30th August - 1st September - Amazon Basin Jungle, Bolivia
After a night back in Rurrenabaque recharging the batteries afer our Pampas expedition we set off for the jungle rainforest areas. We jumped aboard another semi dug out canoe - this time with a much fatter outboard though - to motor up the river Beni into the Madidi national park. The weather was stunning and the lush green of the jungle soon surrounded us as we wound up the river and branched off on to the river Truchi. We had some fun and games negotiating the rapids as the river was pretty low - no problem as we all jumped into the water Indiana Jones style to push the boat up stream!
After about 3 hours cruising along the river (and several jumps overboard!) we beached the canoe and trekked about 20 minutes into the jungle to our campsite - all the while keeping a keen look out for massive spiders and squiggling things! It was bloody hot and humid so we went for a swim before lunch - assured by our guide that any alligators would be more scared of us than we of them!
In the afternoon we searched for all sorts of beasties including a tree full of bats that sounded like it was alive as the bats fluttered their wings. There was a huge hole that we could stick our heads in to look up into the tree and see the bats - it was only after we´d pulled our heads out that Eric told us the bats were related to vampire bats!!
Full of food and almost asleep we headed for our night walk in search of jaguars, tapirs and other impressive beasts - needless to say we must have scared them all off as we didn´t see a bloody thing! It was quite eerie though sat in the middle of the jungle at half ten at night waiting for a massive cat to come and attack us!!
We slept like babies and after breakfast the next day we went back out tramping around for more sights and sounds. We saw a willy tree (photo will be obvious!), a jungle viagra tree, a very large snake and some lovely macaws before having to head back downstream in the canoe after lunch. Luckily we didn´t have to perform any heroics in the rapids on the way back! All in all a great couple of days - and we survived without seeing any tarantulas!!
Unfortunately our flight back to La Paz has been cancelled because of rain - the runway is just a field after all!! Hopefully it´ll dry out enough for us to get back tomorrow. In the mean time there are plenty of nice bars and restaurants selling cold beer and good food!!
After about 3 hours cruising along the river (and several jumps overboard!) we beached the canoe and trekked about 20 minutes into the jungle to our campsite - all the while keeping a keen look out for massive spiders and squiggling things! It was bloody hot and humid so we went for a swim before lunch - assured by our guide that any alligators would be more scared of us than we of them!
In the afternoon we searched for all sorts of beasties including a tree full of bats that sounded like it was alive as the bats fluttered their wings. There was a huge hole that we could stick our heads in to look up into the tree and see the bats - it was only after we´d pulled our heads out that Eric told us the bats were related to vampire bats!!
Full of food and almost asleep we headed for our night walk in search of jaguars, tapirs and other impressive beasts - needless to say we must have scared them all off as we didn´t see a bloody thing! It was quite eerie though sat in the middle of the jungle at half ten at night waiting for a massive cat to come and attack us!!
We slept like babies and after breakfast the next day we went back out tramping around for more sights and sounds. We saw a willy tree (photo will be obvious!), a jungle viagra tree, a very large snake and some lovely macaws before having to head back downstream in the canoe after lunch. Luckily we didn´t have to perform any heroics in the rapids on the way back! All in all a great couple of days - and we survived without seeing any tarantulas!!
Unfortunately our flight back to La Paz has been cancelled because of rain - the runway is just a field after all!! Hopefully it´ll dry out enough for us to get back tomorrow. In the mean time there are plenty of nice bars and restaurants selling cold beer and good food!!
posted by Polly and James at Thursday, September 01, 2005
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