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Published: August 9th 2007
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So as said, finding tours, and making a plan was a bit of a mission. But in the end, all falls in place, of course, and by now I think we know we managed to do a couple of different things, which most people don´t even bother looking into. The eastern part of Bolivia is relatively unexplored by big hoards of backpackers and tourists (apart from the death train from the Brazilian border maybe).
First up, 3 day guided hike thrugh the northern end of Amboro National Park. Courtesy of a Dutch tour operator in Santa Cruz
Ruta Verde we were picked up by one of those crazy taxi drivers, who at a cut-throat rate raced us to Buena Vista. There, we met our friendly local guide, Jullian, whose wife had prepared a little breakfast for us. After that, one of his mates drove us along a very bad back road to the park entry, in his very old 4wd. Well, almost to the entry, as the bad rains in Jan/Feb had washed away most of the road, so we walked in the last bit.
Part of the tour is carrying your own supplies, tent, mats, clothes and any other
bits and bobs you can´t do without for 3 days. First surprise was that El Jullian had a second house, ok, 2 huts, near the "village" at the park entry. All between brackets, as most here was very minimalist. Going from that, he wacked up quite a lovely dish of spagetti for lunch.
Walked for another 2 to 3 hours to the river side for our first camp site. It casually started raining during this walk, so that didn´t promise much good. Bumped into some grumpy Israeli backpackers as well, who were disgruntled about the fact the water levels were that high, so they couldn´t make their overnight camp, etc etc etc. Eother way, we didn´t have a bad camp spot by that river. Needless to say, whilst we were having dinner, the local insects were feasting on the fresh western blood supply as well (being us).
Now at the best of times the Dutch half doesn´t sleep well on any hard surface, so the 5mm sleeping mat was very uninviting for the night. The soft(ish) soil made up a bit, but not a lot. So still surprised we slept at all, and even more than enough.
Second day, with a simple brekkie, and a big glass of nescafe coffee, ready for another long walk. But after packing up, we had to get the ponchos out again, as the heavens opened once more. The next 3 hours were spent admiring the very lush, grean, end may we say very interesting forest, as well as plenty of butterflies, but all in rain. Nothing torential, not enough to spoil the walk, but certainly enough to loose your appetite for another night of sleeping on hard soil.
So honesty first, we were thinking of bailing a day early. However, after 1.5 hours of preparing and eating lunch, we´d actually lost our window of heading home that day in time. So, agreed to sit it out, but as the campsite was sort of in a cave (underneath a rock more or less), at least we could dry the tent before jumping into it.
Needless to say, the moment you chicken out, is the moment the clouds disappear, so the afternoon walk to a waterfall turned out to be a great one, albeit a bit daring.
"What shoes should we wear Jullian?". Yes, flip flops will do when you´re
climbing along a 10cm edge, whilst climbing over 2 tree trunks. But we did survive that, and the walk along and through the water was great, the waterfall quite lovely too.
So second night on the ground, sleeping, trying to at least, and this time just hard rock underneath the towel, sorry, sleeping matts. Still sleeping well, but waking up plenty of times feeling old, stiff and sore. Old being the operative word probably.
Day 3, simple brekkie again, packing up, and heading back out. The way back, was the way back in. But at least the weather was holding out, so we got to see the sunny side of the same walk.
All walking so far had been quite great. There are quite some amazing trees here, some big, and spikey like a rose! Some strange palm like trees, that shoot new roots whenever it senses it will loose balance! Some masive, and very very old trees. Quite big actually. And plenty of butterflies for Bin to chase after. Because of the rain we probably didn´t get to see as much animals as we´d hoped for, but anyway, 2 thumbs up for the tour.
So, almost 6 hours of walking back, straight into the same old 4wd, for 2 hours of bumping around on a slightly worse (rain) track, and then straight into the same kind of racing taxi (had to wake up the cabbie first) for 1.5 hours of speeding back to Santa Cruz........
Shower, diner, soft bed........
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Gijs
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Amboro
Hi Rene, I am glad you enjoyed the tour! Great photo of you sitting in the jeep :-)) Maybe until next time, Gijs RUTA VERDE Tour Agency Calle 21 de Mayo 318 Tel: (+591-3) 33 96 470 P.O. Box 4030 Santa Cruz, Bolivia http://www.rutaverdebolivia.com