Bolivian Jungle Fever
Trip Start
Feb 26, 2010
1
23
26
Trip End
Mar 18, 2011
Rurrenbaque, Bolivia
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
After trying to get out of La Paz by boat and by bus to the jungle, we finally decided to fly to Rurrenbaque. Bolivians are world class at disrupting transportation through road blocks. We heard various stories about this particular protest and still don't know what to believe. The most heard rumor was that the government had promised one village a citrus processing plant and the jobs to go along with it. Then at the last minute, they reversed plans and went with another village to host the plant. In a sign of outrage, the city that wasn't awarded the jobs, took up arms and blocked any traffic through the village. Can't say I blame them, especially since they have so much freetime on their hands now. Bolivia is the poorest country in South America and I hardly doubt the government is helping this status much.
We were joined on the jungle trip by Sarah from New Zealand, who we had met earlier in Ecuador. After taking a taxi and having to walk 3km past a parade that blocked the airport in La Paz, we boarded a 15 seat plane and took off into to the turbulent skies. 45 minutes later we landed in the steaming jungle on a grass runway. I began sweating profusely. Luckily, a tour agency was having it's grand opening and they wanted photos with Gringos. After a couple pictures, they handed me an ice cold beer. Rurre...I knew you were going to be good to me.
Rurrenbaque is a small town with a population hovering around 15,000. The people are extremely laid back, as any jungle town I imagine is. Coming from La Paz, Rurre is a dream come true. The exact opposite of the high-altitude and high-pace 10 million people city. The history of tourism in Rurrenbaque, can be really traced back to an Israeli in the early 80's. You see Yosshi Ghinsberg was out adventuring through the pampas and flipped his raft. He was lost for three weeks until a local tracker found him. Yosshi returned to Tel Aviv and wrote a book about his experience. That book turned into an international best seller and many of his readers ventured off for the jungles as a pilgrimage. I learned this after drinking the beer at the airport with none other than the guy who found Ghinsberg!
After eating a tasty meal and getting a good night sleep for once, we went shopping in the Sunday market the next day. Curiously enough there is also an older American guy from Miami that has moved there and is selling banana bread and has been doing so for years. It is amazing to me how some people have moved away alone to make a new life and are doing so by simply selling baked goods. I’m not sure how some one could do this unless they are escaping something. I wonder if Bolivia is an extradition treaty country?
After finding our lay of the land we headed up to a pool to drink beer, eat BBQ, and relax. It’s hard work, but someone has to do it.The next morning we setout for a tour of the Pampas. The Pampas is the fertile lowlands in South America where we were soon to discover an amazing amount of wildlife. We were joined by an English couple, an American, and two Dutch guys. We had a three hour drive in a 4x4 to get us there, which of course, in Bolivia means it’s always a chance for adventure. As expected, halfway through the ride, a tire blew out. After some nervousness and a couple more false stops, we made it to the shores of the river. At the river met our loveable and crazy guide “Negro”. We loaded up Negro’s boat and were off down the river.
The next several hours, as we motored down the river to our jungle home for the next several days, we passed hundreds of animals. We were smack in the middle of the Madidi National Park, which is over 20,000 square kilometers and one of the largest protected regions in the world. Over 1,000 of the 9,000 species of birds in the world can be found here, as well as another 1,000 different mammals. This makes it one of the most diverse areas to see wildlife anywhere. Within minutes of being in our boat, we saw crocodiles, caimans, capybaras, and at least a dozen different types of birds.
Further down the river, we came upon a tree filled with squirrel monkeys. As we snuck up to get a closer look at them, a couple of the monkeys spotted bananas that we had in the boat and quickly jumped in to steal them. In no time we had made new friends with these cuddling thieves. Probably not the most eco-friendly thing to happen, but still pretty cool for us.
We came upon a black caiman at one point. Black caiman’s are massive and this one wasn’t an exception. Sitting on the shore, he must’ve been 14 feet long. Negro made it apparent that these species went after anything in the water. We had that in the back of our mind as we stopped down river and he encouraged us to go for a swim in the river. The same waters where we saw Mr. Caiman and one hundred of his closest caiman and alligator buddies. We swam for about twenty minutes before we all decided that we might be tempting fate a little too much.
We made it to our camp a little before sundown, cleaned up a bit, and headed out for cerveza to watch the setting sun. That day it happened to be John’s birthday and one that will definitely be a memorable one. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to top that one for my birthday in a month.
After a great dinner, we settled into our beds. You can hear and feel the bugs, spiders, and other creepy jungle crawling things. I didn’t sleep that much the first night. Probably because a massive spider was my bedmate for the night.
The next morning we spent “Anaconda Hunting” for several hours. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately, we didn’t find one. I’m not sure what I would do if I found one. These snakes bite and then crush their victims to death. All I could think of the whole time was that terrible movie starring Ice Cube and J-Lo.
Later that afternoon, we went Piranha fishing. This was a highlight for me, maybe because I caught four of these little biters. We used some fishing line tied to a stick with a hook and some gamey beef attached. Within seconds of casting my line into the water, my hook was picked clean. The second time, I learned my lesson and set the hook fast pulling in one of the nasty looking fish. The teeth on a piranha are no joke and it is very conceivable that they could kill a wounded human. We ran out of beef at one point and resulted to using pieces of Piranha’s themselves as bait. We later enjoyed the fish at dinner, but I can’t say there is much to them.
We woke up the next morning before the sunrise and ventured out to a spot in the Pampas to watch the sunrise and hear the sounds of the jungle awakening. Monkeys, birds, and various other sounds could be heard for miles and miles. When we returned we were greeted by a one-eyed alligator at our lodge. He had climbed up on shore and so one of the locals began feeding him fish on a string. We found out that Negro had lost his finger to one of these alligators ten years ago. He still went over and patted the creature on the head anyways.
Negro was dissatisfied that we hadn’t found an Anaconda the morning before. So he said, “Eat your breakfast, I’ll be back in about an hour”. Sure enough, an hour later he came back. He was sweating, but had a big smile on his face. Out of a bag he pulled an Anaconda that he caught. Negro was working hard for a tip and we appreciated it.
Before heading back to Rurrenbaque and more swimming pool and hammock time, we went for another swim. This time we went in a spot where we had been Piranha fishing. I was still not very confident that I wouldn’t get bitten as I dove into the murky waters. When popping up, I noticed we were surrounded by five pink dolphins. A river dolphin is a site to see. Swimming with them is even more sweet!
We made it back to Rurre by night fall with lots of great stories, memories, and pictures. A trip to the real South America isn’t complete without a trip to the Amazon Basin.
