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| I wonder what happens during the rainy season? Welcome to the jungle! |
Sunday May 5, 2013:
La Paz/Rurrenabaque
Wow, I have been so, so tired ever since I got here! 3
nights in a row asleep by 9:00 p.m.,
totally not my style! Each night I have woken up at 1:10 a.m. only to
lay awake for awhile before falling back asleep. I’ve been getting nearly 10
hours of sleep every night. I don’t know if it’s the altitude or if I am just
this run down. Either way, I’ll take it. I'm off to the jungle later today with my flight at 3:00 p.m. to Rurrenabaque, the
setting off town for the Bolivian jungle. Man am I ready to get out of the
city!
Well, only 5 days after arrival, I have finally experienced
my first cluster f^&*! When I was purchasing my plane tickets to
Rurrenabaque, I specifically asked if the T.A.M. (Transporte Aero Militar)
flight left from the military airport, as I had remembered reading that they
might at some point in my extensive trip researching. The travel agent assured
me that, no, it left from the regular La Paz International airport. Given that
the ticket she printed off for me was in ~6 point font, I didn’t notice the
“military” notation on the ticket. Okay, off to the airport, 60 Bs. Arrive, try
to check in at the TAM desk, and...of course, nope, at the wrong airport!!
Nice. Another taxi ride away, 50 Bs, with a not very friendly kid who looked
about 15. The traffic in the rest of La Paz had been very light given that it
was a Sunday, however we must have had to drive through some sort of a 4x4 car
show street festival to get to the airport, and it wasn’t quick!! Luckily, I
arrived ~4 minutes before the gate “closed”, although this is the only flight
leaving from this airport and you don’t even have to go through security, so I
would think that they might be able to bend the 1 hr rules a little bit! It
seems that the flight is mostly full of other dirtbag travelers heading to the
jungle for $27 cheaper than the other flight option! Here we go...hopefully the
people on the Rurre end got the email to pick me up at the airport!
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| Mario and the moto taxi stand |
Even though our flight was 45 minutes late (for a 40 minute
flight!) Mario from Chalalan was waiting for me when I arrived and coordinated
the transport for me into Rurrenabaque. Unfortunately I didn’t get to go on the
moto taxi, which seemed to be the preferred norm rather than the exception. The
roads were “paved” with ~6-8 inch stones, which provided for a bumpy ride! The
airport was the most rustic airport I have ever landed at! The taxiway wasn’t
even paved.
Oh, how could I forget the flight from La Paz? Flying over
the Andes really was breathtaking and then watching as the scenery changed from
20,000+ ft mountains to lush green rainforest was really remarkable! Once we
landed in Rurre, I felt like I wished I’d arrived sooner and wished I was
staying longer! Driving into town there were chickens running around all over
the place, and that definitely felt way more at home to me than being in the
city!
Rurre is a funny town. It’s about 15,000 people and it sits
right at the edge of the rainforest/jungle and the pampas. So, basically, if
you go on a jungle tour, you head south, up the river, and if you go on a
pampas tour, you head north, down the river. Everyone in town pretty much rides
motorcycles. There were very, very few cars, and it seemed like ~10 years old
was old enough to be riding a motorcycle through town!
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| Ripe star fruit...all you can eat! |
Mario made sure that I got all registered for the trip and
then made sure that I got checked into the hotel and that my room was all okay.
The room was very, very basic, but the courtyard of the hotel more than made up
for the room! It had a beautiful mosaic tiled walkway with 5 hammocks and a
couple of sky chairs. The plats and trees were amazing with a star fruit tree
that had fruit perfectly ripe...all you can eat!
For dinner, Mario recommended Moskitos. I’m not sure if he
thought that I was closer to 20 rather than 5 years from 40 or what, but when I walked
in, I was immediately skeptical! It looked like a beach bum surfer bar in
Hawaii! After I sat down and ordered, I realized that I was one of very few
people in there 1.) not ordering frozen mixed drinks, 2.) over 20, and 3.) not
from Australia! I did not have high hopes for my meal, that’s for sure. I drank
my not nice beer and snacked on delicious banana chips whilst taking in the
sport highlights on ESPN all whilst rolling my eyes at the ridiculousness of
the gap year Ozzies all around me! My dinner arrived, peppered steak with
steamed veggies and fries. Holy shit, it was honestly one of the most delicious
steaks I have ever eaten, and it was only £4.50! I do feel bad for anyone
ordering it who prefers steak more done than medium rare, though!
After dinner, I decided to call it a night, as we had an
early 7:00 a.m. start planned. It was about 80º (30ºC) and super humid, which
made for some hot and sticky sleeping, for sure! About 10:30, one of the most
intense rainstorms I’ve ever experienced started! The amplification from the
tin roof made it ever more crazy, but the wind was blowing so hard that I
thought said roof was about to come off! Needless to say, the storm took out
the power, which meant no fan...so the unpleasant sleeping level went sky high! At
about 3:00, loads of the many, many dogs in town all decided to start howling
and barking. I didn’t get much sleep, that’s for sure, but I did start to work
out my business plan for a Scotland based Colorado/Utah cycling guiding company in my during the sleepless
hours!
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| Bolivian portion of the Amazon Basin |
Monday May 6, 2013:
Rurrenabaque/Jungle (Chalalan)
I woke up in the morning expecting the remnants of a flood!
Nope, the ground barely looked like it had lashed it down for hours on end the
night before! I made my way to our less than stellar breakfast where I met 3 of
the other 4 people going on the trip. 2 of them were feeling quite ill after a night of
throwing up from eating something dodgy for dinner! I couldn’t imagine wanting
to get on a tiny little boat for 6 hours after a night of puking, but luckily I
felt fine! Our guide, Nelson, was there to meet us at 7:30 on the dot, and we headed to
the office to get started. Our 5th person in the party was late, so
we left and taxied across the river to the Madidi Nation Parque headquarters to
check in and pay our park entrance fee, 95Bs (~$14). Then we headed back to go get Bruno, our 5th and latecomer. The group is Elena from
Germany but with a Bolivan father, Mathew and Claire from Sheffield who have
been traveling the world for the last 9 months with 3 months to go and Bruno from
Toulousse, France.
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| 6 hour water taxi ride up the river |
We headed down the River Beni in our right leaning boat
which was a little bit disconcerting given that the water was only about 3
inches from the top of the sides of the boat. But I decided that these guys do
this all of the time, so it must be fine! After a little while we turned off of
the Beni and onto a (barely) smaller tributary river whish was the one that led
to the lodge.
We started to see some cool wildlife (list of everything I saw to
come) and the views around us were just gorgeous. There were amazing cottony
cloud formations in the otherwise perfectly blue skies. After about 3 hours, we
stopped for a lunch “snack” where we were treated to a warm welcome by the sand
flies. :( After about 30 minutes, we carried on for the remaining 1.5 hours up the river.
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| Swimming capybara, the largest rodent in the world |
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| The beautiful lake that the Chalalan Lodge sits next to |
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| Many hiking options to explore the amazing jungle |
We finally arrived to several people waiting on the shore to
help us unload our gear and the supplies. We had a 2 km walk along the Jaguar
trail to reach the lodge which sits right on the edge of a beautiful little
lake. We were immediately greeted by the lodge manager who had fresh grapefruit
juice waiting for us. Service with a smile here at Chalalan Lodge! We had a
short break to check into our cabins and then it was time for lunch, steamed
carrots and parsnips with a delicious steak kebab, oh and a spinach omelet for
starters. There was guava drizzled with honey for desert...delish! After that,
we had a little break before meeting at 4:00 to go on a short walk around the
lake and then a canoe ride to look for animals on the lakeshore.
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| The AMAZING walking tree |
Nelson shared many interesting facts about the different
trees and mushrooms that we encountered all whilst fervently waving the spider
web stick catcher in front of him as we walked. The coolest tree we encountered
was a walking tree that extends its roots 4-6 feet above the ground. This
allows the tree to move up to a meter (3.3 feet) each year in search of more
sunlight! We crossed over the path of a hard working leaf cutter ant colony.
You could see where they had completely destroyed the foliage around their
colony and now had to have the super highway to bring back leaves from plants
far away. Apparently they use the leaves as mulch/compost to create an
environment that grows the mushrooms that they eat, al underground in their
colonies. Very cool!
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| The tree's natural protection against pesky climbing monkeys |
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| Such amazing roots! They are shallow so have to extend like this to support such a large tree. |
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| Such a cool plant growing on the tree, it almost looks as if the leaves are painted on! |
After that it was back to the canoe to watch the squirrel monkey feeding frenzy. They are super cute little yellow monkeys that just launch themselves from branch to branch to get close to the water to eat bugs and some fruit off of the trees. It was absolutely amazing to watch them!! They put on a brilliant show for about 30-40 minutes. It is honestly one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in the wild!
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| Looking for caiman from the canoe with our flashlights at night |
After that adventure we came back for an amazing dinner. Pumpkin soup
followed by mustard chicken, mashed potatoes, and beet root with delicious flan for
pudding! I was in heaven. After dinner, we got back in the boat to go looking
for Caiman...creatures sort of like alligators and crocs. Bolivia/S. America
only has Caiman not alligators or crocs. We took our flashlights to see their
eyes shining just above the water, which is a little bit creepy when you’re in
a boat that sits directly in the water! Before we found any Caiman, we spotted
some eyes in a tree on the shore, and it turned out to be a tiny pygmy owl.
After that, we ended up finding 3 Caiman, 1 of which put on a really good show
for us to take pictures, which really just means it held perfectly still whilst
our flashes blinded it repeatedly! After that, it was back to camp and turn in
for an early night of some of the best sleep I have had for months! 9:50-4:00
without stirring and then there was something ramming around the trees outside
that woke me up! After that, back to sleep for 2 more hours till 6:30! Ah, so
peaceful when nature is the only sound coming in through the screen!
Animal/Plant List (seen
in the jungle)
Birds
White ekoe
Black vulture
Turkey vulture
King fisher
Red and green macaw
Blue and yellow macaw
Toucans
Parakeets
Parrots
Hoatzin
Pygmy Owl
White hawk
Humming birds
Mammals
Capybara
Wild pigs
Squirrel monkeys
Capuchin monkeys
Red howler monkeys
Amphibians/Fish/Reptiles
Caiman
Lizards/Gecko
Red snake
Amazon tree frog
Suriname toad
Piranhas
Others
Leaf cutter ants
Bullet ants
Army ants
Little red ants
Loads of beautiful butterflies
Lots of cool dragonflies
Golden silk spider
Lots of random spiders
Tuesday May 7,
2013: Jungle (Chalalan)
7:30 brekkie, and of course they did not disappoint! There
was a large buffet selection of both sweet and savory items including these
delicious “donuts” which I think had cheese in them...not sure, but delicious
either way!
Then we were off on a 4-hour tramp through the
rainforest to see what we could see. Fortunately, or unfortunately, as we later
decided as a group, we saw a lot of wild pigs. They are pretty cool and make a
lot of cool sounds and noises, but holy shit do they stink!! We ended up seeing
several Macaws, which are beautiful, but really high up at the top of the
canopy, so they’re actually really hard to see! I think the highlight of the
morning for me was getting to hear all of Nelson’s stories about all of the
different plants and how so many of them have medicinal properties, especially
for his village where they still have a Shaman who accts as the Dr. and
prescribes different plant and herbal remedies. In the end we learned about
plants used for anemia, stomach parasites, toothaches/Novocain-like properties, and colds/decongestant, just to name a few. Additionally, there was the garlic tree
and the tree whose sap is used for “perfume”. I thought it smelled delicious,
sort of like Snickerdoodle cookies.
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| I love dragonflies...especially red ones!! :) |
After our pleasant morning walk we had another delicious lunch of grilled flank
steak with pineapple, beans, carrots, and quinoa with mixed fruit for
desert. We got a short break in the
afternoon and then took another boat journey across the lake to hike up to the
lookout points to see the amazing views and then onto the afternoon monkey
show, Part 2! This day we were treated to a wider area of monkey activity and
mostly Capuchins with a few Squirrel
Monkeys thrown in for good measure. This would never get old!! Oh, and we saw a
few daytime views of Caiman as well.
In the evening we were treated to an amazing Traditional
dinner for the Ketchewa people of the village that the Chalalan group come
from. Their traditional dish is catfish prepared by wrapping it in banana
leaves and steaming it. I was a little hesitant, as I’ve never really liked
catfish before, but it was absolutely delicious! The meat was thick like a
steak and so tasty!
That evening we planned to go on a night hike to look for
tarantulas and hopefully NOT see any snakes! I really wanted to see the
tarantulas, so I decided to go. The 1st thing that we saw was on
Amazon tree frog, which was very cool. Unfortunately, the next thing we saw was
a bright orange “baby” snake which apparently grows up to be black and is very
friendly...I wasn’t happy about that find and then was scared to death afterwards with my heart rate completely pinned! We
eventually saw a tarantula, only very briefly, but it was still very cool. The coolest thing we
saw, though, was a Suriname Toad. They almost look like a horseshoe crab in
shape with hand-like features in the front and giant webbed feet in the back.
Wednesday May 8,
2013: Jungle (Chalalan)/ Rurrenabaque
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| Nelson, our entertaining and informative guide...also quite adept at rowing the canoe all over the place! |
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| Steak on a hook, toss the line in and wait for a nibble |
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| First one to catch a piranha! |
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| They will literally take your fingers off with those teeth! |
We headed down to the lake to start bailing all of the
rainwater out of the canoe and then we were off in search of a good spot to
fish for piranhas! We stopped at a place that Nelson thought would be good and
tossed some bloody steak onto our hooks and then threw our lines in and crossed
our fingers! At first it seemed like it was only the annoying little sardines
that were going to be biting, and then Elena almost caught one. About 2 minutes
later, I got a bite and managed to hook it! I pulled it out and it was a
beautiful yellow piranha! After the compulsory photo taking, Nelson gave us a
good show of its teeth and then got the hook wriggled out. In the end we
managed 5 fish that we would give to the people who live and work on the coffee
farm. Apparently the meat is very delicious, but there is not much of it, as
they are mostly all bones...and gnarly teeth!
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| Such amazing views and reflections... a nice place to be to reflect on life |
After our brief stop to do a little fishing we carried on
down the river and were shortly treated to a red Howler monkey sighting high in
the trees just on the edge of the river! A couple of much too short hours
later, we arrived back in Rurrenabaque to the completing of our jungle
adventure.
Elena and I met up for dinner and decided to go back to
Moskitos for dinner since my steak was so good the time before. I should have
known that it’s a roll of the dice to try for 2x of greatness! My
steak tasted distinctly like dish soap, which was both off putting for taste and to think of why it might taste of soap and what it would do to my tummy! C’est la vie, we’ll see!
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| Hello pilots, do you need any help flying the plane?? |
I was up early to eat breakfast and catch my 9:00 a.m.
flight back to La Paz, unfortunately with a nasty case of the runs! Who knows if it was
from the steak or what, but it wasn’t good!!
I got my 10Bs moto taxi ride to the littlest airport ever,
paid my airport tax and my tourist leaving tax and then waited for our tiny
plane to arrive! I had seat 1C, so I got to practically sit with the pilots the
whole flight since there was no divider between them and us on our “huge” 21
passenger prop plane. At 1 point half-way through the flight, the pilot turned
around and gave me a thumbs up and a smile! haha :) To go from 500 m in elevation up and over the Andes in such a short flight, you
basically just climb, climb, climb, pass through the Andes and then drop down
and land in La Paz, crazy!!
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| Apparently my blood was quite tasty! |
I was back to the hotel by 10:00 and talked them into a
lower price with the plan of finding somewhere cheaper for the next day! I sort
of hung low with a visit to the pharmacist for cortisone cream (I had 164 sand
fly and mosquito bites!!), anti-histamine for the welts and something for the
dodgy stomach! I had a nice lunch, started working on writing a business plan
and booked a trip to see the Tihuanacan ruins just west of La Paz.
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| Drinking, dancing, singing parade...just because it was Thursday?? |
That night at ~9:00, there was a huge celebratory procession
down Illampu Street (the street in front of my hotel). There were rows of 5-6
people wide, groups of men and then groups of Cholitas in their fancy, shiny
dresses, rather than their normal brightly coloured outfits, dancing and
singing in unison, parading down the street. The paraders were followed by a
marching band, providing the accompaniment for the singing and dancing. This
was followed up with a lovely fireworks display about 20 minutes later. Nobody could tell me what
the celebration was all about! Who knows?!?!
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