Coroico

After this long stretch in the Amazon Bassin, we needed to go back to the mountains. So we stopped in the little village of Coroico.
Coroico is situated in subtropical region of Bolivia, a zone located between the Amazon Bassin and the high Cordillera Real, featuring the highest Bolivian peaks. The landscape is characterized by humid jungle and fairly high peaks. In the dry season apparently there is amazing views of the Cordillera Real from the village. Coroico is famous as it is located at the end of the famous bike route of the "death road".

We arrived in Coroico once again in the middle of night after a long bus ride, we found a place to crash and dicovered the view in the morning. We went for a little walk in order to look for a take off area.

Looking for a take off

Coroico Valley

The weather was pretty menacing so we decided not to fly, but we were more or less ready to go for the next day.
The next morning we walked early to the take off. The wind was good and a few birds were making their way up the slope. We had to go quickly as we heard that the valley wind could be very strong from 10-11 a.m. We struggled a bit to take off on a slope with a lot of vegetation, but finally got airborne. From the sky we could see the real take off, we just didn't walk far enough... Anyway I managed to climb a bit above the village. It was nice to be in the air again. First Bolivian flight!

Coroico

But quite quickly (as predicted) the wind came in strong and we had to make our way to the bottom of the valley. I struggled to make progress and the air was pretty turbulent on landing, but all good. Geo was a bit behind me and he got even stronger conditions on landing making out for a good learning of the valley breeze system.

Landing in the river bed

After some hesitation we decided to stay  a bit longer there as there was some good hiking potential and it was possible to fly. The decisive factor was also that we found a cheap hostel including a terrace with a beautiful view of the valley. Terrific spot for reading!

Morning view from the terrace

The next day we went to the same spot (but real take off this time). I had a good flight playing with the clouds, soaring over the village before it got strong again.

Straight after the flight we got back to the hotel and went on for a walk. We hiked passing by coca and coffee plantations. The region of the Yungas is famous for producing some of the finest chewing coca. Litteraly everybody there is chewing a ball of leaves. With one or two balls in the mouth people are quite funny looking, a bit of a hamster face.

Coca field

We walked for about 4 hours at a good pace to get to the river bed. We took a bit of a longer way than the usual loop, but no pain no gain. The landscapes were really nice.

Finally after a refreshing storm we got to the river, but there, no way to carry on. Coming back the way we came was not an option, way too long and about 1000m to climb up! So we decided to make our way straight through the river bed. Quite tricky at times with a lot of current but a lot of fun.

Walking on water

We managed to make our way through the valley using the river then climbed back up to the village. A good 6 hours walk after a flight in the morning. An action packed day that deserved a little beer on the terrace for a perfect ending.

Bonus Pics:

HAPPINESS

Bolivian Jungle

Once we got to Bolivia after our Puerto Maldonado captivity story, everything seemed easy!
We took a bus from Chivé, the small village we arrived at, to the the nearest big town, Cobija, in order to regularize our situation with a Bolivian entry stamp.

Chivé city centre

On the bus ride the first thing that caught my eye has been the lack of trees. I had the idea of a track surrounded by deep jungle, home to all sorts of dangerous animals (Jaguars, boas, anacondas) but even if there was some trees most of the landscape was remains of trees and fields.

Cobija is a border town situated at the frontier with Peru Bolivia and Brazil. There is not much to do there, so we just stayed a couple of nights before heading east to Riberalta, another Bolivian amazon city.
The bus ride from Cobija was long and cahotic, 450km of dirt track. The rivers crossing of Madre de Dios and Benni have been well-liked opportunities to stretch our legs. Once again the predominant thought on this bus ride was the deforestation of the Amazon Bassin. Apart from the Peruvian national reserve we passed through, most of the jungle had been cut and this quite far from the road, sometimes for as far as eye can see.

Our stop in Riberalta has been very pleasant. A nice "clean" town with a big main square and a beautiful river view giving to the place a sort of harbour city feel.
Even if we were the only tourists there it seemed that the local government had tried hard to develop tourism: brochures, a tourist office that must see a tourist every two weeks some touristics signs in the streets, weird...

One thing that stroke us since we had arrived in Bolivia was how erroneous the cliché on its people was. From the begining people were friendly, didn't try to scam us or rob us. This was maybe due to the fact that when most people think of Bolivia they think of the Altiplano, maybe people are different there, anyway it has only been positive so far. I even received, as a leaving present from Riberalta, an orange juice from a secret admirer in the street ;) .

Sugar Cane Juice

The next stop was Rurrenabaque, a popular jungle location, access to the Madidi park and the Pampa renown for its animal watching.
The journey was another 500km of dirt track through the amazon bassin!

Ready for the race!

The Amazon beast

This bus ride has been the most intense one we've had so far even if it only consisted in one long straight line.. Impossible to sleep for the whole length as we were literraly jumping at the rear of the bus. On the other hand we had once again all the leisure to observe the amazon bassin that looked more like African savanna at our mean speed of 30km/h.

Only 400km more to go...

The Amazon Jungle!

Start of a very long night

Finally we arrived in Rurrenabaque at sunrise in a very weird state. Luckily we found a really nice place to stay (Tuki I warmly recommend it if you go there) where we managed to start our night.
Rurrenabaque seemed very cool, for the little we had seen in the morning. A mix between small mountains, deep vegetation and a river.

Our street in Rurre

We stayed for about four days in Rurrenabaque without doing much. It is one of these places that swallows you for a bit, maybe for a few years if you are not careful enough! (we've met some examples)
The life was easy between hammocks market, fruit salads, beers, pool games at the moskito bar with the friendly owner and the traditional cybercafe time (especially for Geo). We tasted a really good traditional fish cooked in banana leaves, a delight!

Life in Rurre...

As I mentionned before, Rurrenabaque is known to be the gateway for Jungle experiences in Bolivia, but we decided not too go as it would necessarly involve a tour that we couldn't really afford. We decided though to go upstream of the river with some kids in order to have a quick view of the Madidi park.

I am the captain!

On the way back we made a stop in an old abandonned hotel complex in the Jungle home to buterflies now. Beautiful and would make a perfect place for a rave!

To conclude our stay in Rurre we dragged ourselves to the mirrador where we enjoyed a view of the amazon bassin and mountains.

There was stopping our passage in the amazon bassin. We definitely left with a strong will to come back and experience the jungle for real. But I think that an experience of this type would require more than a couple of days and we are on a paragliding trip after all! The sure thing is that the earlier the better to visit this part of the world  as human activity has already swalloed big chunks of what used to be a jungle.

The next road section  to Coroico (mounatins and paragliding)  was quite impressive as it is what is most comonly known as the death road. But somehow we had a more comfortable journey than the previous 500km straight line.

The world's famous death road of Bolivia

May god be with us

 Bonus Pics:

LOST

LOST as well