Three days in the Amazon jungle

We should have been a group of four for the jungle tour, but the Irish couple we were meant to be joined by had a problem with their flight from La Paz, so Paul and I effectively got a private 3-day tour.  We met our guide, Billy, early on Thursday morning and walked down to Rurrenabaque harbour where our boat awaited.  

After stops across the river to pay the entrance fee to Madidi National Park and to get stamped in, it was two hours or so boat journey to Mashaquipe's lodge in the jungle.  

We'd been told we'd be in a 5-bed dorm on our own, but because the Irish couple weren't with us, we ended up with a private cabin for two.  

We didn't realise how lucky we were until the last day of the tour, when we were given the 5-bed dorm to get changed in after returning from a night camping in the jungle.  The private cabin was obviously one of several new buildings that had been added to the site, with little extras like wooden floors (as opposed to concrete) and fluffy rugs!

One of the main differences between this tour and the pampas tour was the quality of the food.  We were fed 3-course meals for lunch and dinner, and breakfast was a vast selection of fruit, breads and eggs.  This was the 3-course lunch we were fed on arrival.

First activity after lunch was a 4-hour hike through the jungle.  They tell you you'll be lucky to see any animals; it's more about the plants, with Billy explaining some of the medicinal uses.  We tasted the bitter bark of a tree that's meant to cure malaria, smelt the bark of a garlic tree (very garlicky!) and we got to eat some random fruit that Paul saw dangling off a plant.

(Sorry about the poor focus, my camera is crap)

It was pretty hot and humid walking around and there were a lot of mosquitoes, so Paul and I picked up some random dead leaves, mostly to fan the mosquitoes away.  When Billy saw, he went off for a few minutes and came back with some big leaves which he chopped in to fans with his machete!

The plan for the second day was to get up early and set off on a long hike to a campsite in the jungle where we would spend the night.  But when Paul expressed an interest in fishing, Billy said we could change the program and go fishing in the morning before hiking to the camp in the afternoon.  

So the first thing we did the next day was go to a lagoon to fish for piranha for bait.  After the disappointment of not catching any piranha in the pampas, Paul finally hooked one in the lagoon!

Not to be outdone, Billy then went on to catch what he said was an Amazonian salmon!

Then it went quiet, neither of us being able to hook anything, so Billy put the fish on a stick for me to carry them to another lagoon (after pretending to eat them).

After a while at the second lagoon, I finally got my first (and only) catch of the day!

Then it was to the river to try and catch a catfish (or surubi).  Billy chopped one of the piranha up for bait.

Paul almost caught a catfish - twice!  But he didn't quite manage to hook them so they got away :o(

So after sitting there for 45 minutes, we called it quits and went for lunch.  We gave the remaining piranha and Amazonian salmon to Paola the cook and she deep fried them for us!  They were tasty, if a bit bony.

In the afternoon, we headed off on our trek further in to the jungle to camp overnight.  Mashaquipe have a permanent camp there with a basic kitchen and a tarpaulin shelter.  We had to take mosquito nets, sleeping bags and mats.

We also took Paola the cook with us!  There are four live-in chefs at the lodge and they take it in turns to go camping with tour groups.  She cooked at the campsite while Billy, Paul and I walked further to a lookout where we could see macaws.

(Disgusting and sweaty after hiking up, but worth it for the view - although the macaws were too far away and too fast to get a decent photo of them!)

When we got back to the campsite, Paola had cooked up a delicious meal of pasta and chicken.  But dinner time was when we got eaten alive by mosquitoes!  There was no mosquito net around the eating area and there were loads of mosquitoes, so we just got bitten everywhere!  We wished we could have enjoyed Paola's cooking properly, but we were so desperate to get behind the safety of a mosquito net that we wolfed it down and fled!

It was pretty hard sleeping that night because we only had yoga-style mats and no pillows, plus it was very humid.  But we were rewarded the next morning with an amazing breakfast that Paola managed to cook on the campfire: toast, eggs, pancakes, yuka (think it's cassava) filled with cheese, and apple.

The final day, we headed back to the lodge not by walking, but by rafting!  They advertise it as 'you build a raft' but what actually happened was Billy built it because he had to tie the knots - I think in the past rafts had fallen apart midway so this rule was brought in.

Billy then punted while Paul and I had a swim and then relaxed on the raft for the hour-long journey downstream!

After a shower and lunch at the lodge, we headed back to Rurrenabaque.  But we stopped off at a little village en route.  The village was celebrating its 30th anniversary with a football tournament involving teams from neighbouring villages.  The community is actually one which benefits from Mashaquipe's tourism and so there was a Mashaquipe team.

The prize was a pig, so it was very competitive!

For village football teams these guys were really good!  We left at half-time when Mashaquipe were 2-1 up though, so we'll never know who won the pig.

The next day, we headed back to La Paz.  The airline shuttle bus to Rurrenabaque was really hot, so Paul and I got motorcycle taxis to the airport (our rucksacks were on the bus).  It was bloody scary cos the road was largely cobblestone, but at least it was cooler than the bus!

Bye Rurrenabaque!  It was fun!