Anyhow, on April 15th I met with Petra and Tobi from Cologne to fly to Rurrenabaque. I met the two in the hotel in Cochabamba.
Our airline was TAM (Transpuerto Aero Militar) because they had a promotion going on for flights to Rurre. Yes, that's right, an airline operated by the military.
Our plane was an old military transport airplane o_O The luggage was stowed behind the pilots and the separation screen in between was fixed with simple iron angles that were screwed to the hull.
Also the illuminated sign was fixed with simple screws (see left side), an experience :D
At the airport in Rurre we, as so often, had to bargain with the taxi drivers about the fare. The first offer is always that for "Gringos"... Always the same, 10 Bs per person!!! Forget it, we're not going to pay that, 10 Bs for the three of us! Ok, 5 Bs per Person. Ok, let's go. So we took a Tuk-Tuk into Rurre. In one of the curves I almost fell out of the Tuk-Tuk because the guy was going so fast.
Rurrenabaque is located at the river Rio Beni and is a nice, quaint town. Because the rainy season is just about over there are few tourists in the city.
Can you believe that they have been working on this bridge for 5 years! It's being built and paid for by the Chinese. I'll enable them to exploit the rain forest and later on to build plantations and cow farms. It's a shame but those who have the money and so on. Who can blame a poor country like Bolivia to sell its future. This is one more reason that Evo Morales isn't in everybodys favor. And as all loons he'll try to get re-elected in 2020. The law doesn't allow it but laws can be changed. So 2020 is going to be very interesting for Bolivia and there my be major protests if Evo will be running for president again.
An April 16th we went on our way to the jungle. Our travel agency was Madidi Travel. Madidi is the name of the local natural reserve. It was founded by the owner of Madidi Travel who's a local environmentalist. However, she was "thrown out" of her park by the military and so founded a new Eco Lodge. It's called Serere and is located about 40km north of Rurrenabaque in primary rain forest. So we need a boat to get there, three hours down stream.
Here you can see Tobi, Petra, Claudia from Frankonia and yours truly. The man without a head is Roberto our guide.
In the sekundary rain forest along the river there are settlements of indigenous people who try to avoid zivilisation.
The landing place was really interesting. There was only a post to moore the boat.
Then we had to walk to the lodge through the forest for about 2km. Already on the way there we saw insects and even a fresh Jaguar track.
Also the first poison arrow frog.
Luckily the agency had supplied us with rubber boots because the track was very muddy in parts.
The biggest ants in the jungle are the Bullet Ants. Their bite is extremely painful and they are rather big.
The lodge was a real surprise. Instead of wooden walls it had fly screens :)
The first thing Roberto warned us about was the Boro. That's the local name of the bot fly. It captures moskitos and lays its larvae on the moskito. As soon as the moskito sits on its prey the larvae lets go and digs into your skin. There it grows to up 2cm and more... For this reason we also shouldn't leave any of our clothes outside at night. Maybe you remember Diana? She had one of these larvae in her arm. Unfortunately you encounter them in all of Middle and South America... However, I guess that the damage done to my health by the amounts of insekt repellent will be bigger than that done by the moskitos...
I really liked the pantry for the fruits and vegetables...
But the most impressive part was the kitchen!
On the left was the oven.
To the right of it the "stove" or better the cooking place. And the meals which were prepared there were excellent, wow.
After dinner we went for a night walk in the jungle. It started with us going around the house looking for animals there. Under the porch were a couple of vampire bats.
Also a small tarantula (about 4cm) was living there.
Then we took our head lamps and followed tracks into the jungle. All the time we were surrounded by a cloud of moskitos. That was the price for there being few tourists. In the dry season, July till September it's the other way around ;)
We saw tons of spiders.
Even a porcupine which was up in a tree. And of course any number of cockroaches, this one was about 5cm in length :) Isn't she beautiful?
The next day we went on a moring tour looking for monkeys. Doing so we were passing by hughe ant hills. Here's one of leave cutter ants. You can see pieces of leaves moving all around :) The "ant hill" is about 4-5 meters in diameter on the surface. It's a little bigger than the ones you can see in a zoo.
The trak got narrower and narrower and soon Roberto got out his matchete to give us more space.
There are also some butterflies. This one is about the size of my palm and metallic blue on top of its wings. Unfortunately you can only see this in flight so there are no fotos this.
And then we came by a group of capucin monkeys and yellow monos. Again it was really difficult to get a good picture with the little light there was.
And then, there it was, a Tapir. A really wild animal...
And for some bananas it did almost anything :D She belongs to the lodge and comes and goes as she pleases. She really likes to get petted...
In the afternoon we took a boat and went out on the lake. This used to be a part of the river before it changed its course. We sailed along the bank to look for birds. Here's a Serere which gave the lodge its name. Unfortunately they are very shy and are mostly in the foliage.
The next morning Roberto surprised us with a rat snake which was about 2m long.
Afterwards we started out for Pinky Lake to catch some Piranhas. However the way there wasn't easy. First we had to paddle for about an hour to get to the other side of the lake. From there we went on by foot and there was a lot of water, or so we thought.
Then there was even more water and we used all the rubber that our boots had to offer :D
When we got to the lake we had to discover that the boat there had been stolen! Unbelievable!!! And then came the downpour, just as you would expect in a rain forest. Visibility was down to about 20m and after an hour we were wet to the bone. Still we cought 6 Piranhas. Ok, Tobi, Petra and Roberto did. The rest of us were only feeding the Piranhas. It's unbelievable how sharp their teeth are. You can see tiny fish swim by the bait and take junks out of it! That was beef!!! Unbelievable! However, as long as you're not bleeding or get a rub down with beef you could even bathe in the lake. At least according to Roberto.
On the way back the water was really deep and in parts was above our knees, wow. And such a 2h hike with soaked feet in rubber boots is an experience. As we reached the boat we then had to pilge water for 5 minutes before we could make our way back across the lake... Then we went out on the lake and the sun was already setting. Shortly after we saw a boat with motor which was already searching for us. So at least we didn't have to paddle back :)
Then half way back from far off we saw some spider monkeys in a hughe tree. A great sight. However, we were very tired at that time.
The next morning a couple of newcommers went out on the lake. As they'd patted the Tapir before that it wanted to ride along. The guide only said "Tapir in boat, big problem!" Everybody was loughing and then the Tappir went into the water. Rarely have I seen people paddeling that fast :D
Only after about 100m the Tapir gave up, that was funny :D
We then made our way into the jungle searching for howler monkeys and sloths. We really looked everywhere but without success...
Only a small Boa, about 20cm, wasn't quick enough...
Some of these trees are really huge and more than 1000 years old.
Before our way back home we had lunch and as an add on the Piranhas from the day before... The small ones are easy to eat but the big ones have a lot of bones.
Then we went back on the river to sail back to Rurre. On the river we then saw a lot of King Fishers and Capybaras. A great trip.
Back in zivilisation we then found out that our flight back the next day had been canceled.
Early on Friday morning we went into the TAM office. The woman there practically begged us to take the flight on Sunday :D I guess that one would have been canceled otherwise as well... So we had two additional days in Rurre.
That evening we said goodbye to Claudia who was leaving early the next day. Then we went out for a round of Billards and around 11 p.m. were looking for a bar. We asked a few moto taxi drivers and they recommended us the Moskito Bar.
There we met Andrés and Jorge from Columbia. The two own a company in town and are working for road construction. We agreed to visit them the next day to have a look at their company.
But first we had to get a taxi. As we told him where we wanted to go he told us that that would be veeeery far (less than 7km!!!). Also he'd only ever drive to the airport and wouldn't know where it was. So I showed him on GoogleMaps. He'd have to call his brother!? After some back and forth we were rather annoyed. I asked him what the problem was and after not getting an answer we made to get out of the taxi. Ok, ok, no problem, we go.
Ok, how much is the fare?
70 Bs.
Aaaaahahaha, are you kidding us!?
No, it's veeeery far.
Listen, we'll pay you 15 Bs per person and that's already too much.
No, 60 Bs.
Then we left the taxi. good thing there was a stand of moto taxis right around the corner. They only wanted to have 10 Bs per person. That was an interesting experience :D
Then we arrived at Andrés' and Jorges' company.
The ground from the river is seperated into its components. Differently sized gravel and sand. This is then used to build roads and bridges. Right next door was a Chinese concrete factory.
If we ever come to Medellin we now have a place to go to :)
As we couldn't call a taxi for our way back Andrés and Jorge took their scooters and drove us back.
