Rumble in the Jungle

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It was a quick turn around from our Pampas trip; a nights rest then back on another boat to head into the Bolivian jungle. We travelled with a company called Chalalan Ecolodge. They are fairly expensive compared to the other tours on offer, but worth it. All the profits go directly to the community and Chalalan has provided employment for the Tacana villagers since 1995, all the staff take great pride in their jobs which reflects in the service provided.

Chalalan Ecolodge is situated deep in the Madidi jungle. It took eight hours to finally arrive at our destination, then it was a 25min walk through the jungle to the lodge. It was real hard work getting up river, several times we had to get out the boat while it was dragged over the shallow water, this was hard going for our crew. I especially felt really guilty when they pushed and pulled the boat with us in it. This happened many times due to the river being low (it’s dry season). One of the highlights of the trip was spotting a jaguar on our journey up river, what a beautiful sight. It’s extremely rare to a see them in the wild.

Our accommodation was absolutely lovely (didn’t feel like we were backpacking), the picture says it all. Anyway, day one was spent mainly getting there, however, after dinner we ventured out on a night walk through the jungle, scary stuff. The jungle comes alive at night the sounds and noises are really amplified and not being able to see what’s out there makes the heart pump faster! We saw a tarantula, deadly snakes, dart frogs and a caiman, plus we heard with many spooky sounds.

Day two, off into the jungle again on a 4 hour guided walk, this was really informative our guide explained about the flora and fauna. Andres pointed out several unique trees, one smelt of garlic! The bark of this tree is used by the locals to flavour their food. It seems if you know what to look for the jungle is better than any supermarket! We arrived back at the lodge just in time for lunch then siesta time for a few hours! Late afternoon we ventured across the lake in a small canoe, our destination was the view point across Chalalan Lake. On route we all heard an almighty noise that sounded like something off a horror movie. Andres informed us that it was the howler monkeys and they were only 200m away. So we changed course in search for them, his eagle eye soon spotted them high up in the trees, I filmed them as the sound was just so eerie. Eventually made it to the view point and watched the sun go down over the jungle, wow.

Our final adventure after dinner was a night boat ride, we spotted a 5m caiman it was creepy seeing these bright orange eyes glow just above the water level. Luckily we are not seen as prey as it could have easily flipped the canoe over! Further on we saw two snakes, one was a tree snake hanging above our canoe, again we quickly took pictures and moved along, it wouldn’t have been much fun if it dropped into the canoe.

After breakfast on day three we were sorry to say goodbye to Chalalan, but we had to head back down river to Rurre. It was a lot faster going with the current so the journey didn’t take as long. However, a tropical storm rolled in which soaked all of us. This storm proceeded to last all day which meant the flights were cancelled. Rurre only has a grass runway and when it rains no flights operate, as you can imagine this occurs quite a lot being a tropical place! We swore we would not take the bus back, so the other two options were a jeep which was super expensive plus you still go on the dodgy roads or to fly out. So four days later after the storm had cleared and the runways were operational again, we eventually left the jungle!!

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Photos

Chalalan Lodge
Our hut