Nos Encanta Amboró

The city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra is fortunate to be almost adjacent to one of Bolivia's top 3 national parks, Parque Nacional Amboró. Needless to say, I had been chomping at the bit to explore. A couple weeks back Mike, Ethan, Gretchen, and Dr. Douglas left for Cuba. The rest of us figured a trip to Amboro was the perfect remedy for our sadness and longing for our friends, so off we went down the old highway to Cochabamba with our laid-back and strapping guide Marco. Rich had a major man-crush and persevered throughout the trip in trying to discover the secret to his physique.

Parque Amboró is rich in ecology and social history. With ecosystems varying from Andes foothills, to northern Chaco, to Amazon basin, the park has nine different life-zones and more biodiversity than the entire country of Costa Rica! It was founded in the 80s as German Busch Wildlife Reserve and was studied and expanded by Bolivia's two most famous biologists, Robin Clark and Noel Kempff. Legend holds that for many years, Clark single-handedly defended the core of the park, the area with the most intact ecosystems, by walking it's red-line boundary with a machete and shotgun. Due to its proximity to Santa Cruz and Cochabamba, there has long been a problem of colonios invading the park to slash and burn to create crop and grazing land. As a result, a multiple-use area was later designated in the land surrounding the park to serve as a regulated buffer.

Day 1 of the trip featured a hike down into the valley of Refugio de Los Volcanes. We'd enjoyed some great vistas, new birds, insects, and flowers, and of course some cataracas (waterfalls). After a nice lunch and nap in the sun in the valley basin, we hiked back up toward to road to Samaipata, all agreeing we would have rather had the uphill first. We were all strugggling a bit that day after an all-nighter at the reggae bar for Ethan's last night in Bolivia.

Highlights of our night in Samaipata included the coolest swing outside our cottage, eating half-chickens, political discussions over café con leche with Marco (who turned out to be an avid socialist and Evo disciple), some salsa dancing, and...not to be forgotten...karoake. By the night's end we had done Roy Orbison and Bobby Darin proud as the only gringos in the discotec.

Day 2 was even cooler. Our destination that day was La Yunga, located another hour west. La Yunga is famous not only for its forests of helechos gigantes (giant ferns) but also as a model of community-based natural resource management. The mostly indigenous community of La Yunga has developed into an ecotourism economy over the last years. There are now many experienced naturalist guides and a small ecohostel. While I've often read about such park management models, I felt surprising excitement to actually hear the guide explaining to us in spanish that they feel their economic future and the future of their children hinges on the preservation of these ecological treasures in Amboró. The giant fern forest felt somewhat surreal as the sun slowly baked off the morning fog. The most amazing thing about the ferns was their age. As they only gain 1 cm each year, many of these trees were thousands and thousands of years old. The entire walk took place on bridges constructed from a wood species that can withstand a lot of humidity and moisture so as not to let anyone accidentally step on any 20-50 year old saplings. The hike ended at a grand vista of the park where we rested and chewed coca leaves. The guide gave an impressive tour and we hope that many more travelers come to see the ferns and the visionary community working to preserve them.