Samaipata

We left Santa Cruz for a two hour taxi ride to Samaipata. This taxi cost us 100 Bolivianos - that's about 7 quid. After a while we noticed that the taxi wasn't conventional:

There is something wrong here

Apparently this is quite common. Bolivia gets cheap second hand Japanese cars and converts them for local use. Obviously only the important things get moved. On those sort of roads, the speedo is only of academic interest anyway.

We stayed in a lovely place just outside town. Our room was very expensive (15 quid a night) and had a real fire in it. Although it was quite chilly outside, we were nice and toasty in beside the fire.

We met a French photographer and a South African couple (ex Manchester) and had lovely evenings by the fire chatting.

Build a Fire

Samaipata isn't a big place.

Middle of nowhere

The place we stayed at also had a magnificent cafe. Only open until 6pm, but very fresh tasty food. I was somewhat taken aback one lunchtime when my toastie arrived!

The smallest toastie in the world

All in all, we liked Samaipata. We ended up spending three nights there.