Tuesday Aug 20; Chris and I decide to return to Santa Cruz
after a morning visit to the El Fuerte museum. We say goodbye to everyone in Samaipata,
which we think will be our final goodbye… Arrive SC in the early afternoon and meet
Gretchen in town. She escorts us to her lovely home, which looks at first sight like a
tropical resort (no joke!) Expat life has its advantages and this is definitely one of
them! As we enter their front gate, Leo their big baby Boxer greets us. Later Gretchen
gives us the grand tour of the house, shaped like a pyramid, the manicured grounds, the
pool, the outside bar/entertainment area, tennis court, and soccer pitch complete with
lights! The land outside their gates is undeveloped land which contains wild deer, many
pairs of nesting owls, loads of Egrets (those white graceful birds with long legs) and a
Tapir (looks like an anteater with the body of a hippo.) What a place! Daniel works for
one of the oil companies, Repsol, and Gretchen teaches English. Their warm hospitality
included great meals, cable TV (yeah!!!), taking us shopping in town and generally making
us feel very much at home.
On Thursday we said one final goodbye to Daniel and Gretchen and headed back into the
center of town. We got another late start and decided to spend one last night in the city
and shove off to the Mission District early the next morning. We saw Duncan, Claire,
Kirsty, Carl, Mhairi and Milli (returned to SC to run some more errands) and Roy
(Australian, another volunteer from the park) again in the city and agreed to meet them
all for one last dinner together. Try as we might after dinner we couldn’t find a
good (and cheap) pub so we ended up calling it a night around midnight. We finally did say
one final goodbye to everyone then.
Friday, Aug 23: We stop for gas at one of the dozens of gas stations leading out of
Santa Cruz – there are more cars here than at the other gas stations, and soon we
discover why: the attendants are all very attractive young ladies, all wearing
short-shorts and showing cleavage; imagine Hooters going into the gas business. This was
not a one-day promotion, but an ongoing business theme. We head north out of SC and after
only 70kms, the asphalt disappears (we were told the 300km ride to Conception was paved).
We wind through a few small villages, along the sandy shores of a river, and eventually
find the barge/ferries that are used to take vehicles across. What makes these so unusual
is not that they have no engine, but that the captain takes off his socks, shoes, and
trousers then pushes the boat through the water!
We eventually get back on the asphalt and make our way to San Javier and Conception.
The road is lovely and winds north through patches of dense jungle cut open occasionally
by cattle ranches with Brahma bulls and water buffalo. It all reminds us of India. This
whole area in the north is well known for its beautiful Jesuit missions and is listed as
UNESCO World Heritage Sites. San Javier is the oldest and most well-preserved of the
missions, although they have all been recently restored. They are known for their
beautiful carved wooden columns, roofs and balustrades. The statues inside are also made
of wood, and there are little angelic cherubs everywhere carved from wood. The rest of the
church is typically painted with curly strokes using orange and brown paint, complementing
the earthen tones in the environment around them. The three we saw (including in
Conception and San Ignacio as well) all have a huge bell tower adjacent to the church (as
opposed to attached to it) made of wood columns and with a big clock. Inside the churches,
many of the paintings depict the life of the local Indians in the 1700’s.
Saturday, August 24: 180 kilometers on a good red dirt/clay road from Conception to San
Ignacio. We stay in a nice little guesthouse run by a Swiss woman, Christina and her
German husband Horst. Included is a good hot shower, typically clean Swiss style
atmosphere, delicious dinner, and breakfast in the morning. As there’s no official
border post at the border we get our passports stamped out of Bolivia here. They tell us
we will get our carnets stamped out in San Vicente, a small pueblo on the way to the
border. We’ll see…
Sunday, August 25: On the road by 8am to beat the heat, it is 300 kilometers of red
clay to the border of San Matais. About 110 km into the trip, we reach San Vicente, and
the office of the Aduana (Customs). The customs officer tells us we need to continue to
San Matais (where we planned to exit Bolivia), and that the Aduana there will stamp our
carnets out. We asked if they would be operating on Sunday afternoon, and he assured us
they would. The route we were on runs west to east, less than a kilometer below the border
with Brasil. Because of this, we encounter a military checkpoint every 30-50kms, and we
must stop to have our papers checked. This became quite aggravating as the temperature
ticked higher and higher and the bikes threatened to over-heat. I think the police were
more bored than interested if we had done anything illegal. Around 3pm, we reached San
Matais, the 5th dusty town of the day, and eventually found the office of the
Aduana. The customs agents there informed us that if we want an exit stamp for our
carnets, we should have done that back in San Vicente (190kms back!). We pleaded with him
to help, and the young man shrugged his shoulders and told us he couldn’t help us
– although we were clearly at the office of the Aduana! We asked where his supervisor
was, and he said in town, but couldn’t (wouldn’t?) give us directions to his
house or the man’s last name! Hot and exasperated, we changed our remaining Bolivian
currency into Brazilian Reals (at a very poor rate), and left Bolivia.
Mission District
