Last Days in Bolivia

Our trip is closely coming to a close. We've spent our last weeks in the Santa Cruz region of Bolivia. Unfortunately, Wilson was sick with food poisoning again last week (and it wasn't my fault this time), so much of his time (and mine) was in a hotel watching TV and surfing the Internet.

There was not much to do in Santa Cruz other than visit a small, local zoo, a Dinosaur Park (with footprints of dinosaurs) and Biocentro Guembe – a park and resort with exotic plants, butterflies and animals. Our last days were spent in Samaipata – about 3 hours outside of Santa Cruz.

In Samaipata, we stayed in La Posada del Sol, a nice little bed and breakfast. We visited El Fuerte, a pre-colombian archaeological site built by three different cultures including the Chanes, Incas and Spaniards, and some waterfalls known as “Las Cuevas” and a little zoo in town.

I must say the highlight of this trip was the zoo, a couple miles outside of the main plaza of Samaipata. According to a Swiss couple who was volunteering at this zoo, the owner is a handicapped Swiss lady (which we witnessed) that had decided to move to Bolivia because she wanted to keep a monkey she owned in Switzerland (not sure how much of this is true since it was only their third day on the job).
Over the years, locals started dropping off animals they'd found or didn't want to her. And now, seven years later, she has a near-zoo in her backyard. Her animals ranged from a cage of monkeys to birds, pigs, rats, a small leopard-looking cat, deer, sheep and a biting watch goose (that kept biting Wilson's shoe).

Our favorite animals was Chichi, a pet monkey that wrapped herself around guests that first arrive at the zoo. She kind of reminded me of a dog (who wrapped herself around you) because as soon as we got there, she climbed onto each of our shoulders and licked us continuously like a dog. We had walked about 2.5 km to the zoo so we were pretty salty by then. We even toured the zoo with her wrapped around our neck, licking us. She didn't get along with the other caged monkeys because she would appear stressed and make these squeaking noises when we'd walk near the cage. Our guide told us she just didn't get along with the other monkeys. We also spent a fair amount of time looking at the caged monkeys playing and having sex with one another. We witnessed two male monkeys taking turns copulating. One of my favorite monkeys was one that would rub his stomach to show he was hungry, all while munching on tomatoes and carrots.

Overall, that was the highlight of our last couple days. We will be flying out of Bolivia on Saturday, with an overnight layover in Miami. Although it's a bit sad to say good bye to our travels, I think we are both ready to come home to see our friends and family.