Bolivia: Pampas, Jungle, and La Paz

Our first stop in “Rurre” (as the locals call Rurrenabaque) was at our excursion company to hear a very brief description of what was to happen the next day, confirm information, pay our national park entrance fees, and meet our guide. After this, we proceeded to our local hostel where it looked like all of the hostel-goers were already a few adult beverages deep into drinking games and gave us the awkward “hello” as we walked by. Before finding a spot for dinner we took a quick walk around Rurre and hiked up about 600’ (for me), and maybe another 100’ for Jenna, to find a good viewpoint to catch an awesome sunset over the small town and Amazon jungle in the distance. Finding the trail was a tad interesting, however, since we basically walked through someone’s property to find the broken concrete steps that start the trail up. It wouldn’t be an adventure if everything was 100% how it’s supposed to be though. Eventually we found a decent place to order individual pizzas – no where near as good as Chicago, but they sufficed – and we headed back to the hostel to try falling asleep through drunken trivia night.

Sunset Views over Rurrenabaque

Next morning we were picked up by the excursion company and headed off from their HQ into the pampas. The pampas is a national park in a flatland area with rivers running through it.  Little did we know the nearly 3-hr drive would be 90% on an unpaved, torn up, rip rap/dirt/clay mixture of a road with construction zones almost the entire way. Thinking back, this probably should’ve been expected as we headed into an even more remote area than a town with the simplest airport I’ve ever been through. We made it in one piece though and got to see a few sloths in trees along the route!

Sloth in Top Middle of Tree

After unloading from the SUV and loading back into a long, wooden canoe we headed down the Yacuma River for about five (5) minutes to our lodge. To my surprise the huts we stayed in were actually very clean and cozy. The company blended comfortability and simplicity, while keeping the feel of staying in a very remote area quite well. The inside was simple with tiled flooring in the main and bathroom areas, and a shower that shared the same flooring space with the toilet and bathroom sink. Since we were quick in opening and closing the hut door, we didn’t even need to use the mosquito net to sleep at night.

Pampas EcoLodge Hut

After settling in, we were treated to a traditional Bolivian lunch of rice, meat, beet and lettuce salad, and mixed vegetables (not quite comparable to our Salkantay Trail meals, but it did the job). We had around 90 minutes to waste between lunch and heading back out on the water so we decided to lay in hammocks reading/napping. Howler monkeys in the area had other ideas, however, as one in particular decided to start howling for nearly fifteen minutes giving us a preview of the next morning’s wake up alarm. Video is on my Facebook page if you want to listen to their howl.

Everything eventually died back down and we headed back out on the water to start exploring the surroundings. First up was swimming – only Bolivian-style which we found out meant heading to an area where the pink dolphins like to gather and wading/standing on the muddy bottom hoping the dolphins interact with you. Lucky for us they felt quite playful that day as everyone in our group was at least grazed by a dolphin. A French father and his kids we were in the same area and at one point he shrieked that a dolphin had bitten his ass, so some saw a little more action than others. Not everyone was as willing to get in the water at first as we were told piranhas and caiman (type of alligator) also inhabited the area and are seen frequently. Our guide persuaded us by saying any area dolphins are in is considered a safe area as piranhas/caiman and dolphins are very rarely in the same area at the same time. Along the way to and from the swimming spot we also took in several different types of birds, capybaras, monkeys, and more pink dolphins. Post dinner, which was similar to our lunch, we took our motor-powered canoe back out on the Yacuma to search for more wildlife. We stayed out long enough to catch a mosquito-infested sunset from the riverbank before heading back to camp while searching out caiman eyes in the darkness. They’re much easier to spot in the dark with flashlights reflecting off their eyes just on top of the water level.

After a good night’s rest we headed back out onto the Yacuma by canoe to take in the animal morning activities. The first hour was quite boring as nothing seemed to be awake for the day yet. All things changed though as we came around a corner pulling up behind another canoe full of tourists from our company whose guide signaled to our guide that they had found an anaconda. My first reaction was fear to be honest, but that quickly went away after realizing we had come on this excursion to see things like this so I might as well get over it and enjoy because who knows if you’ll ever be able to see an anaconda again. Jenna had other ideas as she looked like she’d rather take her chances jumping into the Yacuma to swim with potential caiman than have to get near an anaconda. Turns out the anaconda was only a baby (maybe 7-foot long and quite thick) and it was already dead. This still didn’t take away from the shock and awe of actually getting to see an anaconda in real life. Our group snapped a few pictures and kept on down the river where we would eventually run into some squirrel monkeys hanging out on some bushes growing just above the river level. We interacted with them for about ten (10) minutes and Jenna was even touched by one as it grabbed some leaves out of her hand! Before heading back to the lodge to begin towards our jungle portion of the tour we unsuccessfully tried our hands at line fishing for piranhas and catfish. After almost 20 years of trying, fishing and I still seem to not be meant for each other.

One last surprise awaited us as we headed back up the Yacuma to our SUV for the jungle. Our English and Scottish friends, Laura and Andy, spotted a rare caiman on the riverbank. Our guide quickly whipped our canoe around so we could get close enough to take some pics/video before it slinked back into the water. Taking into account everything we saw in the limited amount of time I’d say the pampas portion was a complete success to start the trip!

Caiman Tucked Up on the Riverbank

After around five (5) hours of traveling by SUV and motor-powered canoe up the Beni and Tuichi Rivers we finally dropped gear at the Mashaquipe Jungle EcoLodge. Some of the views were Jurassic Park-esque as we travelled up the rivers to the EcoLodge with thick jungles, mountains, a canyon, and indigenous tribal villages in the surrounding landscapes. We settled into our new hut quickly, ate a buffet-style dinner of rice, pasta, chicken, and vegetables, and were briefed about our plans for the next day before calling it a night.

The next day’s breakfast was another hearty buffet of eggs, local sweet cornbread, pancakes, and fruit – still nowhere near our Machu Picchu feasts, but certainly nothing to complain about. Soon after, we packed our daypacks and headed off down a jungle trail to hopefully run into any of the local wildlife, including: jaguars, pumas, bears, wild pigs, tapirs, armadillos, monkeys, macaws, other birds, and some of the what seemed like 20 different species of ants that call this area home. Right off the bat and maybe 1,000 feet into the trail we ran into jaguar footprints. This eventually led us to what our guide described as a jaguar house farther down the trail. Somewhat regretfully and somewhat thankfully, we didn’t end up running into a jaguar on our walk, but our guide explained that jaguars usually run away from humans if encountered anyway since contact is so rare. The rest of the walk was quite uneventful besides our group chasing after some wild pigs making quite a ruckus in the distance, but we never got close enough to snap any pictures or videos.

In the afternoon we packed our bags to head off for one of the company’s campsites (about a 3-hr hike) where we would end up staying for the second night of the jungle portion of the excursion. Hiking in the afternoon heat of the Bolivian jungle is neither the smartest, nor the most effective thing to do with one’s energy, but we all successfully completed the hike (fully soaked in sweat albeit) and sat down to play euchre with our new European friends while trying to cool off. This campsite right near a small creek was quite basic with three (3) shelters – one each for eating, sleeping, and cooking. We ended up laying our sleeping bags on top of cushions which rested on a wooden elevated surface sitting about two (2) feet off the ground. Mosquito nets were strung over and tucked around our sleeping arrangements and tah-dah! We had completed our campsite. Our jungle cook prepared us roast beef, rice, and a vegetable salad after which we continued our game of euchre. The best part of the night was still to come little did we know. During the card playing, Jenna went to hang a shirt to dry out overnight within the eating area and about ran hand-first into a tiger spider the size of ketchup bottle. This was about the worst possible thing we could find just before trying to fall asleep in the wide-open jungle campsite with just mosquito nets around us for protection. We all cringed, took a few photos for those that could stomach it, and hastily got ready for and crawled into bed. The sooner we could fall asleep and the morning light would hit the better!

Jenna's New Best Friend

Despite being convinced something walked through the campsite while Jenna was reading and our guide finding more jaguar tracks down at the river not more than 100 feet from camp, we all woke up the next morning unscathed – aside from endless mosquito bites. We wolfed down a quick breakfast, packed our bags, and continued down the trail another three (3) hours in total making stops at red-and-green macaw viewing sites, another campsite we bypassed for camping a second night, and finally the Tuichi riverbank again. The first macaw viewpoint was incredible as we stood on the cliffside approx. 150 feet above the jungle canopy watching the bright red, green, and blue birds soar around and then land in vines and overhanging tree branches 40 feet away from us. We quietly shuffled up and down the cliffside to get different angles of their activities as they bumped one another from branches, pecked each other, and squawked quite loudly. It was definitely worth the hike in the Bolivian heat for those views. The birds are gorgeously colorful and always fly in pairs in perfect unison.  To end the second jungle day, we – with the help of our tour guide – strung together makeshift rafts using old surrounding indigenous tribe methods to float back down to the Mashaquipe Jungle EcoLodge. Everyone made it back alive, without falling, and without sinking so it’s safe to say our engineering skills are still alive and kicking. The only other eventful thing to happen this day was one of the local guides finding a Brazilian rainbow boa slithering near his hut which was a good distance away from the tourist huts and eating area. Seeing an anaconda and a boa in the same trip is quite a rarity so we were definitely lucky.

Our final day in the jungle involved heading back downriver towards Rurre to visit an indigenous village – actually one that neighbored the village where our guide grew up. Walking around the village we learned how to make sugar cane juice (which has been claimed responsible for producing indeterminable amounts of the indigenous village children), toured some of village houses which are partially funded by the Bolivian government, observed family gardens, and peaked inside one of the schools built by the European Union which was closed as they are on winter vacation currently. These kinds of tours make you even more grateful for what you have as quite a few people get by in the world with far less than a below-average first-world country family. Finally, we ended the excursion by returning to Rurre to have lunch with our guide and European friends, and awaiting our return flight to La Paz at around 6:00 that night.

The first official day in La Paz was pretty uneventful besides hopping on a walking tour of the city that took us to several of the markets. We learned a little about their president and current country situation as well. La Paz is quite the strange place with identical activity shops and food stalls situated right next to one another. In one block alone I think we counted twelve (12) prescription glasses stores, with the next block over being dedicated to dental offices. The same is true for food stalls which makes no sense. I would have to say La Paz seems to be the poorest city we've visited in our travels so far. It seems they are trying to incorporate new ideas into their city with cable cars and other activities, and the towering mountains in the background of the cityscape make for great views. But walking around the actual city just doesn't give off the same vibe. It's quite a sprawled out city with the airport and more dangerous surrounding areas being situated around 1,000 feet above the downtown area. The downtown area is then divided into Bolivian-influenced and Spanish-influenced areas, with the Spanish areas being newer as they came into rule much later in the country's history. Most typical dishes involve a combination of beef, chicken, fish, rice, potatoes, noodles, and vegetables. Bolivians love carbs and love fried foods!

We decided on the second day to test out our insurance policies by signing up to bike down the "World's Most Dangerous Road," aka "Death Road". Our morning started out by driving around an hour to the starting point, passing through police checkpoints along the way. The first few sections were on a paved highway where we cruised around 70 - 80 kph (45 - 50 mph) weaving our way through other slower tour groups and local Bolivian drivers. Every few kilometers we would stop to learn about potential hazards in the next section, stories of tragic crashes at that particular spot, and stop to take pictures of the views on the perfect, cloudless day. Eventually, we hopped back into the transport van where we were driven to the start of the real "Death Road" that wasn't paved. This is where it got interesting as our guide told us of several of the accidents that have happened along the way, most of which ended in death - from an Australian guy who decided to build a ramp to bike off the edge of the road into a basejump which naturally went horribly wrong (YouTube "death road basejump"), to a corner on the route where 109 people died from one accident, to several Israelis being overconfident and going overboard. We're noticing a trend in that Israelis seem to be involved in many of the serious injury or death cases with the more extreme activities.

I digress...we started out down the dirt and gravel World's Most Dangerous Road (WMDR) riding as much as we could on the side closest to the 300/400m, 85-degree cliffs as we were instructed to do. Their reasoning was that this would give vehicles traveling up the road more reaction time as most of the curves were blind to some degree. As long as you focus on the road and not wiping out you honestly don't notice how horrible a death you could face until you hit your next stopping point! The WMRD was filled with sketchy corners, all types of loose gravel and larger rocks, creek crossings, and crosses or other landmarks where tragedies had happened. I'd guess that 99% of the route was downhill or flat so legs were used as a balancing point essentially. Neither Jenna nor I had any idea how much of the ride would be absorbed by our arms and upper body as you have to keep a constantly strong, but relaxed, grip on the handlebars at all times due to the bumpiness of the road. I won't bore you with details around the course as most sections had the same obstacles, just in different varieties. Video(s) should be posted on my Facebook eventually of parts of the ride, or maybe just one collage depending on how energetic I feel.

We ended the tour by stopping to walk around and eat at a non-profit animal refuge facility in Corioco where we saw tapirs, capybaras, monkeys, deer, a coati, and turtles. After we had finished eating, Jenna and I joined about five (5) others from our group in taking on a three (3) run zipline course in the area. We flew superman-style across the valleys at around 75 - 80 kph (~50mph) over nearly a mile of line. Quite the finish to an action-packed day and time in La Paz! We hopped back on our transport bus for the three (3) hour ride back to La Paz and are currently trying to put our lives together again as we head off to finish out our time in South America.

Chau, Chau!!