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Written by Gali:
Onto the jungle portion of our journey...
This was the second excursion we took from Rurrenabaque. Madidi national park is a MASSIVE reserve, occupying 1,900,000 Hectares of land, which range from the snow capped mountains surrounding La Paz to the humid jungles way up in Northern Bolivia. As well, there are approximately 4,738 species of plants, 156 types of animals, and 867 bird species.
The jungle is much more of what Dani, Seth and I expected from the Amazon in terms of plants and trees. It was stunning!!! We had yet another wicked tour guide, Eric, who happened to be Brad Pitt’s guide some years ago, it was surprising to learn that Brad Pitt had been to Bolivia.
The tour set out from Rurrenabaque where we boated on both the Beni & another river for about 3 hours until we arrived at our camp site. We began with an incredible 4 hour hike through the rainforest where we learnt about the many different species of trees and some of their functions. Trees used for natural medications, some which supply certain foods and others which are known as the parasites of the forest that gradually
Boat
Dani, Galiwrap themselves around other trees in order to strangle and thrive off them eventually killing them.
We saw soooooo many bugs and the biggest spiders ever...literally the size of ones palm. Saw more monkeys, a tapir which is the largest animal inhabiting the rainforest (200 pounds), a baby puma (cute) and a whole load of Macaws and Parrots!!! We went piranha fishing again with the strangest rods, basically a slab of wood with fishing line a hook and a chunk of meat attached to the end of it. Anyways, Dani along with the two French Canadian girls we were on the tour with caught one!!! It was massive...the biggest fish...25 pounds needed 3 people to bring it in, I was NOT touching it... Then... it was eaten as part of our din, tasty I guess!
The next morning, we got up bright and early to boat out to where the macaws live, they are beautiful creatures with a mean caw, soooooooo noisy. Some interesting facts told to us by Eric, our guide, Macaws live 20 to 30 years, they are considered to be one of the best flying creatures as they can travel across an ocean. They are
monogomous and mate for life.
We took another walk in the forest, collecting mango-coconuts in order to make our rings as our next activity. (see series of pictures as to the prep and final product!). After our ring making activity, we had a quick lunch and boated back to Rurrenabaque to catch our flight back to La Paz.
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Esther
non-member comment
Gali, your travel blogs are great, we almost feel as if we are there with you. Keep having a great time and see you soon. Love to all.