Stuck in Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Hi! It´s been a while and a lot has certainly happened. I think I am going to try to remember the most interesting moments and write them down:

LA PAZ, BOLIVIA

As I think I mentioned previously, we stayed at a party hostel in La Paz. A party hostel is just like any other hostel except that they provide their own bar. Alcohol leads to drunk people which leads to sleepless nights for those of us who didn´t want to go out that night. I don´t actually have a problem with crazy, drunken nights but I did find it strange that people came from all over the world just to spend their whole time inside of the hostel. Most of the other people in the hostel never left which to me seems to defeat the purpose of their trip in the first place. No one seemed to want to actually explore La Paz. Caitlin and I rarely left the hostel ourselves but that was due to a relapse of altitude sickness.

COCHABAMBA, BOLIVIA

After La Paz we headed to Cochabamba. Cochabamba is the closest town to the animal reserve, so we decided to stop and rest for a few days before working really hard for a month straight. The town itself was pretty uninteresting. We stayed at a hostel near the bus station so that it would be easier for us to get out of town when the time came. The second night that we were there we encountered our second major problem (the first being our lack of funds in Copacabana).

Hostel Elisa happened to have free cabel TV and we were watching some movie about illegal border crossing when we heard a thundering knock on the door. We were both startled by the loud and sudden knock. No one said anything which I think added to our fear. Some unidentified person was banging down our door without announcing their intentions. They knocked again and still we said nothing. A third knock. Still nothing. I´m not really sure why we didn´t ask who it was at this point but I think it just seemed liked our space was being invaded. In addition, there were constant gun shots in the background which added to our fear. Surely if it was someone from the Hostel they would tell us why they were knocking: the toilets are broken, there is a fire etc.

At this point Caitlin and I were cowering in the bathrooom with our most valuable possessions. We figured that if someone broke down the door we could quickly lock ourselves into the bathroom. Finally, we heard one more knock at the door. I decided I should finally go ask who it is was, the intruder certainly wasn´t fooled when we had turned out the lights. ¨Who is it?¨ (in Spanish of course). The answer came in broken English: ¨My name is Nathanial. I´m a tourist, don´t be scared.¨ This was too much for me. I had just that day read about scams involving fake tourists. To make it worse he told us not be afraid which only increased my suspicion. At this point we completely panicked and went back into the bathroom. Logic went out the window the moment I thought I was about to be robbed but now I was entirely paranoid. The window in our shower led to an air shaft which led to the shower next door. I was now convinced that this was someone who worked at the hostel who would then climb through the air shaft, (a very tiny one at that) steal our things and then of course murder us.

We spent the next half hour deciding what to do. When no further knocks came we decided the scary man had maybe left but that he might come back as soon as we were asleep. Staying the night in the hostel became unimaginable. We decided to take our most valuable things on our backs but leave the clothes. Our escape must be quick, we didn´t have time to take everything. Suddenly transformed into secret agents we stood in front of the door ready to unlock it. I tried to communicate to Caitlin in our secret hand code but realized we didn´t have one. Whispering would have to do. We finally worked up the courage to open the door. Caitlin, the black belt, stood guard as I locked the door again behind us. We walked as quickly as seemed natural out the front door of the hostel trying to avoid any last minute traps. We finally found our way to a hotel and spent the night there.

After retrieving our things the next morning (which weren´t stolen) we went to lunch next to the hostel. A man came up to us and declared that he was the man who had knocked at our door the night before. He had wanted to know what tourists do in Cochabamba.....

I´ll never really know if we just overreacted or if he was truly a threat but I do know that the way he banged on our door was certainly a weird way to try to make friends.

ANIMAL RESERVE, PART ONE

We took a bus that day to Villa Tunari, the small town that contained the animal reserve we were headed to. Our purpose for being in Bolivia was about to be realized.

Traveling to the town was a bit complicated because we had to tell the bus driver when we wanted to get off. The bus itself was going to Santa Cruz but we were going to get off early. We told the bus driver who told us to knock on the window in three hours to remind him to drop us off. Three hours later we were at some sort of police check point. We asked around and found that we were still and hour and a half away. The directions from the reserve told us to get off after a bridge. It seemed like we went through a town and over a bridge every twenty minutes. We knocked a couple of more times but were told each time that we still weren´t there. When we finally did arrive late that night it seemed like a better idea to stay in a hostel and then go find the reserve the next morning.

As it turned out the reserve was farther down the road and over the aforementioned bridge. It would have been dangerous to cross at night since there wasn´t really a place to walk, so it turns out our decision to stop was mostly for the best. I say mostly because our nighr was restless. Several drunk people came in shouting around one in the morning. Around four we were awoken again. This time some woman was crying about some guy right outside of our door. I´m not sure why she chose that exact spot....

When we finally arrived at the reserve we were told that they needed more help at the other reserve at that we would have more fun there since we could work with big cats instead of birds. The idea that we would actually get to play with pumas and jaguars was enough to convince me that we should head to the other reserve instead. We got back on a bus and headed to Santa Cruz. We´ve been here ever since.. and it seems like we might never leave.

SANTA CRUZ, BOLIVIA

OK.. can´t sit at this computer anymore. I´ll tell you later when I get back from the animal reserve. Basically, I got sick to my stomach so we decided to stay another day. We were finally going to leave today but Caitlin realized that she had left her debit card in an ATM. The machines here keep them during the transaction which can be confusing if you aren´t used to it. On our way to call her bank, I stopped to take out more money myself. The machine ate my card....

So here we are, still not at the reserve trying to figure out where to send our new cards. Wish us luck!