Vern: We started our fourth day in town in a terrible archaeological museum watching a short film meant to explain 'El Fuerte' (the Fort) a mystical red rock, and the village which formed around it, which sits in the mountain above Samaipata and is covered with carvings and etchings dating back past 500 BC. However they don't actually know much as they only had the budget to excavate 10% of the complex. Nonetheless the film-maker was commissioned to fill up 20 mi...

Vern: The shared taxi from Santa Cruz to Samaipata leaves when full so we sat down in a little taxi office and waited. A few men wandered in and added their names to a list on a chalk board so Andrea insisted I add our names too so we wouldn't be forgotten about, and we sat patiently and ate an ice cream and twiddled our thumbs. Finally a car filled up and we left though no other passenger names were ever added to the chalkboard. We enquired and it turned out to ...