First Impressions of Bolivia - Amboro National Park

Santa Cruz turned out to be just another city, although there were a few interesting things, like the pet toucans at the hostel and my visit to the zoo. Although its clearly seen better days, it was still a good introduction to some of South America´s amazing wildlife, most of which will probably elude me over the next month or so. Highlights were the jaguars, pumas and other cats, the monkeys, the amazing variety of birdlife - macaws, parrots, condors as well as other unusual animals I´d not seen before like tapirs, armadillos and capybaras. Heres hoping I get to see at least a few of these when I head into the rainforest.


I shared a taxi with an Australian couple to the small town of Samaipata. Higher than Santa Cruz at 1700m, it enjoys a cooler climate, surrounded by tropical rain forest and the nearby Amboro National Park, home to a diverse ecosystem where the cloud forest meets the Andes. From there I took a two day guided trek into the park. My guide only spoke Spanish, however my language skills seem to be improving slowly and we communicated without too many problems and he proved to be an excellent companion.


The first day we set up camp early and headed off into the jungle without the packs, trekking through some pristine forest and up to about 2400m where there was a commanding view out over the forest. Camping in the middle of the rainforest was a new experience for me and the next morning I awoke to a chorus of bird calls. The park is famous for its diversity of bird species and it was a little disappointing that most birds were seen and not heard. Although I did see plenty of bright green parrots, the number of other sightings was quite poor compared to the experience I had in the northern jungles of Guatemala a few years ago. I think its necessary to trek deeper into the park to see more wildlife. However, early that morning, we were lucky to spot some monkeys, before they escaped deeper into the forest and we encountered a few snakes en route - luckily they were harmless green tree snakes. The second days trek, was much tougher, carrying a full pack through some very dense vegetation, the guide was constantly using his machete to clear the path through the undergrowth. We climbed up out of the rainforest, to give more excellent panoramas and then descended down a steep tricky trail to a clearing festooned with orchids and rich with a huge variety of butterflies.

After a full days trekking, I got the overnight bus to Sucre, joined by the Australians for company but despite feeling exhausted I failed to get any sleep. After the luxurious Argentine buses, the more basic vehicles and poor roads here have proved more of a challenge on these long journeys.