Chimu Adventures travelers – Ben and Josie Benoit – embark on a fantastic journey around South America and the world. Below is a continuation of their adventures in Boliva:
And so to leg 2, and Bolivia, but not before an interesting 24 hours in Puno, Peru’s port to Lake Titicaca.
We arrived in Puno after our Inca Trail tour and our great train trip journey along the Antiplato from Cusco.
The women of Lake Titicaca
The next morning, we packed ourselves off to the floating Islands on a lake Titicaca tour and got the whole debrief on how the floating islands are made (2 meters of consolidated lake ‘soil’, 3 meters of reeds on top, plonk the reed house on the top of everything). Although a little bit touristy, the islands were definitely worth a visit, just to stand on these 10-metre-wide floa
ting reeds where people are born, grow up and live their whole lives, never venturing off the island…
We also witnessed how crazily the South American people celebrate Halloween. Children were in fancy dress for the day and music pumped out on the streets ‘til well into the next day.
The morning after Halloween, we headed to the smaller lakeside town on the Bolivian side of Titicaca, “Copacabana” which had some great views of the Bolivian Lake Titicaca.
The next day, we visited the Island of the Sun, founded by the Incas, who began to worship the Sun on this piece of land many years ago. We took on the 8km walk across the island which was beautiful.
On to La Paz for our La Paz stop over tour. Again, spectacular scenery en route: a mixture of wild plains with the backdrop of huge snow-capped mountains. As you enter the city, though, the view is really something amazing. Steep hillsides that are heavily populated with houses rolling down into a busy metropolis, with a huge mountain in the background. Once in La Paz, we got to grips with the steep cobbled streets and serious lack of oxygen (out of breath climbing 1 set of stairs) and, contrary to other travelers’ feedback, we really like the city. It doesn’t feel as dangerous as described, food is great (best curry house ever!), and a nice park / mirador / vantage point.
La Paz
Next it was time for our Bolivian Amazon tour. The flight out of La Paz to Rurrenabaque (the launch pad to the jungle) is also something to behold. In 38 mins you are whisked into the air by a propeller-powered plane. Within seconds you are above an Alpine view of mountain tops and minutes later, once piercing the clouds on the decent into Rurrenabaque, you can see nothing but lush green jungle and pampas. With customs out of the way (approx 30 secs, no paper checks), we embarked on our drive into the jungle. It was very long. After we’d found our driver in town we drove 2 hours to Caracoles lodge in the pampas.
3 hours later, we’re still on the road, the jungle looks the same, we’re getting a bit tired of the bumpiness (no tarmac anywhere in this region) and Enrique Inglesias repeats on the stereo. 4 hours later, we arrive at the lodge. And it’s wonderful. We’re in a small, dark but cozy shack with basic amenities (for shower = pipe in wall with very cold water). The food is all home cooked and absolutely superb – best food in Bolivia bar the curry – lots of sweet potato, rice, chicken, beef, fish and fab salads – beetroot, cucumbers, carrots, and soup from the most amazing stock.
On the first afternoon, we get to swing briefly in our hammocks before departing on our first river cruise, a 4 hour trip til dusk, exploring the ‘snake’ river. We see an unbelievable amount of birds. Highlights include: Southern screamers (birds of prey), black hawks and black collared hawks, turkey vultures (everywhere!), tones of stalks, including the jabiru, tones of herons, including the tiger and zigzag, a pink roseate spoonbill (like a mini flamingo), 100s of hoatzins (a cross between a pheasant and a peacock, chuntering in the trees like old women) and my favorite, the Amazon and green kingfishers.
But we didn’t just come here for the birds. We also saw spectacled caymen (non-human-eating crocs to us lesser mortals), capybara (they look like big beavers), brown capuchin and black howler monkeys, and lots of turtles sunning themselves on the floating wood. It was an incredible debut in the jungle and the pampas. That evening we bedded down early (8.30pm!) to the sound of moths and bats cruising around our bedroom, safe in the knowledge that our structured, industrial strength mosquito net would at least protect us. Any desire to use the bathroom was thwarted by the presence of the toad sitting on the sink as we brushed our teeth at 8.20pm.
Caiman in the Bolivian Amazon
The next morning we were still alive, with no insect bites and all bats safely put to sleep. After a hearty breakfast of pancakes and dulce de leche, we hiked for 4 hours to find the anacondas. We didn’t find any, but we can’t say we’re massively disappointed. We did see lots more birds and the highlight of the trip – a giant ant eater. Ben broke one of the bridges and nearly ended up in the caymen pit, almost catapulted off the end. This incident also seemed to trigger Stu’s severe stomach problems, which the guide decided to fix with herbal medicine – boiled bark from the ‘devil’s tree’, a seemingly innocent birch tree which, when tapped, produces thousands of ants from holes along its trunk. This boiled brown mess was seriously disgusting – but it really works! Normal service resumed after 12 hours and 2 brews!
The afternoon was spent fishing for piranhas – seriously! It was a choice between fishing or more anacondas searching. Fishing was actually great fun. Between us, we managed to catch all 3 types, white, yellow and red, and Paula won the contest 3-1 (not including the guide, who caught about 10).
That evening, we embarked on a ‘night walk’, which consisted of 20 mins tramping along the river bank right next to the caymen. Slightly scary seeing rows of eyes in the river just staring at you…We trod on several toads (hopefully one less for the bathroom anyway), got gnawed by lots of gnats, stamped on one small caymen (who squawked and ran off) but returned unscathed. Another night of crazy insect noises and we’re eternally grateful to see sunrise and embark on our final river trip to see the pink dolphins and the ever-so-cute squirrel monkeys.
We arrived safely back in Rurrenabaque unfortunately our flight had been delayed, but eventually we made it back to La Paz.
Chimu Adventures offers many Bolivia tours including the Bolivian Lake Titicaca tour, Bolivian Amazon tour and highlights of Bolivia tour. Visit our website for more details.
