This part of our trip was one of my favourites. There are a lot of pictures and videos in this blog, I just found everything fascinating!
The river ride was a bit nerve wracking as the water was racing and in some places appeared to be boiling. I’m glad we didn’t have seven hours of that as originally planned. We had imagined a calm ribbon of water, not this rough and choppy ride.
The landscape was interesting and remote. We could see where the storm had brought trees down into the river which we were having to dodge. It was wide and shallow in places, the banks were often sandstone cliffs and then dense rainforest. Occasionally we would see Macaws flying. Honestly it felt very intrepid!
Jayne was in the front getting quite a bit of spray and at one point the driver pulled us into the bank (to move a fuel drum the locals use), the sudden movement, slewed the boat around so that the water came sloshing over the side and into the bottom. Jayne dropped her phone! It was scooped out immediately but of course a wet phone is a problem! I got a wet bum from the turn but it dried out when we returned to the journey.
We were met at the Eco Lodge by Pedro one of the Uchupiamonas tribe and our guide for the next three days.
The place was hot and steamy. Jayne was finding it oppressive much like I did in Asia earlier in the year. It’s exhausting when it gets you like that.
We were staying in pristine primary and secondary rainforest, the lodge has a few covered areas, one for a dining room and we had two tents pitched under another roof. Pedro’s wife Rosita was the cook. There was a shower, (cold only) and a toilet that used water from a stream and looked a bit yellow as it had in San Miguelito.
Sitting in the dining area, Jayne noticed what she thought were butterflies. I think she needs glasses as there were three Southern Long Nosed bats roosting in the way only bats can, like Nosferatu under the eves! To be fair to Jayne’s eyesight there was also a huge moth known as a Witch moth, probably 5 inches across!
We borrowed wellies (which in the evening after a hot day, necessitated me staying as far from my own feet as possible!!!). We covered ourselves in insect repellent and over the next couple of days spent time trekking with Pedro in the rain forest. This was mostly trails although there were a few logs to clamber over and steams to cross. Once or twice Pedro had to cut a path for us.
The first day we saw squirrel monkeys and spider monkeys high in the trees. It makes my heart soar to see them as they should be in the wild, curious but distrustful.
The following day we saw a Harpy Eagle. Pedro was just as excited as us at the sighting, borrowing my binoculars and became even more so when he could see Jayne’s photo and be absolutely positive about it. This bird is rare in this area. It’s huge with a wing span of up to 6 feet. Apparently they like to eat Spider Monkeys which makes sense because they were up high too!
The next day we saw howler monkeys, again high up and just as lovely, natural and wild as the other monkeys.
This was also the place to see butterflies and moths. Sorry but I have no idea what some of these are and Google has failed me.
At night we had fireflies flashing around our tents. The dawn chorus was amazing and not one bird, it was all insects. I’ve included a video which has no picture because it was dark, but the sound will give you a taster.
There were other insects and creepy crawlies. I hope you’re not eating anything because I wanted to include this next video. I found this outside my tent! I wasn’t sure what it was and Jayne being somewhat creepy-crawlie phobic probably wouldn’t have liked to see it at all so I tried to pick it up in a tissue, it flicked around and touched me, I shrieked! Alerting Jayne to the offending creature. Anyway it’s a Planariun worm, they eat invertebrates and the skin can be toxic if it touches a wound. They have the ability to regenerate from the smallest piece of they are damaged or cut up.
Later the river had receded a lot and we had to help heave the boat off the shale, this was not easy. Pedro quite literally put His back to the boat prow, lifted it and we heaved. We had half a day across the river in a slightly different forest of mostly palms, our walk ending at a huge marsh.
The trip back was up river so took longer but it was so much calmer. We saw a family of Capybaras swimming.
At times Rosita had to get out and pull us over the pebbles the water had come down so much.
After lunch at Pedro’s house we headed back and had a short stop to visit a waterfall and pool. Apparently sometimes people swim here, it was a bit late for us but after seeing a baby poison dart frog on the rocks I’m not sure I would be so keen.
Next….our last days in Bolivia
The Travelling Bee 