Really, this country keeps surprising me in all the best ways. I spent a weekend in a region not too far away called Yungas. It’s where the infamous most dangerous road, “death road” is and it’s also the in between landscape from the Altiplano where La Paz is located before you hit the Bolivian Amazon. I honestly didn’t even know that Bolivia had an amazon so you can imagine my pleasant surprise visiting the very edge of this region and finding just a little bit of tropical jungly feels in the town of Coroico.
Coroico is this little town that literally sits on the edge of a mountain and then also surrounded by mountains that look all tropical and wild. Pictures don’t do anything do show how cool this place is and every time I saw it from a distance I would just think – how the heck did people even build this?
The main thing that attracted my friends and I there was the zipline that my classmate had told me about from her practicum earlier in the summer (thanks Rach!). Maybe I have just really been missing nature and green things, but this weekend was so much more than just a zipline.
The area around Coroico we learned contains about 114 other communities. As we drove around the area, it was easy to see how 114 little towns could hide in the shadows and nooks and crannies of the mountains. The views were constantly incredible and the area also grows coffee, oranges, bananas, corn and coca, which was cool to see oranges and coffee beans growing just off the side of the road.
Anyways, I could talk forever about how cool this place is. Here is my Coroico top 5:
- Ziplining through the Andes was something spectacular. If you’re brave enough to bike the death rode, go for it – but this is a good alternative for just enough adrenaline rush to get your heart pumping but you don’t have to work as hard for the views. I am not sure if I was crying because of the views or the wind in my face but there were definitely some tears. We went with a company called Zzip the Flying Fox.
- Rio Negro. A natural pool with a waterfall surrounded by mountains. This was one of those beautiful unplanned happenings. We made friends with a taxi driver for the weekend who suggested we go there (honestly really good sales tactic!), and it was the perfect way to end the weekend. Not too far from Coroico – it was sunny and warm, the place was dotted with locals, we had the waterfall all to ourselves, three hours to kill and sandwiches to eat in the sun. The memory of swimming in a freezing cold Bolivian waterfall is going to stick around.
- Hostal Sol y Luna. Is it weird that our hostel is one of my top 5? It was such a tranquil place. Away from just stuff – we had what we needed and hot showers to top it off. There is a restaurant on site so we had nice relaxed mornings eating outside and nice relaxed evenings sharing Pacena’s (Bolivian beer) and just chatting over snacks. Also amazing maracyua (aka passionfruit) juice.
- Cafe Almendra. Yay for vegetarian restaurants in the middle of nowhere! This is the cutest little place with the best food, run by a sweet little woman and her family. They also have homemade popsicles for 2Bs which is like 30 cents. Amazing. (Again, thanks for the rec Rach).
- Last but not least, we went to an animal reserve called Senda Verde. It was a pretty cool place that has animals that have been rescued from situations where they would be sold for their meat or skin. In hindsight, we should have taken the English tour because I probably would have gotten a lot more out of it, but I understood about 60% of what the guide was telling us about the animals and it seemed like they knew what they were doing – and we also got to stay with our friend from Spain who doesn’t speak English. Highlight was the bear for sure. We also saw monkeys, parrots, toucans, snakes, turtles, a capybara and an anteater.
An overall highlight would be just the views. I normally don’t like being in the car, but I didn’t mind because it just meant more mountains, more green and more sky. Also traveling with former strangers that are now friends is always a bonus.
Coroico was a weekend for the books.
