No hablamos Español....todovia: August 2007

From Coroico we caught a bus to Rurrenabaque, which is the main jumping off point for tourists into the Boliviain Amazon. If the road we mountain-biked down the previous day was formerly the world’s most dangerous road, the goat-track that we drove along in the bus for the first couple of hours would surely have to be a close second. Nevertheless we survived the 20-hour ordeal, at an average speed of about 40 km, despite the 10 km maximum signs in lots of places, with eyes wide open pretty much the entire time.

From Rurrenabaque we jumped on a boat and headed downriver to a privately owned 4,000ha area of jungle called Serere, which is just outside the 15 million hectare Madidi National Park. The lady who owns Serere seems to have been the person who lobbied the government and the World Bank to set up Madidi, so it was great to have a yarn to her. She seems to be running quite an honest operation, despite some of the neighbours coming across the boundary to cut down some of the hardwoods and do a little hunting. And despite the significant injuries she now has, even 17 operations later, from a caiman attack 18 months ago.

The food, accommodation and guides at Serere were outstanding. We were fed like kings and spent lots of time canoeing around the lakes in Serere watching birds and trying to spot caiman. As expected, we didn’t see as may animals in the jungle as we would have if we had gone on a pampas (grasslands) tour. However, we did see some pretty special sights nonetheless – and the whole vibe of the area was really enjoyable. Supposedly we did get close to some tarpir, deer and something else that we can’t remember the name of on our night walks, but we never got any decent glances…. only the noise of random animals bounding off into the bush.

We did manage to see a whole heap of water birds, and howler, capuchin and titi monkeys, which were magic (especially the howlers, with their 737-like howls), and a couple of caiman. While managing to avoid being bitten by monkeys on this part of the trip, we were lucky enough to pick up several hundred mosquito bites, 5 very nasty ticks (Erin – 1 and Che – 4), and one sting from the biggest most poisonous ant we have seen. True to our guides word it kept Erin in a sweaty fever until 4 am the next morning. All in all it as a great little 4-day diversion.

The beginning of the bus ride from hell (to Ruurenabaque).....