Buena Vista, Bolivia
Small town beauty
01.05.2015 - 02.05.2015 80 °F
Melissa and I decided on another adventure to Buena Vista, about 2 hours ride from Santa Cruz. We had asked a taxi driver on Thursday night how to get there, and he said he would take us there. We had thought about taking a bus, and Silvia was going to take us to the bus depot, but we thought this would be easier……LOL Nothing is easy here! We agreed on a price of 350 b’s, (50$) which included him staying the night and taking us home the next day. He did pick us up at our houses, but then said he needed to go and get a different car that had air conditioning, so we drove him to the taxi business, where he told us that another driver and car would take us. So, here comes this horrible looking taxi with the front window all busted in, like it had been hit by a brick or something. And a 300 pound driver. Apparently the other driver had been driving all night and was tired.
So off we went. The driver was pretty nice. We have no idea where it came from but he started talking about how beautiful Utah was and Melissa told him I was from there. He said 1/2 his family is Mormon, but he wasn’t. We started singing some familiar church songs. Random…small world.,
It took us over 2 hours to get to Buena Vista. We had been trying to call and find a hotel but no one was answering the phone, or they told us they were full. We really wanted to find this nice hotel, but no one could tell us where it was. We checked a couple of places, but they didn’t look good. We finally settled on a room with a bathroom in it and 2 beds. 10$ a night. The family lived in one room and they had a kitchen and bathroom off the side. We hauled in our stuff. I just had a backpack and Melissa only had this tiny bag, and we were off to see the river with the taxi driver. We spent some time there. It was beautiful. We didn’t swim, but did wade. The driver came down and swam in the river. He hadn’t been told that he was spending the night and didn’t have any extra clothes, so just wore what he had for 2 days. After we went to find some dinner. Nice chicken dinner. We walked around town for a while and then went to go to bed, Then the taxi driver, who finally figured out what he was in for came looking for us. He didn’t have money for a room, and wanted to be paid more, which was fair. Melissa settled on 100$ for the 2 days, which included his lodging (8$) and food.
The night didn’t go well for me. I couldn’t sleep and in the middle of the night I thought the fan was acting up, but it was pouring rain. And then at 4 am this crazy rooster started crowing, nonstop. I wanted to shoot it! Then there were the constant motorcycles going by at all hours. My bed is calling me tonight for some quiet!
We headed out around 8 looking for some breakfast and had a couple of empanadas. It kept pouring off and on so we bought a couple of panchos. Then we went walking and found the hotel we were looking for. It was beautiful and had wonderful views. We would have totally paid the 50$ which included all meals. Bummer. We headed back to check out of the hotel and had the driver take us back to the hotel for lunch. We found out how to get to the Coffee Plantation so we could take a tour. It was had a hotel. For 20$ we could have stayed and also had all meals included. But, we enjoyed the tour. Fascinating how they grow and process coffee. And 90% is exported. People tell me you can’t find good coffee here, and now we know why.
We called it a trip and headed home. Because we had paid him the whole day, and it was early, we had him stop at Abasto for our weekly purchases of fresh fruits. We were concerned that he was going to raise his price again, but he kept to the 100$. He had to pay 60$ to the taxi company to rent the car, and he paid the gas, so for 2 days he really only made 30$. And I think that’s pretty cheap for a 2 day trip! And a bit sad to think of how little he took home. Labor is very cheap here.
And no….the air conditioning didn’t work. LOL
Another adventure finished!