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Bach, being a favourite, had to be included when I found this fact…

None of us have become great fans of the roads here in Bolivia, even the main ones are largely unpaved so all of us were happy to take a flight from Sucre to Santa Cruz for the next bit of the trip. (There will be plenty of long bus journeys to come though I´m sure) From Santa Cruz, we got 2 taxis to Samaipata, a small town about three hours away.  Really great atmosphere here, very relaxed and much slower pace of life. It is a really veggie friendly town, with all the restaurants having a good varied menu, a novelty from what we´ve seen so far in South America. Tierre LIbre was particularly good aswell as Cafe Chakana and Latina Cafe. Also worth a mention is the French Bakery for yummy custard pastries!

And yes, we did actually do more than eat here. On the first day, we took  a tour to the inca ruins, “El Fuertes”.  Our tour guide Martin (a dutch guy, there are 25 different nationalities of expats living in the town) from Road Runners told us alot about the incas in general and about the site itself.

On the second day, we did a hike near Laguna Volcanes, very pretty with nice views. And so, that evening, came the big event of the year for the town, classical guitarist Piraí Vaca , apparently one of Bolivia´s most well known artists was on in the local church. We all trekked in, it was enjoyable but more of a Sunday afternoon activity than one for Saturday night. One of the local hippies broke up the boredom though when he decided to break out the rum and sit down in the middle of the aisle to clap out the beats on the floor.

For the four nights we stayed in Hostel Andorina, nice, clean and comfortable but the owners are a little weird and you would want to like cats!