Blog post 7 - in the Amazon
Another early start in La Paz had us in a taxi by 6.30 on a headlong dash to the Airport to catch the flight to Rurrenabaque in the headwaters of the Amazon. Clearly the taxi driver had a plan to show how fast he could get to the Airport but thanks to the early start, the roads were fairly clear and we made it unscathed.
The flight from La Paz Airport at over 4,000m down to the Rurrenabaque at about 250m took us over a high ridge of snow covered maintains that frame the eastern horizon of La Paz and then down into the Amazon Basin.
Arriving at the fairly new airport in Rurrenabaque was interesting. We had to walk through the completely empty car park to the Airport gates to be greeted by our tour guides. They weren’t allowed in the airport grounds. The bags finally came to where we were and we were taken by tuktuk to our tour company headquarters where we met our guide Cristian, rearranged our luggage and took one bag down to the River for a 2.5 hr ride upriver to the Mashaquipe Lodge where we have our own big palm leaf thatched bure like structure with ensuite.
Lunch and a rest took to 3pm at which point we headed off on a three hour nature walk through the jungle. We are in a party of 2. Just us. There can’t have had amy other bookings for the 4 night 5 day tour that day. It was great as we hid our guide to ourselves. Our guide speaks pretty good English and he told us all about the many different trees and uses they had both for their general living and medicinal benefits. He removed the wood from a tree that he used to brew me up a drink to control my diarrhoea.
We saw an amazing array of butterflies of all sizes and colours and some very colorful large parrots. The sounds they make fill the otherwise incredibly quiet jungle. The jungle was very dry as it had not rained for many months. Quite different to the jungle you see on the Attenborough programmes.
The next day we headed off with just the minimum of gear on a four hour walk through the jungle to a jungle camp site. Very basic. Just a timber platform with mattress’s and mosquito nets. After lunch and a rest it was off on another walk to see the macaws and an array of other smaller parrots who were living in small caves in a large cliff face. They are very colourful large parrots. They mate for life so they generally fly around is pairs. Quite spectacular.
There were also some large groups of monkeys of various types high in the trees. One large spider monkey, not normally seen, stopped as it passed us high up in the trees and just watched us. Really cool.
We have been well fed even when at the jungle camp site. Three good meals a day with a large array of options for dinner each night.
Day three was another walk to check our the macaws from the top of the cliff this time as they flew below us from the jungle back to the nest in the cliff. After lunch and a rest from the heat, we packed up and headed for the river and a swim where we built a raft out of balsa wood logs and floated back down river to the jungle lodge. A very peaceful way to spend a few hours.
The water was unbelievably warm and just upstream from where we built the raft there was small side stream flowing in to the main channel. The water in that stream was almost hot.
Day 4 it was an early start and a boat ride back to Rurrenabaque. The river was busy with boats all going about their business. Some fishing. Other laden with bananas. There are no roads in the area we were in so all transport is by boat up and down the river.
It was then into a van for a 3 hr ride to the Pampas del Yacuma. We didn’t actually get out onto the Pampas but spent a lot of time boating up and down the Yacuma Rver checking out the wildlife.
We stayed the night in the Hostel Las Tortugus owned by the Mashaquipe group. It was right on the banks of the Yacuma River and there was always some wildlife around.
On our boat trips we saw and amazing array of birds. See the photos. There was also lots and lots of Carmen. They are a king of crocodile. There were also heaps of turtles and Capybaras, which is an aquatic rodent. They are so cute. About as big as a large dog.
On our last day we went piranha fishing. According to our guide they are not as dangerous as the movies make out. Gaye caught 3 and I caught 2. They were giants -not. All of 100mm long but we took them back to the lodge and they cooked them for us for lunch. Very taste.
We are now back in Rurrenabaque and have had burgers for dinner at a local restaurant. The main food here seems to be either chicken and chips or burgers. It’s still very hot and we are hoping that it cools down by bed time.
Tomorrow it’s back to La Paz by plane. The alternative is a 14 hour bus ride and we weren’t up from that.
Fabulous photos! You two are certainly going where few people go! Nice to be able to accompany you virtually!
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