At this point in the trip were were moving fast, which was not our original plan, and we were getting a little Bolivia'd out. The country is super cool but is also a little tough to get around in and was getting HOT. We arrived in Cochabamba from Potosi and decided we would just chill out. We ate a great Korean meal for lunch and then fried chicken for dinner. The next day we had horrible computer problems and in order not to lose some of our pictures we had to sit at a computer for 8 hours, taking shifts. It was shite. That night we saw a movie, Contagion. Good flick. Cochabamba doesn´t really have any 'sights' anyways but had a nice feel and decent central square. A real working town. It is also the city and region that supports the current president and is strongly pushing for the aforementioned road to go ahead.
À ce point de notre voyage, nous commencions à avoir envie de changement. La Bolivie est un pays très intéressant mais la chaleur et les difficultés de voyagements commençaient à nous énerver. Nous nous sommes donc rendus à Cochabamba pour quelques jours. Nous y avons bien mangé et avons vu un film dans un super cinéma. Nous avons passé une journée d'horreur à minimiser des problèmes d'ordi et de photos, par chance, il pleuvait! Cochabamba n'est pas la ville la plus attrayante côté tourisme mais c'est la région qui soutient la présidence de Morales vous les champs de coca des alentours.
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| The bus station in Cochabamba. Looks like most of the other ones. The buses were always on time. We never had any of the horror stories that some do with regard to overcrowding or the lights going out in the middle of the night on a mountain pass. The roads were a mix of pavement and gravel. The gravel ones usually hung to the sides of mountains. |
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| Just about the best thing we saw in Cochabamba - a sign saying ¨put garbage in the garbage¨. Urban Bolivians have little respect for the environment and as a result most of the country, especially around roads and river banks, is littered with garbage. |
Two nights in Cochabamba under our belt we left on a 12 hour day bus for the biggest city in Bolivia, Santa Cruz, which is in Southeast part of the country called the ´Chaco´. We crossed over a tropical mountain range and the bus was searched twice by counter drug police looking for illegal coca products being smuggled out. We had our passports checked and Elise´s small backpack was searched. When we told some people about this, mainly other travelers, they were suspicious as to the sincerity of the attempt. It is widely known that a large portion of Bolivia´s coca leave production goes to the production of cocaine. Once we made it into the Chaco proper two things changed almost immediately. First, there were no more mountains and everything went flat as a pancake. Second, the farms began to look a lot more prosperous and as we approached Santa Cruz we saw signs of actual industry - at one point there was a tobacco plant, a farm machinery distributer and a milk factor all side by side; this we didn´t see anywhere else in Bolivia. The province of Santa Cruz has long held a grudge against the rest of Bolivia, especially La Paz, because it is the real economic engine of the country. There is a strong independence movement in Santa Cruz and the word ¨Autonomia¨ was all over the place, usually alongside the province´s flag without the Bolivian one. The city is obviously much richer than the rest of the country´s cities and we soon learned it felt like it had more in common with Argentina than it does with Bolivia. It was cool to see the menonites in their suspenders and meshbacks cruising around the town too. Santa Cruz was also HOT so we decided to head into the mountains some 100km to the south for a couple of days at Samaipata.
Samaipata is set in very pretty mountain valleys at about 5,000ft altitude. Our driver on the way out tried to do a Mario Andretti impression, badly. He was terrifying. The place was noticeably cooler. The town has lots to offer but we were just interested in heading out to the El Fuerte site. El Fuerte was built around 2000 years ago and is believed to be the furthest west that Amazonian peoples made it. Nobody really knows what is was for, but the best theory seems to imply a religious site. The Incans then used it as, essentially, the terminus of their extent into the Amazon from their bases in the Andes mountains. Then the Spanish used it for a while, not to do much it appears. The site wasn´t really that mind boggling, especially when it cost about $10 each. I thought the signifance of what it represented meant something. However, what was fun, was touring it with a couple of young women from France. One of them had sailed to Venezuela as crew on a boat, then made her way to Lima where she met the other woman and they bought bikes and were in the midst of riding to Santiago Chile. We toured the site, then walked the 8km back to town, and then got very drunk drinking beer at a small stand. Next day we went back to Santa Cruz (in a much safer ride), watched a movie (the one with Anna Farris about ex boyfriends, terrible) and got ready to take an early bus to the border with Argentina the next day. The most exciting thing that happened in Santa Cruz was that a bank machine ate Elise´s card. We were later shown that it had expired - you think you think of everything eh? We had a friend´s address in Buenos Aires and her bank agreed to send it right away.
Après deux nuits à Cochabamba, nous quittons sur un bus de 12 heures pour la plus grande ville de Bolivie, Santa Cruz dans la région surnommée le «Chaco». Nous avons traversé une chaîne de montagnes tropicales et le bus a été fouillé à deux reprises par la police antidrogue recherchant des produits illicites de coca en contrebande. Nos passeports ont été vérifiés et mon petit sac à dos fouillé. Il est bien connu qu'une grande partie de la production de coca en Bolivie va à la production de cocaïne. Une fois arrivé dans le Chaco deux choses ont immédiatement changées. D'abord, il n'y avait plus de montagnes et tout était plat comme une crêpe. Deuxièmement, les fermes ont commencé à paraitre plus prospères. La province de Santa Cruz a longtemps tenu à rancune le reste de la Bolivie, La Paz en particulier, parce qu'il est le véritable moteur économique du pays. Il y a un mouvement indépendantiste fort à Santa Cruz et le mot "Autonomia" est un peu partout, généralement aux côtés du drapeau de la province bolivienne. La ville est évidemment beaucoup plus riche que le reste des villes du pays et nous avons vite appris qu'elle avait plus en commun avec l'Argentine qu'avec le reste de la Bolivie. C'était cool de voir le menonites dans leurs bretelles, salopettes et chapeau marchant autour de la ville. Comme il faisait de plus en plus chaud à Santa Cruz, nous avons décidé d'aller dans les montagnes à 100 km au sud à Samaipata.
Samaipata est située dans une vallée a près de 200m d'altitude. L'endroit était sensiblement plus frais. La ville a beaucoup à offrir mais nous étions tout simplement intéressé par le site d'El Fuerte. El Fuerte a été construit il y a envorion 2000 ans. Personne ne sait vraiment pourquoi on a construit un tel site tant à l'est, mais la meilleure théorie semble expliquer que c'était un site religieux. Le site n'était pas vraiment éblouissant, surtout parce que la visite nous a coûté 10 $ chacun. Nous avons visité le site avec deux françaises très sympatiques et pleines d'aventures et avec qui nous avons trinqués après la marche de retour de 8km. Le lendemain, nous sommes retournés à Santa Cruz, regardés un film et préparés notre départ vers la frontière argentaine. La chose la plus excitante qui est arrivée à Santa Cruz est que le guichet a mangé ma carte bancaire. Nous avions pensé à tout, mais pas à vérifier la date d'expiration de ma carte bancaire.(Merci aux amis d'Argentine, j'ai maintenant ma carte)
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| In the main square in Santa Cruz. The sign reads something like ¨Always free, Cruceños (i.e. people from Santa Cruz province) know it¨/Quelques signes d'indépendantisme. |
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| The scenery from El Fuerte, near Samaipata./La vue d'El Fuerte |
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| El Fuerte. These indents were carved out by the Incas./ Tombeaux où ont plaçaient les momies Incas. |
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