in the jungle...

The hotel we stayed at in los Yungas is called Jungle River Resort. I could have stayed here the whole three weeks. It has hot water, wonderful paths to wander, of course pools and waterslides and all you can eat buffets for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Now, how much would a place like this cost per night? Take a guess. Lower. Lower. It was $35 a night/ per person...and Diego was free!

(Joaquin is posing here with his Flat Stanley before we walked up a skinny path to some beautiful views.)


This very threatening river rushes right by the whole place.


But half the fun is just driving there. Joaquin was thrilled to be sitting in the front with his cousins...and no car seat.


You have to go up, before you go down. We stop at a statue of Jesus to challar...that's a tradition where you pour alcohol on the tires of your bus and on the ground for a safe journey. This is a picture of all of us right on the edge of the cliff.


I can never quite capture how amazing the views are from up here.


We passed lots of waterfalls right on the edge of the road.


Everyone went straight to the pool when we got there. Diego didn't care much for the water...


but he did enjoy walking around in his cousin's shoes.


That frog is spitting right on Joaquin's head.

At first, we thought there were just the two pools at the resort, but we were very excited to discover this playground right near the rushing river.


Joaquin is peeking at the bananas growing on the tree right by the slide!



It was hard to get a good shot of the WATER SLIDE, but here it is winding through the palm trees. It was SUPER long and had some parts of it open, and other parts like a tunnel. The kids said there were glowing eyes in the tunnel, but I had my eyes shut and was screaming, so I never saw them.

There must have been at least 10 slides...some big, some small and all different colors.


Juan Pablo is getting ready to go down the BIG ONE for the first time. He's not too sure about it, but Joaquin had already gone down and not come back, so he had to go.


Here's some of the family after they shot out of the slide. There's that river again!



One morning, Juan Pablo, Joaquin and I decided to hike the trail up the mountain to the miradores, or look-out points. Isabela had wanted to stay with her cousins, and Diego most certainly would have fallen off. It was such an adventure. We had been warned no to go to the top because it had rained the night before...and there's always the danger of landslides. We even had to give our names to the guard, in case we didn't come back. But once we got started, it really wasn't that scary...although Joaquin made up some story about a bad guy that had left his broken glasses up there, which we had found. The circling vultures added a little to it, too.


This is one of the look-out points.


And here's a view below to a wooden bridge across the river.



I thought it was funny to see the bed sheets hung out to dry here.


The morning we left, it was foggy and rainy. This is typical of los Yungas, but it doesn't last long. The trip back up the mountain was another adventure. I think I screamed once at how close we were to the edge. It was even snowing a bit when we got to the top! You really can see all four seasons in one day here.