Cochabamba, Villa Tunari

Now that I´m stuck in Rurrenabaque for a day before heading back to La Paz, I have some time to update the blog...

After leaving Sucre by plane, I arrived in Cochabamba around 6pm. I ended up only staying there for a few days, the main reason for my visit being Villa Tunari. which is about 4 hours by bus from Cochabamba. So early the next morning I took a bus over to the Wild Life Refuge so I could play with some monkeys and other animals. It was humid as all hell during the few days I stayed there. There wasn´t a single place that had a fan or air conditioning so there was zero relief from the hot sticky weather, so therefore I was pretty much sweating 24/7 while I was there, but I wasn´t too concerned cause everyone else was as well. Villa Tunari is a very very relaxed place with not too much to do there besides see the national park. A lot of tourists stop over and spend at least a few weeks there volunteering as a cat or bear walker, which sounds pretty cool in theory, but I definitely wouldn´t wanna stay there for that amount of time, so you really have to love it in order to get through the days. But for a couple of days, it was definitely worth the trip. Each time I went to the park I got to play with tons of monkeys as all the animals are free to roam around as they please. So multiple instances occured where monkey were climbing over me from head to toe licking the sweat off my face and even cleaning my hair - pretty cleansing. I also got to see the one bear they have at the park, which was pretty cool as well. After my time there I took a bus back to Cochabamba to spend the day before heading to La Paz that evening.

Cochabamba was actually a really cool city, I think its about the thirds largest city in Bolivia, but it has amazing food, lots of universities, and great culture. So during the day I walked around all the different markets that were each really cool and with lots of great food - the best salads I´ve seen so far and really tastey fish, which was a nice substitute for steak. They´re really into a dish called Pique Macho over there, which kinda reminds me of Poutine a bit, and it consists of french fries stacked high with about 5 different types of meat including Tripe and drenched with mayonaise, mustard, and ketchup. For dinner I went to a restaurant that offered duck and rabbit, which are also two animals Cochabamba is known to serve. I had the duck braised in wine and it was f*cking good. I also ran into some luck while there as apparently every end of November students from universities around the country gather in Cochabamba for an almost 8 hour parade around the city, dancing to music, and all the different groups dress up in different traditional outfits, so that ended up being a great way to pass the day. But once again, Cochabamba was a really pretty city, and because of its size, there´s lots to see and do there. So I highly recommend it. Alright, next is La Paz and Rurrenabaque.