Madidi National Park

Liz and I arrived back in Rurrenabaque and were asked if we could wait a day to start our jungle tour as the planes weren't coming in and they were waiting on some people. Sure, no problem. We just hung around the lazy town of Rurrenabaque eating and drinking these amazing chocolate banana peanut butter shakes at Piraña, a local hang out.
The next day we left for the Madidi office. Only one other tourist had made it, but we loaded up the boat and headed out on a 3 hour boat ride. This boat, luckily, had cushions and a roof to keep the blazing Amazonian Basin sun off our skin. Taking anti malaria pills makes me extra sensitive. The ride was beautiful, we stopped for a lunch half way there and got to see how the indigenous people live.
We arrived at Madidi and we're introduced to our guide, Ramel.

After dropping off our bags and meeting our roommate Peter and the huge tarantula he found in the bathroom(!) we headed off us on a sunset boat ride on Lago San Fernando. The boat was one half of a tree that had been hollowed out by hand, it was so neat. We saw lots of birds, loads of fish jumping, and we're basically eaten alive by killer flies. We stayed out on the lake until the sun was gone and found the first stars.

We went back to the main cabin for a delicious dinner and then we went out for a night walk through the rain forest. Ramel and Liz had flashlights (I lost mine). But it turned out best when we turned off the lights and just stood still listening. Then Ramel would quickly turn on his light and point out what he found. Usually a small mouse or bird. We, unfortunately, never found the allusive Puma nor anything else too exciting. We did find enormous bugs, though.
The next day we were scheduled to take a walk through the rain forest to Lago Gringo. About every 10-15 feet Ramel would stop and point out something. Bugs, spiders, which animals were making the noises we could hear. He knew so much about all the plants. Which helped with stomach problems. Which could cure the sting of a huge ant. Which plants to stay away from because they had jumping ants that sting like crazy. He told us of the trees that could make you blind if you touched the sap. He showed us where the termites lived.

(They taste like mint!) We had been walking about 4 hours when we notice we are not quite on a path anymore. Yup, Ramel had gotten us lost. We didn't say anything and just continued to follow him blindly deeper into the vegetation. I actually liked it, I felt like an explorer. But we could have used machetes! After about a half hour of this I asked him if we were lost. He assured us that even though we lost the path, he still knew the way. We did eventually find the path again. Only to begin to feel the rain drops. The thick canopy above kept us dry for some time, but then it started to down pour. We hid under a palm tree. That did little good. We waited for about 40 minutes getting soaked and decided to make a run for it to the cabina waiting for us at Lago Gringo. We made it there, soaked and starved. Ramel had our lunch in his bag so we set us camp, ate a great lunch then rested on the hammocks in the cabina. We waited for a couple of hours, but with the rain showing no sign of stopping we decided to head back. Luckily there was another route that only took about 30 minutes to reach our main cabina.


After getting dry and having a nap we went back to the main cabina for dinner. They pointed out the enormous cayman that was floating by on the lake. During dinner Rosa Maria stopped by to see how we were enjoying our meal. Rosa Maria is the founder of this ecolodge. And she is one incredible woman. She was born in the jungle to a Belgium mother. She has lived her whole life in the jungle. She and her mother have fought against dictator regimes, and other corrupt political leaders year after year to save rain forest. She has had everything she owned burned to the ground because they didn't like what she was doing. She also had to flee Bolivia and was exiled in the USA for some time. She is highly educated and has worked with groups like Stings to help save the planet. Aside from all of this she is incredible because she survived a viscous cayman attack.
She used to swim every morning in the lake very early. About 2 years ago on her swim she saw a cayman heading right for her. The trick to avoid a cayman is to swim under it and come up on the other side, as they have a hard time turning around very fast. Unfortunately she didn't swim far enough and basically came up for air right under his nose. He bit her and dragged her under water. They struggled and she fought hard. For some unknown reason he did let her go. She swam to the surface and called for help. He basically ate off her quadriceps muscle and all the tendons. She endured 16 surgeries of re grafting muscle and tissue from other parts of her body. She is lucky to be alive - and walking! We enjoyed talking with her and learned so much. We stayed around for a few hours drinking chelas (beers) and talking with the rest of the staff.
That night laying in bed I heard the craziest sound. It sounded like a deep roar and I was convinced the Puma was just outside our cabina. The next morning I asked Rosa Maria what it might have been. She asked me to make the sound I heard, I tried but felt like an idiot. Rosa Maria then introduced me to Chaco Mano, he too, grew up in the jungle and knows every thing about it. His special talent is to imitate nearly every animal sound. She asked him to do the Puma, monkeys, howler monkeys, cayman, and so on. I was so impressed. It was the coolest thing ever. Most likely what I had heard had been a large male cayman.
After breakfast we set out to do some piraña fishing, but Liz and I were mainly just feeding them as we caught none. We had lunch then caught the boat back to Rurre.

We came walking up the street to find Maria (from our Pampas trip) waiting for us. She was headed to dinner with two English girls she had met in the jungle. So the five of us met at Moskkito, the gringo bar, for happy hour. Turns out in the jungle every thing is fresh squeezed juice. A Greyhound is vodka with freshly squeezed grapefruit juice. Amazing and dangerous. We had a couple of cocktails then went to a lovely dinner at La Perla. We all ordered the house specialty which is Surubi fish in a mustard garlic sauce... again, amazing! It was so fun to sit around the table with a bunch of girls and have a girl talk session! It's usually mixed company, so it was quite refreshing. After dinner it was back to Moskkito for more cocktails and eventually dancing.
We had a blast our last night in Rurrenabaque. The next morning we met for breakfast and lazed around the local pool for hours. It was just what we needed as a break from the incredible heat. We boarded the plane in early evening and were back safe and sound in La Paz.
Now, Liz and I hadn't really yet taken advantage of the La Paz night life and we were determined to do so. We have been sad missing all the football games at home, but we found something that felt quite similar. We went to Oliver's Travels, an English pub in the center of the city. There we watched the Rugby World Cup Final between England and South Africa. The bar was divided with travellers from both countries. Liz and I claimed to be "Swiss" in that we were neutral. We were really rooting for England, but it became quite clear that was a losing battle.
After the game ended we went to dinner. We had a Coca mojito! That was wild. We met up with friends at the Loki Hostal for a TOGA party. We were basically the only ones with out togas, but it didn't matter much. Then it was out to one of La Paz's hippest (and most crowded) dance clubs, Orange. We danced all night long and loved it.
We are now headed to Cochabamba.