Samaipata- mochilero central

I went to Samaipata this weekend. It is a 2.5 hour drive west of Santa Cruz. If you don't have a heart attack on the drive up from being hurled around corners at incredible speeds, dodging donkeys and dogs in the road, and avoiding head on collisions with other cars, you will arrive safely into this little haven of touristy goodness. There are a large number of Europeans in the town that own many businesses for tourists coming to see the waterfalls (shown above), ruins, and national park in the area. Adam from the orphanage (a volunteer, not an orphan) and I were thrilled to be travelling company for each other and be able to escape dusty dinky Montero. Highlights of the trip included visiting the zoo, eating non-bolivian food (no milanesas or papas fritas), meeting many europeans, staying at hostel owned by a texas man and his bolivian wife, pancakes for breakfast, ratatouille for dinner, chocolate brownies...I was just re-reading this paragraph trying to finish it and obviously my favorite part was the food. The hike to the waterfalls was also really incredible, as was the scenery. I loved it and am now ready to come back to the States, I guess.
On the drive home I sat next to a guy from Ireland, a mochilero (hippy backbacker type), he almost had me convinced to abandon my cares and take off for Argentina with nothing but a pack on my back. val-dir-ree, val-dir-rah, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

this is the hand drawn map a adam and i used to get around town, it actually got us where we needed to be. walking to the falls

adam at the top of the falls

look at those cool mtn. peaks the town of samaipata

sarah, you should get travis to build you one of these for the kids

adam was really into the fort and play equipment

this is one of the pet monkeys that lives at the zoo. they have a couple different monkeys that roam around free, this picture was taken 2 seconds after she saw me. At first glance, she walked towards me, then pulled on my clothing to hoist herself up to my arms, where she wrapped her little furry tail around my neck, put her little arms across my shoulders and buried her head into my neck, then she licked me. it all happened so fast, i wasnt very prepared for it. everybody wants some love, right? after she hugged me she climbed up into a tree. she wanted nothing to do with adam, i think he was secretly jealous that the monkey didn't choose him.

the end.