Relaxing in Samaipata
Trip Start
Feb 10, 2010
1
27
Trip End
Aug 11, 2010
Samaipata, Bolivia
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
We stayed in a hostel called La Posada del Sol run by an American guy (Trent) and his Bolivian wife who were absolutely lovely and so welcoming. The food, particularly the breakfasts were amazing too and no matter what time of day they would cook for you. On sunny days we would chill in the lovely garden and on rainy days (there was one or two) we watched movies in the comfy living area. We started to get far too comfortable though and it was getting harder and harder to leave, we ended up spending nine days here, although not all of that time was spent sitting around doing nothing.
The centre of the village has a picturesque main square with shady trees and weird sculptures where the locals rest on the benches and watch the world go by. The plaza is surrounded with little shops and restaurants, a church, a school, an internet café; there is everything you could possibly need here despite its relatively remote location.
The population is just 3,000 and there is a large ex-pat community of mainly Germans, Austrians, English and Dutch who have chosen to give it all up and set up home in this tranquil little spot of Bolivia. We started to get to know people after spending such a long time here including the funniest German guy Frank, who has lived here for 15 years and runs a tour company (Roadrunners) with two others. If we hadn’t already arranged to meet Frank we would normally bump in to him anyway and have dinner or drinks with him, he was such a great character and really made Samaipata an enjoyable time for us. We did all our tours through Frank’s company which included a trek to a canyon, an Inca ruins site El Fuerte and our highlight, the Che Guevara trail – which I have included as a separate entry.
It is a shame that more backpackers don’t come here as it has so much to offer; we enjoyed every minute of our stay here.
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