Saturday, December 29, 2012

A Visit to Samaipata

My host family has a "cottage" in Samaipata, a small town about 3 hours away from Santa Cruz. On the weekend of the 22nd we went to get away from the city a bit and relax.
We invited two of the other volunteers, Dana and Franco (who are counterparts), to come with us as well. We drove up late Friday night, and stayed there until Sunday night, when we returned to the ridiculous Santa Cruz heat!
Samaipata is a small town, completely surrounded by mountains. Driving out to get there the road is small (just barely fits two cars), winding, and bumpy. It is paved in some sections, but not all of it so it makes for a very rough ride! The majority of cars on the road are trucks carrying food to sell. They are the South American version of transport trucks; much smaller, much louder, and much slower. Its not uncommon to see people riding on the tops of the load they are carrying, which looks really windy to me!
Their house is in the mountains off a small dirt road that is on the outskirts of the town, and it is absolutely gorgeous! Since there were a lot of us we were all sharing beds, and we completely filled the cottage up!
Saturday Danitza, Sophie, Franco, Percy, Dana, and I hiked up the mountain they live on to a small hotel/cabin at the top. It was incredible to see the beautiful view from the mountain!



Then Saturday afternoon we went to the Samaipata Inca fort, about 10 minutes away from the town on top of a mountain. We spent the afternoon hiking in the mountains, and looking at the fort. Unfortunately my camera died that morning so I wasn't able to take any pictures, but here is the link that tells you more about the fort if you are interested!
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/883
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Fuerte_de_Samaipata

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