a big time in the jungle

After playing with dynamite in the highest city in the world, we dropped down into the jungle.




The Yungas is the gorgeous, rainy, highland forest of Bolivia where they grow most of the coca.




La hoja no es droga!



The roads down there are a little dicey, but the views are spectacular.







We went down, down, down the mountains to the town of Rurrenbarque, the gateway to Madidi National Park, home of the widest variety of birds and amphibians in the world. Bolivia has over one-third of all the bird species out there. Isn't that groovy?



We did a three day pampas jungle tour, some by foot, mostly by boat.


Our guide, Baldemar (sea bucket) was spectacular. He explained all the wonders of the pampas (the flat, swampy area we were exploring), and because we were in the midst of the dry season, all the animals were concentrated along the banks of the narrow river we followed.



We passed by hundreds and hundreds of alligators and caimen, monkeys, exotic birds, and capybaras, the largest rodent you ever saw.












In the Amazon and its tributaries in Bolivia and Peru swim the pink river dolphins. No joke. They are beautiful, have smaller eyes and dorsal fins than their ocean dwelling cousins and a long prehistoric nose with their teeth showing. And they're pink. Wild. They are shy, but a number of them swam alongside our boat, and we slipped in the water to bathe with them a few times. Rolando assured us that they would protect us from the alligators that lined the shore.


Not a one of us got eaten by a croc, so I guess he was right.



There was such a concentration of animals along the banks of the river, little monkeys and families of capybaras played on the ground and in the water right next to the gators. They seemed to have a peace treaty going on.



By foot we crossed the area around the river that, for half of the year, is covered in water.



Facsinating place.









We spent each night in a cool lodge beside the river.


Where the beer ran warm and the mosquitos got their fill.



Back in Rurrenbarque we chilled out at a groovy little hostel with their pet squirrel monkey.






From there we took the treacherous trip back up, up, up through the Yungas to La Paz, Bolivia's beautiful capital city.




Great swimming hole where we stopped to play along the way.