Max Adventures Jungle Tour (27th - 29th March 2016)
We arrived at the Max Adventures office at 8am to meet Tereza, an amazing Czech woman, mother of five and running this business with her husband Feizar, whom is an incredibly hard working local man. Together they built the business from nothing except a dream to show people the Jungle and his home. It took them 7 years to get the licencing approved to access the Madidi National Park, and have been operating from the site for 3 years now. They have completed an incredible amount of work and have built a few Eco Lodges basing the designs off the natural flora around the area and used the jungles timber and materials to build some beautiful buildings. Tereza said that they only employ local indigenous people as guides because the Jungle is engrained into them, their knowledge of the area, animals, plants and geography is almost inbuilt into them. They have tried to train people but have failed, so they use the local people from the surrounding tribes.
As it was over the Easter period, we were fortunate enough to meet the family, children and extended family as they were using it is as an opportunity to have a family holiday together. Our tour group is just us and another guy, Christian from London, UK - the small group is quite good as it means more interactive time and less dawdling. We piled into the boat and made our way up the river, Rio Beni (the river is 6,045 km in total length) alongside our guide, Miguel. The journey took just over three hours but it went quite quickly. We arrived at the camp area and immediately went for a short walk and Miguel showed us the fruits that can be eaten, medicinal plants and how to use the vines as building materials. We then had lunch which consisted of hot rice, fried chicken, salad and fried plantain bananas.
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| We were then shown our lodgings which are absolutely beautiful - luckily for us we got the "Eco Love Lodge", which gave us a private area near a stream and a very comfortable queen sized bed. |
We enjoyed our night sleeping in the lodge, listening to the stream, the howler monkeys calling in the distance, frogs in river, pigs rustling through the bush and insects eating VERY loudly by my head during the night. We slept well in the beautiful tree house until 6.45am when the two small black bats, whom have taken residence in the hut, came back from their nights activities and noisily chatted to one another.
We went on a three hour mission hike through the jungle. Some sections were incredibly dense jungle, which was very cool to see but really the only downside was the insane volume of mosquitos that are determined to eat you alive. We had 98.5% Deet, which was excessive but we were still being attacked though I can't imagine not having any insect repellent on at all!
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| We were searching for some animals, there are heaps of pigs near the camp and where there are pigs - there are Puma!, so we saw a lot of paw prints and heard some pigs but didn't actually see anything. |
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| Due to the 100% humidity and moist nature of the rainforest, everything is always damp and clammy feeling - doesn't seem to dry much especially since we were there still in the rainy season. |
We got up at 7am, had a very extensive gringo/tourist breakfast from 8am (pancakes with caramel, pikelets with Jam, little biscuits, fruit salad, tea & coffee). We packed up our bags (we carried all our possessions with us and had one large pack with us, as we carried camping gear and food too - Poor Michael was carrying 30-40kgs in his pack which was ridiculous) then we set off for a hike through the jungle and to a new campsite for a night of wild camping in the jungle. We hiked for about two hours, stopping along the way so Miguel could show us the termites that they lick to reduce mosquito bites, a bush pig sty's near a water hole, puma and jaguar paw prints and how to make a fan from new palm frons. We made our way to the campsite, dumped our things down and walked to the river so we could try catch some catfish for dinner - Shahn slipped on her butt down to the stream as it was incredibly muddy. Not ideal especially since we didn't actually catch anything, though we had a delicious campfire dinner of pasta, hot vegetable salsa and deep fried plantain banana chips. We had a pretty comfortable night sleep in the mosquito nets under the tarpaulin tent - though it was insanely hot in the mosquito nets but it chilled off about 4am which was quite lovely. Lots of rainforest noises again; frogs, Capybara, fruit and branches falling to the ground, crickets, monkeys etc etc.
We woke at daybreak and got up at 7.45am to prepare campfire breakfast which consisted of a yummy deep fried damper with cheese, hot vegetable salsa again, bread & jam, sweet biscuits with coffee and tea. We packed up our campsite and our bags and headed back to the Max Adventures Camp, the hike was short back and quite beautiful as the sun was streaming through the rainforest, it has been overcast the whole time so it was cool to see the jungle in a different way. The boys went off and tried to go fishing again in the river and swimming, while Shahn relaxed in a hammock and wandered around the campsite taking photos and watching the wildlife of birds and lizards amongst the trees. We had lunch then headed out back down the river to Rurrenabaque.
On the 22nd March 2015, a very unfortunate event occurred at the Max Adventures Camp. A huge storm came out of nowhere unexpectedly, a new group arrived as we did and wandered down the path. A huge tornado like wind came through the jungle forest and knocked down a massive tree and killed a young British woman named Louisa. The night we arrived they had just finished completing a memorial shrine to her in the place she was crushed by the tree. They had a beautiful memorial service to her that we were very privileged to be a part of.
We booked into the same hostel in Rurrenabaque, we both had a glorious shower as we were very dirty and sweaty, got our laundry underway and went for a walk around the town, then relaxed in the hammocks at hostel while checking the internet and emails etc. We had dinner at El Nomadico, an excellent restaurant run by a Australian guy from Sydney with his Bolivian wife. We had a chicken & quinoa lasagne and a Bolivian fish curry dish made with the local River Beni Catfish - it was absolutely delicious. Shahn managed to get the recipe from him so we hope to replicate it when back home!
We thoroughly enjoyed our time in jungle, we found it a very peaceful and beautiful place, yes the mosquitos and other bugs are a pain to deal with but it's an incredible lifestyle. The indigenous peoples have such an extensive knowledge about the land and it's amazing to watch them. Our guide Miguel, was born in the jungle, he is a trained chef and he also told us that he was a commander or captain for the military and had lead 40 men, was dropped into the Bush in Peru, for three months and taught them survival skills and only ate food from the rainforest. He was pretty much a Bolivian Bear Grylls!
Dolphins Travel to the Pampas (30th March to 1st April 2016)
We got up early to sort out our bags and laundry for our next three day tour. We arrived at Dolphins Travel office by 8.30am and were told to relax as not leaving until 9-9.15am. We went next door to the cafe for breakfast, Luz del Mar, where we had the best breakfast in Bolivia - toasted homemade wholemeal and grain bread with homemade strawberry jam, melon juice and a delicious granola muesli with chia seeds, fruit and yoghurt. So cheap for NZ$5 pp.
We piled into the Toyota Land Cruiser for the three hour drive to the town of Santa Rosa for lunch. Our guides name was Antonio, along with us in the truck was Daniel (IT tech) from Austria and Aya (teacher of P.E and a Pilates Teacher) from Japan as well as sisters Claire & Helen and their friend Emily from England (all teachers). We then were put into a boat and went another three hours down the Yacuma River, stopping to look at many birds and cute yellow squirrel monkeys that were quite friendly and inquisitive. Our accommodation are lodges built on the river to accommodate the rising water levels for the rainy versus dry seasons. We dumped our stuff, had a snack of popcorn and lemonade juice then into the boat again for some night time spotting of crocodile (caiman), monkeys and birds going to roost at sunset.
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| Black-capped squirrel monkey (Saimiri boliviensis) is a native species to the upper Amazon basin in Bolivia, western Brazil and eastern Peru |
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| Of course, there is always a stall in the middle of nowhere to sell you treats you don't need as well as, beer & wine available so we part took in a few sunset beers. |
The second day of the tour we got up at 7am and prepared ourselves for the day, again was fed a very large breakfast of fruits, pancakes, empanadas and little handmade donut sort of things. We went off the boat in search of anacondas, boa constrictors and capybara that live near a land island in the Pampas. We didn't see any snakes but instead saw many lizards, iguana, wasps and capybara poo.
We then headed back to camp for lunch then prepared for swimming with the Dolphins. It was incredibly humid and scorching hot in the sun, the boat ride to the Dolphins living area was nice. The water is brown/orange from the tannins and river vegetation, also why the Dolphins have a pink colour to their otherwise grey skin. We were desperate to jump in the water to cool off, it was an excellent afternoon. The dolphins would circle around you, nibble and bite on your toes, bunt into you and would play around. There were a couple of babies that stayed close to the adults and in total about seven dolphins. We spent two, almost three hours playing around in the water before they got bored of us. So we ventured on to see more animals and birds. We saw a Toucan, brown and black howler monkeys, a sloth and many different birds. We watched the sun set over the water and headed back to camp with a few more mosquito bites and sunburnt bodies than we would have liked.
We then headed back to camp for lunch then prepared for swimming with the Dolphins. It was incredibly humid and scorching hot in the sun, the boat ride to the Dolphins living area was nice. The water is brown/orange from the tannins and river vegetation, also why the Dolphins have a pink colour to their otherwise grey skin. We were desperate to jump in the water to cool off, it was an excellent afternoon. The dolphins would circle around you, nibble and bite on your toes, bunt into you and would play around. There were a couple of babies that stayed close to the adults and in total about seven dolphins. We spent two, almost three hours playing around in the water before they got bored of us. So we ventured on to see more animals and birds. We saw a Toucan, brown and black howler monkeys, a sloth and many different birds. We watched the sun set over the water and headed back to camp with a few more mosquito bites and sunburnt bodies than we would have liked.
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| The best photo we took of the "Pink" Amazon River Dolphins (Inia geoffrensis) |
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| Toco Toucan (Ramphastos toco), the most common Toucan |
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| Black Howler Monkey (Alouatta caraya) - the males are black, females a goldy brown colour. |
Our final day, we awoke at 5.30am to watch the sunrise, which was stunning as it has just started showering as we left in the boat. A quick 30 minute snooze in the hammocks and breakfast at 7.30am. We had a morning spent fishing for Piranha, the river was very full after the rainy season so the chance of catching a fish was quite low - thus we went back to camp empty handed. Antonio told that the River system we were using is 225km long approximately and that you can go up and down it in many directions, the pink river dolphins use it as system to gain maximum food opportunities.
We had another massive lunch before we packed up our gear into the canoe/boat and set off back down the Yacuma River to get back in the Cruiser to go back to Rurrenabaque. There was a very fast 2.5hour ride on the rough dirt roads back to the town. Upon arrival we managed to get our bags back in some order and sussed out our flight to La Paz. It was incredibly hot that day so most of us had patches of sunburn where we had sweated off through our sunscreen.
