¡Hola Amigos!
First of all a poo update: normal service has resumed. It was a great feeling.
Secondly, wow. The jungle trip was bloody amazing! We flew over the mountains from La Paz and before long it was just a carpet of tree tops. After 30 mins (better than the 18hr bus alternative!), we landed on a grass runway in Rurrenebaque and the humidity and heat hit us as we got out of the twenty-seater propeller plane. We went out for a few beers and met up with a couple of Irish girls we had met before on the bus to Puno who were also doing the jungle trip for a few more beers!
The next day we had a 3hr jeep ride into the jungle. The roads were proper rocky, dried mud affairs with a huge dust cloud behind us….we got a puncture after half an hour which wasn´t a good start!! We put on the only spare, stopped for lunch in a small house, and then arrived at the river. From there we got on the wooden river boat and motored deeper into the jungle for another 2 hours. On the way we saw loads of wildlife; alligators, turtles, storks, capibaras, kingfishers etc etc We got to camp about 5 and then went to the river bar to watch sunset before dinner. There was literally millions of mosquitos, or as we called them , Mostiquitington T´s (to the tune of Poddington Peas). I’ve got literally over a hundred bites all over!
The next day we went Anaconda Snake hunting. We walked through a swamp with wellies on for about 3 hours. It was bloody hot and …well you can imagine what swamps smell like when its as humid as that. Was fun though, until I realised my left wellie had a hole in it and my whole left foot and leg was squelchy wet haha We didn’t find any anacondas unfortunately. We headed back for lunch before going out in the boat again. We found some monkeys in the bushes and fed them some banana. They came on the boat and played around.
After lunch we went out on the river again and came across some pink dolphins in the river so we jumped into the river for a swim with them. The alligators are scared of them so its a case of…if you cant see the dolphins anymore….get out! At about 5 we went to watch sunset at another bar on the river and we started a multinational footy match! Christian played a blinder in goal and we won 2-1 in quite a heated match….physically and temperature wise! I was literally soaked afterwards…even more so than at Pitch Invasion! On the way back from the bar, in the pitch black, we went alligator hunting. Kike, our guide, asked us to look out on the banks for one and just when we lost all hope Kike spotted one and it took about twenty minutes of suspended silence to noose it and get it onto the boat! It was pretty bloody heavy as you can probably see from my straining! And it scratched my arm so I now have an alligator scratch…cool eh!! haha (oh…and check out the sweat…!)
After that we went back for a late dinner and then chilled out on the Hammocks next to the river. I deffo want a hammock! For the last day, we woke up at 5.30am, got in the boat and paddled down the river. We found a great spot and watched the massive glowing red sun appear on the horizon…none of the cameras could capture the colour…it was the most incredible red. After breakfast we went Piranha fishing. I was looking forward to this more than anything else as I’ve never seen one and also ‘´ve never caught a fish in any of the times that I’ve been fishing (probably about ten times now!) We were fishing with a piece of string, a hook and some beef…and I caught one! Wahoo!! Quite a beauty too.
We then took our catch back to the camp and ate the piranha for lunch! Tasty! It was sad to leave the jungle, we both had an awesome time….although we were looking forward to a bit of a piss up back in Rurre. We got really drunk last night with the Irish girls and some french people that were on the trip with us. This morning we flew back to La Paz and again finding it hard to catch breath due to the altitude. So, today is my last day of being in my early twenties….25 beckons and we are spending it downhill mountain biking down the most dangerous road in the world!
Thanks for reading…I know from experiences people´s blogs and travel experiences and be a bit boring but hopefully this one is a little interesting! Lots of love, extra love to Clare (there you go Sis! Hope the wedding stuff is going well)
Next up; salt flats
andrew
