Tres Cascadas

I spent the day in the park of the tree waterfalls and it was an amazingly peaceful day. The trail leading to the first waterfall runs along the river and there are orange trees on each side and a lot of sub-tropical plants. There are a few very nice cabins and a campsite right next to the entrance to the park. If you ever feel like getting lost for a while and spending time in a remote place, away from civilization, the park is a great place for such disappearance. Each waterfall has a nice sandy beach to lie down on and the water is perfect for swimming - not too hot and cristal clear. I went up the trail to the furthest waterfall and spend the whole day lying on the beach, soaking in the water, napping and reading. I was the only person there the whole day but not the only soul: there were many birds, very beautiful, and of peculiar colors, butterflies, dragonflies and sandflies which were driving me to madness before I applied insect repellent. One of the bird's singing resembled that of the cellular phone ringing so a few times I was woken up by it and for a split of a second wondered if I was transported to a different place in my sleep... I was relieved to find out I was exactly where I wanted to be... A collectivo was passing by right after I left the park and I was even lucky to have a seat, on a bag of rice.

I was reading today a really great book of literary essays by J.M. Coetzee STRANGER SHORES. I found it in Frank's "book exchange". Frank is German and has lived in Samaipata for some time. He runs Roadrunners - a travel and trekking agency. Many places owned by foreigners have book exchanges which are usually shelves with books left by tourists and it's possible to donate used book and get a different one or borrow books. Most of the book exchanges I saw before had only romances and other "beach books". I'd rather read labels on detergent or schampoo bottles than Barbara Bradford Taylor or Danielle Steel so I was thrilled to find Coetzee at Frank's. So the day spent among the watefalls and with a good book in hand will be very nicely remembered.

It is also confirmed, constantly during my trip, how small the world is. During supper at La Chakana - a restaurant with very nice food - a person came to my table and introduced himself as Bill. Frank told him I was Polish. It's such a small town that everyone knows what everyone else does and is, even if one is a foreigner. We started talking and it turned out one of Bill's books, Blueclay People, was considered by Ayesha Pande at FSG. It was eventually published by Bloomsbury. So, isn't the world small?!

Ps. Gosienko kochana! Pewnie ze pojade do Afryki, nie wiem tylko kiedy. Mam nadzieje ze do tego czasu Twoj okres kiszenia sie w Ameryce sie skonczy (zawsze sie konczy, kazdy przez okres kiszenia sie przechodzi) i bedziesz mogla pojechac ze mna. Jak skoncze z Ameryka Poludniowa to sobie kupie przewodnik po Afryce i zaczne robic "badanie terenu" i wstepna trase. Ucaluski dla Ciebie, kochana.