Tarija Country Club

Our friends at the Zeballos Plaza Hotel have recommended we go to the Tarija Country Club. Some of my luxury travel experts have also told me to give it a try during this family travel of ours. We were going to stay, but due to some dental work and some other stuff around at the Post Office, we missed out on doing that on this single parent travel.

As our taxi wanders around the foothills, I am thinking this should be more of a Dessert Club than a Country Club.

It is an incredible landscape, and the taxi has to go through two river beds filled with water to get there.

So we push the gates open, and he drives us in. Then he asks for 45 Bolivianos. I pass him the 30 Bolivianos and leave.

We wander around and now see a few people. A man approaches us and is welcoming and asks us what we want.  He is the manager and speaks some English.

He explains what they have (no horses as we had been told) but a wonderful Climbing Tree Canopy. We ask about lunch and he replies he can arrange that too. He says we are fine to feed the monkeys and birds.

We get a bit of a show, and we sacrifice an apple for the monkeys.

We find the flying fox – with a seat.  This is a hit. I think my son spent 2 hours on this.

12 Noon comes, and along comes two instructors. We are kicked out, and given instructions in English, and of course those who spoke Spanish – being everyone else!

We have an English instructor with us at all times. He has taught my son all the safety required – and my son is doing well.

Ahh – the first platform – so far so good. I am pretty impressed. My son shows no fear – quite a star, and his safety and listening are good.

It is a pretty scary experience for me. My hiking boots are too bulky and they make it hard for footing.

The game gets harder and harder. These swinging platforms really tested me out. My son got off at the 3/4 mark as it was too high for him. I got off two platforms later.

The bar is open, and I order a beer! I think I deserve it – funny – as I rarely drink beer!

We are then invited together with the rest of the group to have lunch. This makes me feel bad, as the manager offered to have us with his family. But he understood.

We got to know the rest of the group – they were staying there and very relaxed. Lunch was an awesome grill – I love the way they grill cheese in Bolivia. Salads – and lots of them, and some lovely tender meat. Thank you so much to all of you who were so kind to us!

The Viva slide was out – thanks to the other group, so the kids enjoyed using that too.

In the end, my son had made friends with a really lovely boy a year older than him.

He was so included in everything. It was lovely.