Travelogue

From La Paz we decided to go for a trek into the amazon. I mean, no trip to South America would be complete without a sojourn into the Amazon right?? So we headed north to a small town called Rurrenabaque which is used as a base to enter the start of the Bolivian side of the Amazon. There were two ways to get there: a 20+ hour bus journey along ‘The Worlds most dangerous road‘ or a one hour flight… despite our budget we flew! And we flew in the smallest plane we had ever been in, a 16 seater that felt every bump of turbulence. I have to say it was a fantastic flight though, the scenery below was amazing and when we reached the start of the jungle it was stunning. I was a bit concerned when the plane started to bank to the right and dip low, seemingly into the trees below only for the short, dust track of a runway to appear just in time! Extraordinary flight. And there was only six of us on board! We picked up our bags and got a ride into Rurrenabaque to the ‘Oriental Hotel‘. - lovely chilled place with a row of hammocks outside our room. This scene best summed up the sleepy town!

The next morning we started our journey into the Amazon. We were both very excited but I was especially - it was also my birthday! There were loads of tours and companies to choose from but after dong a bit of research, although very expensive, we went with a company called Madidi Travel who were one of the originators in the creation of the Madidi National park & conservation area in this side of the Amazon. Also they were really conservationists, which is what we wanted and not just a tour operator interested in your money and profit only and unconcerned with the conservation and importance of sustaining the longevity of this unique eco system. We had booked the tour in La Paz before we arrived but we could have done so in Rurrenabaque itself.

Although called Madidi travel our tour would actually go to a different area called ‘Serere‘ and not into the Madidi national park. Serere was a relatively new venture by the Madidi travel organisation to create a true conservation area.

For more information about the organisation and their work visit their website here: http://www.ecobolivia.org/en/ .

I digress, on with the story… So we set off, on my birthday, in a small boat along the Beni river for what turned out to be a 3 hour journey until we alighted at the Serere conservation area. We hiked for around 30 minutes into the jungle to where we would be lodging. The whole set up was quite amazing. The central building was a 2 story structure, built from local wood and the walls were made up of mosquito netting! This would be the eating and meeting area. Next we went to our lodge where we would be sleeping for the next 2 nights. We couldnt believe it when we arrived. A big double bed in the middle, bathroom complete with flushing toilet and shower (amazing when you think of some of the places we’ve endured!) and storage space to hang our clothes. All this in the middle of a jungle!

So, on our first day as an introduction to the jungle, our guide had something relaxing for us to do. We jotted off on a small rowing boat, exploring the jungle fauna from the river. We saw lots of different birds, some cayman (similar to a crocodile, but smaller) and in particular lots of Serere birds - the bird that the park is named after. We ended our day with a gorgeous sunset and some ‘cold ones’ to celebrate Lionel’s birthday.

On the walk back to our lodge it was totally different in the dark, on our own and with no guide. We found that we were walking a lot closer together and noticeably quicker than earlier in the day. The talk of the evening had consisted of puma sightings and other stories related to local wild life that by the time we reached the lodge we were practically running! Once we got into our cabin and shut the door we felt relatively safer until we blew out the candles. Then, with the sound of the jungle at it’s height we started to imagine all sorts of wild beasts just outside the lodge. Convinced that the puma had somehow got inside, we, hiding behind our pillows and feeling somehow protected under the mosquito net, slowly turned on our torch to nervously inspect the lodge. After about 10 minutes, convinced we were puma free and safe from any other wild beasts we tried to be big and brave and go back to sleep, as we had an early start in the morning.

Having survived the night we awoke nice and early at 07:30am and kicked the day off with a nice fresh fruit breakie. We went for a trek into the jungle to see Cappuccino monkeys, Howler monkeys (very loud and fierce sounding) and the vast flora and fauna of this amazing conservation area. We returned back to the base around 5 hours later covered in all sorts of jungle muck and sweat. We went back to our ‘5 star lodge’ and had a nice cold shower followed by a nice long nap for some of us (Lionel), while others continued to explore the jungle (Sandy).

After lunch we went piranha fishing, we didn’t catch any, and on our return we were greeted by one excited worker who kept pointing towards the main hall. Confused at first, we soon got wind of it that there was a big Anaconda that had come to visit us! Indeed it had, lying across the entrance there was the biggest snake that either of us had seen in the flesh. Amazing to see these creatures free and in the wild. After about half an hour, the Anaconda moved slowly on it’s way and we excitedly entered the hall and got ready for dinner.

The next day we went for another trek in the morning before heading back to Rurrenabaque by boat. What an amazing couple of days, We reflected on it all over a nice fish stew and a bottle of Concepcion, one of the better makes of Bolivian wine.

Next it was back to La Paz for a few days before going off on another trek!