Amboró National Park
Best national park for a quick city escape
Amboró may be just 40km (25 miles) from what could be the most urbane place in Bolivia – the city of Santa Cruz – but its virgin forests feel lightyears away from the city hubbub. This shapeshifting 4425 sq km (1709 sq miles) park lies at the union of three spectacular biomes: the Andean foothills, the Amazon Basin and the dry Gran Chaco forest.
This means visitors can admire a rainbow of flora and fauna, from giant anteaters to spectacled bears. By law, you’ll need to hire a guide to visit the park, but tour operators in Santa Cruz can arrange everything from half-day excursions to multi-day adventures. Trips typically include bathing in waterfalls, exploring caiman-filled lagoons or hiking through misty forests filled with birdsong.
Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve
Best national park for surreal moonscapes
Okay, so it’s not technically a national park, but Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve, on the southern border, is easily the country’s most visited protected area. It’s also the site of some of the most spectacular high-altitude landscapes on earth.
Many tourists visit on the popular crossing between the Salar de Uyuni salt flats and the town of San Pedro de Atacama in Chile’s Atacama Desert, traveling down bumpy roads to view puffing volcanoes, gurgling geysers and gem-colored lagoons filled with three species of endemic flamingos. Laguna Colorada, a rusty red lake at nearly 4300m in altitude, is one of the reserve’s highlights and is home to its small visitor center.
The Laguna Colorada is one of Bolivia’s most epic landscapes © Westend61 / Getty Images
Kaa-Iya del Gran Chaco National Park
Best national park for wildlife-watching
The Amazon may hog most of the attention, while the Yungas cloud forests near La Paz see the greatest number of visitors, but Bolivia’s forgotten forest, the hot and semi-arid Gran Chaco, offers some of the best wildlife viewing anywhere on the continent. In the heart of the Gran Chaco wilderness, Kaa-Iya is one South America’s largest reserves, with a surface area greater than Belgium.
This is one of the best places to spy a jaguar in the wild, with an estimated 1000 big cats recorded inside its boundaries. Other rare wildlife species include maned wolves and giant armadillos, as well as more than 300 species of birds. The only way to visit is with a certified guide, and most visitors turn to tour companies in Santa Cruz to arrange all the details – Nick’s Adventures is a reputable operator.
You may also like:
We drove across the Americas – here are our 7 most scenic routes
Your guide to classic Bolivian adventure activities
How to awaken your 5 senses in La Paz
Source link : https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/best-national-parks-bolivia
Author :
Publish date : 2022-03-07 03:00:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
