La Paz, Bolivia, South America

I had a good day today, but it was pretty long. I woke up a couple of times during the night due to all the jungle noise, and at about 2am I ended up having to get up to find my ear plugs. That helped a lot and I was able to sleep until about 6:30am. I went for my first tour at La Senda Verde at 8am, and it was the bear tour. I was under the impression, from the website, that there was only one bear, but it turns out there are two. There is a male bear named Aruma, and a female named Tipsa. Aruma has the largest enclosure for a single bear in the world.

He seemed to be pretty content and he was sitting at the gate waiting for me when we came in. I was given the tour by two volunteers, Hilda and Laura. They were very good and knew everything there was to know about these bears. These are bears that are native to the area and are called Spectacle Bears because the markings on their fur can look like they have glasses on. They eat an almost completely vegetarian diet, with only 5% meat because this is what they would have in the wild. They are not hunters, so they would just eat meat if they were to come across a dead animal.

We also went to see Tipsa and she was a bit stressed out and kept walking to all corners of her cage and doing a little twirl. Apparently that was her way of showing stress, but to me it just looked like she was showing off. We finished up the tour at 8:30am, and it was just in time for breakfast at the restaurant. Yet again, I was sat on my own while everyone else ate together, but at least I expected it this time. I had some time after breakfast to relax a bit and get my little bag packed up so I was ready to check out.

I met in the restaurant at 10am to go on the big tour and it was Laura who gave me the tour again. She has been here for a total of 11 weeks, so she knew all the information really well and it was good to get shown around the place. She took me to the aviary to see all the different birds they have, then showed me the tortoises, the Caymen alligator, the turtles, and then finished it off with a walk through the monkey area. Most of the birds and monkeys are not being kept in cages, so they would be free to walk out any time they want, but they get treated really well, so they all stick around.

This is a really cool sanctuary that’s been set up by a man who owned the land and used to be given injured animals people would find on their way down the Death Road. Now they are recognized by the government, so that just means they get a lot more animals, but this is Bolivia, so they do not get any government funding. I’m really glad I had a chance to visit and give a little bit to support the cause there.

I finished the tour at 11:15am, asked them to call me a taxi, and had to wait till 12pm for the taxi to arrive. I had to get a ride to the town of Coroico which is just up the hill from La Senda Verde. It took about twenty minutes to get up the hill, and then I found the line of minibuses waiting to fill up to go to La Paz. There was one leaving in a minute and they had space for one person, so I was the lucky one who got thrown in the middle of the back seat of the van. This is officially the most uncomfortable I have been for two hours straight. There was some sort of metal bar that was just under my ass, but little off center, just to make it even more uncomfortable. Then I was sat between two men who did not want to give up any shoulder or knee room, so I was fighting them the whole time, just to get my fair share. It was terrible.

I finally got to La Paz at 3pm, but then had to get a taxi from the bus terminal to my hostel, and due to some sort of festivities, this took over a half hour. I just couldn’t believe how much of my day was spent waiting around or sitting in an uncomfortable transport vehicle. I didn’t even go in my hostel, I had to go get something to eat and the only place I knew that I could get a really good meal to fill me up was Steak House. I went back there and had a great cheeseburger. That satisfied me for lunch and dinner.

I went back to the hostel to pick up my big bag and use the wifi for potentially the last time in about five days. I got a taxi from the hostel at 5:15pm and headed back up to the bus station for my bus at 6pm. Much to my surprise, it was a really nice bus that had big comfortable lay down seats, and I got two to myself! I’ve settled in nicely, even though the speakers for the movie are right over my head and the volume is all the way up. We’ve asked the driver to turn it down a couple of times, but apparently he’s not getting the message. Hopefully after this movie it will be turned off and I can get some sleep.