Blogs from Beni Department, Bolivia, South America - page 31

We'd decided that Bolivia (rather than Ecuador or Peru) would be the country where we'd visit the jungle. Rurrenabaque, a small town north of La Paz was the obvoius place to head for. There are 3 ways to get there. You can fly from La Paz (40 mins, 65 dollars), take the bus (super cheap but 18 hours of hell down the worlds most dangerous roads) or go by boat from Guanay, a gold mining town about 4 hours from Coroico. As we were already in Cocoico, after cycling down the worlds most dangerous road (WMDR), we decided to take the boat rather than bus back up WMDR to La Paz and fly. It was more expensive than flying (120 dollars each) but incorporated a 3 day jungle trip on the way (thus saving on food, ... read more

Pardon the dated material as we finished this trip the 8th of August and have since traveled into Argentina. The one hour flight from La Paz to Rurrenabaque was spectacular. Departing La Paz at altitude and flying by Mt. Illampu was impressive. Landing on the grass strip and opening the cabin door to the warmth of the jungle was a welcome relief. We were booked in a local hotel just off the square, so we were able to wander around the one horse river town until our ride up river was the following morning. Passing through the square after dinner I noticed some activity near a temporary stage. What we didn´t realize was that it was the national Independence day, and the band played all night long. I mean all night long. We were met at ... read more

We took the decision to spend more time in Bolivia than we originally planned. With our travels in South America coming to an end, it seemed a big shame not to see something of the rainforests and wetlands that cover a large portion of this continent. After several weeks of dry high altitude living, the thought of mosquitos, creepy crawlies and drowning in our own sweat somehow seemed rather appealing all of a sudden. We booked three days in the Madidi rainforest national park, followed by three days in the Pampas, through America Tours in La Paz, who were a slick and super-professional organisation. We had to fly to the small jungle town of Rurrenabaque, which would be our base for the trip. The flight on the little 12 seater plane was all part of the ... read more

Pampas in no doubt T H E best place to see wildlife in Bolivia. I came to this tour with low expectations, afraid of being disappointed, but was incredibly amazed by the variety of the animals we saw so close. This 3-day-tour started by arriving in a jeep to Santa Rosa village, situated not far from Rio Yacuma. From there we sailed in a canu and saw so many animals on the way, by evening arriving to our camp. Rio Yacuma is one of the smaller rivers that are the source of the Amazon river. On the second day we did a variety of interesting activities - Anaconda searching, Piranha fishing and of course Alligator hunting. During our Anaconda session, it started raining dogs and cats, so the grassland we went in became a real swamp, ... read more

Most sane people do just a 2 to 3 days tour into the jungle, but in such a tour you stay in the same camp all the time, and unlikely to experience much. Thus we've decided to do a 5 day tour! Just before the tour I read Yosi Ginzburg's book - Back from Tuichi, who described his experience of surviving in the jungle for more than 20 days, after loosing his companions. It was amazing to travel in the same places as he did, and see that some of the things remain the same, although most has changed since his travel, some 25 years ago. His descriptions of the jungle were sometimes so accurate and after the tour I could understand much better what he went through, and that he didn't exaggerate at all. In ... read more