We have just got back from a 3 night/4 day trip through the Amazon. There are many different tours you can do and obviously you can go into the Amazon from a number of different countries in South America, but for price, experience, and service I would highly recommend what we have just done.

We flew from La Paz on THE TINIEST PLANE. You can see a picture below. I felt quite claustrophobic when we first boarded but the fight itself was fine and affords some spectacular views of snowy mountains (which you get very close to) and helps you begin to comprehend the size of the Amazon as you come in to land.
Side note; as the air is so thin in La Paz the runways are extra long. I was a little worried about how long it was taking us to take off before someone told us that…

So we landed in Rurrenebaque to a welcome humid heat. That might sound a little strange but I have been quite sick with a cough and moving out of the dust bowl that is La Paz pretty much instantly fixed me and I had my first actual sleep since we left NZ. Yay.

Anywayyyyyyy. Rurrenbaque is a little islandy town on the Beni River. We were met by lovely Salim from our tour provider, Mashaquipe. I will say now that their service was exceptional – from the moment we landed till the moment we took off – highly highly recommended.

We were taken to our hotel – Hotel Maya – had a swim in the pool, had a few very cold beers and went to find the famous French Bakery everyone talks about. Yep, a French bakery in the middle of the Bolivian Amazon, who would have thought. Before we left Rurrenbaque I had about eight pan au chocolats.

So the next morning Salim picked us up and we met our guide Domingo and the two other American girls who would be with us the next four days. You can do a jungle tour, Pampas (which are like the Florida Everglades where you boat through little foresty canals), or a combo of both. We did the combo. Yolo.

We got on our little boat and travelled to our lodge. On the way we stopped at a family’s settlement where we made sugar cane juice which was seriously yum.
From there we arrived at our lodge where we were welcomed with cold juice (the first of many), and a delicious lunch.

We had asked if we could spend the first night in the jungle so after lunch it was a four hour hike through the freaking Amazon to some mattresses on a bench. We saw Spider Monkeys and Cappuccino Monkeys. Lots of awesome birds. Jaguar footprints. Beautiful butterflies. And my favourite part – learnt about all the amazing medicines that naturally occur in the plants and trees of the Amazon. We chewed on some natural anaesthetic and our tongues went numb. Sniffed some natural nose spray and my clogged sinuses instantly cleared. Nature, you so clever.

The hike was actually really tough. I think it’s a combo of me not being overly fit at the moment and having to wear long sleeve tops and long pants to protect from mosquitoes in probably 28 degree, 100% humidity.

We got to our camp for the night and Scott and I popped down to the river and bucketed cold fresh water over ourselves – it was magical.

Our beds, like I said, were mattresses on a wooden bench with mosquito nets in the middle of the jungle. We had a great dinner and actually slept really well.

The next morning we were up at 5.45 and off for a 3.5 hour hike from the camp but didn’t see too much. Domingo made me a back pack out of vines so I didnt have to carry my drink bottle. Classic Domingo.
We got back to the camp for lunch, then headed off with all our gear to the river. This was another 3 hours and on the way we visted Macaw Mountain where, you guessed it, is a mountain where lots of Macaws live. Again a tough walk with the heat.
We got to the river and put our bags in the boat to go back to the lodge. What about us you ask? How did we get back? Well, we made a raft and floated down a river in the Amazon. Complete with mini rapids.

It was awesome.

Halfway down we jumped off and swum beside it. Apparently ‘there are ónly small alligators in that river’ – quote from Domingo. Rafting through the Amazon on four wooden logs tied together with rope was a very cool experience.

We got back to the lodge around 6pm, showered, ate dinner, got introduced to the resident Tarantula that lives, lol, 20 METRES AWAY FROM OUR BED, and went to sleep. It was a full on two days. If you are going to do it, invest in some really good quality BREATHABLE long sleeve tops and full length pants.

The next morning we had to leave at 6am (lots of early mornings). We got back on the boats and went back to Rurrenebaque where we got in the jeeps and headed to the Pampas.

On the 2.5 hour drive I spotted a Sloth in a tree which we watched for awhile. So cool. We also pulled over for a stop at a very small village and saw a Jaguar skin hanging in a shed. Apprently ‘it’s legal outside the national park’, ummmm is it?

We got to where the roads end and the Pampas start and boarded the boats to take us to our lodge for the next night. As soon as we got in the boat we saw the Amazon pink dolphins – they are so cool but so weird. They got there by literally coming in from the sea and getting stuck. The pink colour comes from their diet.

Sitting on the small boats with a welcome breeze, after two full days of hiking I felt more relaxed and happy than I have the whole trip. The Pampas are awesome.

We were greeted at the lodge by smiling faces and more juice and were shown to our rooms. Our cabana was large, clean, and beautiful.

We had an amazing lunch (the food has been really good) Scott was happy because there was lunch dessert. Then we headed back out to cruise through the Pampas looking for animals. We did this a few times, and over the two days we saw heaps of animals.
Including;
Monkeys – lots of them – some of which ran all over our boat.
Sloths
Pink dolphins – One of the trips was to go swimming with them. The dolphins eat piranha and the alligator are scared of them, so if you are surrounded by dolphins, you are safe. We jumped in the river (this being the river where anacondas and alligators live) and had the pink dolphins swim around us. At one point we all heard a quick splash about 15 metres away from us and Domingo looked over. He then slowly started making his way back to the boat, not taking his eyes off that spot. We were worried. That night at dinner he just smirked when we asked if it was an alligator…
Speaking of alligators – the night of our dolphin swim we headed out on a night cruise and saw a total of probably 50 alligators about, ohhhhh i don’t know, EXACTLY WHERE WE WERE SWIMMING.
Capybaras – On the same night cruise right by the alligators we saw a big family of Capybaras which was soooooo cool. (Scott thinks they look like me, but they are the biggest rodent in the world so i’m not sure how I feel about that.)

We also did a cruise to watch a sunset and woke early (again) on the last day to see the sunrise. Sitting in silence on the water as the Amazon world woke up around us was a very special experience.

That day we did another animal cruise, slept in hammocks, had lunch and headed back to Rurrenebaque.
Right back to the French Bakery.

That night we stayed in a real shitter of a hostel called El Curachel (or something similar). Avoid it. But that’s all I am going to say about that because I don’t want it to taint what was a bloody awesome experience.

I can’t recommend Masahquipe as a company enough. And Domingo was fantastic.

The jungle trek was hot, hard, and rewarding. Realising you’re walking through the Amazon doesn’t get old, and staying the night in the middle of the jungle is pretty great. Also the rafting was epic.
The Pampas were so good. So many animals, super chill, great accomm and food. If you can only do one, I would do the Pampas for the animals. But it depends what you’re into. Also we have heard others saw more animals than us in the jungle, so just do both if you can.

Got back in the tiny plane, and back to La Paz. Keen to get back out of the city already…

From Buenos Aires we flew to La Paz, and the instant I got off the plane I felt dizzy. It’s not overly surprising as we went from sea level to 3700m above.

Luckily, the dizziness dissipated pretty quickly, and we were in a taxi to Loki Hostel. The service at Loki is really good and our room which is a matrimonial room (the name South American accommodation gives to its double bedrooms) is really clean and comfy. And the shower pressure is epic.

Loki is very central and the rooftop bar/restaurant/common area are has amazing views of the city. We are spending a total of 5 full days here with Uyuni Salt Flats, Death Road, and a 4 day Amazon Trip in between.

Food

So far we have visited a few good restaurants – the best being Kolkaditas a really cool Mexican place, and Mozzarella which was an awesome pizza place. We left a little napkin with our names on it under one of the tables there, so if you go, have a wee lookie.

Walking Tour

We took the walking tour of La Paz with Red Cap tours which was really good. The guides were great and we were taught about a bunch of interesting topics. My top two facty things were: 1) San Pedro prison and the way it works. If any of you have read Marching Powder you will understand our fascination. The guide pointed out a little hole in the roof where inmates launch baby’s nappies filled with cocaine out of into the public square, where someone is waiting to catch it and run. 2) The Bolivians believe burying a llama foetus under a building construction is good luck for future business as it is an offering to Pacha Mama (Mother Earth). But guess what Pacha Mama likes more? Human offerings. So if the building construction is important enough, one of the witches goes out and finds ‘someone whose family or friends won’t miss them’ (that was an actual  quote) preferably a passed out drunk or drug addict, offers them a drink which is 96% alcohol, waits till they pass out and throws them down into the building foundations to be covered in concrete WHILE THEY ARE STILL ALIVE. No joke.

Also there was a lot of really interesting political history stuff, and we could see bullet holes in the facades of government buildings. And the guide told us about this drug you can get from the witches market called FollowMeFollowMe dust, which guys can blow on to the backs of girls’ heads and they will go home with them. A couple of the Brits and Aussies and us, were looking at each other thinking, soooo a date rape drug?

So yeh, three things: 1 – Do the walking tour. It’s $4NZD. 2 –  Don’t try to catch a baby’s nappy flying from the roof of San Pedro prison, 3 – and perhaps most importantly, don’t pass out on the streets of La Paz, Pacha Mama apparently loves gringo offerings the most. Yuck.

NB: I am now writing this part as we leave La Paz for Lake Titicaca. La Paz overall was not my favourite place. The way the city is formed is like a natural amphitheatre of houses creating a sort of bowl which is very unique but it also means the pollution and dust are quite overpowering. That combined with the altitude makes walking around the city not overly pleasant. It is a great base for the trips that we did, but I wouldn’t come here for the city alone. We might have put too many days aside between activities, and did plan to go out but I wasn’t well so that didn’t happen. It is worth saying that I didn’t feel unsafe here and there were some yum food options 🙂