Blogs from Rurrenabaque, Beni Department, Bolivia, South America - page 9

Our journey to the Amazon basin began with a speedy taxi ride to the northern bus terminal to find our 'flota' (long distance bus) to Rurrenabaque for a three day trip to see the wildlife. Of course, the taxi arrived late which meant we had to zip through the rush hour traffic in order to meet the 11am departure but this didn't turn out to be a problem as the bus was over an hour late leaving anyway. We arrived into the chaos of the bus station where buses were being packed full of strange packages along with passenger luggage since buses once again seem to act as a makeshift parcel service. Eventually we set off and made it about 50m up the street before the bus pulled over for another half hour while huge piece ... read more

There are a few good things about this place and they have a guest comments book full of good comments - however, these are invariably from guests that have spent plenty of money with them on guided tours - which they organise and from which they take a good commission. We noticed on looking at the guest book that a few pages had been ripped out - i.e. they were happy to keep in the good comments, however, any guests with poor comments could (and probably were) taken out of the book! We had a good trip into the Pampas, booked through Jislene, however, it was somewhat marred by the number of other people on the trip (and we had been reassured that we were going to be in a group of five - the other ... read more

Ondanks dat Bolivia maar 9 miljoen inwoners heeft, is het land bijna net zo groot als Spanje en Frankrijk bij elkaar. De afstanden zijn dan ook fors. Gevoelsmatig lijken de afstanden alleen nog maar groter doordat de wegen in grote delen van het land onverhard zijn. De weg van Santa Cruz naar Rurrenabaque is daar een goed voorbeeld van; 27 uur over hobbelige wegen. Zo hobbelig dat het niet mogelijk is om een boek te lezen. Aangezien de bus geen toilet heeft, wordt er elke 3 á 4 uur gestopt voor een plaspauze en om wat snacks te kopen. Tegelijkertijd gaat de chauffeur de schroeven van de wielen langs om te kijken of er niets is losgetrild. De mooiste onderbreking van de rit is op drie-kwart van de reis wanneer iedereen plotseling de bus uit moet ... read more

Well, at least I encountered blue skies and pillowy white clouds on my 5 hour boat ride to the jungle lodge. Unfortunately once we arrived, the sky turned grey and it rained off and on for my entire stay at Chalalan Ecolodge, pouring buckets at night. That means not too many pictures. I did however see buttloads of animals, but you´ll just have to take my word for it! Our guide, Sergio, had the most amazing eye for spotting wildlife. He could hear leaves rustle and tell what kind of animal we would probably encounter, and most of the time he was right on. He knew exactly where and when to look. He was also pretty good at bird calls! We saw soooo many animals! Are you ready? Yellow squirel monkeys, capuchin monkeys, red howler monkeys, ... read more

Well guys having survived the "worlds most dangerous road", where they obviously place more importance on "walkie talkies" than sign posts and ambulances (as they are still on the pending list), it was time for more adventure this time in the Amazon basin. Shortly into our 45min flight (alternative option was a 21 hr bus trip!) all 18 passengers were feeling this could be the most dangerous part of the next 5 days. A less than smooth landing on a less than convincing mud runway then followed, and we had landed in Rurrenabaque, the gateway to the Amazon. This trip was destined to be a more than difficult few days than it needed to be. Upon arrival into the tin pot airport, tour companies are collecting their clients, loading them into 4x4´s then onto the jungle. ... read more