We have taken buses everywhere in South America so it was strange to sit at the airport in La Paz. It was like we were off on a little holiday!
We landed in Rurrenabaque to heat, heat, heat. It’s such a cool little jungle town; most of the restaurants are BBQs and moto-taxis take everyone, everywhere. Sometimes whole families at once!
We checked in for our tour the next day and took a motorised canoe three hours down the Beni river to Madidi National Park. We were staying specifically in the Serere Reserve, which we chose because of it’s conservation efforts. A lot of the tours from Rurrenabaque are dodgy; endangering the animals rather than helping them so this seemed ‘official’. The woman that owns Serere has worked with National Geographic to cover her preservation efforts, so we knew this one was the real deal!
Our accommodation was in lovely wooden huts which instead of walls had mosquito netting, so that you could lie in bed and watch the trees and wildlife. Amazing! There was a large house built in the same way, which we met our guide at for meals and activities.
As soon as we left the boat, we walked ten minutes towards the house and one of our group spotted a sloth! It was incredible. I couldn’t believe we were seeing a sloth just up there in the tree in front of us. Our guide said we were very lucky, as they usually stay much higher; this one was on his way down for a poo. They come down every 6 days for the toilet!
Our first activity was a canoe ride around the lake. It was so peaceful being out on the water, yet also so loud with the sounds of the jungle. The macaws screech so loudly, and the howler monkeys sound like zombies. Our first spot was …. another sloth! This one was climbing towards the end of a branch veryyyy slowly. The branch was so thin, and our guide said this one was going to fall off, and that it happens a lot! We also saw a caiman, macaws, many, many beautifully colour birds and some capucin monkeys. Coming back across the lake as it was getting dark was just amazing. The jungle was changing as it got to nighttime.
We went on a night walk after dinner. We saw tarantulas, HUGE bullet ants plus every other kind of ant you can think of, huge toads! Beautiful fireflies and big spiders. Our guide, Nelson, was fantastic at explaining everything and spotting wildlife. He could also perfectly mimic most of the animals to call them! He was born and bred inside the national park, but he didn’t wear a loin-cloth as my Mum imagined, he wore a hoodie and was really cool!
The following day bought more wildlife. We trekked to what Nelson called Gringo Lake and it was exactly as you imagined canoe-ing through the Amazon to be. So many plants in the water and on the surface. We saw caimons in the water and had better views of the macaws. As we got out of the boat, we were suddenly surrounded by a group of 50 capucin and squirrel monkeys playing in the trees around us! The monkeys were the only wildlife that didn’t seen to shy way from our presence.
The centre had tried to rehabilitate a wild pig, which had ended up being their pet. He followed us the entire day, slept in the boat while we were in it and trekked all the way back. He was exhausted when we got back to the lodge and squealed when we shut him out of our room. The lodge also had a ‘pet’ tapir and spider monkey who continually tried to get in and steal food. One morning the monkey came in, worked his way down the breakfast table and threw a pancake to the lodge’s parrot, who strutted off holding it. Hilarious, but so frustrating for the staff! They lock him out and he just bends the door back to let himself in.
That evening we went… caimon hunting! If you shine your headtorch around it catches the eyes of the caimon. Honestly, we could see around fifty pairs of eyes when we were sitting in the shallower parts. Our guide thought our nerves were hilarious, especially when he tapped one of the larger caimon with his oar and it hit the boat! I honestly thought that it was coming in to the boat with us. We saw SO many that evening, but the best was a tiny one, who when we got up him had a big fish in his mouth! We left him alone to eat his dinner.
The fireflies were out in force that evening, and they were flying over the lake brightening it up. When I opened my bag back at the lodge a bright light flew out of it.
On our last day in the jungle we collected some nuts which we later used to make jewellery, helped by our very skilled guide. And then, it was too soon but it was time to go! Back to the port (which was just chunks of mud cut out of the bank!) and the guides helped us down in to the boats. We didn’t want to leave this amazing place, which was definitely our best trip so far.
I was SO impressed by the conservation effort here. As we have come to realise, Bolivia has fantastic places, but it’s almost worrying that they are responsible for keeping them. We found out from our hostel that the town’s rubbish trucks collect the rubbish and take it straight to be dumped in the river a little further upstream. The fish in the river are already inedible due to how much mercury is in there. If only they could be as environmentally conscious as Madidi! Half of the population understand and are trying to explain conservation efforts to the rest, who I guess are more concerned about trying to make a living for themselves in this very poor nation.
Time to fly back to La Paz on our tiny propeller driven plane. I don’t want to go back to the cold!
TOUR | Booked via Madidi Travel in La Paz (they also have an office in Rurrenabaque). We chose the 4d/3n option and paid 2000 BOB / £206 each. Price included transport from Rurrenabaque to Madidi, accommodation, daily tours and all meals. Lovely!
FLIGHTS | Booked separately; we paid 550 BOB / £57 outward-bound and 650 BOB / £67. We found that the cheaper deals were via agents in La Paz/Rurrenabaque, rather than online. I guess if you book a return you can get cheaper prices than we did organising this separately.
