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Published: August 24th 2006
Jungle - Leaf Ants
Thousands Of These Marching Across Everything Carrying Leaves, Sticks & Insects On Thier Way!!!! Seen It On Telly But Pretty Impressive In Real Life!!!So finaly left LaPaz and headed west for Santa Cruz which was to be my base for the Jungle Trip....
There were 2 options from here one Being Noel Kempth Park that ive mentioned previous and the other Amborro National Park... Now i didn't realise how expensive and exclusive the Noel Park would be so i had to go on the Amborro one but as i was keen to get the best experience i found a small eco tour group to go with and it was really good!!!! Read On!!!
So got me trip, a 3 day 2 night one with only 2 other people and the guide, now this was good for 2 reasons!! firstly the less people the more quiet you can be and secondly they were an Argentian couple (Alan 57, Betrise 50, Hi guys!!) who now lived in Israil and spoke very good Spanish & English so with the tour being a very localy based the guide spoke no English so they became both my friends and translators!!!
Day 1 was lots of local taxis and buses which were ok, the final stretch was done in an estate car (bit like mondeo shape) with
Jungle - Amborro National Park
This Was Our Camp, Just The 3 Of Us And The And The Local Went Home To Their Place 1 Hour Away!!!! 10!!!! Yes 10 people crammed in!!!! 3 in front 3 in back and 4 stuffed in the boot area!!!!! Mental!!! Or so i thought untill on the journey we were passed by another taxi full to the roof with sweetcorn (cobs) and laying on top of this with thier backs against the roof were 2 young lads!!!!!!!!!!! Radio Rental!!! (was to slow for a picture!!!)...
We were dropped off at the park enterance and completed the last 12 kilometers (8 miles) on horseback (which was abit sore on the old thighs!!!)... Got a lovely surprise when at camp as the area was great!!! dinning hut, bedroom hut, hammock area and sitting place by the river and all for us three!!! bit we didn't know was that the guides wife would do all our cooking and when finished they would both!!! return to their own hut 40 minutes away!!!! yes we were being left in the Jungle by ourselves overnight!!!! So after settling and lunch in we went for our first walk which was a 5 hour gentle affair in which we saw lots of small rock pools left over from rainy season along with the fauna and our guide given
Refreshments...
Santos our guide cuts up a papaya for reshments while on a jungle walk.... us information about every!!! plant in the jungle....We also saw Monkeys, birds and lots of insects including Leaf Ants which were amazing to watch... Then returned for dinner at which point the guide left us with instructions not to leave the camp circle!!! So we didn't!!!!
Day 2 started with early walk to 2 lookout points made from logs and pretty high too saw a few of the previous days species on the way.... The Afternoon was my favourite part when we walked about 1 hour to a river which cut through the jungle and we just followed it up stream for hours!!! we saw many different types of king fishers, herons, fish and a green harmless snake..... The trees surrounding the banks were just as you'd imagine jungle trees to be, lots of orchids growing high in the branches ants everywhere and long vines that you could swing on!!!!! when you went in deeper it got a little darker and more natural/scary!!!!! I didn't realise how big this place would feel and sort of thought we'd see a lot more animals but to be fair you don't need too, the natural working of the place makes it facinating
Pretty Petals...
Amongst all the vast green trees you´d get the odd blossom that littered the floor in a patch of colour... to see and hear about, from the rotten log on the floor to the walking tree with its roots out of the ground (took many photos but just picked a few out).... That night the guide stayed longer and took us on a night walk in which we went in about 1 hour and found place to stop and sit (Ant Free Places!!!) to listen to the sounds and just basicly scare us!!! There are so many noises all going at the same time in a mass jungle boogie courus... And not just on the walk in the camp too!!!!
DAy 3 was a short day as the journey back would take a few hours, so upuntill lunch we went to a waterfall to swim in one of the bigger pools and just enjoy the walk there and back... Was pretty dam cold but we were joined by a few local monkeys who took a keen interest in our activities from the surrounding trees....
I was especially pleased with my lack of bits (about 4) and the lack of ticks which i had been dreading!!! but armed with my longsleeves and boots 50% deet i managed to both
Jungle Walk
During one of the long river walks through the Amborro Park... love and enjoy my jungle experience without Mozzies dictating my life!!!!!!!!!!!!
Back in Santa Cruz next morning i dropped my laundry off (as in all my clothes!!!) to be washed and went to book my afternoon and first South American train to Qiarro on the Bolivia/Brazil border but when i got to the station i found my train left at 5pm and my laundry wouldn't be finished till 6pm!!!!!!!!! now Santa Cruz is lovely but its not really a true reflection of Bolivia as its the richest state and feels me like an Italian town with its designer shops etc etc (it even recently tried to break away and become an indipendant municipality but the vote went against them from the rest of Bolivia as Santa Cruz hands over 80% of its wealth/earnings and everywhere else gets a share of this!!!), so another night here which actually turned out to be great fun!!! there were 10 solo travellers staying in the hostal and we all went out as a group for food and to a club, now without being unkind Bolivia isn't great for it attractive ladies but this place is an exception as all the local were pretty
Jungle - Snake
Harmless!!!! snake in the jungle.... stunning, the club was quite classy and i felt so out of place in my trekking boots and combats!!!! i cant dance anyway but in trekking boots!!!! there was a live band and music inbetween sets (mainly regadon which is what they listen to here!!! you get to like it very salsa flomenco ish for the dancing), what did suprise me and might be a secret recipe for staying young and beautiful is all the girls drink Red Label Jonny walker whisky with a little water on t5he rocks!!!!!! and i mean ALL, for example i counted the 6 tables around us and there were 5 bottles of JW and a few bowls of punch (they order a bottle at a time between them??? 250 Bolivianos about 17quid).... Got early to go to station and book me ticket!!!!! ONLY to find today we have a political strike and there are no buses or trains going anywhere and they may be going tomorrow but come check at 1!!!!!!!! so my laundry had now cost me 2 extra nights in Santa Cruz and to top it off when i collected my clothes she made me pay again (i was so so sure
Jungle - Ray
Me after 3 days of Jungle and 30 seconds before my much needed nice warm shower!!!! i paid when dropping off!!!!)....But allas got out the next day and headed to Brazil on my 17 hour train....
Got through Quiarro ok and on to Corumba, this place is right on the edge of the Pantanal a vast area of wetlands teaming with many spieces of wildlife...
Again a 3 day 3 night experience, the group was 5 (me, 2 english ladies 'Mandy & Nikki' and a couple from Holland 'Eric & Ann'), we stayed on a farm with netted hut accomadation, this place was basic!! No frills no camp shop and no fresh water!!! we would be drinking Pantanal water!!!
The Pantanal is MAGIC!!!! I will struggle here to express it and have been avoiding writting this bit of blog for a few days.... The wildlife is so abundant and everywhere!!! 100 of birds from Hawks to Eagles & Vultures to Storks, King Fishers to Mackaw Parrots, Green Parrots, Blue Parrots, Tucans!!!!!!!! just on the 2 hour drive in alone we saw all the above and Giant Anteaters, Monkeys, Cabibarra, Caimen, Aligators,Iguanas, Deer even a Eagle fly off with a big snake in its grip... The place is a real life wildlife show... to
Pantanel - Giant Anteater...
Our gguide said these were a "Hard See" but luckily we mannaged three in the first day!!! sit in the camp and have Mackaws flying by overhead in just special!!! Vibrant red and blues!!! Hope it comes across ok!!!!
A Glimpse of the Pantanal
Size: 140,000 sq.km / 50,000 sq. miles (About the size of Wales)
Geography: The Pantanal is the world's largest wetland. Pantanal is derived from the Portuguese word "pantano" which literally means "swamp". It is situated in western Brazil in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul and extends into Bolivia and Paraguay. As part of the Paraguay floodplain, it receives water from the Paraguay River and its surrounding tributaries. The Pantanal lies in a 140,000 sq. km bowl-like depression. Its flat terrain paired with seasonal rains cause widespread flooding. This results in a landscape of river channels, abandoned river courses, and seasonally isolated swamps, backwaters, and lakes. I was there in the semi dry season...
Day 1 was mostly the journey in followed by an afternoon walk in the Pantanal on land around the various lakes, we saw so much but the most interesting thing had to be the Armadillo, cute little fellow who is totaly blind so you can creep right up to him and watch him digging away roots
Pantanel - Aligators & Caimen...
As with the Pampas the shores of every little wateringhole are guarded by crocks!!! for grubs!!! i also saw Howlar monkey fairly close for the first time.... Got back before sunset (abot 6) had dinner and slept!!! everone was pretty tied after such an adrenalin day....
Day 2 started with a canoe trip on on of the swamp lakes looking for Anacona and at the wildlife, again many things the tucans are espacialy vibrant and look like they should be in a cartoon not sitting in tree around us, lots of stunning birds of prey and everywhere i mean you must see 30-40 eagles hawks etc in a day, my favourite the black colared hawk a big tan brown hawk with white head.......We never saw an Anacona though!!!!! but in these wooden two person canoes so close to the water level just the caiman where enough thanks!!!!
In the afternoon we went fishing!!! firstly on a lake but with little success then to a bridge just down the road from camp... After scaring of the resident Aligators we settled in for som serious fishing fun. We were also incidently catching lunch so the more the better, we had primative bamboo stick rod with a bit of line big hook and squares of carne
Pantanel - Armadilo...
These are blind so as long as you were quiet you could get really close!!!.. (meat).... After 4 hours no Pirahnas this time just a line full of Snake Fish, vicious little buggers with snakelike heads we caght about 7 and ate quite well!!! The evening was a quick night walk by torchlight to see more deer and capibarra then to bed for early sunrise wakeup call....
Day 3 saw us up at 530 to catch a beautiful sunrise followed by a 4 hour horse ride!!!! now these were proper horses and not the jungle mules from before so if youve been on a horse recently as a non rider only you will know my pain!!!! sore bum!!!! and thighs!!! but good fun across the planes of the Pantanal.... The Afternoon was free time so we all went FISHING after the fun 1st attemp and this time we got 10 snakefish and no guide with us so i took charge of the de-hooking for the girls and gutting and cleaning (fed the heads to the local caiman watching on as we fished!!)...... That evening was sunset watch and reasonably early night, as in the morning you are woken at first light (5ish) by the most rediculous pressesion of Howler Monkeys, Farm Chickens and 1000's
Pantanel - Sunrise
This was the view from the bridge we went fishing at.... of birds so you need a good sleep!!!
Next morning was a walk on my own while the others slept on which i found a snake and did my Steve Erwin Crazy Aussie bit with a stick and got superclose for a picture only to find out back at camp that my snake was infact a FrogSnake and the most venamous on the continent with a strike distance of 1 meter!!!!!!!!!!! I was decidedly closer and a little lucky!!!! (will post a picture soon, just forgot!!)...........
Along with millions of species i also had my first tick meeting!!!!!!!!! picked off 4 on my first walk!!! but wont go into it too much pretty grose!!!!
The Pantanal was AMAZING and any travellers reading this can NOT miss out on the oportunity to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So next stop was Bonito about a 5 hour trip in which we exited the Pantanal region, now with the area stretching from Bolivia to Brazil there were checkpoints to cross with the main reason being cocaine traffickers... Now i didn't know this and got off the coach purely to stretch me legs, only to be approached by a police officer who says 'You
Pantanel - Killer Tree
These vine like trees would find a host tree and feed of it untill it was dead and then just carry on growing in its place... Australian?'(incidently everybody thinks i'm from Oz with my new floppy surfer hair!!! Keep It Or Dump It???? What ya think?), i reply 'No Inglase', he signals me over to a parked pickup with packs strewn all over the bonnet and proclaims 'Cocaine, 24 kilos of cocaine'it was just sitting there??? a street value in uk of 1 million pounds and there it was in front of me!!!! ' they had tried to smuggle it in the footwells of both the driver and passenger side...'Picture he says, you take picture!!!'so i did and they are below...A truely bizaar experience and after speaking to another officer who spoke much better english he told me how this was an everyday thing with over 100 kilos per week stopped at this point (the 'Rays In Trouble Email' was 100% made up and not an ounze of truth, just me a little overtied at the keyboard with hours to kill before my next bus, unlike some replys i got!!! dont worry guys im fine!!!).....
To conclude i must just say that these blogs don't actually take as long to do as a lot of you think!!!! it is a very very clever site!!! all
Pantanel - Heavenly Sky
About 10ish in the morning and the sun just caught the clouds perfectly to produce this stunning sky.... i do is plug me camera in the usb port, pick me photos and add a few comments!!! while there uploading i write an email which i copy and paste and Hey Presto a blog!!!!! takes about 2 hours maximum and i really enjoy doing it!!! Which is a good job because before i left i had this desire to keep a day to day journal of the trip and i got to day 10!!!!!!!!! it was like homework and i didn't enjoy it at all!! a chor!!! so the blogs are for me too guys when i return as a living memory plus it keeps my best pictures safe in cybersky..... As for the content it is for family viewing from little hephews to nans (but i[ll sneak a couple of girly pics in for ya Begs!!! based on ya last comments!!!).........
Well I'm off to Foz Do Iguacu for the waterfalls........
Take care all..........x
Bit for travellers - Jungle trip with Forest Tours in Santa Cruz $50us, Hostals here not cheap about 50bolivian a night for dorm!!! Tbone steak at Irish Pub Fantastic and massive, Train to Quiarro 115bolivian. Pantanal 200reais about $100us, Hostal Sao
Jorge 20reais (cheap!!)...Bus to Foz a nightmare timewise and 110reais............
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mum
non-member comment
hair v no hair
go on grow it. it'll make a change. looks so different. love mum