Bolivian Butterfly Farm
09.01.2011
82 °F
With about 3 weeks worth of school work done (in about 4 hours) and Dave at the wheel of the Malloy's trusty 4x4, we ventured out to explore. The Malloy's live in a very nice, safe neighborhood. If you go out the gates it's a different story. If you go out the gates and across the bridge, well, let's not get carried away. As Carlos would say..."It is not a good idea." So today we went out the gates and stayed on our side of the bridge.
Our goal was to check out a place I had seen online with Koi ponds, a playground, a restaurant and most importantly, three pools. The pavement disappeared soon enough and we were enjoying a Bolivian back massage courtesy of the potholes. The wind, as is typical for this time of year in Santa Cruz, was howling, throwing dust clouds all over the place. Just dodging the oncoming traffic and not getting stuck in the soft sand shoulder was tricky enough. Dave piloted the vehicle as if he was born behind the wheel.
Our first stop was La Rinconada, "the corner". I would be well served to expand my spanish vocabulary beyond the 5 words that I do know. Literally after bouncing around on a poorly maintained dirt road for what seemed like half an hour but was probably closer to 10 minutes we came upon this beautiful oasis with a massive Koi pond, a unique park for the kids, swimming pools and a massive restaurant under a thatched roof.
As Katie, and the kids were wandering around, I was politely informed that there is a 20b ($3) charge to walk around and check out the place. Being too cheap to pay, I rounded up the herd and we bailed out.
En route to La Rinconada, Katie had seen a ramshackle billboard that said "Butterfly Farm" so we continued the adventure deeper into the jungle looking for the Butterfly farm. After a few more potholes, we found the farm. To say it is a Butterfly farm is an understatement. This place has more swimming pools than the kids knew what to do with, horses and carriages to ride, boats to paddle, turtles to bite you and my favorite, an aviary with all sorts of tropical birds. And there is a butterfly farm. 
As we were only there 3 hours before it closed we decided to swim first. With the huge winds and temperatures warm but not hot the swimming didn't last long. On to the carriage ride it felt like they were going to take us out in the middle of the jungle and leave us for dead. Who would miss a few gringos in Bolivia anyway?
The bird aviary was the highlight with a talking "Hola" bird, tucans, mccaws, peacocks you could touch and one bird that was so aggressive it was chasing Katie and the kids. There was also a 10 story tall eagles nest lookout you could climb. As we got toward the top it began to dawn on me that it was gusting close to 40 mph of wind and we are in Bolivia. Hmmm...maybe this thing could tip over? Lets just say I didn't voice my concern until I got down to solid ground and realized Katie and Dave were thinking the same thing.
Posted by thebongas 09.06.2011 19:02 Archived in Bolivia
