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Published: November 20th 2005
The Rainforest
This trip is so fantastic! After La Paz, I flew to the Amazonian rainforest. Steamy, low altitude and difficult to believe I'm in the same country as the altiplano.
I stayed at the
Mapajo Lodge, near the town of Rurrenebaque (known as Rurre). Rurre is the main entry point for tourism in Bolivian Amazonia. It's a bit of a frontier town and there are loads of companies offering tours of the rainforest or tours of the "Pampas", a waterlogged area with trees wide enough apart for you to be able to see loads of wildlife. You can go on tours there where you catch piranhas and eat them for dinner which sounds a bit of a lark. If you opt for a rainforest tour you see less wildlife but you still know it's all around you.
I decided to do something a bit different. There is lodge in the Pilon Lajas national park, south of Rurre, that's owned and operated by the local people. They have a monopoly on tourism in the area and so you can stay somewhere very few others go. I'd heard a lot about ecotourism, but not experienced any good examples of it and
was keen to check this out.
The Mapajo people are getting savvy as the tour now costs twice as much as my two year old guidebook quoted (hmm, maybe these two facts are unrelated) and is twice as much as any of the commercial tours. However I'm really glad I went there as I had such a unique experience.
First, we had a three hour boat ride in a dugout motorised canoe. This canoe was made from one of the protected old hardwood trees in the forest. The locals are still allowed to cut a few of these down (at a sustainable rate) to keep their culture alive. The water was quite low as it had not rained for four days beforehand so we had to get out at lots of points to push the boat over low water.
Eventually, we arrived at the lodge. We stayed in these beautiful cabins and I had one all to myself. It had netting and mosquito nets and the beds were comfortable. There was also a hammock out the front. I had a little snooze when we got there. It was such a relaxing place, but I hadn't come here
to relax, I wanted to see stuff! Anyway, lunch was being served.
We did indeed see a lot of stuff over the next four days. First, we went for a walk in the woods a little way upstream. In amongst the forest were three large Mapajo trees after which the camp was named. Our guide showed us loads of other plants and trees and talked about their uses. They didn't speak English, so our tours were all in Spanish, which I and the other guests struggled with. Funny thing was, this was not the native language of our guide either. The local indigenous language still exists and the locals use that among themselves.
There's a "quaint amateurishness" about place. Like when we got there and we had to ask for plates and chairs. Everyone has a go at guiding (the men) and cooking (the women) and our fees go first to pay staff wages. The rest of the money goes into a fund which the community uses as they wish. The government provides a school building and teachers, but they need money for books and equipment. They also invest in the lodge. There are only a maximum of
16 people at a time (on our last night, there were only five of us and when I left, there was only one couple on their own!) so they could have a few more guests without spoiling the environment.
In my Ecuador chapter, I forgot to give a plug for my Spanish school. I learned at an organisation called
Ecotrackers, who send volunteers to live with indigenous communities in Ecuador (the Spanish school is just a sideline). One of the things this tries to do is educate the locals in the ways of the West and of tourism in the hope they may be able to start viable ecotourism projects of their own and not be ripped off. Mapajo would be a good model for them. In fact, during the time I was there, a Quebecker lady came to explain to the locals about vegetarianism as they had had a lot of comments in their feedback (vegetarians want to eat more than just cucumber/want to have different meals each day/don't eat fish or chicken/etc). I know it might sound patronising, but if people genuinely don't this, and as we're talking about quite a bit of money for entrance fees
Having to push
On the first day, the water was really low, so we had to stop lots to push it over the pebbles.and picky tourists, they need someone to explain. I later met someone who had met an Italian guy who was going out there (it turns out) just after I left, to teach them how to cook Italian food properly. Certainly, I did eat some strange pizza when I was there. One piece of constructive criticism I put on my feedback was about out guide, who didn't really say very much and was not chatty as guides are meant to be. It turned out it was his first time and he was only a young guy. However, this is the real world and tourists less tolerant than myself may have kicked up a fuss...
When we arrived, it was scorching hot and the river very low. On the first night, the weather turned and the temperature dropped. Well, this is the rainforest after all!
On the second day, I went really far upstream - about two and a half hours - to a very tiny community of six families called Gredal. The river had risen a lot due to last night's rain, and was now brown. We spent quite a long time in the village. It may have felt
slightly awkward if the Quebecker lady and an Italian couple weren't making entertaining conversation between us all, but this was seeing real locals as they really live. It wasn't some kind of performance put on for the tourists. We saw how these people live and it is incredible to see it in the 21st Century! The people are not exactly starving and it doesn't seem like poverty as there isn't any great wealth nearby to give a contrast (except for the tourists who are providing some tourist dollars). The people were laughing and smiling all the time and it all seemed genuine. Also, people wear T-shirts and shorts or jeans. They don't wear traditional costumes for our benefit.
The next day, we visited the main village (Ascuncion), just by the lodge. It has a lot more people than Gredal and the community's school, but was otherwise much the same. People here are undergoing an huge change in their lifestyle and culture. The village was only built in 1970. Before that, people lived in groups of one or two families all over the forest. Now, they are in just a few villages, are going to school, learning Spanish and the
outside world is coming to them. At least the lodge gives them some control over this inevitable change.
Interesting to see the gender relations among the locals. The men get to do all the flash jobs like guiding, building boats, driving boats, making bow and arrows and "directing" the planting of crops. The women do all the hard work: grinding corn, cleaning, cooking, making baskets, planting in the fields.
During the whole of my stay, I saw no tourists other than those in our lodge. I heard very little noise other than the incredible sounds coming from the jungle around us. So much so that when just one boat (taking roofing from Gredal downstream to be sold in Rurre) came by, it almost felt like a disturbance. For four days I saw no cars. I felt really privileged!
The lodge has no electricity, save for a solar powered freezer. At night, they light the paths with candles. I'd have liked to stay longer and just sit around the lodge and relax, but reality called.
The boat trip back to Rurre was a lot quicker going downstream. I along with Cian and Ann, a Scottish/Irish couple I'd
A giant Mapajo tree
...after which the camp was named been staying with at the lodge crashed at a cheap hotel. It was such a contrast to Mapajo! That night we drank in the "Moskkito Bar", much frequented by any gringo who passes through Rurre.
As it had rained in the last couple of days, flights had been postponed. Rurre only has a grass runway so planes can only land when it's reasonably dry. So delays often happen and we were warned not to book anything definitive after our scheduled time to arrive back at La Paz. Totally bizarrely for me, the disruption in flights meant I had an
earlier flight back to La Paz, which suited me brilliantly. Cian and Ann had to stay an extra night in Rurre, which didn't seem fair, but lots of things in Bolivia are bizarre.
My plane was a little one-engined Cesna, while their plane was larger so I guess my plane could land on damper grass. Anyway, getting back to La Paz earlier meant I could get a bus to Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca and on the border with Peru.
Copacabana
Copacabana is a very pretty town. It's a place of pilgrimage and the "Virgen de
Copacabana" is an image seen all over Bolivia and Peru. They have a hill (Cerro Calvario) that's modelled on Calvary (the hill where Jesus was crucified) and it's marked with stations of the cross. Bizarrely, the town is also full of hippies!
Lake Titicaca is so beautiful. The water is really clear and, on a sunny day, is a beautiful shade of blue.
The next day, I took a boat trip to Isla del Sol (the Island of the Sun) which is a holy place for the Incas as it is where the first Incas (Manco Kapac and Mama Ocllo the brother/sister and (bizarrely!) husband/wife pair) were born from a rock.
We had about five hours on the island and I opted to be picked up at the other side of the island from where we were dropped off. I'm always bad with boat trips to islands and panic that I'll miss the boat. So, after a quick trip to the museum, I headed off straight away across the island.
The island is like something from another century. It's densely populated and covered in little fields which people tend by hand. It seems amazing they can
survive, but I guess the cost of living is cheap here and people lead a hand-to-mouth existence. There are no cars, or even horses on the island, nor bicycles so everyone walks everywhere.
I took an alternative route to the one recommended by the ferry people as I wanted to check out the Aymara museum in the middle of the island. When I finally got there, it was closed (for two hours during the time most day-trippers would arrive at that part of the island anyway...) but I'm really glad I did go that way as I saw no other tourists during that time.
Thoughts on Boliva
Bolivia is a fascinating country and I'm really glad I spent three weeks there. It is so diverse. And weird in so many ways!
It's the poorest country in South America (only Haiti is poorer in the Western Hemisphere). It's also supposedly the second most corrupt in the world (after only Indonesia). And there is huge inequality with a small ruling elite, a small middle class and vast numbers of poor (mainly indigenous) people. Having said that, I've heard a lot of people comment on how happy the people seem
to be, and having been there I think it's generally true that people are kind of happy with their day-to-day hard existence.
It's no utopia though and I think changes are afoot. As I write this, parliamentary and presidential elections are scheduled for 18th December (they've already been postponed once). The front runner is a guy called Evo Morales. He is causing a bit of alarm in the US as he has a strong anti-US stance and has said he will renationalise Bolivia's energy industry (the country has the second largest deposits of natural gas in South America). He has also aligned himself with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela who has already caused a lot of problems for Washington and has supported Robert Mugabe's land reforms in Zimbabwe (which have helped bring that country into absolute poverty). So far, all Bolivian presidents have come from the "creoleo" minority of pure Spanish descent (who make up about 10% of the country). This seems incredible in the most indigenous country in South America where 60% of the population are pure indigenous and most of the rest "meztiso" (mixed). Morales is indigenous and a lot of people I spoke to both in the
altiplano and in the Amazon say they will vote for him (or the communist candidate). I was in La Paz on the
day of Morales's election rally in Plaza San Francisco. I approached the edge of the crowd and had a look. As I was walking away, someone spat at me. This could conceivably have been either a ruse to distract me and rob me (that happens a lot!) or someone venting their anger at a "gringo". Either way, I got the hell out of there. In a bizarre twist, later in Copacabana I got chatting to a guy who turned out to work as security at the American Embassy in La Paz. He said he didn't like Morales anyway, and was actually worried about his job as he said he thought there was a 50%!c(MISSING)hance the US will withdraw their ambassador if Morales gets in. I don't know if this is any kind of a scoop. I certainly think it would be extremely foolish of the Americans to do that but you never know do you. It seems there are turbulent times ahead for this country. It often seems to be the case that if you have a lot of historical
Papayas
...along with bananas, the main crop grown here. Mainly for subsistence. injustice and things are going wrong, the government gets replaced by a totally different one with radical and opposite policies. This causes further injustices and instability of a different nature. I do hope it settles down and the country can have a brighter future.
The diet in Bolivia is quite bad. The national dish (as with the other andean countries) seems to be pollo con arroz (Chicken and rice) which actually means a quarter fried chicken, rice and chips (papas fritas). Papas Fritas are served with almost everything! I was having so many chips I had to stop as it was doing strange things to my digestion.
In La Paz, I came across loads of road blockages over gas (used for cooking). People used empty gas canisters to block the road, though it was still possible to get round on side roads. There is a shortage of gas in El Alto and La Paz, and people are blaming it on exports. Turns out it's not quite as simple as that as there is a flourishing black market in taking gas to Peru where it's a lot more expensive (USD8.75 as opposed to USD2.87). I later met people who
had been stuck in the south of Bolivia for almost a week due to an unrelated dispute. In that case, there were total blockages and it was impossible to travel anywhere, get any money and shops were open for only two hours in the morning.
The whole country came to a halt back in June, and I would advise anyone thinking of going to the country around the time of the elections that although it will be an interesting time to be there, there's a potential you'll be there for longer than you think.
Pouring a beer at altitude is difficult as it all foams up. It's difficult not to end up with a huge head!
If you're travelling on a bus in the middle of the countryside, you'll see people getting off at the most unlikely places with no visible buildings and then proceed to walk off into the distance to who-knows-where.
Nice Bolivian red wine: Campos de Solana ("Vino Tinto Clasico").
I've not read either of my novels ("The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" and "The Number One Lady's Detective Agency") so far on my travels. I just haven't had time! I've been making the most of every minute
I can. If I'm sitting around, I'll read my guidebook or try to learn some Spanish.
Travelling alone has been a mixed experience. Overall, it's been great as I've been able to do just the things that I want to do, when I want. However, it can be a little tiring making all arangements for yourself. I've been meeting a few people along the way and travelling with them for up to a couple of days as we were going to the same places, but I haven't found anyone doing exactly what I'm doing at exactly the same time. I guess the "Gringo Trail" is more of a "Gringo network". A set of places that lots of tourists go to, but not necessarily at the same time and in the same order.
And lastly, getting back to remembering how lucky I am. It has been fantastic to be able to travel in a country which is "cheap" for me. To go places and to do things and not worry too much about costs. As my friend and colleague
ItchyAdventurer points out; after doing amazing things every day, it's going to hurt going back to reality. I don't forget that
this is not normal. At the best, reality means having a job to go back to. At worst, I could be unemployed! To this end, I'm making the most of every day and trying to do as much as I can. Even if it's tiring, it still beats working!
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