Our pastor recommended we see a fern forest that he loves when we were in
Samaipata. From what we gathered talking to people it was about a two hour excursion and it was beautiful. So after breakfast we started driving and right away got on this dirt road with no houses or signs to indicate we were going the right way. We drove and drove and drove. Finally when we thought we were lost for sure we arrived at the village, we were told to look for. At that point we had been driving for 2 hours! So this was not going to be the short trip we expected.
This is my Dad climbing all over the vehicle to get pictures of various things all along our road trip.
My Dad and Grant waiting at La
Yunga for our guide to return.
Once we drove for over two hours and finally made it to the first signs of life--a tiny village called La
Yunga a woman came and told us she would be our guide. As soon as we paid her and signed her book she said I'll be right back and took off. So we were thinking
hmmm are we ever going to see the woman who just took our money. She did come back eventually with a machete and different clothes on. While we waited Grant tried to see if he could pet this little family of burros that were milling around us. He got pretty close but I don't think any of them wanted to be petted. When the guide came back she climbed into our vehicle and we drove 5 more kilometers straight up hill to where we hiked.
Still trying to pet the donkeys......:)
After driving some more with our guide we stopped at a little clearing at the end of the road and started hiking. I was wearing flip flops which was not a wise decision for it was a little more of a hike than I had imagined. Here is a shot of Grant and I just after we entered the fern forest. It was about a half an hour hike before you reached the fern forest and the whole time I was thinking this is not that impressive it looks like normal jungle to me but once we reached the fern forest it was amazing. There were over 800 variety of ferns and some of them were huge where one prawn was as big as a person.
Here is my Dad and our guide. She was a grandmother and she liked telling stories the entire hike about the tigers that lived in the forest and how the hippies are not to be trusted. We did see a lot of big paw prints that she said were tigers and she showed us some bones that were at one point a cow that was eaten by the tiger. My Dad thought it was likely not a tiger but some kind of mountain lion. It made me a little nervous-the paw prints were very fresh. The hippies did not make me nervous they did the whole hike barefoot. We saw their tracks all over the trail. Our guide did not want my Mom to return to the vehicle because she thought she might be in danger from the hippies. They looked pretty harmless to me but who knows :)
I love this picture of Grant and I. Look at the crazy tree branch that Grant is leaning on....it bends into a sharp 90 degree angle and it was actually still alive and growing.
This was the view from the lookout point. As we approached the lookout tower we started to hear music. Our funny guide lady told us to
shoosh and we
creeped toward the source of the music. I did not know what to expect as we
snuck up the path. It ended up being the three hippies that our guide was so worried about all day. They were playing a flute and a
churango, which is sort of like a Bolivian
ukulele 
On the crazy dirt road back to
Samaipata we saw a lot of cattle and horses and donkeys.
On the way home from the forest adventure my Dad kept spotting boulders on the side of the road and had the idea that Grant and he could push one and watch it go forever. They picked a very large boulder and were unable to make it budge :)
This is my Dad climbing all over the vehicle to get pictures of various things all along our road trip.
My Dad and Grant waiting at La Yunga for our guide to return.
Once we drove for over two hours and finally made it to the first signs of life--a tiny village called La Yunga a woman came and told us she would be our guide. As soon as we paid her and signed her book she said I'll be right back and took off. So we were thinking hmmm are we ever going to see the woman who just took our money. She did come back eventually with a machete and different clothes on. While we waited Grant tried to see if he could pet this little family of burros that were milling around us. He got pretty close but I don't think any of them wanted to be petted. When the guide came back she climbed into our vehicle and we drove 5 more kilometers straight up hill to where we hiked.
Still trying to pet the donkeys......:)
After driving some more with our guide we stopped at a little clearing at the end of the road and started hiking. I was wearing flip flops which was not a wise decision for it was a little more of a hike than I had imagined. Here is a shot of Grant and I just after we entered the fern forest. It was about a half an hour hike before you reached the fern forest and the whole time I was thinking this is not that impressive it looks like normal jungle to me but once we reached the fern forest it was amazing. There were over 800 variety of ferns and some of them were huge where one prawn was as big as a person. 
Here is my Dad and our guide. She was a grandmother and she liked telling stories the entire hike about the tigers that lived in the forest and how the hippies are not to be trusted. We did see a lot of big paw prints that she said were tigers and she showed us some bones that were at one point a cow that was eaten by the tiger. My Dad thought it was likely not a tiger but some kind of mountain lion. It made me a little nervous-the paw prints were very fresh. The hippies did not make me nervous they did the whole hike barefoot. We saw their tracks all over the trail. Our guide did not want my Mom to return to the vehicle because she thought she might be in danger from the hippies. They looked pretty harmless to me but who knows :) 
I love this picture of Grant and I. Look at the crazy tree branch that Grant is leaning on....it bends into a sharp 90 degree angle and it was actually still alive and growing. 
This was the view from the lookout point. As we approached the lookout tower we started to hear music. Our funny guide lady told us to shoosh and we creeped toward the source of the music. I did not know what to expect as we snuck up the path. It ended up being the three hippies that our guide was so worried about all day. They were playing a flute and a churango, which is sort of like a Bolivian ukulele 
On the crazy dirt road back to Samaipata we saw a lot of cattle and horses and donkeys.
On the way home from the forest adventure my Dad kept spotting boulders on the side of the road and had the idea that Grant and he could push one and watch it go forever. They picked a very large boulder and were unable to make it budge :)
