Down in the jungle...

A trip to South America wouldn't be complete without visiting the Amazon Basin so, after selecting an agency in La Paz, we headed to El Alto airport to catch a tiny plane to Rurrenabaque. I think a 19 seat plane is the smallest I've ever been on and the flight was a little bit hairy as we skimmed over mountain tops and got battered about in turbulence. I'd be lying if I said there weren't times when I wondered if we'd actually make it to Rurrenabaque in one piece!

On arriving at Rurrenabaque airport (more of a shack really) we were excited to find some English magazines, I was even more excited when we arrived at our hotel to find a copy of the Guardian Weekend magazine in the foyer! In Rurrenabaque that evening there were a couple of monsoon style rainstorms, prompting me to purchase an emergency poncho.

Rurrenabaque Airport

When we arrived in the Madidi travel office the next (rainy) morning, we were surprised to find a spider monkey running about. He had been rescued and was waiting to be reintergrated into the jungle. Meanwhile, he was happy to climb all over us and run around the office showing off!

Issued with life jackets, we boarded the boat for the 2 1/2 hour journey to Serere. We saw loads of herons on the way, and bought watermelons from a man on the side of the river. The river changes course slightly each year, depending on the amount of rain, and there were whole trees in parts of the river that had been swept in from the bank.

When we arrived at Serere, we had about a 30 minute walk through the jungle to get to our cabanas. The heat was oppressive, but the walk was worthwhile. The walls of the cabanas were made entirely of mosquito netting so we really felt part of the jungle. Later that evening, we even discovered we had a resident frog in our bathroom!

The main house 'Casa Grande' was about another 15 minutes away and was complete with hammocks and floor cushions.

The kitchen in Casa Grande

We met our guide there at four and headed across the lake in a canoe for a walk around the jungle. Just as we were getting into the canoe, we caught a glimpse of a tiny caiman in the water. When we reached the other side we walked around the jungle for about two hours and saw cappuccino, amarillo and growler monkeys in the trees, along with some huge spiders and crickets. Unfortunately we were out at sunset so the mosquitos started biting and my ankles got severely attacked by some ants.

We arrived back at the candlelit main house (after catching the last of the sunset on the lake) in time to nibble on freshly cooked, salted, banana chips before dinner. Considering the lack of electricity, dinner was amazing. We dined on freshly caught catfish marinated in lemon, ginger and garlic - absolutely delicious. Desert was home made custard with a topping of fresh cocoa from the tree just outside the house.

We went to sleep that night surrounded by the sounds of the jungle, and with very itchy mosquito bites! The next morning, following a very quick cold shower, we headed to the main house for a breakfast of fruit, museli and yoghurt, followed by eggs. One of the best breakfasts I've had in South America. We were just planning on heading out for a walk when the torrential rain started. Not wanting to get all our jungle gear absolutely soaked on the second day, we decided to chill out in the hammocks for the morning, but were entertained for a while by some monkeys playing just outside. Whilst lying in the hammocks I was inspecting my arms for ticks and realised I had two in each arm. Not nice.

After a spectaular lunch (our chef was amazing), and the removal of my ticks, we went out for a short walk before another group arrived. Although our guide heard some larger animals moving through the jungle, we only saw more monkeys. We also heard macaws in the distance. When the other group arrived, an early evening walk was planned. However, we declined joining in this trek as we didn't want to add to our collection of mosquito bites!

Dinner on the second night was much more of a mass catering affair (unfortunately our original chef had gone back to Rurrenabaque for his first few days off in over a month) but was still pretty impressive considering they chef had cooked for over 20 people with no electricity! When we went back to our hut that night, we heard some creatures fighting outside. Quickly pressing our torches agains the mosquito netting, we managed to glimpse a squirrel running up a tree... not quite as exotic as we would have liked, but still quite cool.

On the third day we had a breakfast of pancakes (always a good start for me) and the discovery of another tick on my arm...this one was a bit bigger as it had already started sucking on my blood. I had to get Kerry to inspect the backs of my legs and arms and she found roughly another 10 ticks to remove. Still worried about getting more ticks, we headed off to Gringo Lake. We couldn't take the canoes across as another group had already gone out with them, but we did see a couple of turtles. We also saw a giant snail on our walk, but I kept a very safe distance...

After lunch we had to head to the river to catch our boat back to Rurrenabaque. As we were going upstream the journey took an hour longer but we got to see various groups of people travelling up the river, and even a caiman sunbathing on a log.

We managed to find somewhere in Rurrenabaque that offered an express laundry service, then it was time for a much needed hot shower, clean clothes, beer and dinner.

At the airport the next day we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a torrential rainstorm, and wondering if we would be able to get our flight. Fortunately, about an hour later, the rain subsided and the flight from La Paz landed. The area of grass where we were supposed to board was completely waterlogged so we were bussed to the end of the runway to board our flight. During this journey my backpack was subjected to rain and puddles of water, meaning that all my nice clean, dry clothes got rather damp.

The flight back was just as turbulent, and added to that was the return to altitude, meaning I felt sick for the rest of the day! Ah well, off to Copacabana and Isla del Sol next....