So long working life...: Bolivia Part 3

Nothing beats travelling by river to your lodgings

After a few days rest and recouperation in La Paz I caught the next available flight to Rurrenabaque (Northern Bolivia) - a tropical jungle town on the River Beni where the Amazon basin meets the foothills of the Andes. The flight from the highest international airport in the world (La Paz at +4000m), through the Andes and down into the jungle (at about 200m altitude) onto a grass runway in a tiny 20 seater airplane was worth the $75 as a joyflight alone! A couple of days relishing the low altitude (I could finally breathe easy again!) and the boardies-and-thongs climate and then I was off on a 3 day jungle tour.

The 20 seater plane, grass runway, and "airport". The pilot is in front of the plane after just zooming up and down the runway on a motorbike (I have no idea why - to check for potholes??)

2 hours in and our first 4WD was rendered usless by the unforgiving off-road tracks. 1.5 hrs later and our 2nd 4WD had arrived to rescue us (surprisingly quick given our guide had to walk almost to the horizon just to get mobile phone reception). Unfortunately 2 hrs later and the Bolivian "roads" had claimed another victim - this time the suspension was totally rooted and the rear wheels were pushed firm against the chassis. Stuck halfway between our origin and destination, the situation looked grim.

So the guide started walking back to where he got mobile phone reception, and our new driver set to the task of "fixing" the suspension with what little tools and materials he had at hand. This consisted of 2 jacks (one to jack the car up and the other to pry the axle off the chassis - this 2nd one remained permanently in this position!), and a rubber tire inner tube which was cut into long thin strips and tied around the suspension leaves in order to restore some flexibility to the rear axle. It was difficult to watch this painful process over the course of a couple of hours, as all 9 of us were sure that with 11 people in the van this stop-gap solution would fail miserably on this terribly bumpy road. But, somehow, our driver was sure he had completed a perfect job and invited us back in to continue our journey (without our guide who had not yet returned from his walk).

The driver sitting(!) under the precariously propped van tying strips of inner tube around the suspension!!

5 minutes in and a huge pothole beautifully struck in the middle of the rear wheels almost sent the whole ship over on its side, and the nervousness of all on board was clearly evident (I don't think I was this scared even on the Worlds Most Dangerous Road!). The driver reduced speed down to a slow walking pace and was clearly not going to admit defeat just yet, despite voiced concerns from the pasengers. 20 harrowing minutes later and our guide reappeared from behind us, this time in another 4WD with yet another new driver. Needless to say we all literally jumped ship and were so grateful to be in another vehicle, and with all our fingers crossed we finally arrived at the river (only about 5 hrs late) to continue the rest of the journey by canoe. Thankfully that would be the last 4 wheeled vehicle we would see for a few days as our only means of transport from now would be our 10m long, leaky, wooden canoe.

Another perfect sunset!

Our lodgings were basic wooden huts on the muddy banks of the river - 9 of us in one dormitory hut (the beds had mosquito nets luckily!), a dining hut to eat in, basic toilets and a hammock hut overlooking the river where most of our spare time was spent.

This is honestly the un-zoomed view standing next to the canoe which was in front of our lodge - the resident gators were peaceful enough during our stay.

The next morning, after a nice cruise along the river spotting many alligators and caimen basking in the sun, we set off on a walk across the pampas (flat

wetlands/plains) for a few hours in search of the harder to see wildlife - anaconda, cobra etc. It was a pretty tough hike for me, mainly because I didn't have knee-high gumboots on like everyone else (they didn't have a pair I could fit my big hoofs into!) so I had to wade through the knee-deep swamp/mud/river with my hiking shoes and bare shins! My legs were pretty cut up and my shoes took days to dry out - I later threw them out as the mud was impossible to get rid of!

We had no luck with anaconda but our guide did snatch a pretty big cobra from its hiding place in the reeds and swung it round his head for a few minutes (to wear it out

apparently - not sure

if animal rights activists would have approved!) before grabbing it behind the head to show us its fangs and tongue - pretty impressive. Later that day we swam with pink river dolphins (in the same part of the river where we later saw alligators!), which are the only freshwater species of dolphin and are native to the Amazon river system. The water was pretty brown and murky (but refreshing nontheless) so you couldn't see the dolphins until they came up for air - apparently they are the only practically blind species of dolphin in the world.

The next day we baited up small handlines with raw beef and fished off the canoe for piranhas. The little terrors loved it as soon as the bait hit the water, but were pretty tricky to land. I didnt catch one but the half-dozen or so that were landed were fried up for lunch. They were pretty small so didn't have much meat on them, but they tasted ok.

All up we saw countless species of birds, tons of alligators and caimen, cobra, monkeys, dolphins, turtles, capibaras (like a docile big rat the size of a dog) - so it was a pretty good 3 days.