Day 13 Buena Vista

Today was a really good day.  It was a New Year, we were 24 hours away from heading into the jungle, and we had a whole day to explore the pretty little town of Buena Vista.  I woke up late, but knew exactly where to find The Boy, since he was kind enough to leave a note on the pillow for me.  I headed off to the plaza, which, by the way, was amazing.

I found Jo right where I thought I would find him: sitting on a park bench, reading the newspaper.  Being as it was the day after a night of partying, Jo and I had both had encounters with the after effects of said partying.  I had passed a man laid out drunk in the middle of the street (but more on that later) and Jo had been approached by two drunk men, one of which was inquiring where he could find some pussy.  I'm not kidding.

After hanging out in the plaza, we decided we needed something to eat.  We took our sweet time leaving the plaza because we kept finding cool stuff to look at:

  We stopped in at a cute little restaurant called Patuju to get some empenadas for Jo.  The empenada was ubiquitous in Bolivia.  It is essentially a cheese-filled pastry, which is not quite my thing.  They're good, but I can only have a bite or two before they become a little much.  I did get myself a mango juice, which was pretty tasty.  We decided to head down to the market afterwards so I could get some fruit.

While we were eating, we decided that we should follow the suggestion of both the LP and Rene and head down to the river to take a dip.  It was a really hot day and we figured it would feel great to get into the water.  We headed over to the market first, after a quick stop at the hostel to grab some mula.  The really nice thing about Buena Vista is that it's so small, everything is within walking distance of everything else.

Check out the Plaza!  By far the prettiest one we had seen since arriving in Bolivia.

A pretty design on some random wall.

Another pretty design on another random wall.

Random street shot.

Here's our hostel.  It turns out that the spawn of satan lives in this very same hostel.  It was a family run affair, and the little girl who lived here proved to be the most awful creature we've ever had to listen to.  She and her mom would get in these insane screaming matches, not caring that everyone within a mile radius could here their awful shouting.  It was pretty bad.

Oh, yeeeaaaahhhh.

Here's the "market."  Really, just a few boxes (and wheelbarrows) full of fruit on the side of the road.

Bananas still on the stalk.

Quite possibly the best picture so far.  See that man on the sidewalk behind Jo?  He's passed out drunk, and his pants just happen to be pulled down to reveal his undies.  He's the very same guy who had approached Jo earlier in the day, asking about where he could get some pussy.  He's also the same guy who I had seen in the middle of the road earlier.  Apparently, someone had been nice enough to drag him out of the way of traffic, so that he could sleep it off on the sidwalk, where it's much safer.  We didn't want to be too obvious about taking his picture (although, thinking about in now, I don't think anyone would have cared) so Jo posed with some mini bananas. 

We came back to the hostel to drop off our fruit and change.  This is Trouble, the friendly dog who lived at the hostel.  Such a sweetie.

It was around noon, so we decided to go.  The walk was about 3 km, which we figured wouldn't take too long.  Off we went!

Pretty hibiscus.

Pretty white flowers.

This is the road we started off on.  It only remained paved for about 5 minutes; the rest of the way was dirt.

Banana tree.

It was a scorcher, so we were both glad for the aqua we brought along.

The road to the river.

There were a ton of mango trees all around us.  I want a mango tree!

Sitting beneath a mango tree, just like the Jack Johnson song.

For the most part, the road was pretty empty.  Cars would pass occassionally (probably laughing at the poor dumb gringos who were walking this road on such a hot day,) but for the most part it was just us and the birds and butterflies.

A colorful little buggie.

More mangoes.  I was in mango heaven.

This is a wild mimosa.  We took this picture so that we could show it to our potted mimosa back and home, and maybe then it would see how it's supposed to grow; low to the ground, not six feet tall.

A bird-watching tower that was kinda' cool looking.



There were tons and tons of butterflies along the way.  Tons.  They would congregate around small pools of water, and would fly up as we passed.  It was so lovely.



All of them were pretty, but check out this one.  Off the charts spectacular.

There was either thick vegetation or lush pasture land surrounding us as we walked.

We passes quite a few grazing cattle.

Jo, showing us the way.  Thanks, babe.  I wasn't sure.

We passes these unruly beasties along the way.  They were skittish and wouldn't let us touch them.

We also pass this not-so-unruly beastie.  She didn't even bother getting up.

This was one of the coolest finds we came across.  This is a ginormous mass of tadpoles that we found in a pool along the side of the road.

There were also these creepy predator invertabrates that would grab the tadpoles and eat them up.  It was bizarre.

At this point we had been walking for over an hour.  We were hot and sweaty and glad to finally see the river.

Finally, we made it!

This is el Rio Surutu.  It's a popular destination for Buena Visitians, who want to cool off and hang out with family and friends. 

It's also a popular destination for cattle.

The water was warm, shallow, and silty.  We wanted to swim, but it was way too shallow for that.  So instead we rolled on down the river.  It reallyw as lovely.  Ambora Park was on one shore, there was even more trees on the other shore, and a wide river for us to roll around in.

After about 2 1/2 hours, we figured it was about time to get back.  We relucantly got out and started trudging back.

We took a lot less pictures on the way back, but we did spot these cool, ancient-looking birds off in the distance.

After getting back and cleaning up, we headed over to Rene's to confirm our trip for the next day.  Everything was set.  There had been one change; the river was too high for the trip we were originally planning to take, but it was no big deal since there were multiple entrances into the park.  We were just excited to be surrounded by trees!

Dinner that night was more empenadas.  Buena Vistians sure do love their empenadas.

Jo also tried a dish called masaco platano, which was comprised of meat and...banana.  As wierd as it sounds, Jo said it tasted really good.  While we were sitting down to eat, the same man who had asked Jo where to find some pussy and who we later found passed out drunk on the sidewalk with his pants pulled down stopped by and stood on the street and stared at the restaruant patrons as they ate.  I kid you not.

And then there's Tardo.  He's definitley worth mentioning, bless his little soul.  This little guy really liked laying down.  In the middle of the road.  He also like running away as fast as he could for short bursts, then laying down again.  In the middle of the road.

     And on that note, good night.