Samaipata: The (Hippie) Wild West of Bolivia

While traveling through Bolivia we heard wonderful things from numerous people about this small town, Samaipata, that is located between Sucre (the capital) and Santa Cruz (the economic center of Bolivia). And thus begins the tale of arriving to this beautiful place...we wrongfully assumed that these two MAJOR cities in Bolivia (Top 4) would have a frequent and reliable bus between them that goes through Samaipata. Multiple companies make the trip, but all leave around the same time, between 4pm and 6pm (no day buses exist). From Sucre to Santa Cruz is about 11 hours in total, whereas Samaipata is about 9 hours. This put our ETA into Samaipata at the golden hour of 3am. (Do you feel our frustration with these schedules yet?) We messaged with the hostel about our arrival, got on the bus, and wished for some sleep. In the first 2 hours the bus descends down the mountain on a paved, super winding, road that our driver went down like a formula 1 driver. After that, we drove 7 hours to go the final 220 km (137 miles) on an unpaved road. Needless to say, we both barely slept and were a little cranky when dropped off on the side of the road at 3am. Of course nothing was open as we walked to our hostel, which also looked empty. Unfortunately, the hostel didn't hear our calls, texts, doorbell ringing, etc until close to 5am when we were finally able to get a bit of sleep.

Luggage conveyor belt for our bus to Samaipata

This city was not off to a great start. But following a few hours of sleep, the daylight revealed a beautiful hostel with lush gardens, a stunning pool/sauna, and a yoga room. The owners were very sweet and all was right.

Outdoor seating area with BBQ

So many plants and flowers

The water was really cold, but refreshing after lounging out in the sun

Taken over by hippies and internationals, this town of ~4,000 people feels like a pseudo abandoned wild west town in the most charming manner possible. Between the local bars and restaurants feeling like they belonged in Brooklyn to all the streets being dirt roads it was an odd little place.

We took a fabulous day trip from Samaipata, to the Amboro National Park with an amazing guide to see the giant ferns (helechos gigantes)! Our guide is a biologist who previously worked in Montana re-introducing wild species back into the parks. He was super knowledgable and gave us lots of information (all in Spanish) on the trees, ferns, national park rules in Bolivia, etc. Neither of us has ever seen such giant ferns before and it was absolutely amazing - like being in Jurassic Park!

They only grow a few centimeters each year, so these are very old

If one of the ferns falls over it just starts to root wherever it lands

Looking up into the canopy

The dead leaves looked liked they were spray painted in gold

Back of the fern leaf

So many mushrooms!

We also took a day trip on our own to the Cuevas, a smaller park filled with... thought they would be caves, surprise, it's not what it seems, it's waterfalls! It turned out we were the only ones in the park but we felt super safe as there were workers there. We enjoyed having a small little private beach to ourselves until we realized there were sand flies and they bite.

Waterfall #1

Waterfall #2

Waterfall #3...our private beach

Just a cool plant with flowers and seed pods

We also saw online that there was a vineyard on the hill overlooking Samaipata with tours. We headed up the hill figuring it would be a fun excursion, only to find no-one there. We did walk around a bit but it felt like trespassing so we left and found the fancy hotel nearby to enjoy the view and have a coffee. However, no coffee was to be had and you have to pay to walk through their grounds! Somewhat defeated we started back down into town, but not before seeing a peacock, with full plumage, strutting his stuff for the lady peacock...who sadly couldn't care less. No vineyard, but still very pretty and entertaining to watch.