Bolivia Pt II Santa Cruz to Copacabana

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After Santa Cruzour direction was aimed northeast with an overnight journey to Trinidad and our first taste of the mighty Amazon Jungle. We only planned to stay a few hours before travelling into the depths of the rainforest. But our plans were scuppered by greedy bus ticket salesmen demanding we paid gringo prices (a good 40%!i(MISSING)ncrease). By refusing, the last tickets were sold, leaving us stranded for two days (oddly enough the ticket price for next availible bus had dropped by 40%!)(MISSING). Frustrated we ventured into the centre of this laid back and interesting town just tucked into the edge of the Amazon. We drank freshly sqeezed orange juice from the carts at the main plaza and pondered on our next move. With thoughts of an Amazonian river trip we visited a travel agency, but came out with an alternative to scamming bus compainies - to fly! Basically small light cargo aircraft fly deeper into the jungle to a suitable transport hub where it is possible to get overland connections. So after spending the rest of the day ripping around on the backs of motorbikes (Trinidad's chosen mode of transport - they´ll quite literally fit anything on the backs of these things!), we had organised a fairly cheap way out!
The next morning we flew to San Borja in a 4 seat aircraft over the Amazon Basin. The trip was only 40 minutes, but flying so low provided superb views of the jungle and its river network. From San Borja we embarked on a couple of combi journeys (mini vans) and finally arrived at our Amazonian base for the next week - Rurrenabaque and the stunning Parque Nacional Madidi. We wasted no time in booking ourselves onto Jungle and Pampas tours.
For the next three days we motored around in dugout canoes watching the abundance of wildlife on offer. By abundance, I mean abumdance!! Monkeys, crocodiles, anacondas, birds (including macaws), pirahnas (went fishing!), swimming with pink river dolphins, all to name a few. Of course the monkeys were the highlight - mischievous and cheeky coupled with that ´So what are you looking at?´ stare. The sunrises were spectacular followed by glorious days leading to unbelivable sunsets, continuing to the not so friendly nights. As this is the Amazon, it also has its fair share of insects (suprise, suprise). Well sort of. The Pampas is home to the biggest menace I have seen anywhere - the mosquito. Now this isn´t your average mozzy. They sleep during the day, but as soon as the sun starts to disappear, they wake up. By they we are talking about the biggest army of any living thing coming to life. If you don´t want to be eaten alive then the trusted mozzy net is the only sanctuary. Not only are there literally billions of the little critters, they seem to be of a special breed - bigger, darker and complete with war painted legs (black and white stripes). Two layers of clothing and a good pasting of deet couldn´t even keep the buggers from giving us hundreds of bites each (not exaggerating), some in the sorts of places never imaginable - I mean this isn´t a pest problem, it´s guerilla warfare!
Although we had an unforgetable experience cruising around the Pampas waterways, the company we travelled with didn´t deliver the things they promised (leaving us at the river bank to hitch hike back into town, to name one!). So we spent the next day with the Bolivian Police (hard but fair) getting refunds and filling out tourist reports. After being offically interviewed and indulging in the street side orange juice we left Rurrenabaque, boarded another canoe and travelled deep into Parque Nacional Madidi. We stayed for a few days deep in the jungle with local indigenous people in jungle lodges. They guided us on hikes into the steamy Amazon Rainforest, along the way teaching us about the animals and plants, which all have practical uses for the local communities. We made handicrafts, went pirahna fishing again, rafted on a log raft and paid a lot of attention to our resident hand sized tarantula, living in the lodge's thatched roof (actually quite a tranquil creature). But the highlight was an afternoon trek deep into the jungle, hours away from civilization, to our camp for the night. Armed with a plastic sheet, mozzy nets and sticks, our guide built us a camp. As the sun set we ate dinner and as darkness crept over the Amazon the masses of insects awoke again. Moths the size of the palms of my hands charged and landed on the group. Cockroaches two inches long, mosquitos and one and a half inch long flying ants (very dangerous), all had a go. Running to the safety of our nets we rested for the night. As we drifted off to sleep the sounds of the dense jungle took over. Sounds I´ve never heard before and sounds I can´t describe. I awoke not to a rising sun but to our guide slapping the plastic ground sheet, commenting ´Felipe, we have a problem - ants!´. Basically there are more ants in the jungle than anything else. An extremely regimental creature and one that isn´t too keen on humans camping next to their nest. Although not of the poisonous variety, they managed to eat though our plastic ground sheet, cotton mozzy nets and managed to put around eight, thirty mm long slits in my Gore-Tex jacket. Abandoning camp we started a night trek back to the lodge, dodging wolves, bugs and baby tarantulas out hunting in the moonlight. As we returned, the realisation hit home that the Amazon Rainforest is much more than just an indescribable place. It´s its own ecosystem, so dense, so close, that everyone and everything is constantly at risk. Every organism has a purpose, a defence mechanism and equally its own form of attack. Sounds, smells, atmosphere and scenery exclusive to this colossal area of the planet.

Leaving the dampness of Bolivia's lowlands behind, we took the bus to La Paz. The Rurrenabaque - La Paz road has to be, quintessentially, the worst road I have ever travelled on. Taking 18 hours to travel 480km sounds a bit of a joke. Well you should see this road. Post rainy season leaves this mud 'road' in absolute dire straits - deeply rutted, the bus bounced along the road, regularly leaning to its cargo, with all on board momentarily leaving our seats and nearly headbutting the ceiling. But it doesn't stop there. The road isnt flat, as we already know, but it's also inclined at 30 degrees, leaving all of the road's passengers clinging onto the seat in front. As the bus hits the foot of the Andes we all have the pleasure of this animal of a road winding its way into the mountains. Finally we made it to La Paz and an altitude of 3800m (also the world's highest capital).

La Paz means 'the peace' but i'm not too sure about that - it's a crazy, crazy place. We stayed for a few days enjoying the nightlife (not the cold), some interesting museums, chased the tent up (nowhere to be seen), attempted to find myself a new compact camera (the old one is on the bed of the Rio Beni - somehow a butterfingers group member dropped my camera from inside the boat) and trying religiously to take La Paz's premier illegal tour - San Pedro Prison. But they had changed the guards for the first time since time began, leading the masses of gringos who waited weeks for an interesting tour by the inmates themselves to being turned away. Before heading towards the Peruvian border, we cycled down the World's Most Dangerous Road. On average, 100 people die on the La Cumbre-Coroico road a year, hence why it is named so. The road itself isn't that bad - sure it's a rutted, winding Andean road, crossing waterfalls (through them) with 600m+ vertical drops and, in places, barely 3m wide. But the Rurrenabaque road wins on the basis of being purely ridiculous. As we sped from 4700m to 1200m in 64km it was plain to see the fatalities on this road, with many memorials perched on the cliff edge and vehicles laying in the valleys below. In fact, it was only 4 days ago that an English lad plunged to his death by riding like an idiot. Even our group wasn't accident free - an Israeli girl fell off and broke her ankle.

As we waited to start our descent, the Israelis in our 'death road' group were shocked when we told them we had eaten anything and everything in Bolivia. Scared of salmonella, they had only eaten vegetables. No less than 90 minutes later I had to stop and throw up at the side of the road. There were a few laughs as I ate (or discarded) my words... All in all it was a great day and the adrenaline of the death road was certianly special. We spent a couple of days in Coroico, amidst beautiful sub-tropical forest before heading over to Copacabana and one of the world's highest navigable lakes - Lago Titcaca, a massive body of crystal-clear water containing scattered islands, which with the views of Bolivia's Cordillera Real in the background produced dream-like landscapes. Finishing with a trip to the sacred Inca island of Isla del Sol our Bolivian adventure draws to a close. Certainly one of the most interesting countries I have ever visited. As we crossed the border we waved goodbye to our tent (no fewer than five attempts to get it back) and the country where 'anything is possible but nothing is for certain'. How right could one person have been?!
Full Trinidad Photos on Flickr
Full Pampas Photos on Flickr
Full Parque Nacional Madidi Photos on Flickr
Full Rurrenabaque & the Road to La Paz Photos on Flickr
Full La Paz Photos on Flickr
Full Death Road Photos on Flickr
Full Coroico Photos on Flickr
Copacabana Photos on Flickr

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