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Published: January 26th 2008
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Our little house in the jungle (with no mod cons like electricity or hot water!)We were met at Rurrenabaque airport by Wilman. He’s a guide with the San Miguel del Bala jungle lodge and an integral part of their community of some 250 people. It was great to arrive to find someone holding a card with your name on it. It makes you feel kind of special!!
A couple of hours later we were on a motorised canoe weaving between the logs and fallen branches flowing on the River Beni. The water level was quite high so going upstream was slow going, and it was surprisingly rough in places. 45 minutes later we arrived in darkness at the jungle lodge which was to be our home for the next week.
The idea was to do some volunteer work. In all of my correspondence with the lodge I thought we had set ourselves up to teach English to the guides as it is now the quiet season for tourism. It didn’t quite work out that way as with no tourists, the guides sought work elsewhere. Thanks for telling us! We did some corrections of their English information boards, made some wind chimes out of bamboo canes and took some photos for them. In the
end it resulted in a cheap stay in a jungle lodge for a few days. We didn’t quite last a week for a variety of reasons, the lack of wok being the main one.
The lodge was fine. Our cabin was great with very effective insect screens instead of windows and fine mosquito nets above our beds. Unfortunately with no tourists staying at the lodge it meant there was no electricity! So, cold showers in the dark it was!! We soon got used to torchlight and the water temperature was refreshing after getting very hot and sticky from walking outside.
Our meals were all taken with Wilman and his family. We had a 15 minute trek on a jungle path to get to his house. Getting back to our cabin after dinner meant a night hike every night. Except for getting lost on our first solo journey back (!) it was easy going with one steep climb and no pumas stalking us at all!! Wilman’s family were lovely. Gary, the eldest boy at 13, was a typical moody teenager which surprised us. For some reason we thought that trait was a very “developed world” thing. Still, he warmed
Rio Beni
This was the view from just outside our cabin to us and tried to practice his English a couple of times. Nidelli (or was it Nigella?) is 8 and destined to follow her mother as a domestic goddess. Next came Johan, 6, and he was great. He talked to us from the start and has no fear of anything. Finally there was Brenda, 2, who was curious about us but very timid. At times the children would simply sit and stare at us which was a bit odd, but I guess we must seem a bit odd to them!
Life in the jungle isn’t easy. It’s certainly dirty and the heat and humidity soon sap any energy you have. We found ourselves resting in hammocks and deckchairs a lot. We did do one really good walk though. Wilman had drawn us a map of sorts and we didn’t get lost, although we weren’t on the trail we thought we were on! We tried to walk the route with medicinal plants along it, but after a few hundred metres the flooded path was impassable. We tried to walk out to a nearby canyon but found ourselves instead on the path which demonstrates various animal traps. It was about 2km
The dreaded stairs
It was a hot and humid climb up these stairs every day! It took a good 10 minutes, longer if we had much to carry. each way on steep tracks but well marked. The only major obstacle was an enormous spider’s web with a giant arachnid in the middle. Using a stick Russ carefully destroyed part of the web to allow us to proceed!
We did enjoy our stay, it’s just that it didn’t quite work out as we had hoped. So we left after 5 days. Our return to Rurrenabaque was on a banana boat. Russ had to sit on top of a pile of green bananas as there was only really seating for Trish. It made for an interesting journey.
Back in Rurrenabaque our worst nightmare came true. Days of heavy prolonged rain meant that no flights could come or go from the tiny airport. After 5 nights in town (we planned to stay 2) we are really praying that the runway dries out this afternoon and we can leave!
Did we? You’ll find out in the next blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Abbey Studer
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No hot water or electricity in the jungle. That makes me extremely envious. I can't quite explain it, but this Chicagoan is envious. really wish I was there with you. REALLY