Feliz Navidad and revolutionary thoughts from Bolivia

Steve made a new friend - a red howler monkey in Samaipata where we stayed for 10 days. Samaipata is in the foothills of the Andes mountains and as new-age / trendy as small town Bolivia tends to get. Nearby is the ancient (pre-Inca) ruin known as "El Fuerte," it's full significance rather mysterious. The main part of the ruin is a a carved out temple-like area on a hilltop with various creatures, serpent, puma, jaguar for instance, carved into it. Some locals were planning a summer solstice celebration for Dec21 at that location but we had to move on before then.

Before we left Samaipata, we enjoyed hiking around & swimming at nearby waterfalls, "Las Cuevas."

From Samaipata we followed "La Ruta de Che" (the route of Che Guevara). Che was a Cuban revolutionary who came to the rural areas of Bolivia in the 1960s in hopes of starting up a campesino-led revolution in this country. Che was very involved with the Cuban revolution and during his time in Bolivia (and other countries such as the Congo before he got here) he was a marked man by the CIA in the United States as his was a Communist philosophy - and so a rigorous CIA-backed campaign in Bolivia led to Che's final capture & summary execution in a small schoolhouse in La Higuera, a town we visited. After he was killed, his body was then flown to another town Vallegrande and displayed in the laundry room of the local hospital for 2 days so the international media and others could come and it could be verified to the world that Che was dead. Here are the old sinks in the Vallegrande hospital's laundry room where his body was laid. It is still a hospital but as you can see this room has been turned into a veritable shrine to Che's honour with graffiti all over it, some of it addressing very contemporary issues. My favourite quote I think was "no mas Wall St."

Before we carried on further down la ruta de Che, we hired a taxi and went out of town to see a bit of ancient "arte rupestre," interesting figures on vertical rock. I was curious about what these creatures were exactly and what their significance may have been.

It was not at all easy to get to La Higuera, place of Che's last stand and death, but it was well worth the effort. The road to La Higuera was incredibly windy, narrow and mountainous. We were now right in the heart of the Andes and very rugged country. I cannot imagine what Che and his comrades must have endured as they tried to summon support for an armed revolution from the campesinos. They never did gain all that much support. Some people informed us it was mainly because the campesinos were scared of the military and also a bit confused by propaganda being put out by the government and military at the time. La Higuera has also turned into a shrine to Che's enduring revolutionary legacy.

It's a beautiful little town in the mountains, and the campesino culture is strong there. Animals wander through at will... pigs, cows, goats, dogs... the people spend their days up in the mountains working on the land. While there we did an interesting hike into a canyon to see the spot where Che was ultimately captured. A star marks the spot.

After La Higuera we carried on over a really intense road through the mountains to reach Villa Serrano. This road becomes impassable to smaller vehicles during heavy rains and requires quite a few river crossings. There are also many areas where the road simply gets flooded out. Much of the land in this area too is carried away by torrential rains when they come. Intense landscape! Villa Serrano was just gearing up for a traditional Christmas festival which unfortunately we had to miss as we had plans to get to Sucre. The campesinos came in from all directions for this occasion.... many on the backs of large trucks like this one parked in the plaza under the Christmas lights.

And so now we are in Sucre. Here is one Christmas activity this year - a little different than our regular skiing, skating, snowshoeing, tobagganing and sleigh-riding.... Christmas will be different this year.

FELIZ NAVIDAD!

jungle adventures in Bolivia

Well we did a major splurge and decided to go on a river boat tour down one of the biggest tributaries of the Amazon River, the Mamore River. It is the largest river of Bolivia and very wild. We headed to Trinidad in the Beni Region and there were met by folks from Fremen Tours who run the boat, the Reina de Enin.

Being on the boat was like being transported back in time to the 1920s or something and was very romantic. What a great way to travel a river. I could not help but think of the larger boats that used to travel the great rivers of northern BC, the Nechako and the Fraser. The food was great and after some roughing it here in Bolivia, it felt pretty decadent on the boat.

We saw monkey and river dolphins - these fresh water dolphins are very curious and came near the boat to check us out. The nights on the boat are full of jungle sounds. The diversity of life is astounding. The Mamore River flows through the Beni region of Bolivia, a low-lying area. During the rainy season - which will commence this month or next - much of the jungle in close proximity to the river - is completely flooded & then only accessed by canoe rather than foot.

The people (many of whom still live very traditional lives near the river and utilize dugout canoes with small engines to transport items) are fairly nomadic and their traditional houses are built up on stilts which serves the dual purpose of keeping critters out & dealing with rising waters during the rainy season.

It was hard to leave the boat and head back into Trinidad to catch the 10 hour night bus back to Santa Cruz. Here we are back on shore with the people & parrots relocating, probably from more rural areas into the larger urban areas (a continuing trend in Bolivia).

We then headed to Buena Vista, a small town on the road between Santa Cruz and Cochabamba. Buena Vista serves as a good launching point for a tour into the tropical side of massive Parque Amboro. To get into the park requires at least 4 river crossings with a couple of them being quite major rivers. No bridges... the vehicles (and horses) simply go right through the water so needless to say, during the rainy season, this road becomes impassable for a period of time (other than by canoe).

We went into the park for 2 days with a guide and stayed in a tent at a very rustic camp spot inside the park. We were actually camping right in the jungle with all sorts of creepy-crawlies crawling all over the outside of the tent and around the outside.

Bug-adverse people may not care for the experience all that much. It seemed like we had the whole place to ourselves -- other than the bugs & other jungle creatures. Here are only a few of the many butterflies we encountered.

This park is home to quite a few swimmable river holes and gorgeous waterfalls. Here is a particularly delightful spot where we enjoyed a marvellous swim - much needed in the hot humid jungle climate.

The trees of the jungle have so much character - here is a bibosi tree with its interesting roots growing all over the place and of course we saw many walking trees, those trees that seem almost to wander around the jungle floor in search of water, with their root system functioning as a kind of set of legs.

The creatures that dwell in the jungle are magical and diverse....

we even encountered one large white flying creature (about the size of a bat) that our guide did not know - maybe a vibora cucu (unfortunately I did not get a picture!)

Then back to Buena Vista where we stayed at a community-run (rustic) ecoalberque, Candeleria. Just down the road was a swimming pool & organic fair trade coffee plantation.... here I am enjoying a Buena Vista cappucino. Yum!

Yesterday we were lucky to get through a massive road blockade between Buena Vista and Santa Cruz. Some mototaxi operators are protesting extra fees they must now pay.... they shut down the entire highway and many people were stranded on the side of the hot highway for hours and hours so we were lucky to get through. But now, for the time-being, we are sort of trapped in the city of Santa Cruz (blockades on several routes out of here) so for now....

we are just hanging out.