The Other Side of Bolivia - Samaipata

Never thought I'd be sleeping on the street one day... until Samaipata. Actually it was a park bench, and it was not as uncomfortable as you may think, except for the mosquitos and roosters and lumbar pain. The next morning, for the reasons unknown I felt more connected with this charming little hippie town. Samaipata is not your typical South American travel hub. First thing first, it does not have a bus station, or ATM, or stable wifi... Are you still with me? The town is tranquil even during tourists high season, and the restaurant/bar selections are limited to say the best. What it lacks in traveling infrastructure, it makes up with abundant forests, waterfalls, ruins and hiking trails. 

The cuevas (waterfalls) makes an awesome day trip on a hot humid day. A shared taxi costs $4-5, take your beach towel, a picnic and go count the waterfalls or chill out at the small beach. Someone insists there are 7 waterfalls, I got stuck on a sandy beach after 5. Amboro park offers easy hiking trails and a surreal panoramic view at the top,  but it is recommended to hire a local guide as the trails are not always marked. Condor Mountain is another highlight, where the sighting of condors are almost guaranteed. Perhaps my favorite spot of the town is an unadvertised animal refugio (shelter), 40 minutes walk from the town center. 

 Every now and then on the road I find myself at a place I wish I could live for a month or two. And the animal refugio is one of them. Surrounded by scenic Bolivian countryside, this place is home to over 20 monkeys, a dozen horses, some permanent/temporary residents of dogs and cats, a deer, and a couple beautiful parrots, almost all of them have certain traumatizing experience and become incapable of surviving in an unprotected environment. It is here I met People, the little parrot who initially ended up in this shelter because he injured one wing. This little fellow was so playful he decided to poke on one of the monkeys, unfortunate for him, the monkey was having a bad time and he ripped off People's remaining wing. It was not easy to watch a bird crawling on the ground, but People was so affectionate and cheerful it was also hard to let go sorrow. People loved getting his neck scratched and he craves for the warmth of humans' palm.  

Forget about any fine dining experience in Samaipata. Locate the local market, climb upstairs to the comedor and order a couldn't-be-more-ordinary Bolivian dish from the cook for $2. If your Spanish skill is as pathetic as mine, a good strategy is to declare, for example, "I want to eat BEEF" (quiero comer carne) and the cook would usually offer you a range of beef dish in Spanish, I typically pick the smoothest sounding one before further investigating the ingredients, as I am always starving when I travel. Of course you can't afford to be too choosy about your steak cooked medium instead of medium rare, but you would be eating exactly what the locals have day to day, that, in itself, is enough to get me excited.

Finally, Samaipata is close to La Higuera, where the Argentinian Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara was captured and killed. If you, by any chance, are obsessed with The Motorcycle Diaries as much as I do, it's a must visit.