Ana_Rurrenabaque (Jungle)

The jungle part of the trip I thought it was going to SUCK big time. Not the case. We were suppose to go only for a day but we switch our plans to make it two days, which is what the agency recommended.

Tim was tired from fishing with Rami and the morning we were suppose to go to the jungle he decided it might be a good idea of switching our plans. At first I was upset because of the last minute decision. We woke early for nothing and I thought it would be a hassle to change our plane ticket back to La Paz and the bus ticket to Cusco. But like Bolivians say "TODO ES POSIBLE, NADA ES SEGURO," we were able to change our plans. The saying translates to "EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE, NOTHING IS CERTAIN or FOR SURE". I love that saying! We took care of details in the morning and it was not a problem to change our plans from 1 day to 2 days in the jungle. I was glad at the end. I really like the town. It has a great vibe.

We went back to our hotel after taking care of details. Tim took a long nap. I did too and I claimed I was not sleepy. I have to say we´ve slept alot on this trip so far. Our average sleep time is 8 to 9 hours. It was nice to just be lazy bums all day and hide from the sun. We were both pretty burn from the sun during our pampas tour.

At night we went to a new place for dinner. The usual place, Camila´s, was getting old. We went to Butterflies Restaurant. Tim loved the orange juice. I didn´t too much. It was a bit watery! We´ve been on a quest for the best orange juice. When we finished having dinner. We were walking back to our hotel, when Rami, our guide from the Pampas, comes behind us in motorcycle. He scared the shit out of me. He was way to close. I almost used one of my karate moves. Rami is a clown, just like Tim and he was laughing to know that he scared me. He said he was looking for us to invite us over his house. They were celebrating his baby girl´s first birthday party. Tim and I were both suprised but honored that he invited us. We accepted the invitation. But first we had to scramble around the town to buy a present. We found a stuffed bunny. Off we went to Rami´s house. They had no electricity that night so it was interesting finding our way. We were introduced to his wife and other family members. Rami is 1 or 11 kids. His parents didn´t have TV =). Some of his nephews were there. So cute! I do have to say on this trip I´ve had a soft spot for kids. They´re so adorable. We had our camera with us to show Rami some of the pictures from las pampas. In no time we had some of the kids around us. They love the camera. So I started taking pictures of some of them.They thought it was pretty funny to see their photo. They all wanted their picture taken to see it aftewards. Hay que cute!

We were served dinner again. We felt bad saying NO, so we shared a plate. We had a picante de pollo, basically spicy chicken with rice and potatoes. Very good! But my stomach couldn´t handle more food. Muy full! Right after we sang Happy Birthday and that was it for us. It was very nice to spend a night with a family. Although everyone would starred at us we felt very welcome. Great family!

Day 1
Next morning we were off to the jungle. In the morning we had time to go to the Sunday market. It was crowded with vendors selling fresh produces, meats and clothing. Rami met us in the morning at the market to show Tim big fishes. We did see a huge, bloddy, catch fish. Grosse! But Tim was fascintated with size of it!

Right after we got on a small motorized boat, similar to the Pampas. This time we were going on bigger river, River Beni. To our surprised Jacob was going to be our cook again. We had a new guide, Elvis. He seemed very nice, although a bit more shy than Rami. The ride to our campsite was three hours on the river. The other couple on the trip seemed very quite at first. The view along the river was again beautiful. Bigger trees than of the Pampas. The water was more muddy looking and the land was just wider.

We arrived at our campsite around noon. We had to hike our little butts and all of our stuff for about 10 minutes. It was hot and humid. We made it though! The campsite was facing a small lake. The beds were pieces of logs put together and thin matress on top. Jacob started cooking a huge meal. This time there was so much food. No Israelitos to eat the food. They actually were leaving when we got there. The jungle was definately different. Just huge trees, more of a dense forest. Tons of more insects crawling around everywhere. And the humidity was thick, my hair was loving it!

After the awesome lunch - rice, steak, plantains and vegetables; we went for a walk around the jungle. Our guide, Elvis, explained to us that the jungle was different than the Pampas in the sense that we had to be careful where we walk and not to step on snakes, spider or any toxic plants/trees. He´d walk in front of us with a machete. We had walk in a single file and be quite as we walked. It was unpredictable what we´d see. Since the animals and insect usually go away when the here noises and specially from humans. Ironic, they´re scared of us and we´re scared of them. Elvis, showed us some medicine plants. Pretty interesting. We even saw a tree that has smells and taste like garlic. He said in the jungle that is what they use to cook. He was born and raised in the jungle so he was knows how to survive from just what he finds in the jungle. We didn´t see much other than a huge ant called "La 24" it was HUGE. It was fun walking around the jungle for like 3 hours. Then we got back to our campsite. The feeling of just being outthere with nature in the middle of nowhere was a great thought. Suprisingly! They idea of nowhere to go to nowhere to be, was very peaceful.

By this time Tim was a Spanish talking machine. He felt more comfortable and was having conversations with Elvis and Jacob. He kept saying "Quiero pescar!" I started joking with Elvis saying "don´t mention anything about fishing because Tim´d want to fish." Elvis said "OK Tim vamos a pescar." Tim was happy about that. In the lake nearby you can fish for phiranas. I was not in the mood. I was the spectator and the photographer. The other couple was there fishing as well. The girl, Eli, caught the first phirana. I can tell the guys were not happy about that. Soon after Tim caught a small fish. He was happy, but not content since it wasn´t a phirana. Minutes after, he caught a phirana. FINALLY! It was a pretty big one too. But of course Tim wanted another. No luck. No more phiranas for Tim.

Jacob cooked the phiranas for dinner. Tim was happy to eat his own phirana. It tasted like fish, but less fishy taste. It was pretty good, I must say. After dinner the plans were if we wanted to walk again around the jungle, but this time it was pitch dark. The guys said yes right away, but of course me was a little more hesitant. Part of me was scared, but wouldn´t stay behind. So we agree to go for a little bit. Even Elvis said he was scared at night, since it´s harder to see. Great I thought. He instructed us to turn off the flashlights when he did. That meant he heard something and wanted to make sure we could see it and not scared it away. Man, I thought I was going to have a panic attact. Everytime I made Tim hug me and had to cover my mouth not to scream. My flashlight died along the way and all we had was Tim´s flashlight. The other couple had only one as well. Thank goodness Elvis had a good flashlight. After an hour in the dark walking in the jungle, Elvis asked us if we wanted to keep going or go back to the campsite. I immediately responded I wanted to go back, the other girl too. So we did. It was fun and all but I was a little scared. Specially after Elvis told me earlier in the day that the only thing he was afraid of was snakes. He told me the story about the snake Pucara, it´s known to be the queen of the jungle in that area. It´s small, green and fast. It can jump up 3 meters and it can kill you in 15 minutes. Great!

Day 2
We woke up the next morning to a nice rain. It was raining pretty hard. It was kinda of fun, just to watch the rain fall. We had a huge breakfast. Jacob made us rice bread, empanadas and cheese. The empanadas were really good. Since it was raining, Elvis, said we had the choice to make jewelry or walk around the jungle some more. Of course, I wanted to make jewlery. The guys were not to excited about that. They went fishing instead. First, we walked around to find the materials to make the necklaces and rings. It was cool to know you can make rings out of a small coconut. We couldn´t find a big enough coconut for the guys. So after a while we gave up and came back to the campsite. Elvis started making the rings for the girls. It was so amazing how handy and crafty Elvis was. He made a nice ring for the both of. He even edge the ring. He also made us a neckclace just using natural stuff. The charm on the necklace was in the shape of a dolphin. Elvis made it for us. Pretty cool! The guys also had a necklace made. Tim chose an eagle´s claw for his necklace. He thought he was so cool! Making jewlery pretty much took all morning.
After lunch we headed back to town.

I must say it was a great experience. Eventhough we didn´t see much animals it was awesome just to be in the dense jungle. I´ve never done anything like that. I can believe I´m saying this but, I could of stay one more day. FUN TIMES!