Serere - a blueprint for the future

---

You left us in Santa Cruz in the east of Bolivia. It´s a bustling metropolis where American cultural influence is quite apparent. Only 10 years ago it was still a regional town. However, it has now grown bigger than La Paz. The hotel that we chose proved to be our saviour. Hotel Globetrotter is an oasis of calm in the surrounding maelstrom. The proprietor used to work for the Scandie airline SAS. He had travelled throughout Europe and much of the rest of the world, picking up five languages on the way. The name Globetrotter came from an old SAS offshoot business, but he is the real globetrotter. He had resettled in the city of his youth and now spent his time running a very comfortable hotel in the centre of Santa Cruz and tending to the Orchids in his courtyard. The city was a bit much after the calm of northern Argentina. We encountered a demonstration in the main square, from which we heard the loud cracks of small explosions. Discretion became the better part of valour and we beat a retreat as we watched a truckload of riot police arrive.

Mr Globetrotter managed to get us flights to Rurrenabaque (in the Amazonian basin) on Amazonas Airlines for the next morning so after two nights in Santa Cruz we were on our way again. The plane was a turboprop that was so small that you could watch the landing strip emerge over the shoulder of the pilot and then rush towards you at unnerving speed. As we flew over the Bolivian pampas the number of fires being burnt was astounding and quite worrying. Land is burnt to clear away jungle and savannah for crops and because there is a belief that it will make the rains come. It succeeds in choking the air, increasing temperatures and damaging biodiversity.

Rurre is a pleasant place to spend a few days. The slow pace of life is only interrupted by the locals whizzing around on motorbikes, which seem to be all the rage. The only other thing that is immediately apparent is that there is a glut of tour agencies offering trips into the jungle and the pampas. We had aimed to spend a couple of days lazing in hammocks before deciding on a tour but a good chance fell in our lap and we decided to go for it.

The next morning we found ourselves on a boat travelling down the River Beni to meet one of Bolivia´s foremost conservationists, Rosa-Marie Ruiz. Rosa-Marie was central to the creation of the Parque Nacional Madidi, which protects 1.8 million hectares of rainforest and other habitats in north west Bolivia. She now protects a substantial area of rainforest called Serere. We travelled for over two hours downstream and then trekked into the jungle for half an hour before arriving at the lodge. We really felt like we were out in the middle of the jungle. The place was teeming with life - the air was full of bird calls and the hum of insects- the undergrowth scuttled away from you as you approached.

Our abode for four days was a hut on stilts with a roof of plaited reeds and walls made from Mosquito netting. There was no lighting, only candles, which accentuated the remoteness of the lodge even more.

Our guide for our four days was Rudolfo, who had been brought up in the area. He is an expert in the medicinal qualities of the flora of the area (he had written a book on the subject but it had been stolen by someone and they had then published it in their own name). One of our companions had slashed his finger a few days ago and Rudolfo quickly found the appropriate plant, removed the centre of the stem and created a poultice which was applied to the deep cut. Two days later the wound was totally healed with no infection. Rudolfo also turned out to be an excellent jungle guide, an expert piraña fisherman, a very good animal imitator and an all round top bloke. For four days we trekked through the jungle seeing (in amongst other things) monkeys, tahone, tarantula, caiman, macaws, serere birds, kingfishers, aguilas, an assortment of bugs and other creepy crawlies.

Highlights included two trips in dugout canoes to see caiman at the dead of night (one trip was aborted as the canoe started to take on too much water - lets face it you don´t want to have a night-time swim in waters infested with caiman and anacondas...), piraña fishing (don´t rock that canoe!), tracking down howler monkeys, following troupes of squirrel monkeys through the forest and watching them stealing bananas from the kitchen at the lodge. The sound that howler monkeys make is positively pre-historic. Two of them woke us up one morning - it sounded like a T-Rex was waiting for us outside.

The sunsets over the lake were spectacular and walking back to our hut past innumerable fireflies was quite magical. However, we could have seen more animals on a pampas tour, where everything you could want to see is just lined up on the riverbank. That said, we don´t regret anything. What Rosa-Marie and Madidi Tours are trying to do is very important and needs support. Her vision is a low impact form of tourism that is sustainable in a delicate environment. The proliferation of tour agencies in Rurre is damaging the wildlife in the pampas and the jungle as more and more motorboats tear down the rivers and certain operators unnecessarily handle wildlife. There have been reports of certain operators being involved in hunting of animals such as jaguars, even in national parks.

Rosa-Marie´s story can hardly be believed and it is not for us to publish an account of it. Needless to say that the protection of the Bolivian rainforests is fraught with difficulty. Rosa-Marie has shown that tourism can help fund the protection of endangered habitats and maintain local communities. Serere is run by local people for their local environment and long may it remain so. Serere should be a blueprint for the development of tourism in the Bolivian Amazon basin and beyond. It was fascinating to meet Rosa-Marie, who is a truely inspirational person.

Leaving the jungle behind was hard. We had a wonderful time and had learnt a lot about the struggle to protect valuable habitats in the modern world. One thing that would not be missed is the biting bugs. Tom had 17 bites on his left shoulder alone!

After a day chilling in Rurre we caught a flight to La Paz. This proved to be the most terrifying flight of our respective lives so far. The tiny plane bobbed and weaved through dark rain clouds for about an hour of white knuckle entertainment. Not only that, we were at heights of up to 10,000m in order to clear the mountains of the Cordillera Real in the Andes and the cabin was virtually unpressurised leading to the passengers virtually passing out from a lack of oxygen. When the landing was finally completed there was almost a bit of ground kissing a la Pope John Paul II.

La Paz is at about 3,600m and is situated in a gorge which falls away from the Altiplano (the high level plain running through the Andes). If the surroundings of La Paz don´t take your breath away then the altitude will. We´ve spent 24 hours here so far just trying to breathe. Next, on to Lake Titicaca and the Isla del Sol where the Incas believed that the sun was born.

T&S

---