Trip to Samaipata

From Santa Cruz, Samaipata is only about 123 km away. However, it took us about 3.5 hours to drive there. The road doesn't allow for faster driving. Although some parts of the road are already paved, there are still sections where there is only clay and gravel.

A few weeks ago, Samaipata was in the news because a landslide had blocked the road. We didn't notice anything of it.

We stayed at Hotel Landhaus, which belongs to a German couple who have adopted eight children here in Bolivia. They have raised them and taught them German. So I can also communicate here.

One of our excursions was to 'Centro Ecologico Cuevas'. It is a park with three waterfalls and a hiking trail. It is impressive to see the water cascading down endlessly. The landscape here is also beautiful. Although we are at an altitude of 2000 m, the mountains are fully covered with trees. I have never seen mountains with forests before. And then the high mountains and the valleys. It is indescribable how beautiful this nature created by God Jehovah is.

We also made a second trip to the fern forest. The way there was already an adventure. Hard to believe in Germany. Imagine a dirt road just as wide as a car. There are potholes and bumps everywhere. It goes steeply uphill like a serpentine road. With the small difference that there is neither a guardrail nor signs nor any other safety measures here. When a car comes towards you, it is driven past each other millimeter by millimeter. We had to cross a small stream and slippery muddy puddles. It took us about 1.5 hours to get there.

Nevertheless, the journey is worth it! Visiting this rainforest is an amazing experience. Keeping a fern at home is a task, but here they grow to heights of 3 m, 4 m or even taller. Besides, ferns grow very slowly. One type here takes more than 40 years to grow 2 m tall.

The hiking trail can be described in the same way as the road. Rotten, slippery wooden logs show the way. Occasionally, a board is missing, a tree trunk lies across it, or the ground is super slippery and muddy. Another adventure to get through there safely. Right at the beginning, I sank my foot into a muddy puddle.

This trip showed me how small I actually am. How much bigger nature is and how much bigger God Jehovah must be, who created these ferns and allows them to grow.

And then our trip to Samaipata was already over.