Welcome to the jungle!

After a short flight to the capital of Bolivia, we landed in over 4000m on La Paz's El Alto airport. It is so high that it needs special requirements for the planes to land in such altitude! The flight itself is pretty impressive, high mountains surround the city and we were able to see lake Titicaca in distance.

We spent 4 days in La Paz, a noisy, busy crowded city. Also the most touristic place we've seen so far in Bolivia. Again we couldn't resist to buy more souvenirs... One day we went to nearby Tiwanaku, the biggest Inca-ruins in Bolivia but with Machu Picchu already in our minds, it wasn't that impressive.

Then, finally we made our way to the airport to catch the flight down to the rainforest and Madidi national park. The cheap airport bus brought us to the terminal where, after trying to check-in at the TAM (Transporte Aéreo Militar) office, we were told that the actual TAM terminal lies next to this. There went our good timing and we rushed over to the right terminal with an overprized taxi...

Our plane was a beautiful old Canadair, and the flight took us down from the altitude of La Paz over high mountains, cloudforest and then finally along the Bení river to a town called Rurrenabaque. The air was thick and humid, a relief for us as we spent the last 2 months in dry, cold mountain air, always gasping for more oxygen...

In Rurrenabaque we started looking for good companies to do our jungle trip with. We read a lot about bad tour operaters that bring tourists illegal into the Madidi national park to avoid the entry fee (wich is a mere 12€) and even companies that bring tourists into a nearby forest and claim it to be the national park. We also heard from a company, it doesn't exist anymore, that took people on hunts on caimans and monkeys and grilled them over a fire!

The second agency we visited was Mashaquipe and we both knew instantly that this will be our operator as it is professional organised with only indigenious people working and those with a huge knowledge about the rainforest with all its animals as they all grew up in villages along the rivers. So we booked a 5 day, 4 nights trip with the mentioned company, starting the next day!

The next morning we left Rurrenabaque by boat and bought our tickets to the Madidi national park in the office across the river. Then we headed upstream the Bení river for about an hour and got our tickets stamped in the check point. Further up the Bení we turned right into the smaller Tuichi river, where, after half an hour we landed at the lodge, the overnight stop for the first night. The lodge is spread out over several terraces into several buildings, a really nice setup, and all the noises from birds, crickets, grasshoppers, we were happy!

Later the same day we drove a little bit further upstream where we took off for our first hike in the forest. Our guide for the 5 days was a guy about our age called 'Ever' and he was just incredible! There's no plant he didn't know anything to tell about, he listened carefully at every noise and smelled different types of monkeys, deer and wild pigs! Those pigs were the first we came across on this hike. He asked if we're up for some action, sure we were, so we ran through the forest to get closer to the pigs. We read that they attack people when they're scared, Ever said that in this case we would have to run like crazy. That's exactly what happened a few minutes later! First we heard just a few pigs cracking the small coconuts, later they almost surrounded us and started running in our direction - we were faster. After the attack we went back and saw them running past us, a scary but beautiful thing to see! Almost back at the boat there were two baby caimans in a small river. Our guide imitated noises of young caimans and, we couldn't believe it, mother caiman left her hideout under the branches and started swimming towards her kids. At the same place, high up in a tree, we saw the biggest toucan in the area. After dinner, on the nightwalk we saw mostly small creatures, the biggest probably tarantulas.

The next morning we took off for a small hike (after 3 hrs we were back in the lodge for lunch...) and we ran a lot again, this time mostly for monkeys, just once after some more wild pigs. The first monkeys we saw were capuchin monkeys, high up in the trees. As soon as they saw us the jumped from tree to tree and we finally gave up running after them as they are just too fast. Later on we listened to a concert of two families of brown howler monkeys, crazy noises we've never heard before. Apart from the monkeys and wild pigs there were wild turkeys, macaws, loros, woodpeckers and many other birds.

After lunch we started our big 3 day trip with the big backpack. On this walk we saw capuchin monkeys again, beautiful macaws and other birds. In the late afternoon we arrived at the campsite where the company has semi permanent roofs out of tarpaul for cooking, eating an sleeping. We washed ourselves inthe nearby river and watched our guide preparing the dinner (which was really amazing, there are just two pans and one fire). After dinner we sat on the table and talked about everything that we might see later in the jungle. Anni, just pointing the flashlight under the table, found a small snake sneaking around our feet and when we started to prepare our sleeping bags for the night we saw a huge spider on the tarpaul that covered the floor (we found out later that this was a banana spider or Brazilian wandering spider which is considered the most venomous in the world!! Our guide didn't know at this time...). Despite this and the hard floor and thanks to the mosquito net we slept wonderful and Ever, our guide woke us up after he prepared breakfast. What a service!

With a little bit of rain we left the campsite, anxious of all the creatures we might see today. Again we found capuchin-, squirrel- and howler monkeys and the usual collection of birds. The second campsite was full of people! What a change after 2 days of just us and the jungle. After lunch we headed to the river, 20 mins away for some swimming. On the path were fresh footprints from jaguars and an ocelot, making us confident that we might actually see some big cats later!

Refreshed and clean we got dirty and sweaty again by climbing up a hill to a Mirador, a lookout with a breathtaking view over the rainforest and the river and different kinds of birds, parrots, loros and macaws gathering for their resting place over night.

This night, after dinner, we got introduced in the art of chewing coca. Ever gave us a handful of dried coca leaves and a short piece of liana. We had to chew the liana first for a while, then put it on the pile of coca leaves. Then he poured a bit of bicarbonate (baking soda) over it and covered everything with another load of leaves. The whole bunch we then had to put in our mouths behind the cheek, not so easy when you try this the first time. After 10 or 15 minutes the bitter taste of the coca disappears and it gets sweet, thanks to the liana which is only for this purpose.

Now prepared for the night we left the campsite on the same path that leads to the beach we visited earlier. The group was bigger than usual but the other guys brought their sleeping bags as they wanted to spend the night on the beach. As always at night we saw plenty of insects and spiders, one of them a huge tarantula. Arriving at the beach, we followed the river upstream to some lagoons or pools where we expected to see caimans. And we did! Just eyes... Every time when we approached them they just disappeared in the water, except one that hid itself under a pile of wood. We then took off our shoes and waded through the black water towards the pile where Ever tried to get the caiman out into the lagoon. Finally it came out and swam into the middle of the lake, a small spectacled caiman about 1m long. We went closer and watched the beautiful animal through the water, just until one moment when Ever looked away and the caiman went for his feet! Luckily he was faster and we went ashore to upload on coca. After a rest we kept walking and saw many footprints of caimans, turtles, capybaras and tapirs but saw none of them, the biggest was a big owl on a bush...

We got up in rain and it didn't stop on our morning walk. So we thought our plan with building a raft and floating down Tuichi river won't come true, but it stopped raining and we started to get the raft together on the shore, just with logs and some cords. The ride was calm, apart from some rapids (the following boat overturned) and we arrived back in the lodge for lunch. In the afternoon we shipped over the river to a lagoon for some piraña fishing and got absolutely wet in a downpour (actually just me, too lazy to get dressed in rainclothes...). We both aren't great fishermen and so we just fed the fishes for a couple of hours, Ever meanwhile catched 4 pirañas which i ate for dinner, absolutely tasty but not much to eat on those bony fishes.

After a last morning walk with howler and spider monkeys it was time to board the boat back to Rurrenabaque and to leave this truly amazing place. We had flights booked back to La Paz but if not, we'd probably still be there, waiting for jaguars...