In the Jungle: Coroico

On Friday morning, Ceci and I packed up our stuff and met her boyfriend at the bus stop for Coroico.  Ceci had arranged the whole thing with a tour company that did trips for her university, run by a man named Jorge Matos, a total hoot.

The view from our hotel patio

The drive to Coroico was really beautiful.  It´s close to where the old Death Road (Camino de la Muerte) goes, but that old dirt track is now used almost exclusively for biking.  We took a nice, safe paved road over the mountain (over 13,000 ft) and down about 8000 feet to Las Yungas, the jungle area where Coroico is located.  We arrived at our hotel, which was amazingly nice.  It is right on the edge of the tiny town, so the pool/garden area looks out over the river valley.  Since it´s so humid in Coroico, tons of tropical plants grow there, including banana trees, lime trees, hibiscus, elephant ears, and loads of other plants I didn´t recognize.  We rested at the hotel for a little while and then went on a tour with our travel company.  The staff and the other travelers made the trip really fun.  Among the characters present were: Diego, an adorable but terrible three-year-old boy, Alejandra, an ultra-sarcastic woman our age with a classic latina attitude, and el Quinto, a crazy punk rocker who is in charge of luggage because of his ability to climb on top of the van like a monkey (and sometimes ride there when there aren´t enough seats).

This little guy lives at the hotel

We walked around town a bit, saw the cathedral, and then went on a mini-pilgrimage.  We climbed a small mountain that had a path with the stations of the cross (perfect for Good Friday) up to the top, where there was a Calavario, a small chapel and a representation of the site of Jesus´ crucifixion.

Cooking anticuchos by firelight

We hiked back down only to realize that there was no electricity in the whole town.  Since our night-time plans included a trip to a discoteca, we were a little bummed, but it wasn´t so bad.  I had my flashlight, so we made it to the plaza okay.  There, everyone in town was running around like crazy people in the dark, dancing and singing.  We didn´t stay there long, but we did stop long enough to buy some anticuchos (grilled beef heart (!) and potatoes with a spicy peanut sauce), which is my favorite dish I´ve tried so far in Bolivia.

With nothing else to do, we went to Matos´s house for an impromptu candle-lit party.  We played cards, listened to music on someone´s cell phone, and watched Chapi, another quirky staff member, perform magic tricks.

El Quinto, with a Capuchin monkey

In the morning, we were back on schedule since our plans didn´t involve electricity.  Matos drove us to la Senda Verde (Green Path), an animal refuge.  There, a volunteer staff cares for dozens of native Bolivian animals that have either been injured or abandoned by careless pet owners.  I guess a lot of people think that monkeys will be adorable pets and then change their minds when they grow up.  We saw Capuchin, howler and spider monkeys, macaws of all colors, lovebirds, parrots, turtles, a caiman (like an alligator), and tons of beautiful rainforest plants.


I learned a lot about the animals.  For example, the macho alpha of the monos aulladores (howler monkeys) can be heard from six miles away!  The refuge also has special employees who volunteer as surrogate mothers for the baby monkeys, who must be cared for at all times for the first three years of their lives.  If they don´t have enough affection, they get depressed and die, so these amazing women spend three years carrying around a monkey on their shoulders.  Now THAT´s dedication.

In the afternoon, Ceci, Juan and I had a nice lunch (two dollars for a multi-course meal of soup, salad, sausage and rice) and took naps before the tour group´s pool party.  Like I said, all of these people were quirky and nice, so we had a lot of fun, with Matos performing crazy belly flops and el Quinto pretending to be a mermaid.  We ate dinner (Pollo Milanesa, kind of a breaded, flattened fried chicken) and then... the lights went out AGAIN.  It wasn´t as fun the second time, so we just went to bed.

La Cascada Jalancha

The next morning, Chapi drove us to see las Tres Cascadas (three waterfalls) near Coroico.  They were extremely beautiful, but sadly not well-kept.  The Bolivians are nice people, but they´re really bad about littering.  However, I still enjoyed the view of the gorgeous waterfalls and tropical plants.  Ceci, Juan and I hiked around a little bit extra and found a freezing cold pool where people were swimming, along with hummingbirds and those giant rainforest butterflies (a shiny blue one and a purple and yellow one).

After the waterfalls, we were supposed to go get ice cream, but we collectively decided to leave early instead.  I think everyone was kind of exhausted.  This turned out to be a good thing, because on our way back we had car trouble and then hit a traffic jam caused by too much fog.  I was really thankful we had competent drivers who also knew about fixing cars.  Thanks, YAT company!