Villa Tunari

Villa Tunari
Originally uploaded by louise_parmenter

To break up my long journey (856km) from Santa Cruz back to La Paz I decided to stop off on route in Villa Tunari, a village in the jungle region of El Chaco, famous for its cocaine production. I spent two days there, one relaxing in the jungle streams and the second at Parque Machia: a refuge for maltreated animals (ex-circus, or in the case of the pumas ex pets of coca lords). This second day was great fun. The previous evening I had gotten to know all of the foreign volunteers working at the park at a Halloween party. They had promised me a private tour of the park, so I spent the day with some volunteers taking their puma for “walkies” and then being harassed and cuddled by a bunch of capuchin monkeys and a big fat spider monkey. The capuchin monkeys were very funny: one lounged on my shoulders while I walked around the park, another grabbed my lips trying to open my mouth to get my chewing gum, another purposely made me drink my water only in order that he could spill it over me and drink from my chin! The spider monkey was a different story – he was a big fat male that sat on my lap with his tail around my neck while I studied with fascination the palms of his three-fingered hands and the third “palm” at the tip of his tail.

I very cleverly dropped my camera in the river on my first day there, so I have no further photos of Villa Tunari except this one. (Thankfully, though, my camera is working again now.)

DISTANCE TRAVELED SINCE USHUAIA: 23,432KM