Cobija

By Jorge Rivero González

Cobija is the capital of the Pando Department, where GalileoMobile is going to perform its activities in Bolivia for the next two weeks.

From above, as we approached Cobija with the airplane, the city gave us the first example of the palette of colours that we are going to find during the whole BraBo Expedition.  The scenery is flooded with different hues of green, so you don’t forget that you are entering the Amazonas region. The rivers around the city look like never-ending dark snakes, accepting an awful destiny: the inevitable death as they flow into the magnificent Amazonas River.  The thing that impressed me the most, however, was the strong red of the soil that covers most of the land and the roads. Never have I seen soil so red before. At that moment I realised that these colours are going to be our companions during our stay in the Amazonas region. 

From the ground, I felt that Cobija moves at two different speeds:  the slow rythms of Bolivian burocracy, common to all tropical environments, not so different from how we roll in the Canary Islands, the place I grew up; and the second, dazzling speed at which the inhabitants of Cobija rush from one place to another in the motorcycle-infested roads. I have never seen so many motorbikes in my lifetime.

These days GalileoMobile is also moving at two different speeds. On one hand, we are trying to get everything ready for the upcoming expedition, taking care of the tiniest detail in the best possible way.  However, our hearts are beating really fast with excitement for the adventure to come.