Santa Cruz

I wish it were in the wild, but no, we visited a park just outside Santa Cruz.

It's called the butterfly park, and check out the catapillar!

Horseback riding, birds, monkeys, fishing; we could have spent more time here.

It was our last day of a ten day vacation and we loved it.

We should have spent the night.

OK, the picture didn't turn out really well, but it's a sloth hanging upside down on a rock.

Traditional farming equipment, including a device for crushing sugar cane.

The city of Santa Cruz is lovely and we can't pass up an opportunity to visit an old church.

Honey I shrunk the kids.

Santa Cruz is Bolivia's largest city and economically better off. It's in the lowlands, making it much warmer than La Paz. We felt like we were in a different country.

Patanal

Well, from the Brazil side, the Patanal looks pretty nice.

Lots of low-lands and few trees for the animals to hide behind.

Kayla & Ray managed to get stuck for five hours, but did get to see more birds

Our river tour included some time for fishing. It may not look big, but Heather is holding a Pirahana

A cool birds nest and tons of water lillies.

A fisherman's shack and we saw loads of different birds.

The Patanal is supposed to be THE place for wildlife viewing - no jungle to hide in. Well, we did see lots of different birds, do some fishing and we saw a few animals (otter, fox, ant eater), but I wouldn't say loads. I'd have to say this is the first trip we were disappointed in. Not a total loss, but for the money and distance, not worth it.

Torotoro

AJ crawling through part of the cave, but the entrance was very large to start with.

The landscapes around Torotoro were gorgeous

Our picnic area right across from a large natural spring.

Some scenes inside the canyon

Yep, we are standing inside a dinosaur footprint.

A natural bridge and it looked like big bird's nest to me.

The village was very friendly and surprisingly clean.

What's left of the old hacenda, and the entrance to the museum.

More dinosaur footprints - they were everywhere.

Torotoro was pretty remote, but well worth the trip (we actually flew). Then, a lot of hiking around the area. Caves, canyons, fossils: a great outdoors place.

Alto-Beni

Didn't know this, but coco has different varieties, like this red one.


The Alto-Beni region has lots of different fruit: oranges, grapefruit, papaya, tangerine, guava, etc.

Typical Bolivian river boat and our picnic lunch.

The salad bar is a bit different, and so is the method of packing the picnic.

The papaya trees don't do well with other plants, so everything is cleared beforehand.

We spent last weekend in the country with a friend/coworker of ours. His parents have a farm and we enjoyed time touring around and having a traditional picnic. Very generous and nice people.