We, Ben Verhoef and Susanne Lijmbach, have our tour agency since 2005 well established in the village of Samaipata and its beautiful setting in the foothills of the Bolivian Andes.

We will explain how and why we came here.
Back in the year 2000 we met in our home country Holland. We both loved travelling; Susanne wanted to return to South America where she spent half a year already and Ben had the wish to go back to Nepal where he had been doing trekkings over several years.
We decided to combine both in one year time, from October 2002 until October 2003. The first half year we spent in Asia, India, Nepal and New Zealand, then we crossed to Mexico and travelled down to Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

After this year full of experiences we returned to Holland and found a new job, but the idea to find ourselves a life somewhere else had taken form. Our favourite countries were New Zealand, Laos and Bolivia.
Between those three we choose Bolivia as our new home country because of the language that would be easy to learn and the possibilities to start a business of our own.

In April 2005 we arrived in Bolivia with just two backpacks and a suitcase. During half a year we travelled back and forward through Bolivia to find the best place to settle down.
This time our choice to be made was between Sorata, north of La Paz, Entre Rios in the Tarija area and Samaipata.
The political situation in that time made us decide not to settle down in Sorata because of strikes and blockades. Entre Rios only received about 20-30 foreign tourists a year so that wasn't a good option to start a business either. It had to be Samaipata.

We lived in hostals for 4 months. At the end of 2005 we started doing tours with backpackers from the hostal we were staying.
From January 2006 we rented a house. We bought a computer, built our website, designed our brochures and started to receive backpackers from all over Samaipata.
At the end of that year we bought our place. In February 2007 we moved in after the reconstruction of it into a bar/restaurant, office and home. In April 2007 we opened the doors of our Bar/Restaurant La Oveja Negra.

Over the years both Ben Verhoef Tours and La Oveja Negra got well-known.
From 2008 on we also organize tours and travels for companies abroad with individuals, couples, families and groups throughout Bolivia.

In La Oveja Negra you can play a game, exchange a book or read the newspaper and off course enjoy a good -vegetarian- meal and have a drink.
Now and than we also have a concert here.

We hope you got a good impression of our activities and that you will pass on the word of your positive experiences of a tour with us or a visit to our bar/restaurant!

Ben & Susanne