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I took an internal flight from La Paz to the little town of Rurrenabaque on the edge of the jungle. The distance was only actually about 150km yet it takes 24 hours to travel between them by road - you can imagine how bad the roads must be! I therefore decided that flying was definitely the best option. Rurrenabaque is right on the edge of the Madidi national park which is a huge area of rainforest. I had arranged with a local company to do a 3-day trek in the jungle. Unfortunately, there are a lot of rubbish companies who offer treks and boat trips into the jungle who do a lot of damage to the area by feeding the animals etc so I was sure to pick one of the "ecotourism" ones that don't do any harm to the park. I chose a company called Mashaquipe which was run by a family who had lived in the area all their lives and the owner used to be a park ranger in the national park.
After one night in Rurrenabaque, I had a 3 hour boat ride down the Rio Beni (one of the many rivers that eventually flows into
the Amazon) to the Mashaquipe base camp deep in the jungle. On the way we stopped off at a little village where they grow fruit and make sugar cane juice which they sell at the big market in Rurrenabaque every sunday. I wasn't expecting much from the base camp but it actually turned out to be a pretty comfortable place to stay. I had my own log cabin where I stayed for one night and there were loads of comfy hammocks to relax in outside. Also, considering we were in the middle of the jungle, they cooked up some really good food for the people staying there - especially the breakfast.
Me, two Australians and the guide spent the afternoon on our first trek into the jungle a short while after arriving at the camp. We saw loads of interesting wildlife including some "walking trees", some huge spiders and a "leche leche" tree which has sap that tastes like milk. After some dinner and some relaxing in the hammocks, we went on a night walk into the jungle. It was definitely a different experience to be walking around in dark with only a small torch to the light the
way, and the sounds you hear at night are very different as all the nocturnal animals come out. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be walking around that place on my own in the dark!
After quite a good night's sleep in my hut, we had a long day ahead of us where we would spend all day trekking even deeper into the jungle and then we'd spend the night on the jungle floor in a sleeping bag with only a mosquito net for protection. It was a tough walk at times and, even though we were using Mashaquipe's own existing tracks, there were a lot of overgrown areas that we had to machete through and squeeze through tiny gaps between branches and trees. The first highlight of the day came when we spotted a red howler monkey swinging high up in one of the trees ahead - it was great to see such a fantastic animal in the wild. Then, after climbing uphill for quite some time, we finally reached a point where there was an opening in the trees and we got an amazing view of the rainforest below. We sat at this spot for quite a
while and watched the macaws circling the trees below - it was an excellent place to relax for a bit after the long walk. After some more walking, we eventually made it to the place where we would be camping out. I thought it'd be hard to get to sleep that night but, despite the noisy jungle, I actually fell asleep quite quickly - probably just because I was really tired from the walking. I woke up the next morning with a lot of bites from the day before but I felt ok and actually got a pretty good night's sleep.
On the final day, we made our way back to the river where we built a raft out of 6 logs tied together with strings of tree bark. We then rafted for an hour and a half back down the river to the base camp. The raft had a few dodgy knots on it in some places but it managed to stay together for the whole journey - we even went through a small section of rapids at one point which was great fun! Also, we managed to see a big group of yellow-coloured squirrel monkeys jumping between
trees on the shoreline whilst we were on the raft. It was definitely a brilliant way to end the 3 days. Then, after one final meal back at base camp, we headed back to Rurrenabaque.
Once back at Rurrenabaque, I found myself covered in bites from mosquitoes, ants and who knows what else. I even had bites on my legs despite the fact that I had trousers covering them the whole time. It was definitely worth getting bitten a few times though - I had a great time those three days and it was an amazing experience. I'm not sure I could live in the jungle though!
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