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Rurrenabaque Airport
...aka a farmer´s field! ..we´ve got fun and games!
Or, as we discovered, an incredible variety of biting insects - and folks, they´ll bite you just about anywhere!
Rather than a gruelling 18 hour bus journey, we opted for the spectacular flight from La Paz to Rurrenabaque. The plane was essentially a cigar tube with a row of single chairs down each side, all with an excellent view of the cabin and the pilots. A few minutes after take off and a glance out of the window revealed that we were the same height as a number of the local peaks, incredible, if just a little scary! A mere 32 minutes later we landed in a field just outside the town. Given the nature of the landing strip, the weather is critical - as we were to discover!
Mapajo Lodge
After a little research in La Paz, we both decided against the standard jungle tour on offer from the majority of tour operators. Instead, we opted for one which (we hoped) would directly benefit some of the local communities living in the Beni department. The one we opted for also happened to be the one most difficult to contact, so
Erbie and the catfish
Lunch and dinner in the jungle... without any real confirmation we rocked up at the office in Rurrenabaque to discover everything was okay - a little more relaxed than we´re used to!
After a three hour trip up river on a motorised canoe, through some of the most spectacular scenery I´ve ever seen, we arrived at our lodge to discover we were the only tourists there. The lodge is run entirely by the local community and is situated only a short walk away from the village. At lunch we met Francisco, our local guide. He spoke Spanish and the language of the community, only spoken here and in a small number of nearby villages and never fully written down. Fortunately, my trusty interpreter didn´t fail me!
For me, with the exception of the final trek, all the jungle trails were something of a disappointment. Despite reading that I was unlikely to see anything other than a variety of flying insects and ants, the lack of wildlife meant the walks became nothing more than an exercise in getting bitten! On the other hand, Stavi loved the walks, revelling in the changing vegetation and lofty, green canopy. On the final trek we visited a number of
River View
Jungle Tour the giant, fast growing Mapajo trees. The indigenous people believe the tree is inhabited by a spirit, who occassionally appears in the guise of an old man.
On the second day, we went fishing on the river. Neither Stavi or I had any success - something we were to later repeat in the pampas - but Erbie (the boat pilot and son of our guide) appeared to snag his line, dived in and reappeared with the largest catfish either of us had ever seen. Ten minutes later he hauled in another - some people have all the luck!
Our first visit to the community came on the third day. To walk through the village was an extraordinary experience, to see how the people lived their day-to-day lives so far removed from how we live (although tv is allowed on Sundays!). We walked through the fields, where each family has a plot of land to grow their own produce, though quite where the boundaries were between plots was anybody´s guess. We had both expected something a little more organised, but the fields effectively blended into the jungle. It seemed strange to us both, given the small number of families
in the community, that the growing of produce was not a more communal affair.
That evening we were invited to listen to some traditional music and to watch some traditional dancing. We found ourselves sat on a bench with our guide on one side of a clearing facing pretty much all the male populace of the village! The ladies were sat off to the side on the ground. On a table to our right sat an enormous bag of coca leaves, numerous packets of cigarettes and several jugs of the village home brew - some sort of sugar cane alcohol allegedly flavoured with coconut water. Suffice to say it could strip paint! Sat rather uncomfortably with a cheek full of coca leaves (we both spat these out at the first opportunity!), slowly sipping the local tipple, I watched as the same young gentleman asked Stavi to dance again and again, each time tugging on her arms more vigorously further agitating her ribs - she was far too polite to refuse! It seemed that the men needed to ask the ladies to dance so I became increasingly confident that I wouldn´t have to dance - sadly, it wasn´t to be!
One of the ladies finally took "pity" on me and asked me to dance. Fortunately that was my only invitation - surely I wasn´t that bad?!
The next morning we returned to the community to watch and participate in some traditional activities. Though staged entirely for our benefit, this was the highlight of the four days for both of us. We got to see a number of different types of weaving both with leaves and textiles. We both had a go at grinding the corn - it´s harder than it looks! - and Stavi had a go at spinning cotton in a pre-industrial revolution fashion. I attempted to hit a coconut at a relatively short distance using a traditional long bow. Completely unlike the modern bows I´ve used before, this was much harder than it looked. Our guide (approximately half my size and weight) had strung the bow and I was unable to draw the bowstring with sufficient force, while trying to hold the arrow (the end against the bowstring was ungrooved) to hit the coconut, much to the amusement of everyone. As I took pains to point out, if I had stung the bow I would have undoubtedly
Making corn flour
...for an alcoholic drink! hit the coconut....
Pampas Tour
Straight after the jungle, we signed up for a pampas tour. After a three hour incredibly bumpy and dusty jeep ride at almost breakneck speed, we made ourselves comfortable on our washing line seats of our motorised canoe and headed into the pampas. The scenery was incredible, but so completely different from the jungle and within the first 10 minutes saw more wildlife than in the entire previous four days. The highlight was the monkeys invading our boat for a single, solitary ripe banana of a huge bunch we had with us, posing for photos in the process.
The next day, our guide took us anaconda hunting in some long grass set back from the river. We were all wearing wellington boots, but Stavi´s were at least two sizes too big and kept getting stuck in the mud - unfortunately she kept going, falling over yet again! Twenty minutes into the hunt, with grass taller than me, our guide decided to leave us advising us to stay together. That was the last we saw of him for a good hour by which point having been viciously bitten (again!) we managed to navigate
Spinning cotton
Traditional activities in the indigenous community. our way out. Definitely not our favourite bit(e)!
The afternoon saw us swimming with the rather curious pink river dolphins. The water, if a little dark, was surprisingly warm with the occasional alligator making it all a little more interesting! Our final morning was spent piranha fishing, though neither of us managed to catch one. Fortunately, the others were a little more successful so we didn´t go hungry at lunch!
Returning to Rurre, we discovered that our flight had been delayed due to the weather, so imagine our dismay as we awoke the next day to a rainy day to rival Manchester with all flights cancelled. Hedging our bets we gave it another day, but more rain meant nothing had changed, so our only option was the 18 hour journey along unpaved roads on the local bus....Incredibly, we arrived on time in La Paz despite having to get off the bus at 0230am in the rain after the driver side wheels got stuck in a ditch!
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