Jerry in the Jungle (Warning: Lots of Pictures!)

Previously, on Adam in South America:

Our travels had taken us from Sucre, to Samaipata, to Santa Cruz, and we were planning on making the move up to La Paz: Highest Capital City in the world, and from there a trip into Bolivia's chunk of the Amazon Basin.

So, picking up where we left off..

Fran and I left Santa Cruz and spent another uncomfortable ride on a bus to Cochabamba (though we didn't know it at the time, nothing we'd experienced on Bolivia's buses thus far was going to compare with what was to come). Not much of a city really and we stayed there but one night, more to break the journey into La Paz than for any touristic reason.

Crossing the Altiplano from Cochabamba to La Paz

Another bus the next day and we crossed more of the Altiplano, arriving at a settlement on a giant flat plain. We'd heard that La Paz was situated in a huge bowl, so we were a bit confused. Little did we know that we were actually in El Alto (The Height) - a suburb of La Paz that leads directly to the money shot. The bus took a corner to the left and WHAM, you are given the most impressive views of one of the most unique cities in the world. La Paz is indeed situated in a bowl, and is crammed right to the top with buildings. The huge mountain Illimani (Bolivia's second highest mountain at 6,438m amsl), backdrops the city. We were pretty much in awe as the bus made it's way down into the city, and didn't take a single picture of the view.

Anyway, after our first day in La Paz, I realised that I was getting a bit more sick. No dodgy belly or anything but a cold or man flu or something similar that started in Samaipata. So because of that we didn't do too much sightseeing, as I wanted to be hale for our trip to the Amazon Basin. We did venture one night to a previously recommended curry house called The Star of India (what else) that advertises itself as British Indian Curry House. And it might be British, but some dishes have a distinctive Bolivian twist. Like the Llama Tikka Masala. Deadly. Tom, thanks a billion for the recommendation mate.

Llama Tikka Masala, served here!

Our plan for the jungle was to visit an "ecolodge" run by an indigenous community in the Madidi National Park. The National Geographic has not only done a few articles on the park, but also on the ecolodge we were going to stay at. Here's a bit of info:
Madidi Diaries., and Madidi on Wiki
More on the Madidi in a bit.
As we were organising the trip, I'd heard that if you love wildlife, the Bolivian Pampas was where it's at, which is right next to Rurrenabaque (called Rurre for short) - the town used as a base to get to Madidi. So we decided to add a side trip to visit the Pampas. More money to part with, but hell, this is a once in a lifetime trip after all!

So after a day of hectic scheduling, we took an 18 hour bus ride down from the Altiplano to Rurrenabaque, situated on the Beni River. And Jesus H Christ, this was the killer. The first two hours were incredibly deceptive. Tarmac roads, awesome mountain vistas. Then the road just stopped and became a dirt track skirting the edge of cliff edges that dropped a hundred meters or more. The tracks themselves were only wide enough for our bus pretty much, and it was a two-way road! In fact, the road partially follows the infamous Death Road, so to those of you who know about this road (or Mr Tickles, who crazily mountain biked down it at pace), it's pretty harrowing.

Narrow roads! There's about the same amount of space on the right of the bus as well

18 hours later, arriving sweaty, dust covered (lots of holes in the floors of Bolivian buses), tired and shaking we arrived in Rurrenabaque. And I was immediately assaulted by the humidity - we're in the tropics, remember?

We met with our Pampas tour group first; a company called Indigena Tours. From Rurrenabaque, we drove two and a half hours to a small(er) town called Santa Rosa, where our motorised dug-outs were waiting for us. From there, it's another 3 hour cruise past awesome wildlife to our camp: a lodge built alongside the river deep into the Pampas.

Along the river to camp

Brown Howler Monkey. Three types exist in the area: Brown, Red, and Black

Black Capped Squirrel Monkey

Snowy Egret in Flight

Spectacled Caiman. Max size on these are about 2.5m

Spectacled Caiman. The majority of Crocodilians you see in the Pampas are the Spectacled Caimans. The Black Caimans are quite rare.

Great Blue Heron.

Black Caiman. Vicious. The largest of the Alligator family, these can grow up to 5 meters. Don't swim with one of these around.

Capybara - the world's largest rodent! They can get up to 60-70 kilos.. You'll need a large hamster wheel if you want one as a pet

Hoatzin. Like a forest chicken. Nothing eats them because they stink.

That night, we went to see a beautiful sunset over the grasslands. And saw about a billion mosquitos flying around: the most Evil Little Fuckers ever invented. I'm sorry for the outburst, but I just have no idea what their biological purpose is, other than to annoy the hell out of everyone and spread death and disease.

Sunset over the Pampas

And up comes Luna in place of Sol

Day two's sunset

Sunset on day one

Day two in the Pampas began by all of us taking a trip into swampy grasslands to look for Anacondas. The trick to finding them is to basically.. ermm. step on them. They are incredibly hard to find, and in shallow water, stay just below the surface, meaning they are near invisible to anyone who doesn't know what to look for. Luckily, Anacondas live in habitat that's proportionate to their size. So small ponds or lakes will generally support small Anacondas. The big lakes deep in the Amazon support snakes up to 10m long. Did I mention the Anaconda is the largest snake in the world?

One of our guides found a 2-3 meter snake hiding in shallow water, and we all crowded around to see it. We weren't allowed to touch it because human contact is stressful to the snakes (so our guides only handle them long enough to explain about them), and the mosquito repellent DEET that we all use also causes them lots of distress. The one we found also had recently consumed something as you could see the stretched belly. Most likely a small bird or a rodent. Normally, an Anaconda that has just eaten and is then handled will throw up it's meal because of the stress, which I was a little upset about. But luckily we released it in time and the snake did not have to regurgitate it's food. Watching it slide away into the grass was a cool experience. They are fast!

Yours truly, trekking through swamps to find Anacondas

Anaconda. There's a slight bump mid-way down it's body... probably a bird or a rodent

Snail Eggs

Magellanic Horned Owls

That day we also had the opportunity to swim with River Dolphins, common in the area. Supposedly it's fine to swim wherever the dolphins are as they keep the Caimans away. I'm not too sure of that. I saw some Caimains that were pretty close! Anyway, I decided to forgo the opportunity as I was starting to get more sick.
Oh, on the way to the Dolphin spot, I spotted a Sloth!! Awesome, they are the coolest little animals, and move SO SLOWLY. Really chuffed to see one, and just as importantly, to spot it before even our guide did!

Sloooth! Too cool. The markings on it's back are brilliant.

And again!

And again!

And again!

Tired of sloths yet? I'm not!

I thought this was a Fish Eagle, but I'm not sure. If anyone can let me know what it is..

Fish Eagle?

Spectacled Caiman

That night we went back to see the sunset over the Pampas. Not as breath-taking as the night before but still impressive. And still, the same amount of mosquitos! The little bastards even bite you through your clothes.

On the final day, we went Piranha fishing! A little bit of beef at the end of a hook and away you go! I caught one (Red Piranha), a crazy Norwegian guy in our group caught one (Yellow Piranha), and Fran aka Rex Hunt caught three (Red Piranhas). So that was our lunch for the day!! Not overly tasty fish, but still.. I ate a Piranha! Take that cannibal fishes!! Adam 1, Cannibal Fishes 0

Yours truly fishing for Piranhas

Piranhas for lunch

So that was basically the Pampas Tour. On the way back to Rurre, our tyre got a flat. Seems like a pretty common incident in Bolivia.
Loads of wildlife which really reinforced just how much I want to do wildlife photography, and just how HARD it is. But the trip has really made me realise what is important in life, and has given me a bit of focussed direction.

So that night we were put up in a "hotel" (and I use that term very loosely) as part of our Madidi tour. We were on our way to stay at Chalalan Ecolodge (loads of info here.. I won't type too much text about it, you can read that instead). We left at 8:30am and arrived just after 5pm, going upriver and over very very shallow stretches where at times our guides had to get out and push the boats. The thought of jumping out to help did cross my mind, but then so did the cost for the trip so I decided to sit back and relax. Sue me.

And the absolute ball breaker of the entire South America trip so far. The happiest and most frustrating moment all in one go....We saw a Jaguar!!! I'd heard it previously, "barking" in the distance (Jaguars tend to grunt more than anything) and wondered what a dog was doing in the middle of the jungle. As our boat got closer, we saw a flash, a splash, and then a Capybara (see pics above) fleeing the scene by swimming into the middle of the river. On the banks, a lone, muscular and massive jaguar watched it go and then sauntered off into the scrub. It was too far away to get any decent pictures, which was a real bitter-sweet moment, but I was just thrilled to see it. Then the frustrating part came. We had to land the boat and get out whilst it was pushed upriver, and the landing was right around the corner where the jaguar left us. Realising that I was the only super eager person in the group, I decided to go an track it on my own. I walked up the beach, and headed inland. As I stood on a log that gave me a view of the scrub that borders the forrest, I saw it. Not 40 meteres away, and WELL withing the reach of the 40D + 100-400. I could get a frame-filling shot! But.. SHIT. Fran had the camera. Trying to help her with her photography, I'd decided that morning that she should keep the wildlife cam (we were using the 5D for standard shots) and Fran was busy chatting her female mouth off behind me on the beach to the other travellers. As I tried to call Fran over to bring the camera, everyone suddenly perked up and ran over to see, scaring off the jaguar. ARRRRGH.. I was not a happy person for the next few hours, let me assure you. I could've done something very bad to my camera equipment, the boat and anyone stupid enough to talk to me.

Our Jaguar spot.. Heavily cropped image.

Another heavy crop. He's under the logs to the left

So onwards we went, to arrive at Chalalan sometime just after 5pm. This place is REMOTE man. Nothing around for God knows how long. We had our own private lodge and the sounds of the jungle at night were just brilliant to fall asleep to.

Our cabin at Chalalan. Pictures of inside are on my smugmug site

Chalalan is definitely less about the wildlife than it is about the experience, compared to the Pampas. That's not to say you don't see any wildlife of course. You hear it more than see it, but we still saw some cool animals. And we found out first hand just why Howler monkeys are so named. The sound they make is the scariest sound I've ever heard. Being alone in the jungle and hearing that would scare even the toughest of people. We've got a video of them howling at another rival group, so if anyone wants to see it when we get back, let us know. But you'd better come prepared; bring a comfort blanket, and make sure you have someone to drive you home.

Red Howler Monkey warning a rival group not to come close

Red Howler Monkey

Compared to the Pampas though, the jungle is a completely unique experience. Finding wildlife is down to sound and smell more than anything. Our guide (they take groups of 4, so a perfect size) was pretty good at spotting all sorts of crazy stuff. On a night walk we did with him (Jesus, that's another scary experience, especially when you find out halfway into the jungle your torch has stopped working... stupid batteries!) he was spotting tarantulas, insanely deadly snakes and the smallest of frogs by the sounds they make and by his own keen eyesight if his torch beam shone over them. To me, it all looked like sticks and leaves. I'm normally fairly proud of my ability to spot wildlife, but doing so in the jungle is another skill entirely.

Forgot the name of this snake, but our guide says it's the second deadliest in the jungle... and we rowed right under it

Same species as above

And another! This one's a youngin

Tree Frog

Forgot what this frog is called, but it was tiny. I've no idea how he spotted it

Creepy spider

Tarantula

We spent two nights there, before having to make our way back to Rurre. I think the Jungle was a far more cerebral experience, and we learnt a lot about the culture of the area and the history of it's peoples.

So back to Rurre we went, and we had to boat our way through one hell of a storm. On the way, Fran spotted a river Otter. Cool little thing.

River Otter

Getting back to Rurre, drenched, we all rushed to find accomodation for the night.

There are basically three options to leave Rurre back to La Paz, sin hitch hiking. The first is via the 18 hour bus ride which Fran and I flatly refused, no matter how long it meant waiting in Rurre. The second is a private jeep, costing $400 US, and taking 12 hours. Way too expensive, even if the cost dwindled if you had more people in it. The last option was a flight. At around 50 GBP, it wasn't a bad option at all, and one we decided to take. However, Rurre's runway is grass and if there is any rain, flights are cancelled. We ended up waiting for four days in Rurre for the weather to clear and for our plane to get a slot out. Once, we drove to a neighbouring town to use their airport (also grass) but got turned back as we arrived because their runway was also unusable. So finally, four days later, we took a tiny plane back up into the Andes and into La Paz. The journey time? A grand total of 40 minutes.

Yours truly just about to board our tiny plane to La Paz...

The Andes (I believe it's the Cordillera Real) from the flight back to La Paz

Inside our tiny plane

So back to La Paz. The altitude really hit Fran, and I was getting a lot worse with my man flu. Again, it meant missing out on a lot of the great sites of La Paz, which we do regret. I guess it means another trip down here is warranted! Three more nights we stayed there, trying to recover. Whilst we were there, we met up with Craig and Laila, who we met in Sucre, for a curry night. The next morning we caught a bus to Copacabana, along the shores of Lake Titicaca, where I will leave this blog. We are currently in Puno, Peru. I will post a seperate blog shortly of our experience around Titicaca.

Thanks for reading down to here! I'm crap at brevity, hey?
We've got just over 6 weeks left now. This is the home stretch! Very disappointing, but we'll make the most of what time left we have.

Much love, and don't forget, my smugmug galleries have lots more pictures:

Pampas: http://adamlawler.smugmug.com/gallery/8940179_ATy8u#593752720_NDTNW
Jungle: http://adamlawler.smugmug.com/gallery/8940178_R6uwk#598736341_tJHeF
La Paz: http://adamlawler.smugmug.com/gallery/8940154_ZTUvU