Day Three - Santa Cruz to Samaipata (April 12, 2019)

Today, the path took us from the bustling Santa Cruz to our first high altitude in Bolivia. Once again, my attempt to get pesos from an ATM failed, but I stumbled upon an airplane next to the road. We had agreed with the driver who took us from the airport to the city that he would be at the hotel at 8:30 AM to take us to Samaipata.

He was punctual (his children attend the German school, and thanks to a scholarship, his daughter is studying abroad at a children's clinic near Stuttgart), but he had received other orders from the agency. So, he kindly took us to a trufi (a shared taxi) heading towards Samaipata. We kept the trufi driver busy by asking him to recharge our SIM cards. It wasn't easy to find the right office, and I didn't even know our phone numbers. But then the journey began, the three of us riding together at a special price - unimaginable that we would have had to cover the 115-kilometer distance on this bumpy road full of potholes and concrete bumps with other passengers. The distance deceives given that it still took us four hours.

The driver was initially not very talkative. It turned out that he had grown up in the mountains of Samaipata, having to travel an infinitely long way to school. One hundred children gathered there in tight spaces. The teaching duties were shared among six teachers. He grew up speaking Quechua, and his Spanish is very poor. Some of his family members still live in Samaipata, but the town is in the hands of foreigners. That was also our first impression, but after the first tour, we could appreciate the charming and well-maintained village. Our accommodation is a bit outside, offering a beautiful view of the mountains, currently obscured by fog.

The door couldn't be opened, no wonder, they had given us the wrong key when they handed us the room.

It is noticeably colder than in Santa Cruz. We will have to get used to it.