We then went to Santa Cruz where we got quite a shock at the change in the weather. For so long we have been in cool to cold conditions and all of a sudden we are sweltering in the humidity. I liked Santa Cruz. It´s a laid back place, probably because it´s too hot to do anything anyway.
We arranged to do a 2 day trip into the Amboro National Park (the beginnings of the jungle). You start from a small town near Santa Cruz called Buena Vista - another very laid back and pretty place. We set off with our guide (nicknamed "Chicken"??), a driver and a lady from the office(?) in another knackered 4WD. The drive to the park was cool, if you like being thrown around in the back of a 4WD, which we do. However, we came to the river that you normally take a canoe across and due to some
recent heavy rains, the river had risen too much and was moving too rapidly for a canoe to cross. We were pretty disappointed about aborting the mission but had no choice. So back to Santa Cruz.
Fortunately, 2 days later the river had gone down and the company did us a deal so off we went to try again. This time we were successful in our mission. The drive from Santa Cruz to Buena Vista was memorable thanks to the gas station we went to. The attendants (you don´t put the petrol in yourself) are all young females dressed in short white skirts/tight white trousers and tight red halterneck tops??!! Classic. Very practical attire for filling up cars. What year are we in? We even caught one touching up her makeup.
Anyway, in Buena Vista we jumped again in the 4WD and went a different way this time. The "track" (if you can call it that) was, well, ridiculous. There was no track. However, our slightly insane driver would not be put off by huge boulders in the way nor large ditches, he simply giggled and drove straight over them. Dylan kept saying, "there´s no way he´ll get up there", only to be proved very wrong.
After our somewhat bumpy drive we came to the point where we started to walk. The park is beautiful- lots of streams you walk through, waterfalls, trees, amazingly coloured butterflys etc. This may sound weird but it felt liberating to be walking across streams in my sandels. Must be all those years working in an office...
We saw tiny frogs all over the place, lots of different birds and some very noisy monkeys. The highlight for me was when we were having dinner around the camp fire and a large frog hopped up alongside us. He seemed to be ignoring us and it became clear why this was so when we saw a large black beatle in the frog´s line of vision. All of a sudden the frog nabbed the beatle with his tongue - it took about half a second. The frog then hopped around us for a while and then left. Very cool.
Next we moved onto Rurrenabaque, right in the Amazon jungle. Part of the flight up there was via an old DC3 plane. Dylan tells me they used them in the 2nd world war and that airlines stopped using them in 1947! I was slightly concerned about this but was assured that the planes were fine. The plane was, I must say, gorgeous (even to a non-plane spotter). It was in excellent condition and I felt like I was in an old movie. The inside was totally refurbished too. The flight was much smoother than I thought it would be and we landed safely. The pilots were even wearing the old style leather pilot jackets.
Dylan says: Today, the DC-3 is still finding its greatest use in specialized roles with some third world military forces and is commercially useful in some back country and bush areas particularly because of its operating costs, its ability to perform from rough fields and with its low maintenance, these are virtues to be considered ahead of the modern designs.
Kat says: thanks for that. Now, I thought Santa Cruz was humid. It has nothing on Rurrenabaque. I thought I was going to melt into a puddle. I have discovered that I don´t do extreme humidity very well. Rurre is another laid back (it has to be) town with a good pub with very cold beer (which we drank lots of). This is where we ran into Steve and Jane (for those who know them). The world is definitely a small place. We had also met a really nice Aussie guy called Dwayne (who is a friend of one of my old friends from law school - Rod). So it was beers all round.
The next morning we left (with Dwayne) in yet another 4WD on a pampas tour. It was just the 3 of us and our guide Carlos. Carlos was great - he didn´t speak much English but with my limited spanish we got by. Also, he was so enthusiastic about all the animals that it didn´t matter about the language barrier. Carlos had eagle eye vision and could spot an animal miles away. On the way, he spotted in the trees on the side of the road a sloth carrying a baby sloth. God knows how he spotted it but we were glad he did. We had never seen a sloth before!.
The area you go into isn´t what you´d call strict jungle, more like wetlands. We stayed in a lodge the company has which was very peaceful. We spent the couple of days in a canoe going along the river looking for animals. We saw lots too. There were hundreds (or so it seemed) of aligators of various sizes. They all seemed to enter the water as we passed them (yes, I almost pooed my pants on a number of occasions). At one stage we found a gang of squirrel monkeys - they are gorgeous. So small. We stopped next to the tree they were in and they all came down to see us. It was amazing to be so close to them.
There were also lots of small turtles sitting on branches in the water and when they are in the water they pop their tiny heads up to have a quick look and disappear again - so cute!! Also in this river there are pink dophins! We saw quite a few of those too. All in all, a great trip (except the billion or so mossies).
Next, we went on a 3 day tour into the jungle. We stayed at a beautiful place called the Chalalan Lodge. The lodge was built and is run by the local Chalalan community, with all profits going back into the community. This has made them self sufficient (so they don´t have to argue for government assistance for running a school etc).
The lodge is stunning, right in the middle of the jungle sitting alongside a lake. Our guide was excellent - very knowledgeable and very concerned about conservation etc. We went on a number of walks on different trails through the jungle with our guide (can´t recall his name) telling us all about different trees/plants and their medicinal uses. We saw less wildlife here but the plant life made up for it. We did see a couple of Toucans (which was my main aim - they´re great), macaws, lots and lots of monkeys, various birds, caymans, more frogs and a number of large ugly looking spiders. The spiders did not concern me as much as the enormous ants called 24 hour ants (named so due to their sting lasting 24 hours). They were huge and they were everywhere. I kept my boots on at all times!
We then flew back to La Paz (this time in a 12 seater Cesna) and from there to Lima where we are now waiting for a flight up to Ecuador. Our plane was due to take off at 10.55am and has been delayed to 3pm. We´ve been at the airport since 8am. Aarrgh. Oh well,we got a free lunch voucher from the airline, may as well go and use it...
