Overview of Land and History 13Yungas
A fourth zone, labelled Yungas, might be considered part
valley and part lowland. But the Yungas have their own
unique characteristic; they are pinched between rugged
mountains, nooks and crannies too snug to be called valleys.
Yungas towns and roads are perched precariously above
luxuriant gorges and ravines sculpted by thundering rivers
thousands of feet below. Natural swimming holes abound,
untouched by large scale developments. Some of the Yungas
contain Bolivia’s most popular resort locations, but they retain
their unmanicured and primeval sensuality.
Here one fi nds some of the most impacted ecoregions.
Much of Bolivia’s plant and animal endemism is sheltered
in this region. Somewhere deep within the cloud forest,
amidst the dripping ferns, rummages the spectacled bear.
The Yungas are home to montane cloud forests, but these
humid zones can creep as high as 3,500 m (11,483 ft) at
mountain edges or as low as 800 m (2,625 ft) at the edge
of the jungle.
TEMPERATURE ZONES: KEEPING IT SIMPLE
Environmentalists can distinguish between 12 broadly
defi ned ecoregions, including thousands of ecosystems and
The rugged landscape of Yungas Choro.