NFC North

The secret bears of Bolivia’s lost dry forests

EL PALMAR, Bolivia — It was worth the journey. After sweating across the scrubby Bolivian mountainsides, stepping into the forest was like entering a different world. Twisted pino de monte pines trailed ghostly green-gray lichens into our faces. Ferns and, much to my surprise, moss sprung from the cracks in the bark and the little nooks where the branches met the trunks. The temperature seemed to drop by at least 10 degrees. But it was more than just the break from the heat; my eyes greedily drunk in the sight of so much green and so many complex textures, after miles of looking at dry soils a…