TourBackpacker: La Paz - Rurrenabaque (Part 1)

Tuesday Sept. 18th, We leave the hostel at around 10am to go and find breakfast. We find big bowl of fruit salad with yogurt for 7Bs in a public market, very good. Then we head towards the neighborhood ''Villa Fatima'' on the streets ''Av. de las Americas'' and ''Alto Beni'' to find bus tickets to go to Rurrenabaque, I can’t remember the name of the company but it was on the street ''Alto Beni'', there are many companies that go to Rurre. In these parts. We find one for 70Bs (10$ Can.) each for the next daya t 1pm. We then walk around in the markets of the neighborhood for a little while and and back towards the center. We realize at one point that we went a little too far and have to make a detour to get back to the town center, not a big thing, it gave us a reason to walk around and find out a little more and see other places. We make it back to downtown and head back at the hospedaje ‘’Millenio’’ to start packing the stuff we will need for the next morning. I will leave my big backpack here because I know that I will be coming right back to La Paz after and so I only bring my day pack with clothes and some other things needed. We then head out for supper in a restaurant where the ''Cena'' is at only 5Bs. The whole day and still in the evening there is a big march in the city center that blocks the main street of La Paz. Minors are on strike and want the Bolivian government to change the ways of the big mining companies. These strikes have been going on like this for many months now over here. We stay in the center for a while to see whats going on and then go back at the hostel.

La Paz

La Paz

Click on picture to see the whole album ''La Paz''

La Paz

We go for breakfast at the same place as the day before (Tuesday sept. 19th) and then go back to ''Villa Fatima'' where we will take our bus. But first we stop in the markets to get some food for the long road ahead of us. We read that the travel between La Paz and Rurrenabaque is in between 18 to 24h depending on the state of the road and the seasons. We are expecting the worst this way we will not be too disappointed. We finally leave at around 2pm with one hour late. We make many stops on the way for many reasons. In the night the bus stops completely for at least 3h and we never knew exactly why.

Market in Villa Fatima, La Paz

Our bus for Rurrenabaque (the top was completely full when we left)

Thursday Sept. 20th, the bus finally leaves again at 5h30 am, it is very slow because the road is very bumpy and on the side of the mountainside going down in many places. At around 9am the bus stops again in a small village named ‘'Sillar'' and we explain to us that the road is in construction ahead and will be completely blocked until 11h30. Another stop that delays us. In the meanwhile we walk around the village and have a few chats with locals that say that the road to Rurrenabaque should be much better in the years to come. Lots of construction is being done to improve the road and make it more easily used. We do leave again around 11h30 like we were told and someone tells us that there is about 5h left to get to Rurre. We make it at 5pm; the road took us in the end 27h in total. It’s a good thing that we expected the worst, but even then the last few hours seemed like an eternity, I was very tired of just sitting. As soon into town we head to a hostel recommended by ''Lonely Planet'' that is named ''Hostel El Curichal'', the rooms were at 35Bs per person, a superb small hostel where the sign says ''Welcome to Paradise'' and it was pretty close to being true, I felt at home the moment I stepped in. Very nice hostel with a good feeling to it and the deco is very welcoming. We leave our stuff here and go into downtown, very close, to see the different tour agencies to go to the jungle. We don’t have time to see many because they all close at 7pm and so we decided to spend another day into town to be able to shop around a little more. We find a small restaurant not too touristy where we have a supper for 20Bs each. Then back at the hostel where we spend the evening sitting around in the hammocks reading. It is incredible the change in temperature from La Paz to here. Here it is the tropical rainforest and we can feel it, it is very warm and humid even all night long. It is very nice to find this temperature here after spending 6 weeks in the mountains where the days are warm but the nights are pretty cold. I enjoy the moment to spend the evening in shorts, t-shirt and sandals. I would spend a full week here no problem.

On the road to Rurrenabaque

Sillar

Rurrenabaque

In the morning, we have a coffee in the hammocks (Friday Sept. 21th) before leaving find breakfast and to go see more tour agencies at around 10am, we want to know the prices and services offered by more than just a few to have a good idea. We quickly realize that the prices are almost all the same other than one place that we find with prices quite below others, but they cannot promise us a tour before 2-3 days. The company is Donato tours for 900Bs + 150Bs for the Madidi park entry fees (about 147$ Can.) We also like Madidi-travel a lot where the prices are quite higher (1800Bs), both these prices are for tours of 3 days and 2 nights. We go back to the hostel to think about all this and try to take a decision. It starts raining and we wait for it to slow down before going back into town. At around 5pm we go back to see Donato tours but they still have nothing else to offer. We don’t feel like waiting for 2-3 days and so we decide to take our second choice, Madidi-Travel. They seem very well organized and very Eco-friendly compared to what others promised us. They own their own protected land and no fees to get into Madidi park. I will speak more completely of the agency itself in a post in a little bit. We buy our tickets and it starts raining again, but this time it’s raining very hard and it does not seem to want to stop for a while. We decide to go for a beer in a restaurant right in front of the agency while waiting for the rain to at least slow down a little. It finally almost stops and leave at once to find a place for supper, we find a resto-house for 15Bs for a plate of rice and brochettes. We then go for a beer on a restaurant terrace and a last one at a bar called ''Moskito'', that seems to be managed by a French couple. Back at the hostel for a second night, where I really badly sleep, because even it the mattresses are all new they are a bit too hard for my liking.

Rurrenabaque

Rurrenabaque

Agency Madidi-Travel

We get out to get to Madidi-Travel agency after breakfast (Saturday Sept. 22th). We leave for a 2h30 boat ride on the Beni River. We get to a point where the boat stops and we get out and walk for 20-30 minutes to get to the camps. I am extremely surprised to see the quality of the cabins where we will sleep, furnished with showers and toilets in each one. We install ourselves and then go out to the ''Grande Casa'' for an intro to the environment before going out for a 2h walk in the jungle hoping to see some animals. We do see a few kinds of insects and butterflies, we also see 3 Tayra (some kind of big otters) speedng down from a tree and making weird growling noises when they saw us. We then see a few spider monkeys and a few other monkeys. We then get back at the camp just before nightfall for supper. While supper time, there were a few tarantulas in the ''Grande Casa'' and one starts walking on the floor, one of the guys is pointing it with is flashlight but at one point is flashlight goes off and when he lights it back up the tarantula had disappeared to realize a few seconds later that it had climbed on my pants leg. I try to shake it off but instead of going down it climbs farther up on me and ends up in my back where I can't see it anymore. I don't really panic but I don't really like the idea of her being on me and not being able to see it, I asked for someone the get it of with my cap. Once back on the group I am a bit relieved :) After supper, we get on a traditional canoe from the region that's all in wood and go on the lake to see some caimans with flashlights. We see many afar of which we only see the eyes sticking out of the water, but we do see a few completely much closer to the canoe. The longest is about 2 meters long with its tail and it's just beside the boat. Sadly the pictures I've taken all all bad and I am a bit dissapointed of not being able to bring back a few pics, but at least I saw them. Back at camp afetr a little while and it's time for a shower ( cold but yet warm enough because everything is warm here) and it is time to go to bed.

On the river going to the Selva Jungle on the Beni River

Some species of Marabout

Welcome to the jungle

Our cabins

Spider Monkeys

We get up at 7am at the sounds of hundreds of birds all around us (Sunday Sept. 23th) and go to breakfast at 8. We then leave for the ''Lago Gringo'' on the we we see howler monkeys and a whole group of Saïmiri (squirl monkeys) by the dozen, they were the whole group all around us jumping from tree to tree. We go back to the main camp for lunch at 1pm and after a little hammock rest until 3pm, to avoid the warmest sun of the beginning of the afternoon. We then leave to go piranha fishing and other species. I can be proud to say that I was the best fisherman with 5 catches. 2 small piranhas at the beginning that were too small to keep and then one fish a little bigger that the guide called dog-fish because of it's fang like teeth. I then catch another type of fish much bigger that the guide says it's some kind of salmon but at the looks and taste it has nothing to do with it, and finally I catch another piranhas that's big enough to keep. Back to camp at nightfall and we have supper with the fishes that we caught. They were very good, other than the dog-fish that the guide said was not very good and we used it to make more bait to catch more fish. In bed early after supper because it would be an early wake-up in the morning before sunrise.

Saïmiri (squirl monkey)

Gringo Lake

Our catches

Video of Rurrenabaque and of the jungle

We are up at 5am, at head out of main camp at 6 (Monday Sept. 24th). We cross the lake paddling the canoe and then take a long walk in the forest until around 10am. We again see a few monkeys. When we come back we have breakfast and after our guide shows us how to make rings out of nuts found earlier in the day. Naturally we get to keep each our ring. We then spend some free time until lunch at around 1pm. While we have free time, there is a group of capucino monkeys that come strait up to the main camp jumping from tree to tree and walk strait on the camp itself, pretty funny to see them jumping everywhere. At 2pm, it is time to head back to the boat to go back to Rurrenabaque. I would have loved to stay longer, but it's the end of the tour. On the way back we see a few turtles on the river and also a family of capibaras. A very nice experience with Madidi-Travel. Back in town at 5pm. We go to the same hostel to have a shower and go to a small mexican restaurant for 20Bs. After eating we go and join the people from the group for a beer at the ''El Nomatico'' bar, we were 5 from our group, 2 from one of the other groups and the 2 guides. We have a few drinks and go back to the hostel at 12h30am. I was so tired that I fell asleep in one of the outside hammocks to wake up again at 4am to go to bed.

Click on picture to see the album ''Rurrenabaque - The Jungle''