Visiting Guavirami/Guarani Community in Paraguay (from Encarnacion) Part 2

At the Guavirami community of Paraguay

One of the highlights of my trip in Paraguay, and the reason that attracted me there in the first place, was a visit to a Guarani community. The Guaranis are the indigenous people of Paraguay that inhabit these regions since the pre-Columbian era. As with many other tribal nations, they too were persecuted by the Western European conquistadors that were coming to South America in hope of finding gold, and to establish New Spain back in the 16^th century. The Guarani people are famous for their exquisite music, in the same way as the indigenous of the Andes are. The Andeans, in their music compositions, were affected by the high mountains and the strong element of air, whereas the Guaranis were inspired by their environment – the jungles and rivers. Their music exhibits something very special, a type of a high melody that can trigger some wonderful responses in a human body. Obviously they inherited this music knowledge from their ancestors, and I was very keen to find out more about it and their culture overall.

The community I was to visit is called the Guavirami community, located not far from the city of Encarnacion (for those of you who are interested to visit it, call Castorina at 0975 543946 and announce your coming). I took a bus that went along the ‘Ruta 6’, and right before the toll booth I went off and turned left, onto the path that went across the field, and was eager to walk the necessary 5 kilometers in order to arrive to my destination. Occasional villagers on motorcycles passed by me, so I tried and hitchhike, which worked very well – a friendly chap stopped by and dropped me off at the junction where I needed to turn right in order to reach the Guavirami community.

Adventure in South America Continues: San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

San Pedro de Atacama town center.

Early month of April, even though the start of autumn in the southern hemisphere, it was still quite beautiful and warm. The ride from Calama to San Pedro de Atacama took about an hour or so, arriving there in late afternoon. My Couchsurfing host Mauricio greeted me at the bus station, and together we went to his home in this interesting town in the midst of the Atacama desert. Mauricio is originally from Brazil, but has been working in Chile for a while now. We had much subjects to talk about, as he too has been traveling through many countries in the world, and has shown me an interesting map of places that he would still like to visit. Mauricio had a girlfriend from a country neighboring my home country, so he felt some connection to that part of the world. He mentioned a funny story of how once when they were there together, random passersby wanted to take photo with him. He was aware that being a Brazilian there is considered exotic, but he joked how at times they made him feel as an extraterrestrial.

Backpacking in Bolivia: Overview, Tips and Advices

The ruins on the Northern part of the Isla del Sol

I traveled in Bolivia for a bit less than three weeks, during which time I visited lots of different sites, such as archaeological, cultural, and beautiful places in nature. Like in other countries of Latin America, in Bolivia too I used Couchsurfing (staying in homes of local people) as much as possible in order to experience the cultural aspect of the country as best as possible. Just like it brother country Peru, Bolivia has a great deal to offer, and especially to those seeking cultural experience. No wonder it is like that, because in the past they were just one country, and so the Andean traditional culture remained in both of them, in pretty much the same way when it comes to mentality, clothing, and traditions.  Bolivia is an amazing place in South America, and frankly, quite easy to travel through. Whether you are a backpacker traveling on a budget for prolonged amount of time, or independent traveler on two week vacation in Bolivia with a normal budget, you could easily get around and find what you are looking for.

Salar de Uyuni Experience (from Sucre to Uyuni)

At Salar de Uyuni

It was early morning when I left the house of my host Jesus to catch a bus to Uyuni. I acquired a bus ticket to this infamous destination on a previous day, for 70 BOB. The Uyuni area in Potosi region is well known for the Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flats. At the time of creating my itinerary this looked like an interesting place, and it was on my way to Chile, where I planned to continue afterwards.

It was generally a very pleasant bus ride, with gorgeous views of the landscape almost all the way of the trip, which I enjoyed watching from the panoramic seat of the almost empty bus. Next to me was a young and friendly French/German couple who would soon end their trip in Brazil. At that point in time, I still though that my trip will end in Chile, as I already had the plane ticket, but as the time drew closer to the date, I wanted to go to Brazil too! And especially so after the couple told me how cheap they paid for their ticket from Rio de Janeiro to Frankfurt.

Visiting Sucre part 2 (Dinosaurs Footprints in Bolivia)

Footprint hill in Cretacico Park, Bolivia

It was another beautiful and sunny day in the high altitude city of Sucre, Bolivia. The plan for the day was to visit a very unique place – the largest paleontological site in the world – Cretacico park. However, my host Jesus mentioned to me while I was getting ready for the day, that there is another option too, which is a day trip to traditional street dances in a small town  not far from Sucre. The former (Cretacico park) is a place where they discovered a lot of dinosaurs footprints, and they’ve made the whole place into a dinosaur park. And the latter entailed cultural immersion and enjoying the dances of the Andean culture. I have seen a lot of that two months earlier while in Huaraz in Peru, and I really liked them. Nevertheless, in the end I decided for the dinosaurs options.

Dinosaurs had a big impact on me growing up in the 80’s and the 90’s, especially after their popularization with the movie Jurassic Park. Later in life I did not thought much about them, but when the opportunity presents to travel back in the past and to see real and prominent dinosaurs tracks that are millions of years old, then I find this something that could be a nice treat!

El Fuerte de Samaipata – Bolivian Ancient Sacred Site

At Fuerte de Samaipata ancient site.

One of the highlights of my trip in Bolivia was definitely a mysterious ancient sacred site, known as El Fuerte de Samaipata. Arriving there from Santa Cruz de la Sierra by public transport was not difficult. There is a colectivo “Trufi” that goes from market Ramada towards town Samaipata. Even though I arrived to that market relatively early in the morning, I waited for over an hour until enough passangers gathered for the vehicle to commence. The cost of the fare was 30 BOB, and the journey lasted two and a half hours. Two of the passangers were a young Bolivian couple in their early 20’s who also went to Samaipata to visit the same place as me. They were nice and friendly, and we soon decided to co-operate. The driver suggested us some budget places to stay, and fair enough we found one good and quiet in the small town of Samaipata. There was something very tranquil and nice about this town, but as the time was limited, we agreed to first visit the ancient sacred site, and only after that to stroll through the town.

It was around noon when we headed off towards the ancient site of El Fuerte de Samaipata. There is no public transport that goes there, which is why we had to take a taxi from the main square (100 BOB for all three of us, which includes driving there and back, as well as two hour waiting at the archaeological site). The entrance price for foreigners to the site itself cost 50 BOB.

Adventures in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia

Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

In early morning of late March I left the hotel Elisa where I stayed for the past two days in Cochabamba. It was still night time, as the bus to Santa Cruz was supposed to depart at 6am. I traveled with bus company called ‘America’, a decent one for only 50 BOB for ten hour journey. Even though everyone said it’s a 10 hour trip, it lasted for 13 hours. Seat next to me was occupied by a young woman from Bolivia who was working in Brazil. In Santa Cruz, she took another bus to continue through Paraguay and to eventually arrive to her destination country. An enormous trip, but she was doing it all in one go to try and get visas for her children. The landscapes on the way to Santa Cruz were not that impressive, it was mostly flat land that we were crossing. The driver was quite high on coca leaves, which he chew a lot, and this was shown in the journey and the speed – we had only two stops throughout the whole trip!

Arriving at 8pm was relatively late, but I was lucky that there were many places to spend the night at close to the bus terminal. The next day the  plan was to meet my Couchsurfing host Eduardo and stay in his house for a few days. He was a young guy in his mid 20’s, who worked as an English teacher in the University. For the following three nights I stayed in his family home, which was an interesting and nice experience. Couchsurfing website truly is an amazing platform where travelers meet the locals and stay with them, sharing a little bit of their life. I traveled like that through many countries, and am still using it when on the road.

Bolivian Market and Search for Quena Flute (From La Paz to Cochabamba)

City center of Cochabamba city in central Boliva

It was early Friday morning when my host Sabine drove me to a place in La Paz from where I took a bus to the main bus terminal. The previous three days in La Paz were surely memorable and well spent, and not to mention that I was very grateful for meeting person such as Sabine, who was my couchsurfing host in La Paz. The time was now to continue my journey towards central Bolivia, the Cochabamba city.

There were many companies that had buses departing there. The price ranges from 30-50 BOB for 8 hour journey. The whole trip went relatively smoothly. I had a panoramic seat (which is the front seat on the upper deck of the bus), and have tried some Bolivian provided by a local seller who entered the bus somewhere on the road. As always, it was easy to start conversation with people around me, which at that time were mostly Bolivians and a few expats. It was a lovely weather again that followed us all the way to Cochabamba, where we arrived in the afternoon hours.

The reason why I came here was twofold: the first one is because it is on the way to Santa Cruz, where I was heading in order to visit the ancient site of Samaipata. The second reason goes back to when I was in Banos town in Ecuador. It happened that I was playing music in the courtyard of a hostel with two more musicians who came from Chile. We were talking at the time about where to buy quena flute (which is a traditional Andean flute), and he mentioned Cochabamba market for having good quality and cheap quena flutes. And so two months later I am here in the town of Cochabamba, central Bolivia.

Tihuanaco: Ancient City of Mystery

Tiwanaku

One of the places that I wanted to visit the most while in Bolivia was the ancient city of Tiwanaku (also known as Tihuanaco), the source of the Tiwanaku culture that lived there thousands of years ago. Less than two hour drive from La Paz, it is easy to do it as a daytrip from Bolivian capital. As always, I did this trip on my own, although my Couchsurfing host Sabine has given me some pointers on how to reach the place from where to catch a microbus to Tiwanaku. There are several of such places in La Paz, but the one I started from is called El Cemeterio. I bought the bus ticket and waited for around an hour for more people to gather, after which the van full of people commenced its two hour journey towards the most popular of all ancient sites in Bolivia – Tihuanaco. During that ride all of the passangers shared stories of their travel in South America, about what they were doing up till that point, and what more they have to see. One of them was a lady from Brazil who was very interested in ancient sites, and planned to stay in Tihuanaco for five days to also attend a conference of a popular researcher on the subject of ancient sacred sites and mysteries, Mr. Brian Foerster. She also shared with me some interesting places to see if I ever come to Brazil. Even though at the time I did not plan to go there, I noted all down just in case – notes which later came to be very useful!

Three Days in La Paz, Bolivia

La Paz, Bolivia

The bus ride from Copacabana to La Paz was pretty pleasant overall. Buses leave from Copacabana every hour or less, starting from the plaza Sucre (Sucre square). Like other bus rides in Bolivia, this too was quite cheap (20 BOP) considering it’s a five hour journey. As in many other rides on these lands, the views were spectacular, especially for the first part of it, when we were embraced from both sides by lake Titicaca. At one point it was necessary to go out of the bus and take a separate boat, whereas the bus was on another. Some of the passangers asked the driver why is not possible to stay on the boat where the bus is, to which the driver replied that it is for safety reasons. It was fun as it was, and some of us exchanged various information. Particularly talkative was a couple from Chile who wrote me down a list of places in their country that impressed them the most. We watched the boat where our bus was and indeed it did not look safe to be on it. Preceding La Paz were vast green fields, a picturesque scenery, but as we were entering it, it turned into its opposites – a very poor area. For a moment I thought that this is what La Paz will be like, but I was very wrong.

Nazca Lines Immersion – The Southern Peru Experience

The Nazca field.

It was mid-late February when I took a colectivo car from Paracas to Pisco, and then from Pisco to Ica, with intention of continuing to Nazca. However, there was one more thing to be done in Ica, and that was to visit the Regional Museum (el museo regional de Ica), in order to finally see the ancient and mysterious elongated skulls of the Paracas culture. I was not of much luck though – the guard at the museum informed me that the site is closed for a month due to renovation. Disappointed, I got back to the same moto taxi but this time I headed towards a restaurant where I for the first time tried a delicious Peruvian dish known as Cevitche – a raw fish cured in lemon juice. Not long afterwards I was on a bus from Ica to Nazca ($4).

It was a several hour bus ride Southwards, through the desert plain of the Pan American Highway. I knew we were close as we passed by the field of Nazca where the famous lines are in forms of big figures. As the bus reached the Nazca town and as the passangers started getting out of it, we were overwhelmed by those offering us accommodation. I chose the one on the main square, called Mirador de Nazca ($3), which was decent considering the price. After walking around for a bit and getting the feel of the place, it was time to actively search for information on various options about visiting the important sites.