Amazon Rainforest
We had heard the woeful tales of travellers taking the bus to Rurrenabaque so we were prepared for 14 hours of gravel hell, but we weren't as aware that the road is almost identical to the Death Road.
Usually sitting on the floor for 3hrs in the aisle of a bus, one incidentally where Bolivian women are said to urinate when they cannot hold it in much longer, is a nightmare, but in this case we were blissfully unaware of the horribly vertiginous drops going on outside! It was worth the traumatic journey on arrival as we were back almost at sea level in Rurrenabaque, the gateway for our Amazonian adventures. Here the climate was sunny, hot and humid and we spent our first day lazing around a pool and feeling like we were on holiday again. The pool had its own resident toucan and macaw, both totally wild, which we were excited about as we had already spent 7 unsuccessful months craning our necks up at treetops in Central America desperately trying to spot them. The toucan was just surreal; its beak looked painted on and it was like watching a kids toy hopping about in glorious Technicolor. It had a penchant for biting Dom's hand and trying to peck at my bum from below the sunlounger. We told ourselves it was horseplay but had its beak been less blunt.....?
Our first tour of the Amazon was deep in the jungle of the Madidi National Park. Our company Madidi Travel had their own protected reserve Serere which took 2.5hrs to reach by boat up the river Beni. The screeching of insects and birds hit your ears immediately when you arrived and we had been to a few rainforest places before but this felt like true jungle. We had a huge 8x5m cabana which had no walls, just wooden posts with mosquito mesh, so it felt as though we were sleeping in the heart of the Amazon, the ambiguous nocturnal noises of insects, animals and snapping twigs all adding to the effect. We took night walks through the jungle, spotting ocelots eyes in the distance, tarantulas (yes, the size of our hands AT LEAST), huge frogs, four different species of monkey including squirrel, spider, capuchin and howler. At night we also went out on a lancha boat caiman spotting, although I am not sure if they were so keen on us gringos all shining our headlamps in their eyes to catch a glance. My favourite activity was piranha fishing. We had to catch some smaller fish to use as bait and soon enough I caught a pretty big piranha, complete with obligatory gnashers that could probably give you a good peck. Clearly, it looked much less scary afterwards on my plate at dinner! Our last activity after our 2nd night in the jungle was amazing. We see so many artisan vendors everywhere selling rings but we actually had the chance to make our own rings from scratch, using the seed of a palm, chopped in half then sanded down and chiseled, completely bespoke. After some heavy buffing, the finishing touch consists of ash to give it extra shine and Dom and I both made rings for each other that are so impressive - without doubt the most meaningful presents we have ever given one another. How many people can say they made their ring from a seed in the Amazon after all?!
The second tour we took in the Amazon had a hard act to follow, but the Pampas near to Rurre' were simply unbeatable in terms of the variety and prevalence of wildlife we saw, nowhere else had we encountered so much biodiversity. These wetlands and savannahs were once land, now flooded and explored by small motorised boats for tourists. The scenery was incredible, and within the first hour we had seen turtles, pink dolphins flipping in front of us, birds of paradise, sloths, macaws, royal eagles, kingfishers, squirrel monkeys, alligators, vultures and capibara (huge pig-sized rats!). We were blown away by it all, and our camp was in the middle of these wetlands in stilted huts. We took a boat to a nearby sunset bar watching the deep orange sun disappear behind the savannah and returned to camp at dusk, where we were attacked almost 7pm on the dot (our guide had warned us) by a cloud of mosquitos, all baying for our bloods. I hastily retreated under my net, probably still eating my last mouthful of dinner when I got there.
The next morning we donned rubber boots and 10 layers to go anaconda spotting. Even with more clothes than Primark on my back I still managed to be ravaged by mosquitos, they cunningly discovered that they could bite our bums through the seats of the boat. One girl Steph we were with counted 40 bites on each buttock! We then waded through boglands looking for Anaconda. Dom was the eagle-eyed spotter, although he only saw it as he was about to tread on it, which was probably a lucky escape. In honesty, anacondas just looked like giant snakes, and Dom found two that were in the right in the middle of having it off, so the whole sight was a world away from the image of a hissing, blood-hungry, lunging beast that we all had in our minds. They were probably embarrassed to be caught in the act! Our last amazing experience in Amazonia would be swimming with the dolphins. Although they never really got closer than within a metre or so, it was incredible to see their faces appearing out of the water where you were flailing about. Dom only reminded me afterwards that you should NEVER wee in the Amazonian waters due to the parasites that can swim up your urine stream and make a home inside you. I was cursing the extra strong diaretic coffee for the rest of the day, almost waiting for something bad to happen down below. Luckily it seems I have escaped unscathed, and I have since erased the word 'incubation' from my vocabulary...just in case.
And so after two more days in Rurre of enjoying the pool, sunshine and toe-pecking toucan, we returned to La Paz, chugging from sea level to 3900m in twenty hours of bumpy, death-defying, air-polluting splendour, where we immersed ourselves back into the Bolivian cuisine by eating steak and chips, chinese and a roast dinner (!) and enjoyed one last night on the tiles before heading to Sucre.
Elegant, whitewashed and sophisticated, we knew little of Sucre before arriving, but soon realised it is the jewel in Bolivia's crown. Our timing was also impeccable, as the bicentennial celebrations were beginning in the lead up to 25th May. We attended a local food festival where I bravely gulped down cow's tongue in satay sauce, swiftly followed by a fireworks display in the main palm-filled plaza and the Miss Bolivia 2009 contestants all blowing kisses to us (Miss Sucre even blew me a personal kiss). That night we realised we were somewhere special. The next day the festivities intensified, with a huge street procession of local dancers in regional costumes, Sucre's big band creating a raucous soundscape. Later, we ventured to the San Felipe de Neri convent, where you could venture onto the roof at sunset viewing the sea of terracota rooves and brilliant white buildings, flanked by distant mountains; this was a place to really contemplate and feel almost at zen-like peace. Posted 16/12/09 - - Trekking, La Paz
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