Chapare

Hola Amigos!! I have an exciting tip to share with you all! This past weekend mis amigos y yo went to Chapare, a town located in the tropical area of Bolivia. It is a bit of a tourist town for both Bolivians and gringos although it doesn´t appear that way at all. We stayed in a nice little hotel called el Hotel Bibosi located in the main plaza within walking distance of almost everything. It was very simple and quiet with the only down side being not having any water while we were there. They told us they only turned the water on during certain hours of the day in order to conserve it, but we never managed to receive the schedule or catch it turned on for more than five minutes. Chapare is not exactly the place you want to be with out running water and we were in definite need of showers while we were there. It was sooo hot we felt like we were in a sauna the whole time! With no water to shower we were thankful there was a pool to bathe in!!

Fish is a speciality in Chapare and we definitely ate plenty of it! Alanna and I went to one of the little vendors in the street and they gave us a plate with two whole fish, eyes and all! The bones were a bit of a pain to pick out but it was still delicious and worth all the work! (Especially since it was so cheap)

We visited two parks while we were there, one being el Parque Machía (mostly known as the monkey park). It serves as a safe have for thousands of abused animals, has saved over 1,000 hectares of rainforest and is currently the largest NGO Bolivian conservation. The coolest part about this park is the monkeys literally just hang out with all the visitors and they even go looking in your pockets for goodies! Rumor has it that if the monkeys do get a hold of your belongings they give it to the keepers and you have to pay to get it back! All the monkeys were friendly and there was one jumping from person to person, but you do have to be careful because sometimes they bite. Luckily we left without any marks and with all our belongings.

The second place we visisted was called La Jungla: a minature amusement park for adults. You definitely feel like you need a Tarzan costume as you swing from trees on a little piece of wood attached to a rope. The tallest swing was about 50 feet in the air and thankfully they harness you in on this one! It was a bit dangerous but definitely something that couldn´t have been passed up :)

Getting a ride back to Cochabamba was a bit of a challenge and ended up being another adventure all on its own. This past monday was the Day of the Dead, a popular holiday here in Bolivia and in many other Latin American countries. Since everyone was celebrating, there was only one taxi going to Cochabamba and another group beat us to it. We ended up flagging down a huge two story bus, what they call flotas here, and asked if they had any space. They told us they didn´t have any seats left but we could ride in front with the driver, so we piled into a little space in the back and rode shotgun for four hours back to Cochabamba :)

Overall, it was a beautiful trip and it was great to experience a different part of the country. It was interesting to see how much Evo support there was, which I think has a lot to do with it being such a small underdeveloped town. Traveling helps put the political situation into context and brings the ethnic divisions into perspective, something that I think is hard to grasp without seeing first hand.

This weekend we´re off to Uyuni to see the Salt Flats and I can´t wait to share with you all the exciting details!!

Besitos!