twelve countries twelve months

Time for the jungle. Booked ourselves a flight to Rurrenabaque in the Amazon basin of Bolivia. Arrived at the airport and watched the lackadaisical staff throw our bags around in the back of a small twin propellor plane. Then we heard the news, it had started to rain in Rurrenabaque and since the runway was nothing more than a bit of grass, that was it, flight cancelled. We were transferred to a flight two days later, but two days later it was still raining and the flight was cancelled before we even got to the airport.

This was the Amazon, maybe it was going to rain for months. Opted for a jeep instead. Luxury – we had the whole back seat to ourselves. Rach got to lie down and sleep while I got crammed into the corner, sitting on the wheel arch, banging my head on the roof every time we went over a bump (about 10 times a minute). 15 hours overnight, a single driver, a narrow unpaved track, cliff one side, vertical drop the other, having to reverse every time a lorry came the other way – all of this for just slightly more than the cost of the 45 minute flight – bargain! I am amazed we made it alive, but after only a flat battery and one puncture we arrived in Rurrenabaque. It was still raining, why did we want to go to the jungle again?!

This wasn´t to be the end of our transport fiasco. On the way back from the jungle lodge our jeep got a puncture. We all piled out the jeep while some makeshift tools were employed to fit the spare. A few minutes after we set off again we saw a piece of metal bounce off behind the jeep, and suddenly we were careering all over the road. We were both convinced the jeep was going to roll, I thought the wheel had fallen off but it was just another fast puncture!  You have to love Bolivian roads!

Since we now had no spare we deserted the jeep at the side of the road and hitched a lift in the back of a huge lorry for the last 30km back to Rurrenabaque. All fun and games for the first couple of minutes, until I almost broke my bottom going over a big bump, and had to squat for the rest of the journey. My thighs were exhausted by the time we arrived.

Rurrenabaque is the base for tours into the jungle and also the pampas wetlands. Most people choose one or the other but after our ordeal of getting here we decided to make the most of our stay and do both. Being in the jungle listening to the sounds of wildlife was amazing. We went for early morning walks where we spotted monkeys, pigs, coati (racoon type animals) and lots of spiders including a tarantula. One afternoon we took a canoe onto the lake where we spotted numerous birds, and caiman, another was spent fishing for piranhas which were cooked up for lunch the next day. Our jungle cabin had wire mesh for walls so it felt like we were sleeping right in the jungle. One afternoon during our siesta we were lucky enough to observe a group of monkeys playing and jumping in the trees right outside the room.

In the pampas we took a boat slowly down the river where we saw hundreds of alligators, black caiman, turtles, capybara (massive water rodents) and occasional glimpses of pink river dolphins. There was so much wildlife, so easy to spot, I wondered if the whole thing was a setup with models and robots! After dark we headed back on the river to look at the alligators eyes which reflect red in the dark, but the real highlight was seeing hundreds of fireflies twinkling like christmas lights in the trees.

~ by robcheek on November 21, 2009.

Posted in travel
Tags: bolivia, jungle, wildlife