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

Exploring Inca Ruins Around Samaipata

After the Missions circuit, we decided to spend a few days away from the heat of the lowlands, in the higher valleys around Samaipata. This is a small village, but has become popular with tourists recently, particularly the hippy crowd.

The square in El Pueblito

We stayed in a small resort, as a bit of a treat to ourselves, outside the town on a hill with a wonderful view of the town and valley below. It's called El Pueblito, or Small Town, and is designed like a traditional village with themed rooms set around a central square. Our room was styled as a florist's, which meant fresh flowers and garden tools adorning the walls. Although slightly kitsch, it was something a bit different and a great place to relax.

Our room - the florist's - in El Pueblito

The main draw in the area is a UNESCO world heritage archaeological site known as El Fuerte, The Fort. It consists of a large rock protruding from a hilltop, used by the Inca and earlier cultures for religious carvings and ceremonies, and the accompanying village ruins. When the Spanish arrived, it had already been abandoned for some time, and they presumed it had been a fort, hence the name. Later research into the carvings on the rock suggests that it was of more religious significance; carved jaguars and pumas were symbols of power, while several large niches in the rock are thought to have held idols or mummified ancestors.

El Fuerte de Samaipata

We have now returned to Santa Cruz once again, before flying to Rurrenabaque in the remote north of the country for our first experience of the Amazon rainforest.

To Tour or Not to Tour in Eastern Bolivia

When Kev last wrote, we were just about to leave Sucre for Santa Cruz in eastern Bolivia. Santa Cruz is a big, very busy city down at an altitude of only 400m or so - quite a change from our last few weeks high in the altiplano. The weather was noticeably more humid and the city was partly flooded when we arrived, after heavy rains over the last two weeks. I think we will always associate Santa Cruz with grey skies!  There is very little to do in the city itself but we wanted to use it as a base for several activities in the area, beginning this week with the Jesuit Missions Circuit.

The cathedral in Santa Cruz - the Pope visited here a week before we arrived

There are a number of villages within a day's travel of Santa Cruz, all founded by Jesuit missionaries in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and all with unusual, very beautiful Jesuit churches. Six of these were collectively designated a Unesco World Heritage Site in the 1990s and the route round them is known as the Jesuit Missions Circuit. Tour agencies offer a 3 or 4 day tour for around 450 US dollars. To tour or not to tour? It didn't take us long to choose to go it alone.  But now we had to negotiate the local transport, which is notoriously slow and unreliable in this region (hence why most travellers opt for the tour!).

The viewpoint in Santiago de Chiquitos

While the tiny village of Santiago de Chiquitos, is not officially part of the missions circuit, we had been recommended to make a stop here to enjoy the natural beauty of the surrounding area. We stayed in Santiago's only hostel, which also serves as a restaurant as well as an art exhibition centre. The hostel had a lovely garden with toucans frequenting one of the fruit trees. We climbed up to the viewpoint just out of town and were rewarded with glorious views of the Tucabaca Valley below - a sea of trees. During this walk we saw one of the largest butterflies I've ever seen; those who know me well can imagine my reaction. We also hired a local guide who took us though the jungle to visit two amazing caves, one with rock paintings and one with a lovely waterfall.

The church in San José de Chiquitos

From Santiago we moved on by bus to San José de Chiquitos, arriving in the late afternoon in time to see the church. Unlike those later on the circuit, this church was the only one to be built of stone. It was huge, with four main buildings stretching along one whole side of the village square. The cloister-like corridors around a central garden had walls adorned with paintings in the characteristic Jesuit style. We stayed in a very basic hotel and were up at dawn to catch the only bus of the day to San Ignacio de Velasco, our next stop.

The church at San Miguel - all of the others, apart from San José, are in a similar style

The local bus to San Ignacio was interesting - 6 hours bumping along the red, dusty, unpaved road, stopping to pick up more and more people and more and more cargo, including several crates of (live) chickens. From San Ignacio we spent a day with a driver taking us round the three other Jesuit villages nearby - Santa Ana, San Rafael and San Miguel. All of these churches were lovely, and very representative of the Jesuit style: carved wooden columns; adobe walls painted white on the inside and then decorated with simple floral motifs, mostly in reds and oranges; ceilings of reeds or bamboo; wonderfully carved wooden pulpits decorated in gold; and magnificent altars covered in gold, silver or mica. Perhaps my favourite was San Rafael, where the interior paintings also included angels playing various instruments.

Inside the churches at San Rafael and San Miguel

The next leg of the trip, up to Concepción, was to be the most challenging. There was only one bus a day from San Ignacio and we duly got on it at 11 am. At 12.30, the bus broke down, literally in the middle of nowhere. There were no other buses due until the evening, so we were all given (some of) our money back and then left to wait hopefully on the side of the road in the heat and the dust. An hour later, Kev and I ended up getting a lift with a few other people in a huge lorry, with him in the back while I was squashed into the cab. The truck dropped us at the nearest village, 25 km away, and after a lot of waiting around and negotiating with a bus company office, we finally procured ourselves a minibus to Concepcion, where we arrived around 6 pm. Only 3 hours later than planned, and ironically, this all worked out cheaper than the original bus!

Waiting for a lorry to come along

We were able to look at the church in Concepción in the evening before mass, and the atmospheric lighting at this time almost made the long journey to arrive this late worth it. The next day we had a smooth journey to nearby San Javier, the last of the circuit, and back to Santa Cruz.

Made it! The final church in San Javier

The whole experience was a challenging one, but certainly far more rewarding and eye-opening than a tour would have been. We saw no other tourists on the buses, but got to travel as the locals have to and experience the difficulties of living so remotely with so little transport. We had time to see all the churches for ourselves, as well as seeing the rest of the villages, eating in local restaurants and speaking only in Spanish. We even worked out that we saved a third on what the tour would have cost, despite spending more than twice as much as time. Once again we've learnt that the easy option isn't always the best one.

Surviving the Bus After Trekking the Cordillera de los Frailes

We spent a long time (for us) in Sucre - a whole week, which was dedicated to brushing up our Spanish skills. We each had a private teacher (which is affordable in Bolivia), and feel that we made a lot of progress. We certainly feel more confident conversing with people now.

Sucre - our home for the last week or so

The real highlight of our visit to Sucre, though, was a 4-day trek in the nearby Cordillera de los Frailes. We organised it through a local agency, and spent three full days walking before returning by local bus on the final morning. We were joined by a friendly English couple, Steve and Harriet, and the fantastic local guide, Zulma, to make 5.

The Cordillera de los Frailes

Each day of the trek showed us something different: the first day took us to 2000 year old cave paintings; the second day to a huge, ancient volcanic crater with a village in the middle; and the third to 65 million year old dinosaur footprints. The best thing about it, though, was to spend all of that time walking amid stunning landscapes. Each new turn in the road, collapsing bridge over a river or vertiginous path alongside a waterfall brought new hues in the mountains shaped by millennia of different layers of rock.

Coloured rock lining the way

The final day took us back to Sucre in only two and a half terrifying hours. Having walked around the cordillera, we now needed to cross back over the mountains. The rickety local bus struggled along the barely wide enough unmade roads, with a cliff on one side and a sheer drop on the other side. Occasionally there were trees bordering it, which may have broken the fall if the bus driver made a mistake. Luckily, he didn't, and we have survived to tell the tale before flying to Santa Cruz tomorrow.

Hiking in the cordillera

The Lengths We Will Go to See a Waterfall

We'd decided that we wanted to spend a day seeing the waterfalls in the Siete Tazas (Seven Cups) National Park. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to be that easy - there is only one bus there every day and it leaves Molina at 5pm. It returns at 7:30am the next morning. Therefore, to have time to actually see the park at all, we would have to spend two nights there.

The Velo de Novia (Bridal Veil) waterfall, close to the national park

As we were in Talca, we would first have to get to Molina for the solitary bus at 5pm. We were told that there were regular buses there, so we turned up at the bus station at just after 3. However, this happened to be the only gap in the schedule - there wasn't another bus until 4. We sat impatiently on this one and might just have arrived in time, if the bus hadn't got a puncture just outside of Molina. In desperation, we tried to hitchhike into town, and the first thing that arrived was another bus. It rattled ominously and struggled to get out of second gear for the rest of the journey. We arrived at the bus station 10 minutes too late.

The 20m Salta de la Leona (Lioness) waterfall

Molina is not a town geared up for tourists, but we did manage to find a dirty, but dirt cheap, guesthouse and, amazingly, a place selling craft beer. We got up early in the morning as we had been advised that there was a bus that would take us some of the way towards the park, and then we could hitchhike the rest of the way. The bus part went successfully; the hitchhiking part started less well. We stood shivering on the roadside in darkness until the sun rose an hour or so later. Only two cars passed in two hours; neither stopped. Eventually, a pickup truck did pull over for us, threw our bags in under the tarp and on top of the goat, and we were off. For some of the way. They seemed to be delivering the tied up goat to their friend, just 7km further down the road. Soon after though, we were picked up by a visiting Chileno family and taken the rest of the way. We'd made it! And the seven waterfalls were fine.

The Siete Tazas waterfalls, and their cups - the object of the arduous journey

From the national park, we had to be up before dawn once again for the one morning bus back to Molina. It was somewhat surreal walking by torchlight into the pitch black village and seeing the bus materialise out of the darkness. From Molina we took another bus to Curicó and a final one to Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is the heart of the Colchagua Valley wine region and, although difficult to get to, the vineyards produce fine red wines. Particularly of the full bodied variety we're both most keen on. We enjoyed some lengthy tasting sessions, even if one was interrupted part way through by a small earthquake sending a jolt through the room.

So much wine!

We've now moved on again, up to the capital, Santiago. We're hoping to see some of the cultural sights around here but mix it up with some more wine tasting in the nearby Casablanca and Maipo regions.