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Boating
These 10m long canoes are carved from a single trunk of mahogany, this is where I started the trip up the Beni River After several days of exertion and freezing my ass off around La Paz I needed a bit of warmth so I opted to travel up to Rurrenabaque to see the Amazon Jungle and defrost. I took off from La Paz airport in a tiny twenty seater propeller driven aeroplane and had quite an eventful flight, within minutes of departure we flew past Huayna Potosi the flight path afforded us spectacular views of the ascent route and of the summit; which of course was cloud free. Then over the next fifty minutes we dropped from the 4000m altiplano to just a few hundred metres above sea level, skimming just above the rainforest, all the while flying through the most incredible turbulence. The plane did eventually land on Rurre’s grass runway smack in the middle of the rainforest. It was such a relief to don a t-shirt and shorts and to be able to wander about without five layers on. That evening I signed up to do a three day canoe tour of the Bolivian Pampas (wetlands) since the variety of animals I was likely to see was irresistible.
I started the tour at Indigena Tours office the next morning. During the
Turtles
There is limited sunbathing space available on the river so the residents stack up. three hour drive from Rurre the rainforest started to thin out; slowly being replaced by wetland. The further from town we got the more wildlife we began to see, from the 4x4 I saw my first alligator and an impressive array of birds. Eventually we arrived at the edge of the river Beni in “Parque Natural Roseno” where we officially started our tour. For the next three days I would be travelling by dugout mahogany canoe through the pampas with a local guide and one other girl. Within ten minutes of setting off we saw an incredible abundance of life, sunbathing alligators lined the riverbank every few metres, varying in size from one to three metres. Turtles and terrapins covered every exposed branch and a multitude of birds and monkeys filled the trees. I was taken aback by just how alive the place was and I knew I was going to enjoy the rest of the trip.
Over the next few hours we continued to see strange and wonderful things: we saw an ibis catch a piranha and bash it to death on a log, flocks of weird pheasant like paradise birds, huge venues of vultures circling overhead and
My what big teeth you have
The aligators always had there mouths open when in direct sunlight, this fella was a couple of metres long even the occasional pink river dolphin surfacing for air near the boat. Perhaps the strangest animal to inhabit the pampas are the Capybaras, the worlds largest rodent, we saw one family that had not only the parents but also three juveniles and four babies. These two foot long brown guinea pig like things must be one of the strangest creatures I’ve seen on my trip so far. After settling into our camp that evening we headed out on the boat again to the sunset bar, which had a long rickety platform over the river from which I just caught the sun dip below the horizon. I had a very welcome beer and ended up falling asleep in a hammock while listening to the locals play and sing Spanish folk songs.
The next morning Luis our guide woke us up bright and early to go anaconda hunting, this involved a three hour walk through the wetlands for which one requires Wellington boots. Unsurprisingly my size wasn’t available so I had to cover my flip-flops with plastic bags then to keep the arrangement together I pulled on a pair of socks, obviously I looked a little bit silly. For three hours
Thwack
Close up of an Ibis giving a Piranha what for! I trudged through a mosquito infested bog in search of anaconda, the entire place was made up of streams and patches of liquid mud which cling to “shoes” like glue. Eventually after loosing my footwear for the umpteenth time and being thoroughly covered in mud I decided to do the rest of the trip barefoot, which worked remarkably well. Unfortunately it was cloudy so all the anaconda were nestled underwater and we didn’t get to see any, still I managed to provide much amusement for several guides and there groups.
That afternoon we headed out to catch our dinner, red piranha. Using big chunks of raw meat and a little hook, we spent several few hours moored up by the side of the river pulling various fish out of the river. I managed to catch a lot of sardines, three weird poisonous mini shark things and eventually one small piranha. The guide and his two friends were unsurprisingly the most successful fishermen, some of the Piranha they pulled out could have easily removed a finger with their vicious row of teeth. That night I sampled the fruits of our labour and all it did was confirm my dislike of
Capybara
One of the big male capybaras chilling by the river, funny looking fella. all things fishy.
The next morning we got up at 5:30am to go and see a pampas sunrise, it was cold, dark and I was a little bit hung over, but as soon as I saw the trees being silhouetted by the false dawn I knew it would be well worth it. As we progressed downstream the dawn chorus got into full swing, it was dominated by the guttural calls of the red and black howler monkeys that we had seen the previous day. As dawn approached we moored the boat and walked to a nearby field where we watched the cloud speckled sky turn slowly blood red. As the sunrise continued every layer of cloud became independently highlighted making for one the more spectacular sunrises I´ve seen. When the spectacle finally came to a close Luis turned to me with a big grin on his face and said “This is my Bolivia”.
After a pancake breakfast we headed out for our final excursion to see the pink river dolphins. Within twenty minutes we had found a pod of ten near a big meander in the river. We spent over an hour watching and swimming with them, they
Anaconda Land
This is the swamp where we trudged about in search of an illusive anaconda. really are incredibly creatures, it’s only safe to swim in the pampas when there are dolphins near by, since they instinctively protect humans from all the nasties that inhabit the river. On the way back to the start of the trip we saw four black camen two of which topped 6m long, by far the most dangerous and impressive reptiles I have seen, especially with their pointy dragon like tail. Along the way we also stopped off to feed the incredibly cute Squirrel Monkeys our breakfast scraps, these little things would scamper down from the branches and gently take the food from my fingers; it was great fun. Over the three day tour I saw so much more than I ever expected, it was a very memorable trip.
Rurrenabaque is also the jumping point for jungle tours, but rather than spend three more days being eaten alive by the mosquito’s I opted for a canopy tour. The morning after my return from the pampas I got a boat upstream into the jungle where I was met by my English speaking guide. Within half an hour I found myself once again in a climbing harness and helmet about to embark
Feet
After three hours in the mud my feet are a bit worse for wear. on something daft. To get to the start of the canopy tour we had to walk for 4km along the forest floor, along the way I saw huge 3cm black ants, several toucans and even a tree that can walk 2m a year in search of light. The rainforest is a very odd place I won’t go into all the strange plants, animals and insects I saw there but they were either completely alien, much bigger than normal or just plain freaky. The canopy tour has only been open three months and is basically a series of nine platforms suspended 50m above the forest floor. The platforms are connected to each other by several kilometres of zip lines. For a couple of hours I was whizzing down these metal wires at up to 60km/h while enjoying spectacular views of the canopy below and the rainforest stretching off into the distance. The tour gave me a unique view of the rainforest and was bloody exhilarating. We paused at each platform and always spotted either huge butterflies or some exotic species of bird. After a great lunch and a siesta in a hammock I kayaked back towards town. It was a tremendous
Little Fishies
This is the biggest piranha caught during the afternoons fishing. day out and the entire thing only cost me 28US dollars, long live cheap foreign travel.
The 30th of June was my last day in Rurre and I needed a break from activities so I spent much of the day in a hammock reading my book. Next morning I flew back to La Paz and that was the end of my jungle excursion. I really miss being warm.
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Marty DeMers
non-member comment
Will; You are an excellent writer. I think you could be the next Bill Bryson. You should seriously consider compiling all your writings into a book when your journey ends. Marty