Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The main Cochabamba-Santa Cruz road, which runs through the town, is lined with restaur-
ants and hotels where in better days the movers and shakers of the
cocaine industry
would
come to blow some of their massive earnings, but which now depend on weekenders from
Cochabamba, foreign development workers and a small number of tourists. The main plaza
is two blocks north of the road, opposite
Hotel Las Palmas
.
Parque Machia
Daily except Mon, 9am-5pm • Bs6, cameras Bs30
A 250m walk east along the main road in Villa Tunari and across the bridge over the Río
Espirito Santo brings you to the entrance of the
Parque Machia
, a small, private ecologic-
al reserve that also serves as a refuge for Amazonian animals rescued from captivity. The
park has 4km of trails running through the forest and some lookout points with beautiful
views across the Río Chapare and the forest-covered mountains rising to the high peaks of
the Andes behind. Along the trails you'll meet most of the semi-tame animal residents, which
include several species of monkey, macaws and a puma, many of which roam free but still
depend on humans for food. After heavy rains, the trails are sometimes closed for safety reas-
ons.
Parque Nacional Carrasco
Daily 9am-5pm, last entry 3pm • Bs35-70, depending on size of group • 7937 1991
A few kilometres south of Villa Tunari on the other side of the Río San Mateo, some 6226
square kilometres of the forested northern slopes of the Andes are protected by
Parque Na-
cional Carrasco
, which adjoins the
Parque Nacional Amboró
to the east. Plunging steeply
down from high mountain peaks, the park encompasses a variety of ecosystems from high
Andean grasslands and cloudforest to dense tropical rainforest, ranging in altitude from
4000m to just 300m. It also supports a great range ofwildlife, including all the major Amazo-
nian mammals, among them jaguars, tapirs and peccaries, and over seven hundred species of
bird, including several which are endemic to the region. The park is seriously threatened by
illegal logging, hunting and forest clearance for agriculture by settlers along both its northern
and southern margins, but the mountainous forest-covered landscape is so impenetrable that
the inner regions remain pristine.
One of the most popular excursions into the park is to see the
Cavernas del Repechón
, a
group of natural caves that are home to a large population of
guacharós
, or
oil birds
. These
large nocturnal fruit-eating birds are found in very few other places in South America. Visits
to the cave are by guided tour only (included in the park entry fee), so arrive early to en-
sure you don't miss the park guards when they set off. From the park entrance, you will be
taken across the tumultuous Río San Mateo on a primitive cable car. It's a thirty-minute walk
through the rainforest to the caves, where you'll be able to see (and hear) the oil birds nesting
(except in May and June, when they migrate to Venezuela). The birds only leave the caves at
