Friday, 8 July 2011

La Paz & Rurrenabaque

Okay I'm back...

iPhone has been replaced with an iPod Touch and the blog can resume. I've got some catching up to do!!! So where we... Arriving in La Paz that's where.

The first thing I noticed about La Paz was the amount of uphill involved. The second thing was the ridiculously high altitude. Once I got my head around those two (which took a while) I spent a week or so exploring the place.

The first two days were pretty much wiped out once I went out drinking with the owner of the loki hostel, but I didn't manage to book my ticket for the "death road" cycling.

The death road is the most dangerous road in the world, it's single lane gravel road that descends approx 3500 meters in 3 hours. On one side is a shear drop off of the cliff... An average of 2 travelers die each year off the edge.... I didn't die!

Next up was a flight to the jungle for 6 days. The plane was a 20 seated biplane which was an experience, but nothing compared to the airport at Rurrenabaque!! A grass field with a straw hut is probably the best description!!
Rurrenabaque was my favorite place in Bolivia, it had a chilled out vibe and plenty to do if it took you fancy. On my first day I booked my jungle trip with an Eco-lodge and had half a day spare. I made use of this by booking a kayaking trip a short way along the Rio Beni including a short trek to a natural pool for a bit of a swim. Certainly a nice way to welcome the change from dusty Andes to Amazon basin.

The jungle trip turned out to be a highlight of my whole trip. The company I booked with was actually the tourist arm of a community based on the edge if the Madidi national park. All of the trip was on their land and the guide were all from the community and so had grown up on this land.

Day one was in the community visiting a village ( the only one of 7 open to tourists) and trekking to a natural pool for a swim. I was with a family of 3 in including a four year old. He certainly enjoyed the swimming!!

Day 2 we took a 3 hour boat into the Madidi Nation park, although still on Ticana (the tribe) land. We had two days in the deep jungle to do several wildlife treks. We we incredibly lucky seeing loads of animals quite rare in the deep jungle, including 3 types of monkey, wild boar, a tapir, capybara and made others. We also saw numerous birds including, a particular highlight of mine, a Toucan!!!

After an amazing 2 days I had an extra day back in the community where I had great trek though a canyon and learnt about traditional hunting method's. As I said before, definitely a highlight of the trip.

God knows what possessed me, but I decided to book a day zip lining in the jungle tops to finish of the trip... I've never been so terrified in my entire life!!

Back in La Paz I got stuck for a day because of a strike preventing my onward trip to Copacabana and so did what any normal person would do... Visited the Coca/Cocaine museum and then went out drinking....

Pictures from my time in India up to Uyuni are now up on my picasa page...

http://picasaweb.google.com/tumbridge

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