American Jonathan and I decided to hitch hike the 400 miles between Samaipata and Sucre... simply because it sounded like a good adventure. And oh my days was it! It took us 3 days, 7 vehicles and a hell of a lot of walking!
We set off at 6am, Monday, under the cover of darkness, escaping from Andoriña and the crazy Dutch man. I´d told them I was leaving but Jonathan was literally doing a runner. We left notes and stole some fruit for the trip.
As the sun rose we got picked up by our first lift. Fili, a taxi driver from Mairana. He didnt seem too bothered that we werent planning to pay. He picked us up at the toll station on the outskirts of Samaipata and took us 15km away to Mairana. We then walked a fair way before finally getting picked up by another car which was full of people - so naturally we squeezed into the boot.
Car number 2 took us to a little village called Hierba Buena, where we stood about for a while and a lorry driver gave us a sermon on religion... we were keen to get away from him. Pretty much as soon as we set off walking we were picked up by a white flat bed truck, we sat on the back and got blown about a bit. They took us really far, to Comarapa.
We got to Comarapa by about 12 and stopped and had tea and biscuits sat on a rock by the side of the road, ever so English! Jonathan was pretending to be English too because he didnt want to get kidnapped or shot.
So from Comarapa we saw our last bit of pathed road and we set off walking along a bumpy dusty path. The landscape gradually changed from fields to desert, more and more cacti were appearing, and then we got picked up by a man in a jeep who took us to the next village 30km away - Saipina. He was a very nice man, dead friendly.
Saipina´s a nice little place, we had lunch in the square (bread and tomatoes) and a lady gave us each a piece of sugar cane to munch on. By the time we set off walking again it was really hot and we stripped off our layers as he headed down yet another dusty desert lane! From Saipina to the next village it was 100km, and I think we both underestimated how difficult it would be to get from one town to the next.
Basically, we walked for hours, hardly any cars went past and those that did rarely stopped. We we in the middle of nowhere. There was a river running through the valley between the mountains and stopped off and went for a swim. It was lush. In the middle of the Andes swimming in a river that had its source like a couple of miles away. Was nice to cool off.
One passing car gave us a lift about 5km but mostly we just walked for about 5 hours, in the sun, with our massive back packs on, it was tough. Eventually as it started to get dark we gave up and made camp by the side of the road. I slept like a baby, regardless of the pile of rocks underneath me and the cactus poking me in the arse through the side of the tent.
The next day we set off again, walking through the nothingness, and we started to ration our food and water because we were getting seriously worried we were going to be there forever. Some guys picked us up and took us for about 10km further along the road, they felt so sorry for us that they gave us some bread - you know youre in a bad way when youre accepting charity from Bolivian farmers who live in mud huts...
Finally, after 3 hours walking, we were picked up by a lorry that was going all the way to Sucre! We were so happy. Little did we know we´d managed to hitch the most useless truck in the whole of Bolivia.
We were sat in the back of the truck, with a hundreds of boxes of floor tiles, some sugar cane, and a big tyre and all was going well, we were getting some sun, making good progress but then we ran out of petrol. We had to wait in the lorry for 2 hours whilst the driver took a bus to the next town and got petrol. Whilst we waited we chatted to the co-driver of the lorry, it was funny he was asking us about England: "Do you have cows?", "Do you have sheep?", "Do you have trees?"...
That was just the beginning though. The damn thing ran out of petrol another 4 times!!! A journey that should have taken 8 hours took 24. 24 hours sat on some boxes of tiles. We even had to sleep there and it was bloody freezing!
Anyway, EVENTUALLY we made it to Sucre at about 10am two days after we set off.
It was a tough, but amazing trip.
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