Our next stop was the jungle. We first took a bus to La Paz, and then went to the airport to fly to Rurrenabaque, in the northern part of Bolivia in the Amazon Basin. Taking a cab there took a while. There seemed to be road blocks everywhere as some kind of protest. We finally got there and after waiting for someone to show up at the Amaszonas Airlines desk to check in. When someone finally showed up, we learned they cancelled our flight. Apparently Amaszonas is the only airline that flies there and cancels flights frequently. And there´s no compensation for your inconvenience. They put us on the first flight the next morning at 6am, so we could still make our jungle tour. We then had to go back to town to find a hotel in La Paz. None of the hotels here in Bolivia seem to have websites to see pictures. Also, it seems to depend on the person behind the desk as to what rate you get. So you sort of just have to go and check out a few places to find something decent and affordable. I think we ended up going to 5 different places, and with your packs, its annoying. After a flight delay, we finally got to Rurrenabaque, and it was great. It was warm. It was so different from La Paz and Lake Titicaca. I went from winter gear, to t shirt and flip flops. It was 77 deg F with 50% humidity.
We stayed at the eco lodge of San Miguel del Bala, owned and operated by the indigenous community of San Miguel of Tacana culture. We took a 30 minute boat ride to get there. It was a really nice place. And they have hammocks. I took many naps there. I love hammocks! They gave us a great cabana to stay in, with mosquito nets and a private bathroom. There was no hot water, but it was so hot anyway. To get to the cabana though, you had to climb a huge amount of stairs. And to get to the dining hall at night you had to use a flashlight or headlamp, so the stairs were a little tricky in the dark. But the meals were excellent. I ate so much there. It was a really great place and super comfortable. I´m glad we picked that place to stay. We stayed there for 4 days and 3 nights.
Our guide showed us the community. His name was Felsi and was a native from the Tacana community. We even saw his house. Along the way pointed out fruits and plants they grew there, like pineapple. He showed us how they make sugar cane juice out of a big machine. It was really yummy. It is really really sweet, so putting some lime in it made it perfect.
We wondered though where all the people were in the community. He told us they were all at a big fiesta. So we asked if we could go. We took the boat to another part of the river to the party. They ate, danced, and played soccer. There we had our first animal siting - a spider monkey. Okay, it was someone´s pet. It´s not like we saw a wild one. But still. It counts. After the party, we took a medicinal plant tour. We learned about plants that helped digestion, blood circulation, conjuctivitis, and even shampoo. He said no one in the community used western medicine.
The second day we went to the canyon. It was a pretty narrow canyon that we walked through. There were tons of bats flying in the air above us. We also saw some spiders and snakes. They said there was a tarantula too, but I missed it. In the forest we saw a whole bunch of monkeys, saddle backed tamarins. It was pretty far, so I couldn´t get a picture. Most animals smell humans (insect repellent) and stay pretty far away. Luckily it was only Kim, I, and the guide, so we could stay relatively quiet to even see animals. We also heard the sounds of a leopard, and saw the footprints of a lowland paca, a type of rodent, and the footprints of an anteater. That afternoon we went on a trail that had trampas, or traps. He showed us how they used to trap animals for foods with contraptions they built.
On the third day we went to the Madidi National Park. It is part of one of the largest protected areas in the world. We saw a chanco, collard peccary. It´s a type of pig I guess, like the one in Lion King. Again, it was kind of too far to get a good picture. We also saw a whole bunch of Red Howeler monkeys and Brown Capuchin monkeys, swinging around and jumping from tree to tree. (I love monkeys). I did get some pictures of the red howler monkeys by zooming in really far. We also saw some parrots, that always travel in pairs. Again I got some pictures with some major zooming. We also saw the footprint of a leopardand heard southern amazonica red squirrels. At the end we heard another type of chanco, White Lipped Peccary. They travel in hundreds and make these crazy noises. We waited and waited, hearing them stomping, and chomping on food, trying to be as quiet as possible. It was a little scary. I didn´t know what they would do when they came closer. Finally we saw them from a far. There were so many. I think they smelled us and stayed away. A whole bunch of black pigs moving in the bushes. It was kind of cool. Our guide also found an almond.
