Coroico - Los Yungas

For the birthday of my dad, we travelled to the Yungas province, western Bolivia. 

Los Yungas is like an other world comparing to La Paz. It is amazing how the climate and nature changes within just few hours and kilometers of driving. The route to Los Yungas is in the middle of the mountains and clouds, the route is very curvy an about ten years ago it was also very dangerous, it was called the "death road", but the new highway is better and a lot safer. 

In the beginning of the trip the route passes the highest point of The Altiplano, where we saw these amazing snow-covered mountains. It really took my breath away and made me forget everything else in the world.

     

Our aim was to get to the city of Caranavi, but as usual in Bolivia the route was closed so we changed our plans and went to Coroico. Because of the road constructions, we drove part of the trip on the old road "the death road", it was amazing! Although I was a little scared driving just in the edge of the mountain, it still felt incredible. Looking out from the car window, I could only see a big drop to the jungle. And because of that overwhelming feeling I wasn't able to take any pictures..

In 3-5 hours we were already in Coroico, once we got out form the car, we could really feel the climate change, it was super hot! So we went to the first hotel we found, to change our clothes. 

After that we did a little tour in the town. The town of Coroico is located on top of a hill and it's very small. It can be walked up and down just in ten minutes or maybe fifteen.

Coroico is one of the main attractions for tourists in Bolivia, also many locals come to spend the weekend to relax in family (like us) or to have fun with a group of friends. Anyways in general the atmosphere in the town was very calm and united, one can notice that the locals all know each other. 

homemade pineapple ice-cream from the local shop

   

Jus a half an hour from Coroico, we also visited an another even smaller town called Tocaña, the town of the afrobolivians. It wasn't an organized town it was more like an area with little houses here and there on top of one hill. They told us there are 45 afrobolivian families living in this town. They are the descendants of the slaves that the Spanish brought to South America in the colonial era.

We visited the main spot of the town the admirer and The Center of Afrobolivian Culture.

Unfortunately, because of my cowardliness I didn't get any pictures of the afrobolivian people... But it was really interesting and almost weird to see dark-skinned/black people with traditional Bolivian clothes. 

view from the hotel

I am still very impressed of this trip. I can not believe how wide the world is, if only in Bolivia I can see so many different things. The variety of people, nature an culture is absolutely incredible!