The Jungle

Apparently the road to the jungle is a long and difficult one… So we flew! As soon as we went up we were heading back down to Rurrenabaque and the heat and humidity really do hit you the moment you step off the plane. The town itself isn’t much to write home about, a few basics hostels plus the bars and tour operators so after the lizard in the bathroom debacle and nights kip we began our jungle adventure.

A very peaceful 3 hour boat trip down the river beni took us deep into Madidi national park and our lodge. After lunch we headed out with our guide Ernesto (the Bolivian Michael macetyre) to see what we could find, which turned out to be alot of bugs, but not many animals. The jungle terrain was dense, green, loud and vast although not always as steamy and tropical as we expected. We knew it was going to be hot but you just can’t believe how much you sweat, needless to say we were grateful for a cold shower. We sat down to a tea of chicken fried rice and chips! I of course was over the moon. Bedtime came along and it was a restless night with only a mosquito net between you and the jungle which comes alive with some crazy noises after dark.

Second day we headed out again this time coming across a very noisy and smelly pack of about 100 wild pigs! We then climbed up to view some beautiful mackaws flying to and from their nest. We also got a view out over the jungle canopy and it gave us some idea of the massive scale of the place. Next we headed down to the river for a welcome swim, threw together a raft and drifted on home! A really amazing day. After tea Dan went on a night walk (I admit I was chicken) and saw a baby tarantula and a poisonous centipede.

Our last day was a bit a disappointment for me, 5am I woke up needing the loo… Enough said. So it was a day at camp for me but Dan headed out again in the morning in search of the monkeys we had heard earlier, unfortunately no luck. After lunch and a lesson in jungle jewellery, he crossed the river to visit a family living there, made a drink out the sugar cane they farm and ate some tropical fruit straight from the tree. That evening their were a couple of tarantulas on the kitchen roof for good measure.

The next day we were up early to move on to The Pampas which is another area of the jungle focused around slow moving rivers with flatter less dense jungle terrain. We spent the afternoon on a boat with a Mexican couple looking out for animals, this place is teaming with wildlife. There are literally 100s of Caymen (alligators), we also saw capybara (cross between beaver and pig), lots of amazing birds including beautiful tiger herons, tortoises and capachin monkeys, it was amazing.
We went out again that night to try and catch the Caymen hunting but the most dramatic moment was a jumping fish landing on Dans knee, the fireflies lighting up the trees were beautiful though.

Second day, after a troop of capuchin monkeys came through our camp, we set out trekking through a field of shoulder high reeds to a swamp to the find an anaconda, no luck but maybe for the best as they can reach up to 9metres! Once back at camp we saw a toucan fly over while we were chilling in our hammocks.

In the afternoon we were back on the boat and managed to find the river Dolphins. Gorgeous creatures and I jumped in to swim with them. Dan refused but given the river is full of Caimen and piraña it wasn’t his worst call (Ernesto did say it would be ok… probably). Not to be out done Dan ate some grubs growing in a fruit, gross. We also saw some black howler monkeys up in the trees.
We then set about fishing for supper and Dan caught a few piraña, nasty little buggers! I caught some catfish which we put back and we came back to camp as the sun set.

Last day! Up early to go and watch the sunrise from the boat which was really beautiful and when we got back, we managed to spot a sloth in the trees near camp.
After lunch we came back to Rurrenabaque to do some much needed laundry ready to fly back to La Paz the next day.

Overall the Pampas was probably better because we saw so many animals but both were amazing experiences and worth getting bitten alive for!