Boat trip through the jungle

After extensive tour shopping and bargaining in La Paz, I decided to go first to the jungle and las pampas (lowlands). I also decided to get to Rurrenabaque by boat. That way I could visit shortly the Madidi National Park and hike in the Bolivian jungle. I bought the tour at 7 pm on Friday. At 5:30 am the next morning I was picked up at my hostel.

The first 2.5 hour drive was amazing. At high altitude we were close to the mountains to enjoy the stunning rock formations. After breakfast in Coroico we were driving on unpaved gravel road at maximum speed of 40 km/h. Sometimes the road was so narrow only one car at a time could pass. You wonder how buses make it here. The dust from the road has changed the color of plants and trees from green to grey. In the front seat of four-wheel drive I felt I was in for a real adventure.


Our lunch stop was in the town called Guanay where we were watching the acrobatic movements of colorful parrots.


In the afternoon we were finally on the boat, going up on Mapiri river in a dugout canoe. We are 15, two guides and a chef. The first camp site met us with the tropical rain, which was the highlight of the day for me.





the morning after
On Day 2 we visited a small town of Mayaya, which I felt was still unspoiled by tourists (there was only one tour company in La Paz organizing the river trip). In a group of 6 people we went up the village to wander around simple stores. I liked reactions of people. They were smiling, teenagers were curious, kids were shy. Some stores still sell and buy gold. We were told this region was hit by the largest gold rush 35 years ago. The banks of the river saw some 50,000 gold hunters, which today is very hard to imagine. To this day there are people working on the river. They say it takes 14-16 hours of hard work in the water to get 1 gram of gold.

At lunch we visited no-name community where we played with some kid´s monkey. Kids´ attention was stolen by a polaroid camera of a French girl. I think all kids of the village got a personal photograph. The eldest kid of 12 years old was curiously looking through any picture British guys had in their diaries.



Later we did a 3-hour hike into the jungle. Ajo tree (ajo is garlic in Spanish) gave a beautiful smell through the forest. At the small pond we were piranha fishing. At night we did a night walk through the jungle to listen to the sounds of birds and insects. Quite interesting.

On Day 3 we did a walk through Madidi National Park. We saw a couple of gigantic trees, and one of them I climbed - a hanging root reminded me my school sport activities. Somehow I was disappointed - the rainforest was not thick enough, huge enough, exotic enough.

The rest of the day we were on the boat, making our way up to Rurrenabaque.



By 6 pm we arrived to the jungle town of Rurrenabaque, a very quite and relaxing warm place. The next morning I was leaving for Las Pampas tour.

The tour set on flickr.