In the Jungle and Pampas (With a Butterfly Phobia)

We flew from Santa Cruz to Rurrenabaque, down in the lowlands in the Amazon Basin. It's a pleasant, if very touristy, little town right on the bank of the Beni River, and felt the most like Asia of anywhere we've been so far. The humidity, the motorbikes carrying four people, the bamboo bars, the wide, muddy river and the beautiful sunsets - we liked it! We didn't have long to explore Rurre though as we'd booked ourselves onto a 6 day trip to the nearby areas of jungle and pampas with Mashaquipe, a local tour company that came highly recommended by some travelling friends.

The tiny airport in Rurrenabaque

The first three days of the adventure were spent in the jungle, more specifically in Madidi National Park, a huge protected region including part of the Amazon rainforest.We were joined by a Belgian couple for these three days, forming a group of five with our amazing local guide, Ismael, who actually grew up in the jungle and was therefore a fount of knowledge about all aspects of jungle life.

Our guide, Ismael, with the boat along the Beni river

We travelled from Rurre by boat for around three hours to our base for the next few days, Mashaquipe Ecolodge. En route we stopped at a local village to taste fresh sugar cane juice - Ismael cut the canes with his machete and we pressed the juice ourselves using a rustic wooden contraption! The lodge was great: despite being in the middle of the jungle, it was a comfortable place, with a dining room, running water, mosquito nets and even electricity (from 6-10 pm each day). The food was delicious too - 3 course meals that were better than most we've had in Bolivia.

It's thirsty work making sugar cane juice

Over the next two days we spent most of our time walking in different areas of the jungle, spotting animals and learning a lot too about the trees and plants that local tribes use medicinally or for cooking. The craziest thing was possibly when Ismael extracted a maggot like white larva from a seed pod and ate it! In fact we tried the larvae ourselves later on, toasted, and they were rather tasty.

To eat or not to eat? Larva from a seed pod

We saw plenty of animals - capuchin monkeys, lion monkeys, squirrel monkeys and howler monkeys, a boa constrictor snake, plus a lot of birds and the footprints of jaguar, tapir and ocelot. The monkeys and birds were mostly high in the trees and Ismael was fantastic at spotting them; he could even make noises like most of the monkeys and birds to encourage them to come out. We spent quite a while following him through dense jungle in search of a peccary, or wild pig, that he could hear walking along nearby (none of us could hear anything!). Eventually we were rewarded by seeing not one but a whole herd of peccaries, around 30-40 of them, marching with intent through the jungle. Early in the morning one day we hiked up to a viewpoint at the edge of the cliff and watched the canopy emerge from the mists, with scarlet and green macaws flying by and making an incredible amount of noise.

Jaguar footprints

This boa constrictor snake appeared right next to our dining room!

View of the jungle canopy and Beni river below

Of course, the Amazon rainforest is full not only of animals but insects. Thus you can guess that it was quite challenging for me trying to cope with my phobia of butterflies and moths; we saw some of the largest butterflies I have ever seen. Fortunately Ismael soon got the idea of the problem and protected me from anything flying too close. He also cleared the dining room and bathrooms of moths every night! We also saw a huge tarantula and of course were hounded by mosquitoes and ants of all sizes. We were warned not to leave anything on the floor or we might find it in pieces later due to the industrious leaf cutter ants!

Tarantula just sitting on a tree next to our cabin

Unfortunately Kev came down with a severe case of food poisoning again during day 2 and spent most of that afternoon and the next day in bed - we think it must have been something he ate prior to the trip, as the rest of us were fine. Thank goodness Ismael was brillliant and supplied us with antibiotics plus his own homemade herbal tea made from a leaf in the jungle. The latter was incredibly bitter but definitely and he was feeling a lot better by the time we arrived in the Pampas.

Capybaras grazing next to the river in the Pampas

The Pampas was a different experience from the jungle but still fantastic. The area is mainly wetlands and we spent most of the three days cruising along the river with Ismael and our new Canadian companions, looking for animals. While there is less biodiversity here overall, the animals are a lot easier to spot than in the jungle. We saw caimans, one 4 metres long, alligators, turtles, capybaras, more monkeys and best of all, pink Amazon river dolphins (yes, they really are pink!) The highlight was swimming among the dolphins; they were playful and curious and liked to play or to nibble your leg at times.

Squirrel monkey jumping across our boat

One of the many alligators in the Pampas

We were assured that the area in which we swam with the dolphins was not frequented by caimans or piranhas. One evening however we went to a shallower area and fished for piranhas using raw meat as bait. The Canadians caught a couple, but we failed - I did however catch a catfish of reasonable size, which we ate for dinner along with one of the piranhas.

Piranha for dinner - look at its teeth!

On the last day I had an interesting time - Ismael was worried about a couple of my mosquito bites and on examining them decided that they were not ordinary bites but had mosquito larvae growing in them - eurgh! He treated this by extracting nicotine from a cigarette and leaving the nicotine on the bites overnight. The next morning he checked and proclaimed the larvae were 'muertissimo' (very dead). In fact he extracted the head of one of the larvae. It was too small for me to see, but I'm sure he knew what he was doing...

Turtles basking in the sun 

Overall we had an unforgettable few days, regardless of illness, bites and butterflies. Waking up to the sounds of the jungle or Pampas, learning about living in the jungle from an indigenous guide, and seeing such a variety of wildlife was amazing . Furthermore, Mashaquipe give a large proportion of their proceeds to the local community - Ismael told us they are supporting 48 different families in the jungle at the moment -  and we were happy to be giving something back.  It's certainly one of the high points of our trip so far.

Our Pampas group, with Ismael and the boat