Jungle all the Way: Part 1

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Yes, we’ve finally made it to the rainforest, after our first attempt was flushed down the toilet in Baños. (Admin – terrible pun!)

After completing a wonderful* 14+ hour overnight bus journey (with a toilet door that was taped shut for our ‘convenience’) we arrived in Rurrenabaque, a small town in north Bolivia that brushes the Amazon rainforest and is a base to explore the nearby Medidi Nature Reserve; Mmmmmm, more mosquitos, our favourite!

* that’s a lie.

‘Slumming it’ at Mashaquipe Lodges – poor us!

We chose Mashaquipe Eco Tours principally for their credentials of offering ecological tours run by local indigenous people who respect the wildlife in the Amazon; oh, and they also had great reviews. So with a 6 day / 5 night tour booked (3 days in the jungle, 3 in the pampas) we were picked-up from our swimming pool equipped hotel (Admin – slumming it again are we?) and whisked up the river Beni for adventures…

Anchor’s away…so to speak, just look at that chocolate river, where’s my straw!

And some ‘shouldn’t you have retired by now’ river boats

Day 1

First stop in our rickety, leaking river boat – equiped with seats that would make riding a bike all day a more palatable option – was Villa Alcira, an indigenous community on the banks of the river Beni, to learn about their culture, way of life and try our hand at sugarcane pressing.

Nice walk through the forest from the boat mooring

Unfortunately the only thing we got to do was press sugarcane and collect the liquid into a tub for consumption, which we had to do twice as I’d managed to knock over the first batch!

A ‘sophisticated ‘looking sugarcane press, no idea where the on switch was though

To be fair the taste was alright, more so with a twist of lime; not sure it would make it onto anyones cocktail list though, and best consumed with eyes closed so as not to imagine ‘puddle juice’! Drinks drunk, we departed knowing little about the indigenous culture or their way of life, our only takeaway being mouthfuls of slowly rotting teeth.

And so we set motorised sail for the Mashaquipe Lodges, located another hour or so up river. Most of the larger tour operators in the region own their own camps, and Mashaquipe are no exception, expecting something akin to our time in Vilcabamba we were surprised at how sophisticated the set up was.

The welcome mat – Happy Journey / Thank you for your visit

A bigger hut – this was actually the dinning area

Once settled into our accommodation and after an unexpectedly nice lunch consisting of food**, we headed out for our first real foray into the Amazon. Our guide, Nilo, thankfully informed us that since we are well into the dry season mosquitos weren’t so much of an issue, so bullets dodged…

** (Admin – he’s forgotten again)

Talking of dodged bullets, a **Bullet Ant** – it took Nilo quite a few attempts in various nests to coax one out as the weather was somewhat cool (relatively)

They’re between 2 and 3cm long and their bite is like being shot apparently! Not sure who found that out though?

Rebecca and Nilo pretending to have spotted something

The Amazon is always on hand to provide a quick snack

Most of our treks through the forest involved well worn track so as not to disrupt anything too much

A HUGE ant’s nest – these and termite nests appeared ubiquitous throughout the forest

**Attalea Phalerata** – basically the fruit of a palm tree, often used to harvest palm oil

The real difficulty is spotting wildlife in such a vegetatively dense environment; It was also unusually cool on our first day there, which didn’t help. So after a few hours we headed back to camp to enjoy an evening meal.

Day 2

The day began with an early breakfast so as to facilitate a hike to our new location of Patujusal Refuge, a camping site that does not do justice to the word ‘basic’.

**Patujusal Refuge** – Yet more sophisticated accommodation

Our accommodation consisted of a lot filthy mattress atop a very basic wooden platform, no pillows, just a sleeping bag and mosquito net for comfort. Still, some Italian tourists were also having to appreciate the ordeal, so silver linings and all that! Luckily, it was just for one night, we were only there to see the stomping ground of the Cappuccino (Admin – he means Capuchin) and Spider monkeys.

That afternoon was a highlight; visiting the Caquiahuara Macaw Cliff, where pairs of nesting Macaws and Parakeets can be seen in the vertical cliff face. Hiking there was fine, but clambering up the look-out tower reminded us that the phrase “heath and safety” doesn’t seem to translate into Bolivian Spanish! Luckily we’re ugly enough to take care of ourselves.

What do you mean you can’t see any birds?

Here you go – picture curtesy of the Merlin Bird app

Day 3

The following morning meant a return to the Mashaquipe lodges, instead of walking though, we were convinced by our nemesis Nilo that it would be a good idea to raft back; ‘Callapos’ are a rustic form of transportation used by the indigenous people round these here parts, consisting of logs bound together to form a raft. To tired to think straight after a wonderful*** night’s sleep in the open, we agreed and made our way to the river for a 101 raft building course – consisting of watching Nilo build it and praying he knew what he was doing! A quick change into swimwear and we were off, gently floating down the river Beni, it was quite a serene experience and in the end not too ‘damp’.

*** Hardly

No pictures I’m afraid due to the tap being on (Admin – he means running water), so here’s that sleeping cat again from Vilcabamba.

Now back at the lodges, another hike though the forest was scheduled for that afternoon, I chose not to go but Rebecca did and she assures me she saw some wonderful sight, such as Red Howler monkeys, Cappuccino (Admin – that’s Capuchin Richard!) monkeys and large lizards, although she conveniently didn’t have any photographic evidence for these, hmmmm?! So here’s that bloody cat again.

Something I had been looking forward to was the possibility of a night walk, so after a dinner back at the lodge, consisting of some other food, Nilo, Rebecca and I braved the night to go ‘a hunting’ in the forest.

It was a great experience, both spooky and yet serene, and we had to be incredibly quiet. Nilo did inform us that the chances of seeing anything is often slim, none-the-less we managed to be, at least, partially successful.

A **Possum**– it kept incredibly still, possibly thinking it couldn’t be seen if it did so. We also found the little tike rummaging through our outside bin very early the next morning

A **Golden Web Spider** hanging out around the huts

Nilo didn’t know the name of this one, but did say he knew it was poisonous

And the Pièce de Résistance (colloquial spanish again). A juvenile **Tarantula**. They predominately hide out in the palm trees around the lodges

Day 4

And so part uno of our Amazon adventure comes to an end, a quick stop in Rurrenabaque and it’s off to the Pampas; with the promise of much more wildlife to see, but that’s Rebecca’s story.

For me, it would have been great to see more, but spotting things in a dense jungle is not easy. I suggested to Nilo that maybe cutting down some trees may yield better results? I won’t bother you with his reply, save to say that many people seem to be doing this anyway!

Madidi Nature Reserve sits on a bit of a knife edge, the reserve has a wealth of natural resources that the government would like to plunder and there are also rumours of flooding past of it to put on a hydroelectric dam, and Nilo feels this could happen if the money from tourism dried up. While Mashaquipe tend to restrict individual tour numbers to 6 or less, we ended up, literally, on a private tour with just Rebecca and myself for both the jungle and Pampas; tourist numbers have not recovered to pre-COVID levels.

Sooooo, pick a comfier seat than we had and get ready to be ‘pampered’… but before you head off there’s a small image dump from Part Uno below.