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Published: January 5th 2010
Rurrenabaque, Bolivia
The big, hairy jungle spider that decided to make it´s home in my shoe.We flew from La Paz to Rurrenabaque on the morning of the 29th. We chose to fly as, with it being the wet season, both the weather and roads can be unpredictable and make the 18+ hour bus ride a nightmare. Fortunately flights only cost $75 USD/person so it wasn´t that bad. What was bad though was the condition of the landing strip in Rurrenabaque. I have never been afraid of flying but bumping our 23-passenger plane down onto a narrow dirt strip in the middle of the jungle was enough to make me bury my face into my hands and hope for the best. Fortunately we made it but only to step off the plane and instantly be dripping in sweat. (It is impossible to stay smelling good here!) This, however, is where Braeden and I differ - he would rather be a little bit chillier like in the highlands (ie. Cusco and La Paz) whereas I´m so happy to be out of my long underwear which has been permanently attached to my body the last few places we have been that sweating like a pig doesn´t bother me.
It is hard to be productive in this heat. It
is even harder to find something decent to eat in the middle of the afternoon as many places are closed and others that are open definitely work on ¨South American time¨ - you had best not be in a hurry because you never know how long you will be waiting for service or food. Also, the food in Bolivia is horrible! We were warned by several other travelers but did not believe that it could be this bad. We had found a nice cafe in La Paz (´Alexander´s Coffee´) that served good sandwiches but we haven´t been able to find a descent meal in Rurrenabaque. It is also very unappetizing to see the bartenders spit and farmer´s blow right behind the bar - not very sanitary! Hopefully the food in Sucre and Potosi will prove to be a little more appetizing otherwise this is going to be a long, hungry month! The town of Rurrenabaque is nice though - small, not too noisy or dirty. I can understand why you see a lot of hippies hanging around doing not much of anything.
The first productive thing we managed to do was a zip-lining tour across the jungle canopy. Of
Rurrenabaque, Bolivia
A sailor and the Madidi tourist boat. the few times we´ve zip-lined, I think this was my favourite. The cables certainly weren´t as long as the ones in Mancora, Peru, but there were several more (9 in total) and the scenery was beautiful! We saw a lot of interesting trees, plants and flowers as well as a snake (pretty big but was too fast to get a picture). I got crapped on by a bird but I guess it could have been worse - it only got my backpack strap and collar.
And then there was the spider. The morning of the 31st, we got up to go on the zip-lining trip at 7am. Without even looking, I grabbed my sandal (´Keen´, black, closed-toe) and tried to slip it on. Luckily I didn´t pull too hard as I quickly realized there was something in the toe. I tried to bang it out a couple times but the thing wouldn´t budge. I thought it was just a large beetle or something of the sort (which would have been gross anyway) but when I took the shoe outside I saw the giant, black, hairy body curled up in the toe. Braeden gave it a good knock on the
ground and out came the biggest, hairiest, grossest tarantula I have ever seen (outside of a pet store). Apparently I was lucky that my toe only hit it´s rear-end as the owner of our hostel told us that - while they are not extremely dangerous - their bite is incredibly painful. He quickly killed it which made me wonder if the spider was perhaps a little more dangerous than he was letting on. My suspicions were confirmed when we made it into the Pampas and I showed the picture to our guide. His reply was ¨Ah, tarantula - very toxic.¨ Funny how our run-in with a toxic jungle spider happen prior to even entering the jungle territory.
So New Years came and went just like any other day. I was kind of disappointed that we hadn´t met anybody here in Rurrenabaque to hang out with, especially since it is known as a tourist town. The bars were extremely dead and the ones that did have people in them were mostly filled with locals. Also, many of the people working in the bars were very unfriendly which didn´t really make us want to stick around. At least drinks are cheap
Rurrenabaque, Bolivia
Zip-lining across the jungle canopy. in Bolivia so we didn´t spend too much money. The town took a hit though with garbage and smashed beer bottles everywhere. There were also drunken, shirtless men hanging around (some passed out, some still drinking) in the streets at 5pm the next day - classy!
We booked a tour into the Pampas for January 2-4. We chose to explore the Pampas instead of the jungle as I really wanted to see animals and you have a much better chance of seeing monkeys, caiman, anacondas, etc. in the Pampas. Apparently the jungle is so dense that it can be difficult to see wild life - the jungle tours are more recommended for bird-watching and learning about medicinal plants, etc. We chose to book through ´Bala Tours´and they turned out to be fantastic! The rooms were clean and well equipped to keep the bugs out; the staff were friendly and very accommodating; the cook was amazing and managed to put together a great feast at every meal (wonderful considering the horrible food we have found in Bolivia thus far!); and our guide (Herman) was really good despite not being able to speak as much English as led on by the
man who we booked with. Overall, the trip was great despite a down-pour on the second day, the massive mosquito bites, and the slight over-price for this time of year ($180 USD/person) - we were however fortunate that it is the low season so we were the only 2 people staying in the entire camp for the whole 3 days.
Day 1: Picked up from the ´Bala Tours´office shortly after 9am and driven for 3 hours to Santa Rosa where we took a short boat ride to the camp. We had lunch then spent the afternoon boating down the Yacuma River looking for wild life. Saw a bunch of caiman, birds, capybaras, and a few pink dolphins. Had dinner and a beer then went to bed early.
Day 2: Woken up at 6:30am, had breakfast then in the boat by 8am to look for monkeys. It started to pour extremely hard so we had to turn back to camp by 10am (I was soaked by the time we made it back - faulty poncho). Had lunch and a nap then were back in the boat at 3pm to go piranha fishing - luckily the rain had stopped. I
Rurrenabaque, Bolivia
Zip-lining across the jungle canopy. caught 2 piranhas and Braeden caught a catfish which was later served for dinner. Had dinner at 7:30pm then went looking for caiman at night. From the boat we could see hundreds of red glowing eyes in the water and along the shore - really creepy!
Day 3: Woken up at 6:30am, had breakfast then went looking for monkeys again as it wasn´t raining. Were able to see a bunch of yellow monkeys as well as caiman and birds. Had lunch at noon and were returned to Rurrenabaque by 4:30pm. The dirt roads were extremely muddy from the rain which made the ride back in the small jeep extremely bumpy and uncomfortable.
Now that we have seen the Pampas, it is a waiting game as to when we will actually make it out of here. Because of the rain, flights back to La Paz are never guaranteed so we may or may not be able to fly out on the 6th. We chose to take the 45 minute flight even though it is much pricier than the bus as the rainy season can easily turn the normal 18-20 hour bus ride into a few days which would be
an absolute nightmare! Once we make it back to the city, we will decide which direction we are headed to next (Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, or Sucre).
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Matt
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Hola mamcita
I'm happy to see you completed Machu Picchu! Congrats! I miss you guys!