Bolivia - Rurrenabaque (Amazon)

4th - 8th September ´08

The time had come to remove ourselves from all creature comforts and head out to Bolivia´s slice of the Amazon Basin. Our small, 18-seater carrier from La Paz to Rurrenabaque was like something out of the movies... as well as displaying an open cockpit, our aircraft glided within touching distance of the majestic, cloud-breaking mountains and canyons. Circling down to the makeshift runway, we were enveloped by the rich, green flora of the jungle... and the tropical humidity was a welcoming change from La Paz´s elevated coolness. Once again, our 45 minute flight had introduced us to an Australian who was coincidentally in the same tour group as us for the following morning... on arrival the 3 of us headed out to the Monkey Bar for some jungle juice and a bite to eat. Rurrenabaque itself was a small and lively frontier town to the lush surrounding rainforest... it´s welcoming and well-equipped community made an ideal entrypoint to the jungle.

The next morning, we arose early to meet our experienced guide, Ulfredo, and to begin our journey into the heart of the Amazon. A dusty and bumpy 3 hour jeep ride through savannah-like grasslands brought us to the mouth of the Yacuma River where we boarded a motorised, dugout canoe. Powering our way down the enclosed, swamp-coloured waters we were able to spot many forms of Amazonian wildlife: the open-jawed, motionless alligators; the elusive, swinging monkeys; the capybaras that resembled Gujarati people (brown, hairy and vegetarian); the camouflaged lizards; the slow-moving turtles; and a whole host of multicoloured, large-winged birds. After 3 heat-intensive but magical hours along the murky river, we arrived at the bank-located jungle ecolodge - our home for the next 2 nights. Set upon wooden stilts and with tree-hidden interlinking walkways, these very basic cabins housed 2 hard mosquito-netted beds and nothing more... the limited cold water was our only luxury. Our first use of the dark, half-sheltered bathroom revealed some friendly local inhabitants in the toilet-water... frogs... the skilled use of a torch was required. Following a brief settling-in period and a simple dinner, we took to the pitch black waters again equipped with flashlights. Shining our torches along the banks of the river revealed hundreds of pairs of glowing eyes... alligators. As Ulfredo cut off the engine to our canoe, it was a surreal experience laying afloat in the middle of the Amazon with only the echoing voices of the eerie wilderness to break the silence. That night, the tropical weather turned to produce some hard rain and freezing temperatures.

The following morning, we trekked through the waist-high grasslands for 3 hours in search of anacondas. Due to the cooler climate, we were forced to track down these 5-8 metre snakes within the hollow openings of the trees where they sought warmth instead of within the swamps like we had initially imagined. As we hiked deeper into the pampas Ulfredo led us to within touching distance of several anacondas, some that were sexually intertwined. We spent some of the afternoon lying in hammocks and playing foot-volleyball within our ecolodge before boarding our canoe once more for the next activity on the agenda... piranha-fishing. There was a real knack to hooking these sharp-teethed fish, and after some wasteful bait, we caught an array of piranhas, sardines and catfish (naturally we immediately released them... we were on an ecofriendly tour after all). Later that evening, whilst watching the brightly coloured sunset from the balconies of our lodge, we enjoyed a bottle of wine that had been given to us as a gift from our guide.

The next morning we were awoken abruptly to the sound of howling monkeys that were mischieviously throwing objects at our cabin... this was monkey-war and we considered hurtling the objects back at them. But we refrained, and after some breakfast we headed out to an area of the Yacuma River which was inhabited by pink dolphins. The colour of these graceful creatures had naturally evolved over time when a volcanic eruption 500 years ago had caused the mountain to split trapping many sea water animals within the Amazonian rivers. We spent some time admiring the dolphins before Ulfredo introduced us to the ´friendly´ but territorial alligator, Pedro. As we hesitantly stroked his tough reptilian skin, Ulfredo urged us to stand directly in front of Pedro and to be alert. Once again, it was a unique and strangely satisfying feeling being so close to a perceptively dangerous animal. And our brief encounter with this alligator marked the end of the tour. As we said our farewells to the group, we knew we had been very fortunate with our Amazonian experience both in terms of wildlife and also with our native guide... it was undoubtedly one of the highlights of our South American travels so far. So, our long-winded return journey back to La Paz continued that evening from where we would catch a flight to Sucre the following afternoon.