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Published: September 7th 2006
Coroico
Last night's storm cleared the air and we finaly saw the viewWe'd decided that Bolivia (rather than Ecuador or Peru) would be the country where we'd visit the jungle. Rurrenabaque, a small town north of La Paz was the obvoius place to head for. There are 3 ways to get there. You can fly from La Paz (40 mins, 65 dollars), take the bus (super cheap but 18 hours of hell down the worlds most dangerous roads) or go by boat from Guanay, a gold mining town about 4 hours from Coroico. As we were already in Cocoico, after cycling down the worlds most dangerous road (WMDR), we decided to take the boat rather than bus back up WMDR to La Paz and fly. It was more expensive than flying (120 dollars each) but incorporated a 3 day jungle trip on the way (thus saving on food, accomodation, etc). The appeal of travelling through the jungle down a tributary of the Amazon was too much to resist.
The tour officially started in La Paz at 6am but the agent agreed to pick us up on the way from our hotel in Coroico at around 8am. While waiting we met another couple in our hotel, Dan and Nina, who were on the
same trip. Nina had her arm in a cast, another victim of the WMDR!
We're in Bolivia so we expect things to be delayed but by 10am we started to get worried. Dan called the tour office in La Paz and was informed that because of the storm we'd had the previous night the pass was snowed over and there would be a bit of a delay, around 4 hours!
At 12.30 our transport arrived. Our driver grabbed a quick bite to eat at our hotel then proceeded to fly down the narrow dirt roads. I sat nervously in the front (there were no seat belts) while he whipped around corners with sheer mountain drops.
Two hours into the journey we had to stop at a road block. Road works closed the entire road for 4 hours between 2pm and 6pm. The first night of the tour, where we leave Guanay on the boat at 4pm wasn't going to happen. When we finally arrived it was already dark. We met our guide, Ivan, and were checked into the best hotel in town (pretty grotty).
Next day we had breakfast at the "port" and met 2 dutch
guys, Julian and Julian, who were joining our tour. The boat was basic. Long and thin with lightly padded wooden benches. The first hour of the trip was pretty exciting as we navigated various rapids. However, it soon started to rain and we were forced to hide under a huge blue tarp for a while.
After 4 hours we arrived at the village where we´d be spending our first night. It was tiny, perhaps 10 houses, no electricity or water, no obvious toilet (appart from the surrounding jungle) and only accessible by boat. It felt really isolated. We hadn´t seen any other boats and the only people we saw were a few gold prospectors living on the stony banks.
Gladys our cook (this really was her name) prepared lunch. The kitchen/dining hut was overrun by mangy looking chickens. All I could think was this is how bird flu started!
After lunch we hiked through the jungle to a murky lake for pirahna fishing. On the way we saw leaf-cutter and fire ants, both quite dangerous apparently. The fishing takle was just a hook and line, the bait was pieces of fresh meat. After casting in it was
amazing how quickly something would pull on the line. However, they were difficult to catch - stealing the bait without getting hooked. The dutch lads caught the most, Amy landed a dogfish and I caught nothing.
When we arrived back at the village it was nightfall. Our accommodation had been set up and diner was ready. Thankfully the chickens had gone to bed. We slept outside in individual mosquito nets under a tarp strung between some bamboo poles. I slept relatively well but kept the others awake by snoring. Ooops.
Day 2 we headed down river for an hour then trekked into the jungle. We were hunting for the wild pigs that live around the area. We didn´t see any but found the mud pit where they normally hang out. After a couple of hours walking we returned to the river for lunch and changed into our swimming costumes ready for the waterfall. The beach was swarming with insect life, hungry for human blood. Later that day Amy discovered she had 70 bites on her legs from changing on the beach! I escaped because my trunks were buried too far down in my rucksac.
An hour later
we were at the waterfall. It was an amazing place. We climbed the rocks to reach 2 natural pools at its base. I stayed out of the water but everyone else took a dip. The boat driver took the opportunity to have a shower before heading back to Guanay.
On the last leg of the trip we picked up a couple of locals heading for Rurre, one brought along his crop of bananas. We stopped at the Madidi National Park office to sign the register and coo at the friendliest pig.
Rurrenabaque was a welcome sight. We were ready for a shower and a cold beer. After cleaning up we bumped into Robert (economics professor) and Nicole (researcher) from glasgow uni and had dinner and drinks at the famous Mosquito Bar.
We spent the next day relaxing before setting off on a 3 day pampas tour. The pampas is a flat expanse of wetland where there´s a much higher chance to see animals than in the jungle. The tour started with a dusty 3 hour drive to the river to catch the boat. As soon as we set off down river we saw an alligator, the first
of many.
Our companions for the tour were 2 crazy German guys: Kevin and Marcus, and a likeable Fin. The Germans had a vast array of specialised kit: big knives, emergency food rations, light sticks, etc. probably the result of a short stint in the army.
We spent about 2 hours in the boat before reaching the lodge. On the way we´d seen alligators, caymen, turtles, monkeys, capibara, pink dolphins and a variety of huge birds. At one point we pulled over to get a closer look at some monkeys (I can´t remember the name of them I´m afraid!) and one of them got so excited at the biscuits some people had on the boat it tried to leap across from the land but missed completely! A very soggy monkey was rescued by Kevin and scarpered back to shore!
The lodge was very nice. It basically consisted of a wooden building covered in netting to keep the mossies out. There was no electricity and the toilet flush was a barrel of water and a paint bucket. There were monkeys living in the trees in the lodge and our guide had an alligator who lived on the shore
of the lodge. He was called Juanito and we were allowed to pet him! We chose not to.
The first night we visited the sunset bar which is unsurprisingly a bar where everyone gathers to watch sun set over the jungle. It was pretty impressive but marred slightly by a fire that was happening slightly down river. Apparently only 200 meters of land around the river bank is national park and the rest is private land. The owner was burning vegetation to allow his cows to graze more freely. After dinner our guide took us on a night time boat trip to see all the alligators eyes lit up by our torches in the dark. Its pretty disconcerting to be floating silently along amongst all these eyes! At one point he spotted a baby alligator quite near the boat where I was sitting and he said "Quick, Amy, grab it!". This was met by some expletives and cowering from me! He came over and picked it up and allowed everyone to hold and touch it. Once again we declined holdng but we had a good feel of its plastic like skin. As you can see some people got a
bit over enthusiastic!
The next day we set out on a four hour walk to find an anaconda! We had our guide and one other person to lead us along whilst the guide tried to rustle one up. Marcus and Kevin decided to join the guide in walking through swamps up to their knees which contained god knows what. After 4 hours we found one about 2 meters long. We had been told by the guide the day before that the chemicals we had on our hands from suncream and insect repellent would be harmful to the snake so we were reluctant to hold it. I held its tail though after everyone else had posed with it around their necks etc. Poor thing, we were quite concerned but it slithered off quite happily when we let it go. A few minutes later we found another even bigger one! We were quite lucky that day apparently!
After a lovely lunch we headed off to go swimming with dolphins. Unfortunately the dolphins decided not to make an appearance so it was just swimming with pirhanas and alligators. Mike (who I´m convinced was a cat in another life due to his
aversion to water) was having none of it so I held up the British side and jumped in with our new German and Finnish pals. The water was very nice and I felt nothing moving around underneath, however, the Germans were simultaneously fishing for pirhanas with their own fishing gear they had brought and caught about 7! Another group had also come along for the swim but everyone refused to get in when there were no dolphins there. So we swam about while they sat and chattered. Their guide was swearing blind to them there were no pirhanas in the area and the Marcus and Kevin started pulling them out of the river! Their faces were pretty amusing!
That night there were yet more fires. As we sat on the bank and watched this terrible destruction I turned around to be faced with the sight of 4 germans from another group fully clothed in their rucksacks. When I asked jokingly if they were leaving they said yes as they had been told that the lodging might burn down at any moment because the wind was blowing sparks across the river from another fire. We hadn´t been warned about this
Pirahna Fishing
Well, standing around talking about it at all. It turns out the guide´s wife who had come to see what his job was like had become a bit alarmed at the rapidly growing fire and whilst getting her daughter out of the hut had started telling everyone to get out! The poor Germans had no idea what was happening as they had been fast asleep!
The final day started at about 5.30 am when we went to hear the jungle waking up and see the sun rise. The Howler monkeys were in full swing when we got to the designated spot. It was very impressive. The last part of the trip was pirhana fishing. Mike and I did ourselves proud and caught quite a few. The Germans though Mike was some sort of barbarian as he insisted on removing the hooks from the fishes mouth before killing it! After lunch we started the long journey back to Rurre and were safely ensconced in The Mosquito Bar by 8pm after a shower and change.
We spent the next day by the pool in Rurre which was beautiful. The weather was so hot and the pool provided a quiet haven. We spent the evening with Marcus
Pirahnas etc
The catch from our pirahna fishing trip and Kevin which was truly enjoyable if expensive!
Our final adventure was getting up late the next day to catch our flight. We were 10 minutes late to the airline office. This being Bolivia we were pretty sure we hadn´t missed the bus. About 10 minutes later an airline employee turned up and told us the bus had gone already! He said he would flag us a cab down. The cab was 2 motorbikes. My driver slung my bag in front of him, I jumped on and we were off. Within 2 minutes I had stopped holding onto the driver and was holding the handles at the back. The journey was smooth and I really enjoyed it. 5 minutes after I arrived at the airport Mike turned up looking quite shaken. Mike hadn´t enjoyed his ride at all and had clung onto the drivers love handles the whole way! Apparently it was a good job he had a bit of meat on him!
The airport as you can see was unbelievably small. They more or less have to shoo chickens off the runway when something wants to take off! The journey back to La Paz was very smooth
Gold Prospector At Work
With his home made panning machine though which we were slightly disappointed by as we had been warned it was pretty turbulent. Coming up over the mountains to La Paz was an amazing sight as we were flying in this tiny plane just over the mountains. All in all it was a lovely end to a very lovely trip.
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Calum
non-member comment
Did the Pirahnas taste nice?
I hope they didn't go to waste... "The cab was 2 motorbikes" - classic :o)