Go. This is some place you have to see. I didn't want to go at first, as I haven't been mentally all here lately, but after some thought, I figured I could.
The 3 hour bus ride quickly became 8. We had a two hour stop (still don't know why) outside of a beautiful lake. At first it was nice, then everything attacks you mentally. I've been having slight anxiety attacks lately so it wasn't very fun.
Right as I started to get very testy, and Neil told me to calm down and said You can't be anywhere but here so accept it (something we are constantly telling each other when something is bothering is). Something was testing my patience. Of course, within 5 minutes we were off again. There's no coincidences in life
The views are just amazing. You're going from the super high elevation of Cochabamba, to a low 900 feet elevation in the jungle. I could breath again!! The town is warm, and swampy. Right off of the River (name eludes me..)
The ride in you see all sorts of life, small little huts and shops set up everywhere, as well as mats filled with coca leaves for drying.
What saddens me is that most everyone is selling junk and not local goods. All the tiendas are filled with coca cola and Oreos. This was completely unexpected to me, and disheartening? If we're coming here to see the life, why are we seeing what's being ruined by things back home? It was so strange. But we did manage to find a few good vendors.
The first day took so long so we called it a night after eating a salad at some restaurant we were told was vegetarian. Their menu included sections for red meat, white meat, fish meat, exotic meat, and drinks. Luckily they whipped something together for us.
After a decent nights sleep (paper thin walls and a lot of noise beginning at 6 am or so) we decided to head for Macchia Park.
One of the warnings you're given is don't take pictures of the monkeys; unfortunately, we saw none anyways. We did come across a bear and a puma though!
The trail itself was nice... But rather short. Most of the fun is labelled as dangerous (when isn't it?) and we weren't allowed to go. We did veer off the path a bit and made our way slowly up a cascade, it was a great view and the running water was so fresh.
Realizing we should've went to park Carrasco, and it was only 12:00 when we finished we decided to derp around town. What Neil calls his "best purchase ever", a machete, was used so we could buy more coconuts. You can get the fresh drink from most venders here (as well as fresh cacao!) but most people don't cut open the coconut for you, to eat the meat. We had quite the alkaline dinner!