{"id":3423,"date":"2016-06-03T17:21:43","date_gmt":"2016-06-03T17:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/?p=3423"},"modified":"2016-06-03T17:21:43","modified_gmt":"2016-06-03T17:21:43","slug":"journey-into-the-jungle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/2016\/06\/03\/journey-into-the-jungle\/","title":{"rendered":"Journey into the Jungle"},"content":{"rendered":"

We had spent the night in an eco-lodge, which in and of itself was an interesting experience. We woke up early and ate breakfast with our guide, Remy<\/a>, who\u00a0asked us if we’d checked under our bed before we went to sleep, to which we replied that we hadn’t. Apparently tarantula spiders are quite common in the area and are often found under the beds, a fact that would probably have been helpful to know.\u00a0 There was an interesting bird on the porch of our cabin as we prepared to make the drive to the Carrasco National Park, which was just the beginning of the interesting things that we would see that day.<\/p>\n

\"IMGP7687\"<\/a>
Bird at Our Front Door<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Inside<\/a>
Inside of the Eco-Lodge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Outside<\/a>
Outside of Our Lodge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Plants<\/a>
Plants Outside of Our Lodge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Road<\/a>
Road to the Lodge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As we neared the entrance to the park, we stopped at a home of the park’s official guide, who had some incredible wood carvings.\u00a0 From there we continued to the park entrance where another couple were also waiting to go on the tour.\u00a0 Before starting on the trail that led into the park, the\u00a0park guide, who only spoke\u00a0Spanish, told us about the\u00a0poisonous snakes in the area, which Remy translated for us.\u00a0 Fortunately we didn’t see any of the snakes as we trekked through the jungle.<\/p>\n

\"Wooden<\/a>
Wooden Parrot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Poisonous<\/a>
Poisonous Snake Display<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Map<\/a>
Map of the Trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The Start of the Trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Butterfly\"<\/a>
Butterfly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As we started into the jungle from the ranger\u00a0hut, we quickly came to a river.\u00a0 It wasn’t the rainy season, so the river was fairly low,\u00a0but still running fast enough that we hoped that we weren’t going to have to walk across it since the previous day we had walked through streams with water that was\u00a0knee high.\u00a0 The park guide attached a harness to one of two cables that\u00a0stretched across the river and started scooting across, perhaps we were going to have to zip-line again.\u00a0 Wrong again, the guide pulled a yellow cage across the water and we all climbed in.\u00a0 This was apparently common transportation across the many rivers in Bolivia and the coca growers were required to use them to transport their coca leaves.<\/p>\n

\"How<\/a>
How We Would Cross the River<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"River<\/a>
River that We Crossed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Into<\/a>
Into the Jungle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Part<\/a>
Part of the Trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Another<\/a>
Another butterfly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The area is famous for the guacharos, a bird that lives in a cave and was once thought to be blind, but\u00a0is actually not.\u00a0 To get their cave, we would hike along an overgrown trail and cross many streams while learning about the various plants and animals that inhabit the jungle.\u00a0 We saw several gorgeous butterflies, a poisonous frog, a giant centipede, and lots of ants including the famous leaf cutter ants and a couple of poisonous ants.\u00a0 Trees infested with red fire ants are used to punish local tribe members who are accused of committing violent crimes.\u00a0 They tie the offender to one of the trees, which are barren of any leaves on their trunks, and ants swarm from inside the tree and bite the person, killing them in less than ten minutes.<\/p>\n

\"Rare<\/a>
Rare Owl Butterfly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ants<\/a>
Ants that Will Put You in a Coma for 24 Hours<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Frog<\/a>
Frog that Spits Poison When Threatened<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Guide<\/a>
Guide Next to Tree with Fire Ants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Moth<\/a>
Moth at the Lodge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally we reached the cave with the guacharos who nest high in the walls of the cave.\u00a0 Remy and the park guide banged on the walls of the cave to stir the birds.\u00a0 In unison, the birds in the cave joined together, making a noise that can only be described as a growl.\u00a0 The first person to discover the birds had gone back to his tribe and told them that there was a jaguar living in the cave because that is exactly what the birds sounded like, the roaring of a large cat.\u00a0 The birds were difficult to see, but we did see a couple of them flying around inside of the cave.\u00a0 This, however, was only the first cave that we were to enter.<\/p>\n

\"Cave<\/a>
Cave Entrance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Information<\/a>
Information About the Birds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Crossing<\/a>
Crossing a Ravine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Part<\/a>
Part of the Trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Guide<\/a>
Guide Leading Us to the Caves<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As we continued on the trail, the guide told us about the importance of the various bats in the area.\u00a0 There were vampire bats, who secrete a liquid when they go to bite animals that numb the bite area, allowing them to suck the blood without their victim knowing that they’ve been bitten.\u00a0 Using flashlights, we entered a cave with the vampire bats, trying not to make too much noise, but several bats swooped by our heads as we moved deeper into the cave.\u00a0 We were able to see hundreds of bats on the ceiling of the cave, but did not take any pictures, afraid that the sudden flash would cause them to all take flight at once, something we’d prefer not to see coming at us.\u00a0 Next we went into a cave with fruit bats, holding our breaths as much as possible as the floor of the cave was covered in guano and could be toxic.<\/p>\n

\"Beauty<\/a>
Beauty in the Heart of the Jungle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Carnivorous<\/a>
Carnivorous Tree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"View<\/a>
View of the Canopy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Remy<\/a>
Remy Showing Us Fruit that the Birds Ate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just walking through the Amazon jungle would have been fascinating enough for us, but going into the caves and seeing the guacharos was truly amazing.\u00a0 On the way out of the jungle, the guide took us to a coca leaf farm, one of many that are now allowed on national park land.\u00a0 As we neared the farm, the guide whistled, obviously announcing our presence so that any farmers wouldn’t take us for trespassers.\u00a0 Coca leaves are an important part of the Bolivian economy, but it is a shame to see the farms intruding onto national park land.\u00a0 Eventually we made our way back to the lodge where we ate a well deserved late lunch before driving back to Cochabamba.\u00a0 This was definitely one of the highlights of a trip that was filled with highlights.<\/p>\n

\"Fauna<\/a>
Fauna in the Jungle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Large<\/a>
Large Mushroom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Termite<\/a>
Termite Nest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bolivian<\/a>
Bolivian Spaghetti<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had spent the night in an eco-lodge, which in and of itself was an interesting experience. We woke up early and ate breakfast with our guide, Remy, who\u00a0asked us if we’d checked under our bed before we went to sleep, to which we replied that we hadn’t. Apparently tarantula spiders are quite common in … <\/p>\n

Continue reading Journey into the Jungle<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89944846,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4331],"tags":[8792,45089,14837,52977,55352,500517262,594157757,116234,1099,54158,436,200],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"class_list":["post-3423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-south-america","tag-adventure","tag-bats","tag-bolivia","tag-butterfly","tag-caves","tag-el-mundo-verde-travel","tag-hiking","tag-jungle","tag-nature","tag-nature-photography","tag-photography","tag-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6pbM5-Td","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3423"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89944846"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3423"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3472,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3423\/revisions\/3472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}