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Published: April 27th 2009
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First thing you notice when you get to La Paz is that your bag seems to be quite a bit heavier and you can barely walk two blocks without getting winded. La Paz is located in a very high valley surrounded by mountains. Think the city is somewhere around 11-12,000 ft in elevation, haven´t checked the facts though. We stayed a great hostel with a good happy hour.
La Paz seems to be one giant market. There are markets for clothes, food, custom leather jackets (which the Israelis were all over) and tourists´things. Also, there´s a witches´ market where you can buy potions, stuffed animals (were once alive, now stuffed) dried llama fetuses, and many things I wouldn´t know what to do with. As well, there is a market known as the black market where you could buy many other things such as electronics, DVDS, and many other things at great prices, don´t know why they called it a black market though.
Bolivia is nice and cheap. So things like renting quads and racing through small towns is an option. Think it was aorund 7 or 8 bucks an hour to cruise around some trails in a pretty place.
We also hit one of the main attractions called the Death Road. Here you downhill mountain bike down 60 kilometers of one of the most dangerous roads in the world, some asphalt, mostly dirt and gravel. Its dangerous due to the 150 to 300 foot cliff that meets the 10 ft wide road without any guade rails, not one. Beautiful landscape too set in the middle of the jungle with waterfalls and views of the valley/river below.
We had been talking of the jungles north of La Paz for some time, so after a few days in the city, we headed on a 20 hour bus ride through the jungle on dirt roads, narrow dirt roads.
We reached Rurrenabaque pretty early in the morning, settled in at a great hostel right on the river, and took a nap. Then we figured out our plans for the jungle. It was decided to hire a guide and spend 5 days trekking through the middle of nowhere along the Beni River. A three hour boat ride dropped us off at a small tribe community on the edge of the lake. Our guide knew most everyone and they gave us fruit and
let us shoot their bow and arrows. Shortly after, the thunder started, shortly after that, the rain. First day in the jungle, drentched. Luckily the first camp had ready made canopies so we could set up our mosquito nets and pads out of the rain. Afterwards, lunch was ready and the food we ate on this jungle trip has been some of the best food we´ve had in Bolivia. Shortly after, dinner was ready and we handled it no problem. First night in the jungle, you find out about the bugs because they all come to say hello. To put it lightly, we all got attacked on this trip.
Day two, readied our packs, ate an amazing breakfast and started our 5 hour hike for the day. We could tell how good we were going to be eating by all the food they gave us to carry, well worth it. However the rain had made this climbing then descending trail very difficult. We were sliding, falling, tumbling, all of the above down up and own the jungle floor. Machetes ablazing, we stumbled into our next camp exhausted and ready for a swim in the river. There really aren´t too
many places in the jungle where you can get away from the bites, the river is no exception. Little sand flies and huge green monster flies come in for the kill when the mosquitos go on break. Bites where you dont want to imagine, but the water ws nice and cool. We built our camp, ate lunch, then dinner and waited for our first night walk. The jungle seems to sleep during the day, except for the bugs, and comes alive at night. We walked a few hours in the dark looking for animals. Very creepy but great at the same time. We found frogs, monkeys, though the jaguar eluded us, not sure if that was a good thing or not. A couple more days of hiking, looking for more animals, building camp, packing, eating went by and we came to day four.
Day four stared with an early hike to a great look out point followed by a decision. A decision we had to make together. A decision that we heard was difficult. Do we want to build a raft and float down the river for a couple hours? Porque no (why not)? So here began one of
the biggest pain in the arses I´ve ever dealt with. Steaming hot, flies all around (biters), walking in fields of dead bushes and logs, we find a few tree that will work. We needed seven in all and finding them and cutting some down turned out to be very difficult. Carrying them from site to site and with the bee stings aside, we built the stupid thing, took about 10 hours of sweaty work, a bit of yelling, and I guess some luck. Dinner was especially great that night. The next morning we woke at 4am to catch more animals and the sunrise. Monkeys shared their breakfast with us and we set out on the raft. Not too many surprises, some close calls with some river debris, but she held steady. The jungle was amaing though it was really great to get back to walls, showers, and a cold (for Bolivia) beer.
After a couple days spent chilling in river-side hammocks, we headed out to Las Pampas. About a three hour jeep ride to swamps, rivers, more jungle, and what we were told, a bunch of animals. To name a few we were expecting to see: monkeys, birds, mosquitos,
caymans, crocodiles, piranas, anacondas, and a few others. Much different than the jungle trek, we got into our boat with our guide, Rambo, yes Rambo, and started towards camp. For three or so hours, we fed monkeys bananas (they knew the drill quite well), saw some capibaras with some babies (the world´s biggest rodent), and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. We hit camp, had a bite to eat then waited for sundown. Equipped with our flashlight we hunted for caymans by finding their bright red eyes poking out of the water. Rambo of course wrestled one in for us so we could take pictures and hold it as well, good fun. Rambo decided day two was a great day to hunt for anacondas. Walking in waist deep water for two hours found us a baby anaconda, I really wanted to find the mama, but it wasn´t meant to be. After that we enjoyed a dip in the river and were greeted by a bunch of pink river dolphins. These guys are pretty cool and will sometimes come right up to you. Sometimes you just feel something swipe past your leg too, a bit freaky. Back at camp, we made a rope
swing into the river. After soon good fun with that, we noticed a 5-6 foot cayman just chilling about twenty feet down shore, nice. Rambo definitely knew about this and found it hilarious. He also found putting live frogs in your pasta really funny as well as dead snakes under your feet while in the boat, quite the jokester, but a great guide. After picking frogs out of our lunch, we went pirana fishing. They love meat on a hook, and we were able to get a few in the boat. Getting the hook out can be a bit tricky. Day three was great too. We went looking for more animals, swam with some more pink dolphins, and played some volleyball in the middle of the jungle at this random guy´s huge river side complex. The ride back was made a bit longer by the rain we´d had, and it was good again to get back.
We planned to fly back to La Paz but rain flooded the grass/dirt runway for two days so the 20 hour bus ride along the death road was our only option. I dont mind never having to take that bus ride again. Now
I´m back in La Paz and headed for Copacabana situated on Lake Titicaca, let the jokes begin!
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