It rains in the rainforest?

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Well, at least I encountered blue skies and pillowy white clouds on my 5 hour boat ride to the jungle lodge. Unfortunately once we arrived, the sky turned grey and it rained off and on for my entire stay at Chalalan Ecolodge, pouring buckets at night. That means not too many pictures. I did however see buttloads of animals, but you´ll just have to take my word for it!

Our guide, Sergio, had the most amazing eye for spotting wildlife. He could hear leaves rustle and tell what kind of animal we would probably encounter, and most of the time he was right on. He knew exactly where and when to look. He was also pretty good at bird calls! We saw soooo many animals! Are you ready? Yellow squirel monkeys, capuchin monkeys, red howler monkeys, hoatzin birds (prehistoric turkey looking bird), numerous different types of parrots, 2 types of macaws, hawks, vultures, ginormous frogs, tarantulas, various herons, giant river otters, ginormous jungle rats, cute little jungle mice, capybara (worlds´largest rodent), black caimen, not to mention all the bugs at night. You should have seen the giant jungle cockroaches in my room! 3 inches long! Cocky bastards. My companions (Tim and Catherine, an older London couple on a 3 month tour of South America) and I had the entire lodge to ourselves. With a max capacity of 30 guests, it felt awfully strange eating in their large dinning hall w/ just 4 people. Right next to the lodge is a lagoon, which is perfect for spotting wildlife. We saw most of those animals I listed w/in a 30 minute walk from our huts or on a canoe trip around the lagoon. The monkeys, parrots, and macaws were all so noisey, squawking and screeching all day long! There was even a bird that sounded like a lazer beam!! Pew pew pewwwweeeeewwww!!!!!

Despite the rain I had a great time, although the boatride back to town was slightly hellish. It rained the entire time. Even though I was wearing my rain jacket, a poncho, and covered in a plastic tarp, I was still freezing and soaked by the time we got back to Rurrenebaque.

My flight back to La Paz was fairly uneventful except for a few bumps in the air. Just the slightest turbulance in one of these little 20 passenger propeller planes feels like the world is going to collapse in on itself. I kept a close eye on that barf bag for a few minutes! Ha!

I´m here in La Paz again, trying to find a company for a tour of the Salar de Uyuni, the worlds largest salt flat. I´m extremely excited about this part of my trip and I´ve heard and read that this is many peoples´ personal favorite and a highlight of not just Bolivia, but South America as well. My bus and train tickets have been purchased, but I am going to extend my train portion to end in Tupiza, a few hours south of Uyuni. There are several companies based out of Tupiza that offer slightly different tours of the same areas, including a tour of the Tupiza area, known for it´s bright red rock formations. This option was highly recommended to me by a fellow traveler as a better starting point for the Uyuni tour because you are doing the tour backwards and miss many of the other tour companies, thus avoiding crowds. You also get to see more of Bolivias´crazy Mars-like landscape!

I actually walked all the way to the other side of town to chat w/ a specific tour operator today, only to arrive and realize they are out to lunch. For the next 3 hours. Very common in Latin America to shut down and go home for a few hours for lunch w/ family.

Speaking of luch, I had silpancho last night at a tiny hole in the wall for 6 Bolivianos. A very thin piece of hamburger meat (very, very thin), slightly breaded and fried, on top of rice and potatoes, topped w/ a fried egg and accompanied by a spicy tomato salsa. Very tasty. (cluches heart.....) Attery blocker for sure. I had fresh squeezed OJ for breakast, so I´m sure that´ll clear up some of the grease. This morning I had a tasty salteña, a pastry filled w/ a meat and potato stew. Kinda want another one.....

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