Barges, Aligator, Jaguars, and The Cutest Tapir

Other than the stomach virus I just got, I'm having the best time of my life. I didn't post on the weekend because we got invited to go to this little town called Guarayos, which is like 4 hours from Santa Cruz. We almost didn't go because one of the bridges got blocked, but then our friends told us that there was another way to get there. It was going to be a little longer. A little longer became the whole night. 

We had to leave on Friday at 6 p.m. but when we finally decided to go the longer way, it was 10:30 p.m. We drove for like 2  1/2 hours, and by the way, the longer way wasn't on a paved highway, it was on a dirt road, and then we got to a huge river but there was no bridge. Although the river is very wide, it is pretty much dry this time of year, but there is still like 1/4 mile of water to cross, and with no bridge. They have this wooden barges that makes you cross the river. We were driving a Lexus RX 300 that had no double traction, and the first barge we saw we tried to get on, but there was too much mud at the bottom, and the car skidded off the wooden planks that they use, and we kind of fell to the side, but then they told us that there was another barge that was on a much lower side of the river, so we drove to that one. We waited for the barge to cross with other cars to our side for like 1 hour, until it was time for us to get the car on it.

This is a picture of my friend Jessica driving the car onto the barge: 

While we were on the barge crossing the river, there was this guy inside the water pushing the barge. Mind you, it is winter and it was freezing cold. They do this at least fifty times a night.

When we finally got out of the barge, we drove for an hour and a half more until we got to one of the farms that belongs to Jessica's dad. Since it was very late, the gate was locked, so two of our friends had to walk for a mile to go and call the keeper so that he would open it. The farm is very beautiful. They have so much wild life that they have skins of many animals hanging from the walls of one of the cabins.

The next picture is of an alligator skin and the other one is of Bolivian jaguars.

When we got up in the morning, the maids had our breakfast ready so that we could continue our trip, we still had a few hours of driving to get to Guarayos. We had breakfast along with a new friend I made, a Tapir. This one in the picture is one of the big ones, they had baby ones too, but they ran away so I couldn't take a picture.

Look at this face. Isn't it the cutest thing you've ever seen?

I will be posting more picture of my trip to Guarayos, so keep checking.