Jungle Tour

La Paz in the valley, Mt. Illimani in the backdrop

Jungle Jen

We arrived back to La Paz from the mountain at 6pm and left the next morning at 6am for the jungle. It was a beautiful 8 hour drive down through the cloud forests, with stops for breakfast and lunch and swimming, to the jungle town of Guanay where we got on a boat with 12 other gringos, two guides, a cook, and two drivers for a two day trip down river to Rurre. Our trip was actually postponed for the night while we waited for a river blockade to end...if they don´t have a road to block, then they settle for rivers. I envisioned a big net across the river, but the guide said that they just announce their blockade and if anyone tries to go by they come zooming out on their canoes and throw rocks at you...the joys of Bolivia.

During the trip, we would ride for a few hours down river, stop for lunch, take hikes through the jungle, and swim in beautiful pools at the base of waterfalls. At night we´d camp on the beach of the river in tents provided by the company and eat wonderful food by the campfire while being entertained by some very funny guys from Amsterdam. The one drawback was the sandflies once you arrived at the beach...they would bite without feeling it and then like five minutes later, you would be scratching out of control..I think they might even be in a class above mosquitos--we were still itching 5 days later!

Leaf cutter ants

Piranha