Rurrenabaque (Bolivia)

 

This week we had the pleasure of going on an adventure in the jungle and pampas of Bolivia! After our time in Argentina, we were excited to see what this new country would bring. Our first stop was in the jungle town of Rurrenabaque, a small settlement that has grown from about 30 families to 25,000 people! It is the tourist entry-way to the selva (jungle) and pampas (grasslands) which we embarked on exploring through a 5-day tour. 

Our first day was to the jungle, which made us a bit worried because there was heavy rain the night before and our hostel had flooded! (Don’t worry, only in the shared areas, the beds were thankfully raised up). We started in an indigenous village to learn about the different jungle flora and fauna, joined by a couple from France. This included an introduction to termites, a favorite of the crazy people who chose to do an extended “survivor” tour where you’re handed a machete and told to show up at the end location x days later. (Unsurprisingly, we didn’t go anywhere near that kind of tour). Our guide, a true man of the jungle, sticks out his tongue to lick some off before offering us the same buffet. Unsurprisingly, the French lost no time in taking their own sample…not to be one-upped, Sunny and I did the same. While nasty to think about, they had a nice wood smoke flavor so perhaps I could survive if stranded in the jungle after all.

Favorites from the village included mangos, cocoa fruit (the beans of which are used to make chocolate) and fresh squeezed sugar cane juice which we produced using the old-fashioned method of interlocking gears. Sunny’s ancestors would be proud, since this is they way they would make it in India too.

To get to our jungle lodge we took a boat ride up the river with stunning scenery. Upon arrival we were greeted with fresh juice and allowed a nap before our first trek into the trees to learn about the fauna but mostly the flora. We were taught how to find water in the jungle, which plants were poisonous, and about the psychedelic root ayahuasca, used by shamans even today. When a little indigestion hit we were give tea with roots from the jungle but the coolest was probably seeing how our guide was able to use a specific kind of ant as jungle stitches.

The next day we went on a 15km walk through the jungle searching for monkeys. It was in a word, hot. We did not, in fact, find monkeys, but we did see some macaws and huge jungle trees. The highlight was returning to our jungle lodge by raft which we built using logs and rope as the native people used to do. A refreshing end to a humid trek.

After a night sleeping to jungle sounds, it was time to transfer to the Pampas (grasslands). The road there was an adventure in itself: there was a road requiring a toll but half the road was actually unusable! There were regular dirt piles in the middle of the road our driver had to navigate around and sometimes we left pavement entirely to ride on the older dirt road parallel, which kicked up a massive dust clouds. The highlight was seeing a sloth on the roadside in a tree!

Upon arrival we transferred to a small boat to go searching for wildlife. We were considerably more lucky here than the jungle, spotting monkeys, alligators and caymans, capybara (the largest rodent on earth), tortoises, many birds, and the elusive pink river dolphins. These dolphins used to migrate into the river then back to the ocean. However, about 3,500 years ago the connection to the ocean got blocked and the dolphins stuck. The since evolved to freshwater over salt, and have the pink hue most when they have traveled a long distance (the same way we turn red when we sweat). Unfortunately the water was too low to swim with “flipper” but it was super cool to catch a glimpse! On the way back it was dark so we could see the shine of cayman eyes in the river.

Our second day we tried our hand at fishing which was terribly unsuccessful- luckily our lunch didn’t depend on it! Instead, we focused on the boat rides and were treated to a beautiful sunset over the lake. Sunny enjoyed being in charge of checking depth with a long pole.

Our final day we had an excursion to look for the elusive anaconda. This was out in the grasslands, a true representation of what the Pampas means. We didn’t manage to find one (I blame Sunny’s strong aversion to snakes from the beginning as the reason) but had fun wading through waist-high grasses feeling like true adventurers. We did manage to spot some enormous storks, a natural predator of the anacondas so a great excursion to wrap up an exceptional week of adventure!