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| Us in our 19 passenger Plane |
This
past week the other volunteers and I took a trip to the Amazon. It started waking up very early to catch a
taxi at 4 in the morning to go to the airport in El Alto. From the airport we took a 45 minute flight
down the mountains in a 19 passenger plane to Rurrenabaque. It was a little bumpy ride being in such a
little plane especially when we hit a bit of turbulence. Once our plane landed in Rurre, we were
surrounded by trees. We were standing on
the runway but couldn’t see the airport terminal. Finally a small bus took us down a dirt path
that led us to the itty bitty shack called the terminal. The terminal was so small that it only has
one “Gate”. From there we loaded up in a
taxi and headed to the city. Rurre is a
small village of maybe 15,000 people (I think less) that sits on the side of
the huge Amazonian river called Rio Beni.
The rest of the village is bordered by jungle. We had a little bit of time before our jeeps
showed up so we went to find some breakfast.
I stumbled across a small panaderia which seemed nice so I ordered up a
coffee and omelet and sat by the road watching people go by. Out of the corner of my eye I just happened
to see some familiar faces. All this way
away from La Paz and I see someone I know.
So weird. It was a group of
Germans I had just met a few weeks earlier that are volunteering in a small
village some 10 hour bus ride away from La Paz near the city of Sucre. Well after breakfast, we all loaded up in our
jeeps and headed off into the wilderness.
It was a 3 hour ride down a dirt road.
Let’s just say that the shocks on those jeeps got a workout. It had to be the roughest road I had ever
been on. Finally, we made it to a small
town named Santa Rosa where we stopped for lunch before heading on.
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| The dirt Road to Santa Rosa |
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| There were many cows scattered all up and down the sides of the road |
After
lunch we loaded back into the jeeps and headed 10 more minutes down the road to
the river. Once there we took all our
things out of the jeeps and put them into some long skinny river boats. We then headed up river for another 2 hours
stopping every once in a while to look at birds, pink dolphins, and to play
with monkeys. Playing with monkeys was
fun. All you need to do is pull up near
to them in the branches that hang over the river and hold a banana in your
hand. Next thing we knew monkeys were in
our boats jumping on people’s heads and trying to take our bananas. Eventually we made it to our eco lodge that
sat in the edge of the river with water all around it. It seemed like a nice place. There were a handful of hammocks hanging out
front over the river and a few lounging chairs on a deck. Also there were a few hungry alligators and
caimans hanging around the camp. We
couldn’t resist playing with them and trying to grab them by the tail. After getting settled in, we jumped back into
the boats and headed up the river to a place with a dock the overlooked a flood
field where there is always a beautiful sunset.
Once the sun was gone, we returned to the camp and had an amazing
dinner. Luckily since it was a vacation
we had a group of lovely women who prepared breakfast, lunch and dinner for us
each day. After dinner we relaxed and
played some pool and ping-pong before going to bed. Luckily each bed had a mosquito net because
the mosquitoes came out in force at night.
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| Us cruising down the river in our boats |
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| Me feeding a monkey a Banana |
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| Monkeys climbing on peoples heads trying to get to the Bananas |
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| Alligator waiting for a bite to eat |
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| He was chilling right out side the door to my room |
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| Me tuggin' on the tail of an alligator (I don't think he enjoyed it) |
Our
second day of life on the river started with a nice breakfast from our lovely
cooks. As I was waiting for them to
finish, I chilled on the deck watching the river flow by and the birds flying
around in the air. After our amazing
breakfast we loaded up in our boats and headed up stream to a dry piece of land
that was surrounded by flooded swampland.
Our goal was to find the Anaconda and to look for other snakes. Right off the bat we found a baby rattlesnake
basking in the sun. We kept our distance
because this little rattlesnake packs one heck of a venomous bite. So we snapped a few pictures and kept
searching for other snakes. It wasn’t
long before we encountered an anaconda.
Anacondas are not poisonous but are constrictors, which mean they
squeeze the life out of their prey before eating them. We proceeded to hold it and snap a few photos
of us with this deadly mythical creature in our hands. To find these creatures in the rainy season
is a bit more difficult because the river is so much higher and everything is
flooded which allows them to spread out in a greater expanse of water. After searching on the small island a little
longer we decided to go to a flooded field to continue looking for more
snakes. We trekked through swampy waters
from ankle to knee deep with high grass at our sides. It was a little intimidating, but the sense
of adventure was pulsing through our veins.
We eventually encountered a handful of other small anacondas which we wrestled
into submission…. After loading back up
into our boats, we headed back to the camp where I chilled in my hammock
waiting for lunch. And as I was lying
there, Pedro (a giant caiman) was just a few feet away waiting for his lunch as
well….
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| Poisonous Rattle Snake |
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| Me holding the deadly Anaconda |
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| Me chilling in the Hammock with the Caiman chilling just a little ways away |
After
lunch we decided to go swimming with pink river dolphins. So we went down the river until we found some
dolphins. Once we pulled up to the spot the
guide told me to jump in. I didn’t let
it show but a little sense of fear trembled through my body as I stood there and
thought about the idea. Finally I manned
up and dove over the side of the boat into the murky waters. I was soon followed by many others. We treaded water in the center as dolphins swam
around us brushing up against someone every once in-a-while (or at least we
hope they were dolphins). Now that we
were in the water having fun we didn’t think much about the anacondas, caimans,
or piranhas much but we still made sure to stay away from the edges of the
river just in case. The guide said that
when dolphins were in an area that usually there were no other predators in the
water but I sure didn’t see them swimming in the waters. We chased the dolphins around and around
until they finally got tired of us and left.
So we loaded up in the boats and went to find more. We found some more and swam with them a bit
until again they left. Exhausted from
treading water and cutting flips off the fronts of the boats we climbed back
into the boats and made our way back towards camp. We took showers and got ready for
dinner. After dinner while it was dark
we got back in the boats with spotlights and went down the river looking for
the glowing red eyes of the caimans. It was
pretty interesting and to hear the sounds of the jungle coming alive at night
was amazing.
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| Me chilling in the water as the other guys are flipping in |
On Thursday
morning, our last day in the jungle, we got up very early to go out and watch
the sun come up over the pampas and to see and hear all the birds waking
up. Also we went looking for
animals. We saw a bunch of amazing birds
and also we saw the Capybara. It is the
world’s largest rodent. They can get
over 4 feet long and up to 150 pounds. HUGE!!
It was very interesting. Then we
went back to the camp to pack and get ready for lunch. Mathias and I heard a weird sound so we put
on some boots and went trekking off through the wilderness to find out what it
was. We came across a large red howler
monkey. It made the weirdest sound I have
ever heard an animal make. We followed
it through the trees taking photos and videos until we had to return. After lunch we loaded our things back up in
the boats and began our journey back. We
had been blessed with such great weather for the past couple days but on the
way back is when it began to rain. And it
rained hard. We put on our ponchos and
did the best we could to stay dry, which was kind of impossible. I ended up bailing water from the boat for an
hour and it was as if it was filling up as quickly as I could bail it out. Eventually, half way soaked, we made it back
to the shelter where we first set off on the river. We unloaded our things and
waited under the shelter for our jeeps to arrive to take us back to Rurre. While waiting, we watched pink dolphins playing
around in the river jumping out enjoying the rain as they put on a show.
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| Capybara (world's largest rodent) |
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| Red Howler Monkey |
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| Trekking through the water in search of the weird noise |
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| Pouring down rain behind me as the boats continue to fill up with water. |
Eventually
our jeeps showed up and we made the long bumpy ride home. The way back was a lot more difficult
considering the amount of rain coming down.
Everything was muddy and we were sliding around everywhere. Not to mention our driver appeared to be very
tired and I’m sure a foggy windshield with no defrosts and wipers didn’t help a
bit. Then our jeep started to turn off
multiple times in the middle of the road.
We eventually managed to get it going each time until we got back to
Rurre. Once finally back in the village
we made our way to our hotel where we had a nice swimming pool and a couple
pool tables. I am not sure if our rooms
were designed that way or if they were trying to save money but we had no
windows. Just big openings in the walls
with curtains that would hopefully keep mosquitoes from flying in and devouring
us. It didn’t work! Our first night we swam a bit in the pool
then got ready and went out into the village looking for a nice place to
eat. We eventually all congregated at a
place called “The Funky Monkey”. It was
a pretty cool place with pool tables and I actually heard a country song played
on the radio. We all had a good time
chilling and eating and laughing about our trip. Soon after, I went to bed because I was exhausted. Our planes were supposed to leave around
lunch time the next day so I wanted to be well rested.
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| Our view out the hole in the wall of our room |
Well the
next day came and we wanted to eat breakfast and try to climb up to the over
look on top of a mountain before we had to leave. So we went and had our small breakfast and
waited for news on our flights. We found
out that if the weather stayed clear we would be able to get one of our flights
out but the other would be delayed for the morning. So me being the thoughtful and self
sacrificing person that I am, volunteered to stay an extra night in Rurre so
that the others could make it home. With
that settled and behind us we set off to climb up to the mirrador to see Rurre
from above. Finally at the top, I and Mathias
(also a very thoughtful and self-sacrificing person) decided to climb down the
other side of the mountain in search of adventure in the jungle. I in my crocs, shorts, and with a shirt tied
around my head and Mathias with his flipflops, shorts, and a shirt tied around
his head, climbed down the mountain and down a waterfall, where we eventually
found a long vine dangling from the trees.
(I would have posted photos of this but my battery was dead in my
camera). We proceeded to pretend we were
Tarzan swing back and forth down the river having a blast. Finally, we continued down the river until we
eventually ended back up in the village.
From there we decided that we want to find some coconuts. So we wandered around asking people where we
could find some. We eventually found a
house that had a tree in the backyard full of coconuts. We called over the fence to a lady in the
yard asking if we could buy her coconuts.
She looked around and then told us she would sell them for 1 boliviano
each (about 15 cents). So we ended up
with 12 coconuts that we had to carry all the way back to the other side of the
village.
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| Chilling at the overlook of Rurrenabaque |
Once back
we opened up a couple of them to share with the others before they had to leave
to catch their plane. After they left we
swam in the pool for a little while before we ventured off to find something to
eat. We ended up going back to the Funky
Monkey and hanging out with the owner. We
spent the evening walking around the village and chilling around the pool. Eventually around 8:30 we went out to dinner
at a fancy restaurant called the Luna Lounge.
Dinner was great as we sat outside enjoying the nice weather. After we went out walking around looking to
see what the nightlife was like.
Everyone had been telling us how awesome and great the night club named
Bananas was. So we really wanted to see
what this place was like. As we walked
down the street music was thumping coming from various clubs. We found Bananas and went up to check it
out. The place was empty… We then went to 4 other clubs to see what was
going on. They were all empty. Only a few people sitting around
drinking. It was almost 12 and nobody
was at any of them. It was pretty hilarious. After talking to a few people we discovered
that the night life usually takes place on Saturdays and Sundays. So we headed back to our hotel to sleep so we
could catch our plane in the morning.
Upon waking
up we discovered that our plane was delayed.
So we went to breakfast in the village.
We didn’t really know when the flight was supposed to be or if it would
be. But as we were finishing up
breakfast our taxi driver pulled up to tell us our plane would be leaving soon
and he would pick us up in an hour. So we
paid and made our way back to the hotel to finish packing our things. I was finally glad to be going home because I
had no clean clothes and everything was beginning to stink with the smell of
sweat. We then made our way to the
airport where we were quickly escorted to our plane to head home. 45 minutes later we were descending into the
airport of El Alto. Getting off the
plane I could immediately tell the difference in the climate. It’s crazy how in such a short trip it can
change so much. I guess a difference of
around 12,500ft makes a big difference.
But I was so glad to be back home in La Paz.
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| Another monkey smiling chilling in our camp |
