A Website All About Jo

In the Jungle

Wednesday 11th December 2002
Because I was on a tight schedule and Judith had already been in La Paz for a few days, when we arrived in La Paz in the afternoon we already had a jungle tour booked which was leaving the next day. All we had to do was pay which saved us a fair bit of hassle. Once we’d done this, found a hostel and sorted ourselves out we went in search of food. We ended up in a market area where you could buy anything from a Barbie doll to a pair of flip flops but we couldn’t find any restaurants so we ended up in a posh café eating cakes.
We had to be up again at 5.30 to get a taxi to the airport so we didn’t get a huge amount of sleep but were quite excited about going to the jungle. For threee days previously no flights had gone to Rurrenabaque (the jungle) because of bad weather (the runway at the other end was sand and it needed to be dry for planes to land) so we weren’t entirely confident we’d be able to leave that day. After 3 hours at the airport feeling cold tired and hungry we’d pretty much planned what we were going to do when we returned to the city centre later that day – most of it involving food. As luck would have it we eventually flew out at 12, only 6 hours after we’d arrived at the airport. The flight itself was only 1 hour long on a military run aircraft but it was very bumpy and we were all glad to be on dry land at the end.

At the airport we met our guide Joaquin and cook and the two other members of our group an American couple Cory and Harmony. We also discovered the weather in the jungle was quite different from La Paz and our clothes for the cold weather weren’t very suitable in the heat and humidity and so our 2 hour journey in the back of a jeep wasn’t very enjoyable particularly as the road was in need of being flattened.
We got to the river just before 4 and had some lunch before loading our stuff into a long wooded boat with a motor. We then began our journey down the river to our camp. There were alligators and turtles at regular intervals although quite a few turned out at closer inspection to be sticks doing wildlife impressions. We also saw Capybaras (big rodents – very cute). As it was starting to get dark we stopped at a tree full of little monkeys which we fed bananas causing quite a riot in the tree.
After about 20 minutes of travelling in the pitch black (slightly nerve racking) we arrived at our camp – 2 big huts one with beds and mosquito nets and the other with a big table and cooking area.

Sleeping was tough due to the heat but after coffee and a good breakfast the next morning I felt a bit more human. The morning activity was anaconda hunting so we went another hour down the river and joined another group before setting off. To find anacondas we first had to walk for 1 ½ hours through a huge field in drizzle. The walk wasn’t tiring as it was all flat but we were all totally soaked by the time we stopped. We walked through lots of dried up rivers which are apparently full in the height of the rainy season but at present are just full of dead fish. We eventually reached a swampy area and the two guides waded in with sticks looking for anacondas. Our guide eventually found one although when he first pointed it out all we could see was the head which was very difficult to spot even when pointed out. He then fished it out of the water for us and it was a few meters long and looked impressive. I held it for a little while but it was very slimy and quite difficult to hold.
We’d been there a little while when 3 Korean blokes turned up with 2 guides. The Korean guides were travelling around making a documentary and so proceeded to try and interview people about what they thought of the anaconda. I ran away at this point and so managed to avoid having a camera shoved in my face. They were still there 20 minutes later when we left.

After the walk back we had a bit of a siesta and then donned our swimming costumes and headed out in the boat to find a pink dolphin to swim with. We eventually found one and after a lot of persuasion we got into the murky brown river. Apparently when there is a dolphin around the alligators and piranhas keep away. The fact that the guide was swimming too helped a lot. It helped us all feel a bit cleaner as well even though the water was a lovely brown colour.
After a cup of tea we went off to watch the sunset which was quite impressive but more exciting was that we saw a giant anteater. It unfortunately saw us too and ran off into the undergrowth before we could get a good look. At least I saw one though.
The next day we had an early start to watch the sunrise and then after breakfast we went fishing which involved sticking raw meat onto a hook and dangling it in the water till we felt something at which point we had to pull the string in as quickly as possible.. Ray caught a piranha first and then Harmony got a catfish. I managed to catch 2 piranhas and I think I knocked a few unconscious by pulling them in really quickly and hitting them against the side of the boat in the process. What was most worrying was that while we were fishing and catching stuff a dolphin was swimming nearby making us wonder what had been swimming beside us the previous day.

After this we got all our stuff together and headed back to Rurrenabaque where we had to stay the night before the next part of the jungle tour the following day. We found a nice restaurant and to kill a bit of time drank lots of sangria.
The trip to the other part of the jungle was a little more exciting as the river was about 3 times as wide and flowing fast in the other direction. At points it was very shallow and so they would have to accelerate the boat up to the shallow bits and hope that we’d drift far enough to get through them with the help of a man with a long stick. Got there after 3 hours though and instantly wished we were still moving as it was really humid.
Our first excursion was to go and see parrots with another group which involved a long piece of rope and a steep climb. We eventually got everyone up to the top where we were able to see loads of parrots flying about but this was soon forgotten when it took ages to get everyone back down again and the other group were getting frantic as they were due to be getting the boat back to Rurrenabaque that afternoon. We made it eventually although I think they were cutting it a bit fine.

After a bonfire and a hot humid night with lots of mosquitoes (they seemed to like Emma and Judith the best) we went pig hunting in the jungle. We walked for about 4 ½ hours looking for pigs but failed miserably finding only the smelly puddles that they like to live in. We learnt lots about the trees and the plants though and got to mess about on a rope swing for a while. This was followed by the less strenuous activity in the afternoon of making rings out of little coconuts which was fun but soon lost its appeal when the mosquitoes realised we were standing still, the boat eventually arrived to take us back
We expected to have one more night in Rurrenabaque and fly out the next morning so we were a bit annoyed when we got to the tour office to find we’d been put on a later flight and would have to hang around for a day in the middle of nowhere. We found ourselves a room in a hostel but it didn’t have a fan so we decided to spray it with insect killing stuff and go out for a few hours for food and sangria. Unfortunately when we got back the whole room smelt like furniture polish and we were convinced we were all going to be poisoned in our sleep! We made it through the night though and I think the mosquito bites were pretty minimal as well.

We discovered that there was a swimming pool and so ended up spending most of the next day there before going back to the office we thought to get a flight. The lady then told us that they hadn’t been able to put us on that flight as due to a cancelled flight a few days earlier people in front of us were getting priority. We kicked up a fuss especially after we realised that two of us had been on the flight but taken off it and I think to shut us up we were given free accommodation for the night and promised that we’d be able to leave the next day (weather permitting!).
As we hadn’t been expecting to be stuck in the jungle for 2 days extra we had nothing to do and in the evening it started to pour with rain so we were just sitting in the room getting bored. We tried singing but gave up after a while when we ran out of songs and so decided that the only think to do was to try to fit the stale wafer biscuits we’d bought into our mouths sideways. It’s amazing what becomes amusing when there is no entertainment. We eventually got bored again and decided to brave the rain and get some food and drink pretty much convinced that the runway wasn’t going to be dry enough the next day but determined to stay cheerful – hence the need for more sangria.
Amazingly enough the rain stopped and after a few hours of sunlight in the morning the plane arrived from La Paz and we left at 12-30 (not until we’d bought T-shirts from the bar we’d spent most of our night to remind ourselves of being stranded in the jungle). It was quite a relief to get back to cold La Paz after all the humidity.