Oct 31, Monday

Oct 31, Monday

Too bad I only have 1 day to spend in Santa Cruz !   The temperature is in the high 20s and the humidity feels so good.   Oh !   And I can breathe normally again since we are at an altitude of only 1,600 meters above sea level.    

 Back courtyard and pool, Hotel Cortez

Today I have a full day excursion to the archaeological site of Samaipata.   It is only 125 km away from Santa Cruz, but it will take us over 3 hours to get there.   You guessed it:  up in the mountains again, probably some of it on dirt roads.  

Santa Cruz is in the Amazonian portion of Bolivia, so low lands, lots of agriculture, actually a fairly modern city.    It started really growing in 1952 after the road to Cochabamba was completed, linking it to La Paz.   In 1996 the population of the city was 730,000; today it is almost 2 million.   It’s a great place to work, so there is lots of migration within the country to this city.   The taxi driver last night referred to it as the “motor of Bolivia” since the south eastern portion has lots of oil and gas fields.  

My guide/guia  today is named Cintia  (Cynthia, I thought of you all day each time I called her name!)    She provided a lot of information along the way.   Technically there are only two seasons in Bolivia :  wet & dry.   They don’t refer much to spring or fall either but do mention winter (dry) & summer (wet… starts in Dec).    Lots of flowers everywhere and huge flowering trees as well.   There are flowers all year round due to the many varieties + it doesn’t freeze here.      It is also the “bread basket” of Bolivia since everything grows here (fruits & vegetables).   Road side stands were selling oranges, mandarins, and best of all PEACHES !    A very tiny variety with a pointy end instead of a rounded one, with light yellow flesh and extremely juicy.   OF COURSE I BOUGHT SOME.    Hello !    There aren’t any huge plantation of fruit trees like we see in Canada or the USA;  instead, each farmer grows a bit of everything so that he has something to sell all through the year.   A farmer might only have 10 or 20 peach trees among his various crops.

       Lluvia de oro ( Pluie d’or /Golden rain)  

{Bruno & Monique:  Ressemble beaucoup au Mimosa de la Cote d'Azure}

Arbol de fuego  (Arbre de feu /Tree of fire )

Cintia also indicated that the Cordilleras are the newest and still growing mountains in the world.  There are technically 4 eco-systems in Bolivia:    Alti-plano or very high plains (very dry),   Andean region (still high mountains but with more vegetation),   rain & cloud forests (lush growth with lianas)   and the Amazon region where we are now.

Saw some blue butterflies again today (twice now in Bolivia).   While explaining something in Spanish I suddenly had to translate Smooth Rock Falls =  Las cascadas de roca suave!    Doesn’t that sound a lot better?    (Juana:  If that’s not the correct translation, I don’t want to know, because I love the sound.)

We passed a lot of interesting places along the way, but one of the bits of information really through me for a loop.   Leprosy still exists in this country;  they have a special hospital for these patients, along with others who have some other type of skin eating disease that they contracted after being bitten by mosquitoes in the Amazon jungles.   That’s it !  That confirms it; I’m definitely not doing another jungle tour.

  Beautiful lush vegetation all along the lower road

We arrived at Samaipata (elevation 1,949 meters and also known as The Fort) in the low region of the Cordilleras just after 12 pm.   We climbed from the parking lot to the top of the mountain.   Of course we had to climb;  I don’t think I’ve ever been to an archaeological site where we would go down the mountain to find it.   But at least these weren’t stone stairs,  just piled up sand and stone held back by a branch of wood.    The view was spectacular.

On one side the Andean mountains, and on the other the Cordilleras mountains.   Very strategically placed site by the Mojocoyas between  800-1300 AD.   The Guaranis occupied it until about 1450 and then the Incas showed up and used it as a meeting and trading centre, but only for about 50 years.    Two suppositions as to why they did not stay longer:   1-There were no riches to be exploited   or   2-The Guaranis ran them off.   We will never know.   Some regional Inca rulers were weaker than others.

What makes this site so spectacular is that it is built, carved out of a huge sandstone composite monolith (Français:  un massif) which has been entirely CARVED into huge designs.  220 meters in length x 60 meters in width.   There are zoomorphic and anthropomorphic images, geometric patterns (long huge snake in which they poured some liquid and as the water ran down the design, it looked like the snake was moving up the rock),  niches,  benches,  channels.   Quote from the brochure “El Fuerte is considered as one of the most remarkable pre-Columbian ritualistic sites in the entire world”.   Not boastful at all.

  Miniature of the monolythic carved rock

  First view of the "ROCK"

  The snake

  The Inca wall and carved drawings below it

We walked around for almost 2 hours.   There are walkways and miradors around and over the site so that no one walks on the rock anymore.   It is surrounded by other archaeological findings which are being unearthed and partially reconstructed so that you really get a feel for what it was like.

  Cintia, my Guia

   Niches to hold mommies

  Carved benches

  Inca houses later occupied by the Spanish

  Tiny orchids found on site

  Tiny berries found on site.  DELICIOUS !

We left the site, drove on to the village of Samaipata which is referred to as being eternal Springtime. 

  Main square in the town of Samaipata

  Phone booth in the town, with locals having a chat

Headed back towards Santa Cruz, but made one last stop at Cuevas (private property) to see the falls.

  Gardens at La Cuevas

  Major waterfalls at La Cuevas

It was past 6:30 when we got back to the city and back to the hotel.   Since I had eaten a very late lunch I skipped dinner and tried to catch up on my blog.    (I prepare it on Word, then cut and paste into the Blog Spot.   I download photos from my camera to my lap top,  label each one, then decide which ones to add to the blog (Thanks again Colette for the trick of minimizing photos)  It’s an extra step to copy into a different folder and modify, but it makes it a lot faster to add to the blog.    Which helps to explain why I’m late with my updates.   After a really busy day I just don’t have the energy to concentrate on anything more.   Speaking Spanish all day, every day, is helping me improve my vocabulary and fluency, but my brain turns to mush after awhile.