Getting to Samaipata was a pain. We had to break up the journey with a stop in Cochabamba. Karen was convinced that a lack of shower gel (and probably use of soap) was responsible for the Jorvik Viking Centre like smell on the bus. Then there was a strike and we were delayed by 3 hours, arriving after 9 pm – we hate arriving in the dark and then having to find a place to sleep. But there was a HI hostel near the bus station so we opted for that. How bad can a HI hostel be, it was in the Lonely Planet after all?! Sadly, it was a case of ‘We’re in the LP, so why try harder?’ and standards had slipped. It was one of the dirtiest rooms we have ever had, including Asia. The floor hadn’t seen a vacuum cleaner in months: we wouldn’t take our shoes off! The bathroom had a plethora of various hairs throughout it and we had to resort to sleeping bag liners and using our own pillow cases - we have only used these in one other place in South America. It wasn’t even cheap!
It was only one night, we told ourselves.
The next day, we discovered that we couldn’t get a bus direct from Cochabamba. We went to the very chaotic bus station to try to find a ticket and, after asking at a few desks, had no success. Then I spied the information desk and went over to it to ask. The woman on the desk was unhelpful to the point of bad manners. She shrugged and said we should go to the tourist information booth next door. And what time does the booth open? 5 o’clock this afternoon. It was 8 am. She then turned to help someone else.
We were fed up to say the least. At this point we decided to stuff the budget, fly to Santa Cruz and get a taxi from there. We also decided to transfer to a really nice (and expensive) hotel and go for an expensive meal. The budget went to pot but our spirits improved immensely!
Samaipata is a quiet little town set amongst low mountains (not the high altitude we have been used to – we could walk up hills without getting too out of breath!) The surrounding countryside is green and lush and was good to see after so much dust and rock. We headed up to El Fuerte – the ruins used by the Incas and by others a long time before them.
The ruins were different to anything we’d seen before. There was one long stretch of rock with thousands of different things carved into it: seating areas, niches for idols, inexplicable lines, snakes, pumas and other animals. The area dates back to 1500 BC and is surrounded by the remains of hundreds of dwellings. No one knows exactly what the area was used for - leading to the usual ‘We don’t know what it was for, therefore it must have been a landing runway for alien crafts’ nonsense.
It was my birthday while we were in Samaipata so we headed up the nearest mountain to enjoy the views and drink wine, just like we did on Karen’s. Somehow, while we were up there, Karen managed to spot a stick insect on a bush. While she was trying to show it to me it leapt, grasshopper like, to a new location. We spent the next 10 minutes trying to relocate it. This taught me two new things: 1) stick insects can jump unexpectedly well, and 2) they really are perfectly camouflaged. In the zoo, behind a glass case, with a label that tells you there are stick insects inside and there are loads of them, it is easy to spot them. In the wild, amidst a whole bunch of sticks it is incredibly difficult to spot them. Eventually I managed to catch it in Karen’s cap and take a picture of it before it leapt to freedom again.
For a supposed tourist hub, Samaipata itself was small and limited in places to eat. And as well as being difficult to get to it was also difficult to get out of.... argh!!!!!!!
|  | 
|
