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Published: December 5th 2008
Having relaxed for a few days in La Paz, we were refreshed and ready for more adventures. Next stop was the Bolivian part of the Amazonian Jungle. A little unsure of what to do and where to go, we headed to see some tour companies and ask. The first one unsettled us a little with their guarantee of seeing animals. Most animals don't like humans and thus hide from us, so the guarantee made us think that maybe unsavory tactics were being used. Over a coffee we found a leaflet for an official national park eco-lodge place that sounded much more ethical and we headed off to see them. While we waited in the office we flicked through a National Geographic magazine article about the decades of work done by a lady called Rosa Maria in the rainforest. She was a truly remarkable woman who had dedicated her life to the preservation of the jungle and it's animals. When we came to discuss going to the national park with the company, Rosa Maria herself was doing her once yearly stint in the office and after speaking with her for a while, there was no way we were going with anyone else.
We had to break our budget, but knowing the money was going towards the good cause and not someones pocket made us feel all shiny with ethical pride. Feeling all smug we set off to the airport for 3 days and 2 nights deep in the jungle.
Unfortunately, the day we were due to fly there was some rain which made the dirt-track airstrip in Rurrenabaque unusable, so we had to wait another night in La Paz. The following day we headed back to the airport with fingers crossed - overnight we had spoken to Rosa Maria and she had told us they will use any excuse to cancel a flight, true or lie and some people are known to be stuck waiting for days. Luckily we had found the airline company in a good mood and second time of trying we were on the plane - a 19 seat prop plane, very cosy. The mountains surrounding La Paz and falling away to Rurrenabaque cause an enormous amount of turbulence and the 40 minute journey was rough. Touching down on the strip of dirt cut out of the jungle was a big relief. Exiting the plane, the heat was
astounding, but the humidity literally took your breath away. The 19 of us packed into a van designed for about 10 and sweated our way into town.
Rurrenabaque is a small town, that has become a tourist centre as it is the set off point for all tours and stays in the Bolivian rainforest. As part of our package we had a free night in a swish hotel on the banks of the River Beni, so we left the crowds and headed to our night of luxury. Within minutes of arriving we were in the pool and then enjoying our fan cooled cabin. We even had our own ostrich that randomly walked round the grounds. We had a lovely touristy dinner in town under another fan, drank cocktails in the happy hour that lasted all night and shot some pool. We certainly enjoyed our last night of comforts before the next 3 days.
Day 1
Next morning we set off for the jungle with our new tour buddies Henk and Virginie. Henk is Dutch, Virginie's Belgian, but they met and live in France. We felt a little dull and unexotic, but soon got over it. We also
met our local guide for the stay, Zenon, who over the next few days was the making of the trip, due to his amazing eyes and ears and knowledge of the jungle. A 3 hour boat ride took us downriver to the newly created national park, called Serere, deep in the rainforest and on arrival we immediately started exploring. For the entire 2k walk to the cabins, Zenon pointed out exotic and interesting plants, trees and bugs and we we're even lucky enough to see a fair amount of monkeys around us. Chrissie and Henk also learnt their first valuable lesson, watch where you stand! Ants and Termites form paths and if you stand on the path, they just go over you - all over you! Now we're no ant experts but we had already been told how one species has such a strong bite they are used instead of stitches in wounds. Very quickly we smacked and shook Chrissie's legs removing the nippy little buggers before too much damage was caused.
After an hour we arrived at our cabin, which as you'll see in the photo, is rather exposed with nets for walls. There's no electricity and only
cold water, this was home for the next couple of days. Quaint and beautiful, but a little nervy with the jungle all round and possibly inside. We later found out from an American couple who arrived the day before us, that they found a tarantula in their room - lovely!
5 minutes later we headed to the 'big house' where everyone meets and meals are served. Again it has only nets for walls, cold water and no electricity. The second floor did have an inviting selection of hammocks and sofas, but as we were there to adventure we let them be, heading out for a float on the lake in a dug out canoe. It took a while to get used to sitting perfectly still as any slight movement rocked the boat mercilessly. Zenon diligently pointed out an amazing array of birds and we got lucky enough to see about 30 baby caimans (like darker alligators) scuttle off to their mum hiding somewhere in the bushes. As the sun set beautifully, we got back to the big house and very soon dinner was served and we settled in for the evening - or so we thought.
After dinner
Zenon convinced us all we should definitely go for a night walk as it's when most of the animals come out. Slightly nervous we agreed and the 5 of us set out in the pitch black following Zenons torchlight. We had got about 5 meters from the door when Zenons light went up a tree and he matter of factly said "Tarantula". As we all crowded closer to see the hairy bugger, he told us they can jump, so we all edged back a little. We had agreed on an hour walk and after 30 minutes it was time to turn back. We'd seen nothing further that was particularly scary, but had seen some funky bugs glowing either green or orange and an excellent line of termites that diligently and fascinatingly went about their work. We all agreed we could last a little longer and we should go on just a bit. Zenon seemed to assume this meant we we're up for a long old trek as we were out for over 3 hours in the end, getting wearily back to camp a little short of midnight. Tired, we headed to bed, pulling the mossie net tight around the bed,
ignoring the cockroaches and hoping nothing else was in the cabin.
Day 2
The alarm rang out at 6 and Matt awoke after 6 hours well earned sleep ready for the morning trek. Unfortunately the 'noise of the jungle' had disturbed Chrissies sleep a lot and she decided to join later for breakfast. The morning walk for 3 hours was again really interesting, with Zenon pointing out a tree anteater, endless monkeys and full of facts about the flora and fauna. The highlight of the morning was the howler monkeys, which despite being the size of a small dog make a noise like a dinosaur. Heading off the path, Zenon macheted his way through the forest following the howls until we found the cheeky monkeys.
After breakfast, the 4 of us decided it was time for a shower. Unsurprisingly, the rainforest is rather humid and even thinking about moving can bring you out in a sweat. There was a danger of scaring each other off with our scent, not just the animals! Clean and fresh we settled into hammocks for a good idle until lunch.
At 2pm we headed out for our afternoon walk.....a gentle 5
and a half hour trek through dense jungle. It was hotter, still sweaty, hard work and buggy. That said we had a successful time of creature spotting, racking up, a couple of snakes plus an anaconda, a 4m long Caiman (like an alligator), Red and Green Macaws in the teens, Yellow and Blue Macaws and of course the obligatory monkeys in abundance.
Arriving back at the big house, we had dinner and the 4 of us quickly dismissed the idea of another night walk. 12 hours walking in the previous 24 was plenty! Chrissie and I decided we had earnt a bottle of red wine. We spent the evening chatting to the other group (Americans) who it seems had seen next to nothing compared to our haul of animals for the day and previous night. We should mention again that most of the animals hide from humans and we were incredibly lucky to have Zenon as our guide. Not only could he spot and hear a bug from 100 yards, he actually attracted some animals to us by mimicking their calls. This was nervy with the caimans as he attracted the bigguns by mimicking the distress call of the
littluns.
We headed to bed with 4 cockroaches that night, but luckily still no Tarantula!
Day 3
We rose at a relaxed 8:00 and headed for breakfast by 9:30. The mornings activity was Pirana Fishing, which for Chrissie meant another relax in the hammock (she really wasn't complaining!). The other three of us headed out in the dugout canoe again, with a bit of line, a hook and some wee bits of steak as bait. While Zenon and a local lad pulled piranas out of the water without seemingly looking or caring, the rest of us battled away. Virginie managed two, I got one and to Henk's frustration he had two but they both escaped inches from the boat. It was a bit gruesome seeing your hook come back free of meat, but we got our own back by selecting the biggest of the piranas and bbq'ing them with our lunch. Quite tasty actually!
After lunch it was time to head off back to civilisation. We got back to Rurrenabaque by early evening and after saying our thanks and goodbyes, eagerly headed to a hostel. We had a long hot shower each and headed back to
the same bar as our first night and enjoyed the cocktails once more. Tired and a little tipsy we were both ready to crash early and slept heavily.
The following day we left the jungle, braving the flight back to La Paz. We headed on straight away to Copcabana on Lake Titicaca, but that is for another day.
To sum up, the trip was another really good experience, both interesting and exciting at times, but we're happy it's done and we haven't got to go back to the jungle. In the following days Matt located 5 blood-sucking ticks attached to his body and Chrissie 1....really very unpleasant! In the following weeks further ailments arose, none of which we can for certain attribute to the jungle, but we have our suspicions. Still worth it though.....we think?!?!
Love
Matt and Chrissie
x x x
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Caroline
non-member comment
Same jungle?
I take it Matt wrote this post. It does not sound like the jungle experience Chrissie described by email! I thought I was reading about a different trip, or have the super strong antibiotics clouded your memory...