Welcome to the jungle!
Trip Start
Nov 03, 2010
1
26
35
Trip End
Ongoing
Rurrenbaque, Bolivia
Saturday, April 2, 2011
There are so many companies that do trips out to the jungle and an area called the pampas from La Paz, it’s really difficult to choose. So we decided to whittle them down by concentrating on the ones that were eco-friendly. After a lot of trawling we found a small company that was run by a community in the jungle. They approached some investors and have built up a self sustaining business that directly benefits their village called Santa Cruz which is another 2 hours away (up stream) from the camp.
We flew from La Paz up to a small river side town called Rurrenebeque (sleepy town complete with hammocks in the hostel). The bus took 20 hours versus 40 minutes in the air…..well worth the money! The plane sat 18 people and was absolutely miniscule. I was basically sat in the cockpit which was a bit hairy when we hit turbulence and all the lights and beepers came on. As soon as we stepped off the plane the rainforest warm muggy air was such a lovely change to the dry cold air from La Paz, obviously within minutes I was sporting an attractive sweat that only an Edscer can fully appreciate.
After spending a night in Rurrenebeque 8 of us took a small motorised longboat up the river for 6 hours. When we arrived at the dock we had to walk 30 minutes through dense jungle before we got to the camp. Well, it wasn’t really a camp but mini hamlet of 6 huts- 3 for sleeping (three bedrooms in each), a kitchen, dining room and a bathroom, all on the edge of a large lake.
We spent two nights and three days there doing different activities like:
3-hour hike into the jungle to spot animals- it was absolutely chucking it down through so spotting was mostly limited to frogs and insects, or that‘s what Patch said. I opted out of that one and spent the morning reading in my hammock. It was absolute bliss as everyone else was in the depths of the jungle!
Exploring the lake- we did this during the day and at night. We spotted loads of three different types of monkeys, birds, parrots, snakes, Cayman (mini alligators), insects, toads, etc.
Night walks- which almost pushed me over the edge as our guide kept pointing out bloody enormous spiders, followed promptly by “Oh, Rose I am sorry. So sorry. There’s another one here, mind the web!”. I now know “mi no gusta aranas”. The spider debarcel proved to be a bit of a running theme resulting in a minor panic attack in the bathroom on the first night. Poor Patch felt the wrath of this phobia and had to go into all rooms first to check for the pesky buggers.
It was an amazing three days there, incredibly peaceful (when I wasn’t having heart palpitations about various insects) and going to sleep covered in huge mosquito nets listening to the sound of monkeys and other animals in the jungle with my bed surrounded by fireflies will stay with me for a long time! Saying that three nights was definitely enough time for me. I was incredibly pleased to be back in normal civilization (tiled roofs, electricity, etc)…..I’m definitely a city girl. The bright lights of La Paz never looked so beautiful!
