Jungle mish - Madidi National Park, Bolivia

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Shoot I'm buggered. and yes I did get eaten by a lot of things. At the moment my feet are swollen up even fatter then normal because I got so ravaged by mozzies and sandflies and ants and caterpillas. But the rest of the time I had an absolute blast. It was hard work but well worth it. The first 4days we spent hiking with our backpacks fully laden with food and mosquito-nets and stuff, then we got to rest on days 5 and 6 after we made our raft out of balsa trees. I saw a gang of spider monkeys swinging through the trees above us, an aligator, turtles, heaps of cool birds and butterflies, piranas and other wierd fish with lots of teeth, fresh water sting-rays, fireflies and yes of course, a gizillion mosquitos and sandlies. We chased a group of pigs for a while too which was heaps of fun although we didn't catch them, and we saw a whole lot of Tigers footprints which was a bit of a worry. I also learnt how to cook a lot of good food over the fire which should come in handy back at Flecture bay one day 😊 Luckilly my mate decided to bring his nephew along to teach him the ways of the jungle though, so I never had to be the first up to get the fire going for our morning coffee. I slept very well every night, very very well. my only complaint was that I didn't have a bit more time, I could of easily stayed out there for another week but I guess you can't do everything. I'm back in La Paz at the moment and tomorrow morning I will be making my way to Peru with a couple of days on Lake Titicaca which should be nice.

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Photos

Waiting for the jug to boil.
That's Renato on the left and his nephew Juan-Carlos in the middle

nuestro campimiento
We made a campsite like this every night - it'd take about 20mins from start to finish

That's me, in the amazon jungle, with a mouthfull of cocoa leaves.
They chew this stuff for stamina when they've got a big day ahead of them or to deal with altatude sickness, the only thing that I noticed was that it tasted like silverbeat and stopped me getting thirsty.

Trout fishing Bolivian style
Ralph I thought you might like this photo. this a fish from the trout family, and Renato chaced it around in a shallow part of the stream untill he could get a shot at with his Machete - and then we had lunch.

Me and renato with our stingray spear for when we were crossing rivers
We cut the barb off about 4 of them that we almost stood on and got chaced by.

My first Pirana!!!
they actually taste really good. they don't have a lot of meat on them but one day we caught about 10 of them and had a big cook up and it was great.

Me having a turn at navigating the raft.
and that's a bit of extra fish that Renato was drying out to take home for his family.

Check out the jaws on that thing!!!
they reckon that thet there are over 300 differant species of carnivorous fish in this river that we had been washing ourselves and cooling ourselves off in for the last 6 days.

The watertaxi ride home
we were 2hrs short of floating into Rurrenabaque when one of Renatos' mates cruised passed in his water taxi, so we ditched our raft, gave him a couple of fillets and we were home in 20mins. what a great 6days it had been!

Comments

[JOSE...]

blah blah blah
u suk u aint shit i hate u u are just some rich wite guy with lots of money go to my country and take advantage i kill u moafuk U THINK U KOOL U UGLY WHITE TRASH IAM OUT

[Sparkey_22]

Hey Hey Hey
Hey Jose - Chill out man, get a grip on yourself the world is a beautiful place and should be seen by everyone if they get the opportunity. There's no room for haters, so just calm down ok. You should apologise for your racist behaviour.

[steve]

maps
hey, did you have good maps for the area? Where did you get them. Thanks, Steve

[Oliver]

Im headin there myself
Great site hermano- I'm heading into the Madidi with my father and some fisherman in May to fish for peacock bass and take in the sites. It's nice to see a gringo head into a place as savage and beautiful as the Madidi. Most don't have the fortitude or balls to do such things. Do you have any suggestions for me as far as animals or plants to look for and cool things to eat in the forest? Also- I was wondering if you took a bus from La Paz or flew from there. We're just weighing the pros and cons on how to get from La Paz to Madidi. Vive Bolivia!

[Andrew]

nice trip huh?
You took a lot of great pictures on your trip in Bolivia, don't pay any attention to that " Jose " dude, i think he's a fake and just wants to make you feel bad. Nice pics man! =D

[Joanna]

TIGER????
great place but TIGER??? My dream is to go there soon myslef, however if I want to see tiger I must go to ASIA.. All this beatiful talk about nature and basic fact is lost. Sad http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger