Little paradise of SAMAIPATA

Have you ever been in a paradise place while travelling? I guess so!

Samaipata is one of those places where you can feel like in a real P A R A D I S E ! After Philippines, where I found my first little paradise, Samaipata is the place to BE… Believe me 😉 Normally, I’m not that kind of person who is looking for relaxing, beach + sun places. And Samaipata surely is not that kind of place, but it has something in common with such places…You can chill out a lot! We were supposed to stay there just for 3 nights, but finally we decided to make Samaipata our home for one week. Why this place is so paradisiac?

The journey to Samaipata started in Santa Cruz from where we took a shared taxi. It took us about 3 hours to get there. The road is spectacular. It would be better to do it by motorbike or bike and to stop wherever you want, because the road has so much to offer. 30 minutes before arriving to Samaipata, you start to see Avatar mountains and hidden luxury villas. Then you arrive to a really cozy plaza de armas in Samaipata, and you feel like in an old movie scene. People are not rushing, you see some gringo hippies who came to live in Samaipata, local ladies chatting in the market square, and you are all surrounded by greenish hills that you are going to hike within next days. And the most important point! You are in the center of the best place to EAT in Bolivia. If you were traveling in Bolivia before, you probably know that bolivian cuisine sucks…it sucks so much that after 3 days you are fed up with this. Mostly everything is fried and very fatty. But, in Bolivia, you can easily find european restaurants and there is a bunch of them in Samaipata. Thanks to many incomers from Europe, you can find amazing chain of good places to eat. The one that we loved the most was: Tierra Libra (they have the best steaks, good bolivian wine and it is REALLY cheap). Best bar for happy hours (with the best view ever) is called BOHEME, just in the corner of plaza de armas. If you like mexican/ turkish/ fast food, there is another bar called LA COCINA. Very cheap and good, however it’s still a bit fatty. Last but not least, there is another restaurant called CHAKANA in the center of plaza de armas and they have incredible cremas and really good vegetarian food. They have menu for 35 bolivianos and one menu could be sufficient for 2 persons.

Lest skip from restaurants to, what to do in Samaipata apart from eating and chilling out 😉

• The first thing what we did was just hiking around Samaipata’s hills. You can get really nice views from the top of the hills. At the end of our hike, we got to a charming hotel called PUEBLITO resort. They have their own restaurant, so if you don’t want to stay there for a night, you can try their cuisine.
• The next day, we bought an excursion to Amboro Park. It is very famous for its special fern trees. `It was a whole day trip. I don’t remember exactly, how much we paid, but it was about 150 bolivianos. We have been hiking in Amboro Park for about 6 hours. We got to spectacular view points. If you plan to visit Samaipata, you should definitely visit this park. What’s more, as Samaipata lies on about 1700m above the sea level, during the trek in Amboro Park, you get to about 3000m. Thus, it is a good trek for you acclimatization before going to higher parts of Bolivia like Potosi or Uyuni.

• Finally we got to a paradisiac place, very known in Samaipata, called LAS CUEVAS. You can’t miss this place because it actually makes Samaipata so heavenlyl. Las cuevas is a small village situated about 15km from Samaipata. You can easily rent bikes to get there. However, it can take you up to 2-3 hours by bike The hard thing is to go back from Las Cuevas to Samaipata, as you have to go up all the time. What is actually Las Cuevas? Waterfalls. It is a place with 3 huge waterfalls, where you can swim, jump, trek or just chill out… We did a small hike there. Just after the third waterfall, you can go up to the river and follow it. We were walking for about 3 hours in the river (the level of water was not deep) so you could easily put your feet into the river and walk. The landscapes were just stunning. Just watch out crazy cows who look a bit agressive and we couldn’t continue our hike because of them.

• You can do much more things in Samaipata, for example condor trek or Che Guevara route. We didn’t do it as we live in Peru and we see condors every month 🙂 La route Che Guevara looks fantastic though and you better do it by motorbike.

Places to stay in Samaipata:

We stayed in Casa Lynda. It is an amazing Airbnb, owned by Lynda (a Canadian woman) who settled down in Samaipata about 4 years ago. We booked an elegance room at her place (she has 4 rooms to rent) for 36$ per day for 2 people. It was an astounding room with a view at beautiful garden, full of flowers. I really recommend Casa Lynda for your stay in Samaipata. What’s more, Lynda is an amazing person, you can chat with her, taste her delicious breakfast and she gives a lot of valuable hints. If you are on a low budget then she has cheaper rooms for about 20$ per night. Of course, you can fin cheaper places hostels in Samaipata but they won’t be that cosy as Casa Lynda, believe me 🙂

If you travel to Bolivia and want to discover more authentic places, check here.

Wanna travel to Bolivia with a local travel agency? Contact us on www.alpinca.com/ www.alpinca.fr/ www.alpinca.pl