the museo Arqueologico. Here we met with a Belgium couple who had been traveling for eight months and had only 4 weeks left. They were a bit depressed about it. I wonder how we will feel when it’s our turn to be counting down days. Enviously enough they did the Mongolian express from Russia to China...that’s something I would love to do in the future. Anyway the museum wasn’t very good and the video was cheesy, but the ticket of 32bol also included entrance to the UNESCO world heritage site - El Fuerte, the remains of a pre Inca ceremonial site. Though the site was interesting it was a bit dissappointing, some of the etchings that I had expected to see had either been covered with mud/moss or were too far away to see. As it was a nice day we'd got a taxi up to it (30 bol) and walked the ten km back. The views of the valleys were well worth the uphill struggle at times. Though the walk as a whole wasn’t hard and quite quick to do.

From Samiapata we got a bus to ValleGrande for 20 bol each. While waiting for the bus we met up with Anat from Israel who has been traveling for eight months through central and south America, though she has another four months to go and wants to see everything she admitted she was getting tired. In town we checked into Hostal El Marques, which had been recommended by Trent and Rosario. It was more a hotel though then a hostel. The room was huge, ensuite, TV and balcony for $10. After dropping the bags we met up with Anat who only had a few hours in town before catching her next bus. We headed to the Che museum; it was quite a morbid place, filled with various photos from different angles of his dead body. He had been shot nearly 40 years ago (in oct) in the nearby town of La Higuera. After been shot his body was moved to Vallegrande were it was put on show in the laundry room of the local hospital. The museum has photos of people posing beside the body and in the accompanying texts some admit to not knowing who he was while others had heard of him but didn’t realize he was close by looking to start a revolution. Its a pity when you hear he was in the wrong place and that if he had been in Potosi he would have been welcomed as they were looking to start something at that time. The museum ticket of 10 bol covers all the local Che sites so we headed to the laundry room.

It feels strange to walk through the hospital grounds, past open wards, queues of sick people and washing to get to the old laundry room. It’s quite small and covered in graffiti. A local man proudly points out were people from our respective countries have left their marks while we stand there and cringe. He also seems to take delight in asking if we would like to see the area were Che´s hands had been cut off. After this we take a taxi to the site near the airport were his body had been originally buried in an unmarked grave. The site is undergoing repairs but then to be honest there is not much to see there anyway. Previous to general Vargas 1995 admission to the whereabouts of Che´s body it has gone by unnoticed.

In 1997 the Bolivian and Cuban governments worked together to move his body to Cuba. Later in the day we had dinner in the local restaurant El Mirador. The food was filling which was good as we were all starving. There’s no menu, you get a choice between beef, chicken, fish and pork. It’s served with rice, chips, and salad. The next day we started to feel the effect in the changes in altitude, to be honest we didn’t expect to feel it so soon, Its horrible to be out of breathe all the time when you know if you were lower you’d have no problem with the little walks around town. So we took one easy day for Internet and to try to get tickets to Sucre. This proved harder then we thought. The first company said we had to catch a bus to Matarrel and if we were lucky we might catch a bus around 7ish, this all sounded a bit dodgy and the girl wasn’t very helpful so we headed to the other office, El Senator, on the same street as the hospital. The lady here was really friendly, we were to get a bus the following day to a town that wasn’t on our maps Sorreano and from there after a few hours (3 or 4 we understood) we would transfer to another bus to Sucre. So the next day we got the bus around 2 and discovered that we were in fact taking the old trade route we’d wanted to do before. The scenery was beautiful and though we couldn’t stop and take photos it was nice to see it. Though some of the roads were scarily tighter on the side of the cliffs, especially some of the bends. We arrived in Sorreano at 8pm and were told that our next bus wasn’t until 7am the next morning. We had totally misunderstood! After walking through the plaza while been gaped at we found the only place in town to stay, Alojamiento Central. A room ensuite was 50bol. ($6) The room contained four rusty squeaky beds that had seen better days. The room smelled of an old damp and musty area that hadn’t been aired in years. The bathroom was disgusting and as I don’t want to ruin anyone’s appetites I won’t describe the stains. But we had nowhere else to stay and it was only for a few hours. It came accompanied with a group of girls who stood outside giggling; Arjan had managed to get his own fan club. It turns out that they don’t get many foreigners and especially not tall blonde pony tailed men. So though the room was horrible, all we could do was get a fit of the giggles, only us, its just typical, but hey we got to see another side of the country.

The next morning we were at the bus stop before six as instructed to secure our seats and join the queue. There was no way we wanted to miss the bus. We arrived in Sucre tired and happy. We’d just calculated that we had done the tour we had wanted in our own way for a lot less, accommodation in both towns, food, transport, entry freshet cost us $40 each compared to the tour price of $250, which hadn’t included all accommodation and food.

So we decided to go to Paraguay via Posada in Argentina for less border problems. Our original choice of hotel in Posada was booked out, or so they say, the place was more up market then we originally were told and they don't take kindly to backpackers, especially ones who had just gotten off a dusty bus...We found a nice place around the corner, and nice by a lot of standards and not just ours....hehehe... Not much to say about the town as it was a stopgap for us. The next day we caught an early bus to Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay.

This is done with much anticipation, as we don't know what to expect. We can't find a guidebook on it, the information on the web is inclusive and (boo hoo) some travel helpers didn't reply to Arjans query...so finally after the ease of travel in Argentina we had a bit of a challenge on our hands. The information we did have was a couple of pages from the lps south America on a shoestring...When talking to other backpackers most generally looked vacant and said cool but why or gave us a lecture on how other countries have so much more to offer and why waste your time, no one goes there.... but that was half the appeal to be honest

Anyway we pass through the Argentina border with no problems then we reach the Paraguay side. An official goes off with everyone’s ids and passports to get the visas etc; on the large bus there is only about 10 passengers so there was plenty of space to relax. As we sit there we watch as a dozen men start to walk to the bus. No. Not new passengers but "del boy" sales people. They open they're jackets to reveal walking shops, as long as you don't ask questions you can buy jewelry, cameras, watches, gadgets, souvenirs, cosmetics, bags.etc...anything they can carry, after a few minutes two cars pull up and eight more people board the bus trying to sell things, its getting ridiculous, there are more of them the passangers. Children also approach with candies and sweets.... soon another bus with more people pulls up and the sales peoples all leave to chance there arm with the new victims...As we get our passports back we're told welcome to Paraguay, what am introduction to the country (especially when we knew the border crossing on brazils side had the worst reputation for contraband goods, weapons and drugs.)...

We drive to Asuncion through some contradicting scenes, there are some really expensive modern homes and buildings beside some run down shanty towns that reek of stale urine, sometimes the smell is so strong you can smell it through the windows a few more blocks after you've passed by. We reach the town by late afternoon. It’s a sprawling city with many broken and unpaved red roads. Some of the women appear caked in the red clay and pretty soon the dusty air and sweat paints us similarly. Our Hotel is Hotel Miami, for a double room ensuite it costs 100,000 guiranis, bit more then we thought so we try our luck at a discount, so a little haggling and we get it for 90,000 without breakfast. The hotel itself is quiet and in the center of town, the staff are friendly and the place is secure, an inside gate can only be unlocked by the receptionist and is always locked... It’s not the most up market place but when you're on a budget you just want somewhere to crash that’s cleanish. Strange part is the John Wayne tapestry that’s outside our bedroom...

The city has a strange feel to it, by day there are a lot of police walking or sitting looking bored tapping very large heavy guns, On the Friday there appears to a peaceful demonstration and public talk in the plaza uruguaya. Policemen paying acute attention, down all the surrounding alleys, are watching it carefully and streets are groups of waiting heavily armed riot police. It’s as if they're waiting for a major fight or trouble but nothing happens and they traipse the streets in the afternoon back to their usual faces of boredom. When walking around town we see more contradictions that followed the journey into town, there is the Palacio de Gobiero that is a stones throw from the tin houses of the prostitutes that work plaza indepencia in the early hours. There is the camona de diputades; a very well equipped expensive building that’s huge glass windows mirrors the shantytowns that overlook the river. Food wise, well in general it was okay, noting to write home about, especially after being spoiled in Argentina. One thing though is the Confiteria Bolsi; it has the best burgers ever. In general, though we expect the deteriation of the city we expected more historical buildings, a bit more colonial architecture but then we didn't know too much about the place to start so I can't be too disappointed. The local tourist office proves to be very helpful.

Originally we were going to go down south and visit a national park but due to time restraints and the fact that we've already just recently seen many butterflies, which is one of the main attractions, we skip it. The time restraints are down to a boat trip. We wanted to travel on the Rio Paraguay and were advised that though many people travel from Asuncion to Concepcion it is nicer to travel from Concepcion to Bahia Negro. The girl in the tourist office assures that there are buses from there to our next destination of Filadepfia. So we packed our bags and got the bus to Concepcion, the early buses are a bit of a killer.

Concepion is about six hours north of the capital. We pass through some sparse scenery that is full of some beautiful birds. It’s a bird watchers paradise. The colours and amazingly diverse. In Concepcion we check into Hotel Center which is 35,000 for a double room ensuite with fan, or 60,000 with air -con. The evening we arrive Sunday seems to be good timing. There is a local celebration in relation to a local regional moto cross competition. The streets are brimming with people on scooters or in 4*4 jeeps blasting music from huge speakers. There is a mood of excitement and celebration; I'm presuming that whomever they support did very well. We check in the hotel about the boat and we find that we are just a few blocks from the dock were we can arrange everything. Heading down there the next morning we wander aimlessly around the port, we try to figure out who to get tickets from but nothing is very clear. The boat is docked and we can see crewmembers fixing it up, doing basic repairs and starting to load some of the goods and cargo. A security guard directs us to the offices - the green building- the colour is faded and pealing and not easily spotted but we get there. The guy in the office tries to be helpful but our understanding is terrible. At the start we thinks it’s our poor Spanish letting is doing and start to berate ourselves for not knowing more but then we realise that he's actually speaking the national language Guarani. Two French guys approach us; they too want to do a similar journey with the car they bought in Chile. They’re traveling for about four months. Their car though is too big for the boat so they strike a deal with a different boat and head that day but before they go they help us and act as translators, their Spanish sounds near perfect. We find out the boat leaves every Thursday at 11, so the following day, it reaches Bahia Negra on Friday but as its the rainy season the roads or non roads as he describes are wiped out, we'd be stuck so we instead decide to go to Puerto Olimpo which arrives on the Thursday but he assures us that there are onwards buses out of town. He also says to sleep its good to have hammocks, so with our tickets in hand we went to pick up some locally. The next day we get to the docks around 10 as told. The boat is already overflowing with people and produce. This after all is not tourist boat but a local way to cargo transporter. Though we expected some of it we didn’t realise how full the boat would be. We find out later that there is between 200 and 250 people on board and this is the norm...The boat is filled with fresh fruits, vegtables, drinks, breads, baskets, sweets, clothes etc....its bursting at the seams. No wonder there was no room for the French guys car...As we walk around we see the boxes are piled high and that there are hammocks hanging from every available space. You guessed it problem number one, we possibly have no were to sleep for two days...We finally find the only place left to stand at the back of the boat near the stairs. We’re right beside the showers and toilets. The smell can be overpowering and mixed with the smell of food and fresh produce it’s a real strange mixture. We’re also close to the engines so the heat is intense. But we decide instead of turning around and getting straight off, we’d give it a chance and with some luck the scenery would be amazing and we’d see some amazing wildlife. We’d been told that you could see monkeys, loads of birds and some really nice scenery. On the boat its like musical chairs, if you move you lose your seat and this is how we gain some seats after a few hours...Good thing too, we were starting to get sore legs. The saving factor in the end isn’t the scenery, we saw nothing at all!!! Its nice but not mind blowing...the saving factor is the people, we were in the rural areas and they don’t get many tourists and they made us feel so welcome. They were among some of the friendliest people we’d ever met and some of them were very entertaining. It turns out that there were three travelers in total on the boat, us and a young polish guy who was taking two weeks off from his Brazilian college exchange course.

Okay I’m going to attempt to describe the people but I know I’m not going to do them much justice....

Were we are sitting there is a mother and child with so many boxes that they take over a long bench. They’re very quiet but very smiley. The son keeps smiling and staring at us, he looks like he wants to say something and after 12 hours or so comes over and says quick hola and runs back very proud of himself. There is a large man sitting beside me that seems to know a lot of people as many stop by to talk to him, he’s treated with a lot of respect. I’m just jealous that he has a seat and a hammock space, not fair!! There is a cheeky smiley elder man who tries to start a conversation with Arjan, its strange, they talk to me through Arjan, they direct all the questions for me through him. And no it’s not a matter of understanding differences but how they treat women. Anyway after a few minutes of talking to the smiley cheeky guy and its turns to a debate about which countries have the best beers and which countries can drink a lot. He seems to have a lot of respect for the Dutch and Irish drinking prowess. He seemed to adopt us and kept making sure we had enough to drink and eat, though he didn’t have much himself he kept offering us beer and chocolate.... very funny guy but we stuck to our water, well after carrying 5ltrs we wanted to get rid of some of the weight of it There is a quiet man who watches everything, he doesn’t say much but smiles kindly and keeps checking we’re okay. There is a young man who moved to the area a few months back, as a recently qualified doctor. He has good English and quickly becomes our translator and source of information. Through him and the group around us we find out that our plan is doomed, the roads at our stop our washed away from a rainfall from the previous week. After talking to him about all the main stops with useable roads and getaway plans we decide to get off earlier then expected at Vaille Mi. The stop is the following evening so that means only one bad nights sleep on the wooden seats that are sending our backs numb with pain. The town is supposed to have one hotel (Paroda) so we’ll have somewhere to sleep and three possible ways to leave town, there is a flight every Friday to the capital for usd 45, and from there we could catch a bus to Filadelphia, a bus service that depends on road conditions and if the worst happens return boat journey at the weekend. The man in charge of the engines comes around to our part of the boat quite a lot, as his luggage is stored there. He is a character and knows everyone. He is also the man in the know. He managed to secure the last hammock space for the cheeky smiley guy; it’s even in one of the best positions on the boat. Mr. Engine guy also has the hairiest back I’ve ever seen but that’s not the strange thing, its very patchy, its as if someone waxed inch cubes sporadically on his back. His vest is ripped and filthy and his shorts are an indiscript colour, but he seems to be a very clean person, as he always seems to be coming back from the shower area with his washing, always underwear. We know this because below one of the seating areas in front of us there are holes- windows into the engine room and he’s hanging his clothes through the holes on nails to dry. I’m not sure if everyone has noticed as they’re using the holes to rest their feet. There is a young couple on the other side of the toilets that stare at us all the time. The girl is the only person on the boat who appears hostile, my back knocked her slightly when we boarded but so did everyone else’s, that can’t be the reason but from her looks you’d swear I got up and slapped her in the face, ah well that life. Her boyfriend has a blank bored look. No idea what he’s think but doesn’t appear to be much. Though our position on the boat may be accompanied by a distinct smell I wouldn’t change it, its great for people watching and the group we’re in our great. Its also convenient for the shops on board, some of the market sellers are not waiting till they get to the markets to start selling, main meals are around 11.30 and 6, otherwise there’s plenty to buy and eat. That evening some of the older guys in the group refuse to sleep until I’m in some sort of sleeping position, even allowing me to use their ice boxes as foot rests even though they’d spent half the day telling other people not to lean on them. They’re very into chivalry and respect, its really nice. That night between millions of possessed demon mosquitoes and taking turns with Arjan to lie down on the bench there wasn’t much sleep to be had. The next day everyone on the boat was up around five, we looked like zombies... Later that morning we met the polish guy who is studying in Brazil, we didn’t know he was on board before then. He was also trying to determine how to change his plans because of the rainfall and had it half sorted out. There was a polish missionary priest on board who had been living in the area for over thirty years who would bring him part of the way. He offered to bring us to and though it was a really nice gesture we didn’t know how we would get from the place he would leave us, we’d probably have to walk over 100km, in our state we thought it was better to decline. We also found out from the doctor that we could get off the boat earlier by a few hours and catch a bus to the town of vaille mi. So feeling stinky and looking like part of a slashed zombie movie we got off at a stop called three mountains. It meant we could check into the hotel a lot earlier; after all it was now few nights without good sleep. Local young men agreed to show us to the bus stop and were the hotel was. It was really nice but before getting to the hotel he got off the bus early (we didn’t know this) and paraded us through town like zoo animals calling out to people that he didn’t even appear to know. He was a nice guy but I wanted to kill him, we were in the midday heat with little energy, sweating buckets and the backpacks seemed to be getting heavier with every step and on top of all this he had a bad knee and picked up his scooter and was sitting comfortably. Anyway enough moaning the hotel turned out to be a bit expensive at $20 for a double room but worth it. It was spotlessly clean, comfy bed and a good shower. The next morning we caught the 5.30am bus back to concepcion, we had been told it was rapido and that we would be there by midday, and we were just happy to be able to keep moving for 60,000, it was a way out and lot cheaper then the plane. The scenery from the bus was really nice, so many birds etc, it was what I was expecting from the boat. At around 10am the bus came to a stand still, everyone had to get off the bus and carry all their belongings, climbing over a fence and then walk 40 minutes on a hot day through a farmers muddy field. With swear pouring down everyone’s flushed red faces we kept up a quick pace as if you stood anywhere too long you started to sink in the mud up to your knees. When we got to a part of the bus we boarded another bus, we had just swapped buses with the passengers going the opposite way. There was no other way to pass and the rod was a rover in parts and huge trenches in between. After that we had to wait an hour for all the baggage and cargo to be swapped. Eventually we got to town three hours later then expected muddy, tired, ready to drop but still smiling. We went back to the same hotel and decided that three days of little of no sleep meant we should check in for two days to recover. But between the heat and those evil possessed mozzies we got no sleep, mixed with a place were the water was temperamental which meant no showers we were wrecked.

We left town on the 7.30 bus to filadelphia , a town that had been set up by Russians and Germans. Many people in the town spoke German so yippee we ´d be able to understand, okay Arjan would!! Come on in job if you didn’t understand German you couldn’t do the job fairly. Walking through town there are clear divides between the original local people and the new groups. The hotel we’re staying in has 24 up market rooms with silent air-conditioning, mini fridges, ensuite and TVs for 120,000 g or like us you can get one of the budget rooms for 60,000. These rooms have shared bathrooms, noisy aircon, nothing fancy, cells really but somewhere to sleep. It’s a good hotel and considering the good we’ve had lately the attached restaurant is great. But yes you guessed it loads of mozzies and flies, mostly hovering around the showers.... The bite marks are now competing with my freckles, and they’re numerous. After a few relaxing days walking around and sleeping we were hoping to get a bus to Santa Cruz in Bolivia without backtracking but the info we had was wrong so we had to back track to the capital and get the bus from there.

The journey though long at 22 hours was really nice and took in some of the Chaco scenery....