Yungas

Sunday, March 24

I actually travelled to Bolivia once before a few years back. There was one place in particular that I had fondly remembered in recent years: the Yungas region near the city of Coroico.

At that time, I spent a few weeks traveling through Bolivia with a dear friend of mine, and her travel guide recommended the "Yungas," an area a few hours from La Paz. Since we were also in La Paz at that time, a trip to the Yungas seemed like a good idea. We spent a few days in a beautiful hostel in the mountainous jungle. I was so impressed by the surrounding landscape that I wanted to show this place to Christoph. So, Christoph and I bought bus tickets from La Paz to the Yungas and set off shortly afterwards in a small minivan. The drive from La Paz to the Yungas was simultaneously one of the most beautiful and most terrifying car rides we had ever experienced. Beautiful because the landscape changed in just a few hours from rocky mountain scenery in La Paz to the increasingly green jungle in Coroico, and there was so much to see. Terrifying because, although there was an actual road leading through the mountains, it was so extremely winding that Christoph and I both had to do everything we could to avoid throwing up in the small minivan. A few hours later, we arrived in Coroico, and we had never been so glad to have arrived. A taxi took us to our hostel, which was a little further up the mountain. By this time, it was already late in the evening and dark outside. We checked into our room, removed a small tarantula from the ceiling, and then went straight to bed.

The next morning, I woke up, sat up in bed, looked outside, and was shocked because the view was much more stunning than I had expected. By then, the sun was out and I saw the incredibly beautiful view from our room for the first time. The window faced the green mountains of the Yungas, and the view was so beautiful it almost seemed unreal. At some point, Christoph woke up, too, and together we simply stared out the window in awe. We spent the next two days reading, swimming in the hostel's pool, and going for walks. I was thrilled to see that the Yungas region was even more beautiful than I had remembered!