Coroico

Last weekend we decided that we were all in need of a little R & R so we packed our bags and headed off to a very small town called Coroico down in the slightly more tropical regions of las yungas. A place which surprisingly is only 2 hours away from La Paz and yet so vastly different in fauna and flora. Including some pesky biting bugs!

It was indeed a very small town, our taxi driver made comment to us that if you were to trip over whilst in Coroico, you would fall over the edge. When you see how the town is perched onto the edge of a mountainside you can understand the reason for the comment.

We all enjoyed the short break and being somewhere different. There wasn’t really much to do so we just enjoyed hanging about and seeing how many different creatures we could find, by the end of the weekend Alana was very proficient at spotting insects and bugs of all shapes and sizes, including a stick insect climbing up the steps.

In the grounds of where we were staying there was a small play area, that was somewhat over grown, but a haven for so many creatures, some nicer than others. I don’t think I have ever seen, or heard so many different types of grasshopper in one place before, all colours shapes and sizes.

On the Saturday we headed off for a walk in an attempt to find some waterfalls. A taxi driver had told us that they were only about half an hours walk away, a time scale reference to which we were a bit dubious, knowing how time is not a strong point within the culture. However, we still set out full of hope and were accompanied by one of the dogs from the hotel who took a liking to us and obviously fancied a walk too. Once we saw she was insistent on coming with us we decided to call her Poppy. Alana was very happy for the extra companion and we for the extra distraction to keep somebody walking. After an hour and a half walking around the mountainside and no sign whatsoever of any waterfalls we gave up and turned back, a decision that was helped by the fact that the path had now become almost impassable. We also figured that with the return journey it was enough for one day for a short pair of legs.

We were a little disappointed at not reaching our destination however the views were quite spectacular and we did see lots of other pretty butterflies along the way. Poppy seemed to have enjoyed the exercise too and accompanied us right back to our room, though we drew the line at letting her in.