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Published: April 20th 2007
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On Wednesday, we spent the morning completing some admin to do with our trip and also buying provisions for our journey into the Amazon rainforest. At lunch time we got a cab (back with Hernán again!) to the airport. Instead of going to the normal El Alto airport, we had to go to a military airport because our flight was with the national military airline, who also do commercial flights. We´d been told this was a bit further from town than the normal one, so we allowed a bit more time. As it turned out it was spitting distance from El Alto and in fact TAM planes use the same runways as El Alto, it is just a different place to check in.
It was the strangest experience at this place, with everyone in military uniform, yet a couple of little shops selling the usual souvenir tack, plus a few military items such as a Bolivian air force flying jacket(!). To get to the departures bit, we had to go through what appeared to be a fairly rigourous search of both checked in and hand luggage for drugs. In fact they left us alone but they were extremely interested
in a Dutch couple´s luggage. Once eventually on the flight itself, we were equally amused by what went on. The plane was more comfortable than we´d thought, with seats facing forward and seat belts that worked, a loo, and perhaps most amusing of all, we had our own stewardess, all in military garb, serving us up with cotton wool for our ears (possibly the noisiest flight I´ve ever been on!) and Coca Cola and cookies. Very odd, but we enjoyed the novel experience!
The scenery from the plane windows was just stunning, the photo doesn´t quite do it justice, because the windows were made of some kind of plastic and rather scratched. Basically, you leave La Paz at a considerable height and then ascend a bit to go over the Cordillera Real, a long spine of very high and partially snow-topped mountains and then once you´ve cleared those you need to lose height to go to the most lower tropical lowland where the rainforest is. So we went from rugged mountains to dense rainforest and then made the landing on the grassy runway of Rurrenabaque airport to a very small airport area. The descent was horrendous in terms of
the air pressure, the plane didn´t quite compensate on the pressure the way bigger craft can!
We were met at the airport by a guy called Sergio, who was to be our guide for the trip. He helped us get our luggage and the 3 of us got into an extremely dusty Toyota, with missing door handles and seat belts of about 30cm length (was the rest chewed, or did it snap off - we´ll never know!). I´ve never experience such a humid climate, but I found the short ride to the town of Rurrenabaque really exciting, as everything was so tropical and exotic looking. We got checked into our hotel, which was fine but basic. We had a ceiling fan that was on a go-slow, like it was too hot to make more effort.
The evening was spent having a few very cold beers and an evening meal at a place called Camilla´s, which was fairly busy with travellers of all sorts, but most especially English and Israeli backpackers. For some reason there are lots of Israelis in this part of Bolivia visiting, I don´t think it was just while we were there, judging by a few
View from the boat
As we went up the Beni, it was a bit misty at first, but the scenery was wonderful even so. signs that we took to be in Hebrew….
The next morning was a fairly early start to catch a motorised boat, the shape of a long canoe but with shelter and fitted seats, to our ecolodge, Chalalán. We were the only two tourists but we were carrying a few lodge staff apart from Sergio and lots of supplies (Iain taking particular interest in all the crates of Paceña beer that were near our seats!). The journey involved going down the Beni river for about an hour, and then switching on to the narrower and at times much shallower Tuichi river. We had to pay a small entrance fee to the National Park of Madidi as we entered its boundaries, but I was kind of glad of the stop as it meant we got a loo stop too!
The journey was wonderful. The boat was capable of surprising speeds, even though we were travelling against the current. We got to see swallows, kingfishers, terns and the world´s biggest rodent, the Capybara. We had a packed lunch en route, which was huge but intended only to tide us over until we had a lunch at the lodge. We shared the
Entering Madidi Park
The most biodiverse national park in Bolivia, and wonderfully pristine. food around with the staff as it was loads. Sergio also explained about some of the traditional crafts that his community had mastered, and we were given an introduction to weaving the leaves of palm oil trees. We were fairly useless at it, especially I was, but the staff were very indulgent and only laughed at our efforts when they could see we thought it was funny!
Once we arrived at the parking spot for the boat, we had a 30 minute trek to the lodge via the jaguar trail (all the trails are very well marked and named after animals or birds that may often be seen from them). We didn´t see a jaguar. But we also didn´t have to carry our packs if we didn´t want to, so I accepted the help with the big rucksack, seeing as it was extremely hot and sweaty and I didn´t know quite how far we were going. At the lodge, which was gorgeous, we were greeted by our waitress with Monica with a lovely cold juice and were then given a brief introduction to the lodge buildings and a few basic lodge rules which were there to look after both
Our handicrafts
Iain showing off our creations. We didn´t make the fan, unfortunately, that was way beyond our expertise. the lodge and the surrounding environment.
We had a look at Lake Chalalán, right by the lodge, and which looked very inviting in the heat and then were taken to our cabin, which was great. It reminded us of the tented lodges we´d stayed in on our honeymoon in Africa, with a big comfy bed with large mosquito net and a very nicely done bathroom. All the lodges are done using local materials and traditional building methods, so lots of mahogany wood bound together rather than nailed and fantastic natural material roof.
After a refreshing cold shower, we had a very nice 3 course lunch at the lodge with Sergio and then we took a siesta, the normal routine here and much appreciated in the intense heat and humidity. After this, we went on a canoe ride with Sergio, who we had slowly realised was our private guide just for the two of us. We had some wonderful views of Capuchin and Yellow Squirrel monkeys as well as lots of fantastic birdlife. Sergio proved to be extremely knowledgeable and told us all about the things we were seeing. We also saw some black caiman, alligator-like creatures which can
This friend jumped into our boat!
He wasn´t poisonous, though many of the sweet looking little ones can be!! be several metres long. That sealed Iain´s reluctance to go swimming in the lake!!
Our evening meal was a bit special, because the only other couple staying at the lodge were having their last night. They were a couple of Bolivian honeymooners, and it reminded me a lot of us having our African honeymoon, close to nature and in such beautiful surroundings. We were treated to a great meal, including Yucca soup and a delicious catfish main course, cooked in a slow fire with traditional spices. It was extremely good!
Straight after dinner we went on a night hike with torches with Sergio, and saw a couple of tarantula spiders (one brown, the other black, both very hairy) quite a few frogs, and a snake which is the second most poisonous in Madidi, the Fer de Lance snake. Lovely! No owls, unfortunately.
Back at the lodge we gave thanks to the Pachamama (mother earth) by crumbling coca leaves on the ground and we also had what they called puma milk, I think some drink based on a Singani-like spirit with milk and got to try chewing coca leaves (Iain liked very much, I wasn´t too keen). The
Chalalán lodge
All in traditional materials, and very nicely done. staff played us some music using traditional instruments and we were dragged into dancing, which was actually quite enjoyable if a little tricky! We fell into bed pretty shattered, having at least managed to stay up later than the honeymooners!!
More soon - much to catch up with!!
xx
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