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so, its been a while, weve got some catching up to do! Santa Cruz was a good spot, we didnt do too much there if the truth be told. that said we did spend some quality time in the "bar Irlandes". well, we made it out of Santa Cruz, less a few brain cells and got a bus to Samaipata, a small town on the back road to Cochabamba. Its about 4 hours (they tell you its 2 at the bus station) from Santa Cruz. we got there late and bookd into a hostel a couple of blocks from the square. The breakfast there was a vast improvement from what we were getting (coffee and bread, not even butter, Sandra was not in good form in the mornings!!). we were offered eggs, pancakes, bread, jam, coffee and freshly squeezed juice, we accepted. we had a chat with the hostel owner, an American ( hence the pancakes) and he told us we could hire mountain bikes from the village. at the bike shop we got sorted and the girl there gave us maps of the area. We decided to ride down the road to the "Cuevas" waterfalls 20 kms away. beautiful views all around us as we free wheel just about all the way there. at the falls we cooled down with a natural shower and walked upstream a bit. Rally nice there but we couldnt stay long as we wanted to get back before dark. we knew on the way down that it wouldnt be so easy on the way back up, gravity is a b!t@h!! 20 clicks later we made it back to Samaipata, and before dark. That deserved an icy cold beer. we went for dinner later, best meal Ive eaten in a LONG time. The next day we got taxi to El Fuerte, the largest carved rock in the world (see pics). it was carved by the inkas and, as a natural fort was taken over by the spanish. we walked back (10 kms, thats 50 kms legwork in 2 days, somethings gotta give) stopping at the river for a break. again we made it back before dark and then more food. We got the bus the next day (monday 7 april) heading for Cochabamba. the views as we wound our way up the mountain sides were amazing. as night fell we were above the cloud line and were apparently level with a full moon across the peaks. From here the journey deteriorated, we slowed to a crawl in places as the bus driver steered along parts of thee road that were barely wide enough to carry us, there had been landslides and sections of the dirt track road had gone. At one point he told us all to get off as he drove the bus over a dodgy bit of road alone, only for his baby daughter asleep on the dashboard. well we made it to Cochabamba at 4am and while most of the bus decided to stay there till the morning we opted for a bed. Cochabamba is a good sized town numbering maybe 1million. we spent a few nights here taking in all the good bits. they included Christ the Concord statue overlooking the town from a hill to the north, th market (largest outdoor market in S. America) which you could buy just about anything you would ever want from, including llama feotuses (lots of witchcraft down this way), cool!! we went shopping and found some drink, I got a bottle of Paddy whisky ( made in Argentina) that cost about 1 pound 50, sandra got some good ( cheap) wine and the rest is pisstory. so thats Santa Cruz to Cochabamba, another update to follow shortly, ps, if there are lots of typing errors you should se the keyboard im using, ive got blisters on my finger tips!!! ciao for now
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