Back To Reality

Well my posts kind of petered out the last couple of days because we were traveling so much and the wifi was sporadic at best.  Two days ago I was sitting in one of Ernest Hemingway's favorite bars in Havana drinking a mojito in 30 degree weather and this morning it was -22 and my truck wouldn't start.  How is that for a welcome home!!  So this is the end of the journey and I sit here at my desk thinking how lucky I am to have been born in Canada and have the opportunities I have.  Both Bolivia and Cuba have some grinding poverty and crushing bureaucracy that limit what people can do with their lives and define the experiences they will have over a life time.  Only the fortunate, educated, privileged few will escape those chains.  Here in Canada, the world is your oyster   It was a great experience with great people.  

Havana bound

Managed to get a couple of hours sleep on the plane. Not feeling too tired.  In Panama City international waiting to board the next leg.  

One of our little friends

This guy was pretty friendly.  We often found him lying on the door mat in the morning looking for attention. The owner has a yellow lab named Duke, 2 small dogs ( Michael and Angelo) and 3 cats.  Duke was pretty nice.  I wanted to take him back with me.   

Heading for Havana

It's 10:45pm and we are getting ready to head to the airport for   Our trip to Havana. The flight leaves at 2am and gets us to Havana around 10:30 am with a stop in Panama City. Tomorrow night we will spend a night in a converted monastery in old Havana. The rooms are the original monks cells. This should be interesting. 

We left Samaipata this morning around 11:30 and made a stop at a waterfall to take a few photos. Sorry nothing to post because I used my camera instead of the iPod. We missed the festival in Samaipata by hours. It started this afternoon. There was a steady stream of traffic into Samaipata and the neighbouring villages. It was like a long weekend back home with people escaping the city. We passed a couple of camp grounds that were packed with tents, not an rv to b seen. People were coming by the truck load literally. There would be a 10 ton truck like you would carry animals or produce in and it would be full of people standing in the back along with their luggage and mattresses. Yes, that's right,  mattresses.  They must just put them on the ground and crash. The festival goes on until Tuesday.  Most people have Monday and Tuesday off. There are festivals all over Bolivia right now.   

El Pueblito

El publito is the name of the hotel we are staying at in Samaipata.  It translates as little village. The owners are an  Italian and Bolivian couple.  The hotel is actually a series of cabins modelled after a small Spanish village with cabins surrounding a square.  The lady of the mountain as she is called is an artist and decorated all the cabins.  This place is like an oasis after spending 11 days in Coachabamba. 

Samaipata bound

We are in a van e route to Samaipata.  The van is quite sketchy  by our standards and would never pass inspection in NB. But the longer you are here the more normal this becomes.   The trip to Samaipata will take 3 hours and is very scenic.  It's actually only about 150 km but there seems to be a speed bump every 100 metes.  Which is good because we don't want this thing to get up to speed. 

The trip took us across the Santa Cruz plain and into the foot hills of the Andes where we climbed up into the mountains on the most unbelievable road I have ever been on.  They had the worst rains here in 20 years and the road was being cleared of land slides. Last week it had been closed for only a day before they were able to get it re opened. But despite my last comment the road is very scenic and safe.  Although my wife would have bailed after the first kilometre and walked back to Santa Cruz.  The road is not for the faint of heart. I was sitting next to a tinted window the didn't open so I have no pictures for this post. 

We arrived at this hilltop hotel overlooking the village of Samaipata. It is hard to describe how beautiful and peaceful this place is especially after spending a week in a city of a million + people.  I think this will be the icing on the cake for this trip. I will get some photos up tomorrow. 

Tiquiapaya Planning dept.

I thought you would like to see where Juan and I have been working all week.  This is the community planning dept: