Everything you need for the jungle!

Seven kilometers outside of Santa Cruz, the Biocenter Güembé combines aspects of a resort, a natural recreation park, a swimming pool, and a zoo. We visited for half a day and could happily have stayed for much longer, relaxing by the pool or exploring the grounds more thoroughly.

Upon entering the park, which costs 90 Bs ($13) a head, we immediately found ourselves face-to-face with a couple ostriches and a capybara sharing a grazing field. Güembé has a wealth of wildlife to discover, including an island full of monkeys, a turtle sanctuary, toucans and more parrots than you could ever care to see.

After taking a walk through the jungle paths, where Capuchin and Titi monkeys were fighting and frolicking overhead, we found the Butterfly Dome. If you have a crippling fear of butterflies, this might not be the place for you. Don’t snicker; lepidopterophobes actually exist in enough numbers to have an active forum. And as we walked around the dome, with thousands of butterflies flapping about our heads, I began to see the logic of fear. Butterflies are unpredictable in their movements and, if their ugly cricket-like faces are any indication, probably evil. Soon enough, I found myself wanting to scream whenever one brushed the back of my neck. “Butterfly Dome”. It could make a great horror film.

I was starting to panic, so we left the butterflies and entered an incredible aviary close by, filled with lush vegetation and home to innumerable exotic birds, such as toucans, parrots and peacocks, none of whom were shy of humans. There was also a squirrel standing on the railing, eating paint flecks. He was twitching weirdly and approached us in far too confident a manner. As Jürgen started to walk, then run away, the squirrel chased after him. Considering my freakout in the Butterfly Dome, the evidence is mounting that perhaps we’re not the world’s toughest guys after all.

We rewarded our chilling encounters with nature by hopping into some of the many swimming pools in Biocenter Güembé. The water felt great and we were all alone. The park is more than 24 hectares in size, but there were very few guests. Perhaps it fills up on the weekends, but we appreciated the relative solitude.

Güembé is ideal for families with kids, even if lovers of “authentic” nature might be disappointed. We ordered a nice lunch at one of the shaded picnic areas, and discovered that there was even a Wifi signal! Had we known that, we might have booked a night in one of the cabins. If you’ve got an extra day in Santa Cruz and are looking for a relaxing place to spend some time, Güembé is worth a look.

Location on our Bolivia Map
- Hostels and Hotels in Santa Cruz

Other Miradores we visited in Bolivia: Mirador Laikakota – Mirador Killi Killi – Mirador Andina J’acha Kollo

Landslides are perhaps the greatest danger of building a city in the mountains, especially when the mountains are composed of easily-eroded material. La Paz suffers regularly from landslides, almost all of which occur in the city’s poor, elevated areas, and many of which have a high human cost.

In March of 2011, while we were in Buenos Aires, we read about a mega-landslide in La Paz, which destroyed 400 homes and displaced 5000 people. But we didn’t pay attention to the name of the neighborhood. So when we decided on a whim to explore Pampahasi, found high on the eastern side of La Paz, we were stunned to find a road that simply dropped off into nothingness. Houses ripped into two and a vast cliff of mud and sand dropping precipitously to the field below.

Four months after the disaster, Pampahasi seemed to be regaining its footing. Before we realized that this was the neighborhood of the landslide, we had been remarking to each other how lively and interesting it seemed to be. We had just visited an incredible mirador and bought some juice-bags from one of the many street vendors in the neighborhood’s heart. And then we came upon the border of the landslide, without any warning or idea about what we’d find. Terrifying and incredible.

If you have a chance to explore one of La Paz’s more remote and interesting neighborhoods, hop on a mini-bus headed towards Pampahasi!

Location on our Bolivia Map

- Hostels and Hotels in La Paz