A Couple of Paradises

17-25.05. Province of Florida, Bolivia

Wednesday:

Wasted another day hanging around the city and walking its streets, waiting fot the 4 pm micro from the terminal bimodal to Bermejo, the village near Ginger's Paradise. A man loitering around the information stand offered to show us the way to the micros going from the inter-provincial section, which we explicitly asked for, but instead tried to trick us into getting bus tickets to Samaipata from his agency, which would have been 40Bs instead of 8, and would not even gotten us to where we wanted to go. Of course, after we again explained we knew exactly what  we wanted, and only needed directions, he simply waved his hand in the general direction and left us quickly... this pissed us off somewhat, since we were still entertaining hopes of catching the bus on time.

Most of the time, we had only wonderful experiences with Bolivians, but at the bus terminals, they are incredibly aggressive and annoying.

We found out at the micro section that our bus plans were outdated, and the bus had left half an hour earlier, so we had to wait for the last micro at 7:30pm. When he saw us hanging around the terminal, the guy from the bus company tried to convince us again to take his bus... fat chance we would have taken that company, after he held us up before. Since the bus we caught was the last, we arrived at Ginger's around 11. No-one was awake and we camped in a kind of tree plantation, the type of which I never found out.

Thursday through Saturday:

Ginger's is a permaculture farm located 2km east of Bermejo, a pueblo (= collection of about 5 huts). Run by Christobal and Sol with their three children, of whom we met Dissy, 12, and Ginger, 6. I have no Idea if I spelled all the names correctly.

There are 2 large meals a day, made mainly from the food they produce themselves, and an evening snack. To reduce the amount to be paid per night, you can work for 2 hours a day on whatever needs doing -- they advertise learning how to make cheese and milk cows, but we saw no cows, and the most important work was picking Hibiscus petals they sell and make tasty jam of. On the third day we got to fee a field of weeds with machetes, which was good fun, but otherwise the work was annoying. The worst part is that, usually starting around 11am, the work cuts the day in half quite effectively, and no other larger activities can be undertaken.

The family, while often strange -- I had discussions with Chris on Tesla's most famous invention, the perpetuum mobile, and on the sun's interior being all ice -- is very nice (and Sol a great cook), and the same can be said of the other guests lodging there, Aurelien again, and Yoris and Lars from the Netherlands, Laura from London, and, on our last day there, Conrado (kon'hado) from Rio, and Annabell from Germany.

In the evening, we gathered on the porch, for music, games and entertainment. We played, amongst other things, chinese and and watched a game of japanese chess. Chris knows Go, but doesn't have a board, so I was deprived of a chance to play (Doro has become sick of it in Germany).

There is a beautiful river for swimming after work, and the hills around the valley are scenic, but there are few possibilities to hike, and as the work, as mentioned cuts the day in half, Doro felt penned up soon.

We left on Saturday, the 21st of May, which apparently was the end of the world, according to some Bolivian media. I hope you enjoyed it!

Ginger's is still quite expensive for Bolivia: we payed 50Bs pp each night, while camping and working, and we had to pay another 40Bs for the breakfast the both of us enjoyed on Saturday. We caught a Samaipata Taxi (30Bs together for one hours drive), and found El Jardim, a hostel/camping ground generally recommended, which costs 15Bs pp, no food, when camping. Nicely located near the market , it really is a garden, and I can add our recommendation, too: 15Bs camping, 30Bs for the dorm, and 110Bs for a small hut with a private bath -- the latter being probably too expensive, you shoud be able to get better prices from hotels in the city. El Jardim is also a great place to meet other backpackers, from many different nations: We talked to french, a greek, a czech, argentinians, peruvians, germans and, above all, australians, during our stay.

Sunday:

Hiked to El Fuerte, an archaeological site near Samaipata, the central part beeing a large rock, ca 60x200m, carved mainly with seats of different sizes and shapes, with no apparent order.

The site itself was something of a letdown after all the hype before, because there are very few explanations around, and I'm used to better in Europe. But then, the wikipedia article is very short, so hopefully we funded new archeologica investigations and better tourist information with our 50Bs.

The hike from the 9km distant Samaipata, though, was very nice, and Bolivia once again revealed tçits beautiful side. Also, Bolivians again belied the rumor that they are less friendly than surrounding nations: we were asked again and again by passing busses and cars if we wanted a ride there, or back. We actually had to learn the word for "walk" -- camionar -- and "truly" -- verdad! -- because some could not comprehend people wanting to do that.

Monday & Tuesday:

Torrential rains in the morning showed us that the tent is not watertight. Though it keeps the dew in quite nicely -- and unnecessarily -- the rain kept dripping from the tent roof. We quickly packed our stuff into the backpacks and thanked yog we could put them under a roof instead of being out in the wilderness.

At least the rain was a good opportunity to get together with the other guests. We had exhausting but interesting conversations with a french guy, who spoke only French and Spanish, but understood English to some extent, which culminated in juggling lessons. I'm still bad, but at least I suck in totally new ways. Traded (well, recieved, mostly) great travelling tips from the people there, mainly with Dom and Georgie, from Cooma, Australia, but also with Wez and Kerrie, from Perth (also Oz). A German Yoga-Guru (Yogi?) wetted our appetite for India, and we met a German-Peruvian family without permanent residence: they travel from India and South America, where they buy clothes, to Germany, where they sell them to stalls at festivals, and also sell home-made jewellery at said festials. 

We walked around a bit, after the rains stopped, and were rewarded with a most amazing view from a mountain maybe 2 hours by foot out of Samaipata. We had forgotten the camera, though, so there are no pics. Densely forrested smaler peaks melted into a long, narrow (~5 km) plain full of fields and dotted with villages. On the other side of the plain, the small, craggy foothills, immediately forrested, rose to meet high mountains whose peaks where hidden in some clouds. Just walking around pays off in Bolivia.

On Tuesday, we decided to loiter another day. Finally found some Coca leaves to chew (a bag of maybe 500ml with a good sized chunk of the activator goo, whatever it is, costs 4Bs), which is interesting (the mouth is numbed a bit), and gives you energy in a more subtle way than caffeine does, I think.

Wednesday:

Dom's birthday. We got him beer for breakfast, which went down well :)

Left for La Paz, by way of Cochabamba, in the company of Yasmin, from near Stuttgart, who luckily was smart enough to spend 4 weeks on a Spanish class in Argentina. To get there, we had to take a collective taxi to Mairana, the next village on, and get on the 3 o'clock bus to Ccbb, the only one around, arriving at 4am. The taxi driver screwed us over slightly: After some haggling, we agreed on 15Bs for the three of us, but in the end, he demanded 20. The lady selling bus tickets then demanded 40Bs each, although we had been told by the wife of the guy managing the hostel it was 35. Not really a lot of money, but you still feel treated unfairly.

The ride was in an uncomfortable old bus, and quite rough, but very scenic, over the old mountain road.