Advertisement
Sunset
A red Sun reflected in the river was great to seeLeaving Samaipata I was completely ready to break with my penny-pinching ways and try and fly from Bolivia’s largest city, Santa Cruz, to the small town of Rurrenabaque, where I would hopefully be booking myself onto a couple of tours - both of the Pampas wetlands and of the Rainforest. However, in what seems to be Bolivian style, the flight no longer existed and so it was on the bus for young Marky. The journey wasn’t too bad at all, given the horror stories from other travellers, and I broke it up with an overnight stay in Trinidad. Not the Caribbean unfortunately, but a bit of a hole whose “highlight” - Laguna Suarez - was a muddy brown lake with gale force winds and the worst, most expensive food I have yet encountered in Bolivia!!
Anyway, I got into Rurrenabaque, and after looking around the town and finding that there’s really not all that much to do there, I booked myself onto a 3 day tour of the Pampas which left the following day. The Pampas tours are all pretty standard with each agency offering almost identical programmes. Thus I booked with Deep Rainforest solely because I had met other
Capuchino Monkeys
Playful little fellas!!! travellers who had said how great the food was on the tour. Perhaps not the soundest basis for throwing my money at a company, but it turned out that Deep Rainforest were very ecologically minded and our guide was superb, so it all worked out well!!
The Pampas tour involved a bumpy jeep ride to a small port, where we boarded a long boat which took us up the river to our campsite, where we would be based for the duration. The boat ride was very pleasant as the water was completely placid and we could just chill out in the boat and admire the plentiful wildlife. We saw many types of birds, as well as some very playful squirrel monkeys - the bravest of which was soon jumping onto our boat and trying to make off with our dinner - and some howler monkeys too. It was a long boat ride and as the tour had been running to Bolivian time we arrived just before dark, set up camp and then headed out again for a night cruise where we went Caiman spotting (reptile very similar to an Alligator), as their eyes glow bright red when you shine
Piranha fishing
Small fish, big bite!!! a torch in their general vicinity!!
Next day, we were off to do a spot of Piranha fishing. It was a pretty basic affair - length of reel, a hook with meat on and you give it a tug when you feel a bite. I managed to land one of the little nippers but unfortunately I had eye-hooked it rather than genuinely caught it, so it wasn’t a raging success!! Piranhas are much smaller fish than I expected, but their teeth are quite something - appearing absolutely huge in such a small mouth, and undoubtedly being absolutely razor sharp. It was a brave girl who held her catch so that I could grab a photo of the teeth!!!
We also went dolphin swimming with the pink river dolphins - or as it could be more accurately described, we swam in the same lagoon as the dolphins inhabited and tried our best to catch them up. We didn’t really get all that close to them, but it was great fun swimming about and knowing that they were in close proximity.
The final night we caught a pretty impressive sunset at the (surprise, surprise) Sunset Bar, and a little
Caiman
Basking in the Sun as we headed back to port on the final day bit of vino tinto saw some good banter and singing around the campfire until the early hours.
Heading back to the port on the final day, the wildlife spotting was just incredible. There seemed to be a Caiman basking in the Sun around every corner, as well as huge numbers of turtles snoozing on logs in the river. Thus I got back to Rurrenabaque very happy after a great 3 days in the Pampas.
The words “Amazon” and “rainforest” seem to act like a red to a bull to most travellers. No-one wants to visit any old forest, the “rainforest” is where its at. However, my last experience at taking on the rainforest in Malaysia didn’t end all that well, as I got very ill, starting throwing up and had to rely on my friend Steve and his fistful of cash, which allowed us to buy our way back to civilisation with a local fisherman!!
But that was a year ago, and I was hoping to have another crack at the rainforest in Rurrenabaque - hopefully this time sin vomit!!! After being impressed with the Deep Rainforest tour I decided to
Turtles
Lazing the day away on their logs. They didn't like the sound of the boat's engine and soon were in the water though!!! go straight ahead and book a tour to the rainforest with them. I also decided to try and kill two birds with one stone by booking a private tour with a Spanish speaking guide so that I would be forced to practice my language skills!!
However my brilliant plans were slightly foiled when I met my guide for the first time and found out that he was sixty-six years old. While this meant he had 66 years of rainforest knowledge to impart on me, it also meant that he had had 66 years of Bolivian dentistry which is, unsurprisingly, not the best!!! Thus, I found it very difficult to understand what he was saying, which was a bit frustrating. Coupled to this he seemed to be a little bit senile and often answered my questions with some entirely random sentence - usually about what we were going to do the next day. For instance,
Me; “The river water is much clearer than I expected” (“Las aguas en el Rio son màs claras de lo que esperaba” Thought I’d put my translation in for my Spanish speaking friends to correct, just in case I was actually ordering a portion
Rainforest Mirador
The landscape we had trekked through, along with the flat expanse of the Pampas stretching away in the distance. of Peking Duck!!
Guide: “Tomorrow we’ll be camping at the same river but further up”
Me; “Right”
My US$35 per day for the tour had also paid for two local kids, 11 and 13, who came along to help carry the equipment and cook the food. Unfortunately, they seemed quite nervous, so although I could understand them quite well, I struggled to get any more than monosyllabic answers out of them!!! Thus, the conversation between the 4 of us wasn’t exactly vintage!!!
Being a private tour, I had been able to specify pretty much what I wanted, and so was able to plump for four days of trekking and learning about surviving in the jungle. This meant that I was taught which vines were suitable to be used as ropes and which berries and fruits could be eaten. Because the tour was a more “survival” based affair, we spent the nights at simple campsites that often had to be rebuilt, so I got to test out my new found skills with the vines. It also meant that the paths were very overgrown and that quite often we had to hack our way through the foliage.
Rainforest Scene
The type of landscape we were trekking through.
To this end I was given a machete to aid in the trekking. It was probably a false economy me using the machete, as I expect more branches either swung back and hit me, or fell on my head after I had hacked at them, than would have got me anyway. But that’s not the point at all; hacking my way through the jungle was an absolute tonne of fun, even if at the end of each day I did end up with a pain in my wrist that can only be described as “machete wielder’s cramp”!!!
The main highlight of the trip was on the second day in which we trekked up to a great “Mirador” (viewpoint). From there were great views of the hilly jungle terrain that we had been walking through, as well as the flat expanse of the Pampas stretching off to the horizon.
The jungle trekking was much more based around studying the various plants, trees and insects, rather than spotting wildlife. However, we were very fortunate on the third day when the sharp-eared kids heard some Howler monkeys and we set off in pursuit. After about twenty minutes we tracked them down
Rainforest Camp
It was basic, but very comfortable. and were able to watch them moving from tree to tree for about five minutes which was cool.
In hindsight, I think that 4 days of trekking through the jungle without anyone to speak English to was maybe a bit much. We didn’t walk for all that long each day, and I don’t think I’m a big enough fan of flora to be continually impressed by the new fern or tree that we came across.
Thus by the 4th day I was a little bit bored of the rainforest, which was a shame, but we had a great final morning carving rings from a type of nut that we had been picking up en-route. The nuts were originally shaped like a rugby ball, so you cut off each end and then carved out the centre. Using only sharp knives and rocks, the four of us then each set about shaping and polishing our rings which took about an hour. After we were finished, the three guides each gave me the rings they had made, and so I now have four mementos of my trek through the jungle which is great.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time in
Tools of the trade.
The manufacture of our rings from start to finish. Rurrenabaque. The tour of the Pampas was fantastic as we saw all kinds of wildlife, ate like absolute kings and it was very interesting and relaxing the whole way through. While the trek through the Rainforest wasn’t as exciting, the fact that I was reasonably comfortable conducting a tour in a foreign language was a great feeling. Also, hacking through the jungle and learning some survival skills was a great new experience, and although at times it got a little dull, I’m definitely glad that I did the tour.
All that was left now was to negotiate the 18 hour bus journey back to La Paz. I could have flown, but I decided to take on the bus as I could then treat myself which the fifty dollars that I had saved. The bus and the road weren’t bad at all - reasonably comfy in fact, but the 3,500 odd metre altitude gain as well as the 20 odd degree temperature plunge seemed to have a bit of an effect on young Marky. Couple this with the fact I’d discovered how cheap roadside fruit was in Bolivia - (bag of six oranges, 1 Boliviano, 10 or so Mandarins, 1 Boliviano, a bunch of bananas, 1 Boliviano - and 1 Boliviano is worth ladies and gents a mighty 7 pence!!!) so I had about 8 tonnes of fruit acid being bounced around inside my stomach. Needless to say the last 6 hours or so from midnight to 6 a.m were not a pleasure, as my stomach decided to do its best to burst from my body!!!
To finish, just a little musing on the bus journeys: now that I’ve been travelling for quite a while I have come to realise that if you are in a hot country and taking a bus either directly north or directly south, you need to think carefully about which side of the bus is the shady side or you will end up with a very squinty eye and a burnt neck. I chuckled heartily to myself as I booked my ticket for my southward journey on the right hand side of the bus, thinking how silly it was that most people had plumped for the left hand side. However, my chuckling was replaced with bewilderment as a few hours into the journey I had a very squinty eye and a burnt neck. It seems that that geography A-level had really proved its worth as I had managed to get my east and west confused and so spend the 7 or so daylight hours of the journey being slowly boiled. I think Homer Simpson said it best: “D’OH!!!!!!!”
Advertisement
Tot: 0.206s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 18; qc: 99; dbt: 0.1106s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb
Shlub
Ryan Singlehurst-Ward
Anothe good one
Well done on another blog that made me laugh most of the way through it with your mixture of mishaps and achievements. I've still got my ring and still wear a necklace I made from when I was there. Also it was one of those little squirrel monkeys that did most of the damage to my face when I was working in Parque Machia so watch out for them. When are you back in England? I'm heading back a little early so prob around middle of June.