It’s a jungle out there!

After two more trips to the mechanic – a burst water line and a blown head gasket….. Pancho was ready for a road trip – so were we!

We got up on Sunday morning after getting an extra hour of sleep and decided that breakfast at Café El Triunfo, in El Triunfo was a really good idea. So, 40 minutes later, cameras were loaded and away we went.

El Triunfo, a former mining town 35 kilometers from La Paz, is a quaint little village about 5 blocks long. It’s nestled in between some hills and near the old Eiffel smelter stack, supposedly built by Eiffel himself – or rather he had something to do with it! El Triunfo is also home to the world famous piano museum.

We had a good breakfast, met some nice folks on the way to their place on the beach in La Ribera and then wandered through town for a bit. Tom went in search of birds, and me, I just went looking.

I found some interesting windows,


some fun colors and textures,


the old bridge,

a few bugs, a few flowers,

and some transportation used to get folks here.





On the way back we headed down the road that leads to the Sanctuario de Cactus, 5 k off the main highway. The road side was just lovely. The hills and vegetation is so green and lush, it looks more like a jungle, than the desert. We couldn’t have walked more than about 2 feet away from the road if we’d wanted to.

All the many hues of green were beautiful to see. There were lots of flowering plants – pinks, yellow, blue and purple. An occasional white or red flower could be spotted. Amongst all of this, and over and on top of and woven through was a yellow viney plant that looked like some kids went wild with silly string! It appears to literally be choking and totally engulfing the plants.

We were met at the gate of the ‘sanctuario’ by a man , the ‘caretaker’, who gave us a brief tour. It was actually rather involved and detailed, but we were more into just wandering on our own. Hurricane Odile had left her mark. Several large trees were down. Many cactus arms were broken,

and that jungle stuff was encroaching upon the pathways. We wandered to the end of all the cleared areas, then worked our way back.

As is usual with us, when we go slow, we see more! Unfortunately, because of all of the vegetation, many of the cactus (cacti?) were hidden from view. There were lots of butterflies, a couple of really BIG ones floated just out of lens reach, but were fun to watch and a couple of neon spiders and other little critters were spotted and enjoyed. I had fun photographing the twisty vines, some back lit cactus and trying a new technique with my flash unit.

We were also shown through the neighboring cemetery, of which he’s also the caretaker. He pointed out some really old vaults.

An extremely large one, a couple of Indian ones, at least two Spanish ones complete with the arquitecture examples of the time period.

Like all cemetaries in the country, they are all being cleaned up for next weekends, Dia De Los Muertos celebrations. A time to honor and remember those we’ve loved that have passed.