The Long Road to Trinidad
Posted from: Quito, Ecuador
Imagine Trinidad... Thinking sun, beach, rum, reggae and cricket? Think again, this is Trinidad Bolivia - so think oppressive heat, mosquitos, open sewers and the 'road' from hell!
Jose and I had left Amelie back in Potosi and made our way to Sucre. A very pleasant city. Nothing specific to define its 'niceness' but certainly enough to provide a few chilled days of doing very little before hitting the roads again. From Sucre to Santa Cruz, which, on the other hand had very little in terms of character, charm or attractions. However, en-route between the two lies the lovely little escape of Samaipatha.
There are plenty of walking options in the countryside around Samaipatha. Although, it must be said that Jose and I soon settled into a routine of leisure: sleep in, slow breakfast, Internet for a while, wander around the village, sit in the village square, afternoon coffee and cookies, rest a bit more....
We actually managed to pass six days in this way. Finally, fearing a gradual slip into early retirement in Samaipatha we managed to move on.
So, from Samaipatha to Santa Cruz. From Santa Cruz I had planned to head north to the jungle town of Rurrenabaque. Jose was initially considering catching the train eastwards to The Pantanal and Brasil, but eventually opted to come with me and head north for the jungle.
The downside of this next leg was the 'infamous' road or rather lack of road. We had travelled some seriously bad roads in Bolivia, but had been told that this one would make them look tame by comparison. Just to be sure as to what we were getting into, we asked around, and the general consesus was that the road from Santa Cruz to Trinidad was; ok/generally acceptable/usable. BUT, the road from Trinidad to Rurrenabaque was simply a nightmare, especially if there was any rain - when people had been known to get stuck for days!
However, we were told that it was possible (and quite cheap) to fly from Trinidad to Rurrenabaque. So armed with this information we jumped on a bus heading north.
After 10-12 hours of passable road we arrived in Trinidad and made straight for the airport. It's at this point that the plan started to fall to pieces. We'd just missed a flight, they didn't fly every day and the next flight was full!
After weighing up our options (or rather option) we went back to the bus station and borded the bus that should be been signed: Rurrenabaque (via HELL!) The next 20 hours were spent bouncing along whiplash inducing 'tracks' best suited to a Toyota Landcruiser, negotiating river crossings with missing bridges and just HOPING that it wouldn't rain.
Well the upshot is that it didn't rain and we eventually arrived in Rurrenabaque (some 30 hours after we set off) at around 4 or 5am - very tired, battered and bruised. Ah the joys of travel :-)
