So next on our agenda was to get to a small village called Samaipata where we knew some witnesses. The plan was we would leave Uyuni by bus go to Potosi swap buses and go to Sucre. We would then jump on a plane to Santa Cruz once there we would get a taxi to take us the 2 and a half hour drive to Samaipata.. Easy right??
Not in Bolivia!! And especially not at Carnaval time!
The leaving Uyuni by bus was fine (minus the running in rain & hail to the bus of course) but when we got to Potosi we were told no connecting bus was coming so we then had to jam in a taxi with other Bolivians & go the 3hr trip to Sucre. We then fortunately got into a hotel at 3am and spent the night in the capital of Bolivia, which is a very beautiful city.
The plane flight was quick, we flew with Aerosur for 1/2 an hour! But we arrived in Santa Cruz only to find that no taxi's were going because of Carnaval. So the first night we stayed in the first hotel we could find. Regretted it - no hot water, our room flooded & we had someone continuously knocking at our door!
So we tried to leave again the next day but still nothing running so this time we checked into a 4star place & lived it up! They accidently upgraded us so we each got a suite with balcony, spa, cable tv... and great pool area to chill out until we could finally leave for Samaipata. We suddenly loved Santa Cruz!!