In the morning, it was raining heavily; no sense in going for a walk in this weather. Instead, we stayed in the main house to make some jewelry. These were the raw materials:
After two or three hours of drilling holes, polishing, and tying knots, I arrived at these end products:
Gorgeous, aren't they? The piece with five holes inside is called Motaku; the white, red and black seeds are Lágrimas de María, Sirari and Sululu; and the ring is made of a palm seed called Chonta.
After lunch, we crossed San Fernando lake to explore the other shore. Besides many monkeys (again), we also saw a tayra, belonging to the family of otters, a bunch of coatí, and a few green macaws.
We also encountered a couple of grapefruit trees.
I'd never seen grapefruit trees before - and the fruits on these trees were a lot bigger than any you could buy in Germany. My guide plucked a couple of fruits for us, peeled them and cut off the top, thus producing a squeezable cup we could drink the grapefruit juice from - so delicious!
The brown furry thing on this flower is the larva of a big blue butterfly:
This is the Bolivian signature flower - it contains the three colors of the Bolivian flag: red, yellow and green.
By the way, the flag's colors have been chosen on purpose: red for the blood shed in the fight for independence, yellow for Bolivia's mineral richness, and green for its biodiversity. Do the colors of the German flag signify anything? Sometimes I feel really stupid for knowing so little about my own country...
This hallucinatory fungus is said to have an effect similar to marihuana. Apparently, you can cut it, leave it in the sun to dry, and then scrape off the white powder to smoke it or make tea from it.
Finally, as perfect end to the day, there was a pretty sunset over the lake as we returned:
After two or three hours of drilling holes, polishing, and tying knots, I arrived at these end products:
Gorgeous, aren't they? The piece with five holes inside is called Motaku; the white, red and black seeds are Lágrimas de María, Sirari and Sululu; and the ring is made of a palm seed called Chonta.
After lunch, we crossed San Fernando lake to explore the other shore. Besides many monkeys (again), we also saw a tayra, belonging to the family of otters, a bunch of coatí, and a few green macaws.
We also encountered a couple of grapefruit trees.
I'd never seen grapefruit trees before - and the fruits on these trees were a lot bigger than any you could buy in Germany. My guide plucked a couple of fruits for us, peeled them and cut off the top, thus producing a squeezable cup we could drink the grapefruit juice from - so delicious!
The brown furry thing on this flower is the larva of a big blue butterfly:
This is the Bolivian signature flower - it contains the three colors of the Bolivian flag: red, yellow and green.
By the way, the flag's colors have been chosen on purpose: red for the blood shed in the fight for independence, yellow for Bolivia's mineral richness, and green for its biodiversity. Do the colors of the German flag signify anything? Sometimes I feel really stupid for knowing so little about my own country...
This hallucinatory fungus is said to have an effect similar to marihuana. Apparently, you can cut it, leave it in the sun to dry, and then scrape off the white powder to smoke it or make tea from it.
Finally, as perfect end to the day, there was a pretty sunset over the lake as we returned:
