I’ve been excited about visiting the jungle since we came to South America. Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia have all had jungle; but two of the most famous areas for their biodiversity are Manu (in Southern Peru) and Madidi (in Northern Bolivia). More than two thirds of Bolivia’s landmass is jungle, and Madidi is considered to be perhaps the most biodiverse region on earth; with 1200 different species of bird and 6000 species of plants and still more being classified (by comparison, the Continental US and Canada have just 700 species of plants combined). It is also relatively easy to get to from La Paz. Travelers can choose either a 20 hour bus ride each way, or a 45 minute flight. You’ll laugh that we actually debated whether we should spring for the airplane tickets at $65 each way; or just tough out the ride for $12. Time becomes a relative matter when traveling; and in the end it wasn’t the number of hours that pushed me in favor of flying; but the idea of that that time would be spent sweltering in a bus sans AC. So, in the end, we chose to fly. We booked tickets with TAM, a military airline notorious for canceling flights whenever they aren’t full enough, whenever there is a hint of rain on the horizon, or whenever they just want to go home early. We were delayed a day leaving La Paz due to weather, and it looked iffy the next day even as we were checked in and waiting. The problem is, the airstrip in Rurrenabaque, Bolivia is only grass, and they can’t land planes here after sunset. So once our 5 pm flight was slightly delayed, it was a race against the clock to see if we would be able to board and fly out before dark. Needless to say we were all thrilled to finally leave the ground and be on our way to Rurre.
The View Outside the Window Leaving La Paz for Rurrenabaque
Grass Airstrip in Rurre
The tropical humid air of Rurre was a welcome change from La Paz. After being at high altitudes more or less for most of the past three months, it was wonderful to be back near sea level, and actually hot. We checked out several tour companies, and decided to book with Madidi Travel, a company renowned for their conservation efforts and featured by National Geographic magazine. Our three-day tour started with a boat ride down the Rio Beni, a large river flowing northeast that drains into the Amazon. After about two and a half hours on a motorized canoe, we had a 2k walk from the banks into the lodge. The eco-lodge is in Serere, a private reserve with five lakes and walking paths. The private cabins all have full netting on all sides, and a bathroom with cold water shower. One of the most amazing parts of the tour is just sitting in bed listening to the sounds of the jungle (it can be absolutely noisy sometimes!). We could hear monkeys, birds, insects, and from our room we saw bats hunting at dusk, butterflies, and a small jungle cat. It was like being outside because it had no walls; but there were no bugs because of the excellent screens. There was also a wonderful main house where we ate all our meals and relaxed, while watching the resident monkeys and parrots.
Riding up the Beni River to Madidi Lodge
Leaving the Beni River to Walk 2k to the EcoLodge
Home Sweet Jungle Home
La Casa Grande was Great for Relaxing
The Resident Monkey Gets Comfy
Our guide, Choco-Mano (Chocolate Hand) was the lead guide when National Geographic came and did a feature story on Madidi in 2000. A gifted jungle man of 61, Choco knew every bird and animal call, animal tracks, plants and pretty much anything you could want to know about living in the jungle. If you ever found yourself on “Survivor Amazon”, he’s the guy you’d want on your team! So we listened and believed when he told us on our first walk that there was a jaguar nearby; he saw a place where it had likely rested. Sure enough, just a few steps beyond we encountered a pile of feathers; evidence of the cat’s last meal. We made plans to come out and track it later that night; at 3 am after the moon had set and all was dark.
I’ve never experienced darkness as complete as the darkness at 3 am in the jungle. Due to the very thick canopy and the fact that the moon was already set, it was complete darkness. Garret was walking behind me, and we would stop frequently and just stand still and listen with our headlamps off. Even though he was wearing a white shirt, I could not even sense his presence when we stopped just inches apart. I couldn’t even see my sleeve actually. It was an amazing night, and though we didn’t see the jaguar; we sure had fun looking. As the sun began to light up the morning sky, we took to the canoes and went out on the lake. We were rewarded for being up so early by seeing a tapir bathing, many birds, and some hungry piranha. I wasn’t thrilled about fishing for piranha, but everyone else was. Choco caught the only fish of the morning, and we returned for breakfast. The rest of the day was spent walking, looking for pigs, caimans and monkeys. We didn’t see pigs; but we saw a large black caiman and several species of monkeys.
A Black Caiman Lurks Near the Lake Edge
Spider Monkey Swinging
Sunset over Lago Fernandina
A Tapir Swims into View
Garret Tries Piranha Fishing
Our last day we saw an anteater in the forest (but it was too dark to photograph), lots of monkeys and a passing snake. Literally. The snake passed behind me and in front of Garret as we were walking through the forest in a blur of speed. Note to my Mom: There aren’t any snake pictures, but feel free to skip the snake story and just go on to the next paragraph! We were walking through the swampy area of the end of a lake, looking for anaconda actually; but didn’t manage to see any. As we lamented the fact that we hadn’t seen any Choco regaled us with stories of walking through swamps and having an anaconda wrap him up (this has happened to him twice). Both times he has had to put his machete to good use to save himself, and one time he was rewarded by finding the attacking anaconda pregnant with 14 little anaconditas inside; which he of course dried and gave to his nieces and nephews as presents. Oh, and I think it was 7 meters long (around 22 feet). Perhaps the snake has grown a tad with each telling of the story, but in any case it was big. Kinda reminds me of stories I’ve heard parents and grandparents tell kids [who may be whining about not having an i-phone or other nonsense] about having to walk to school when they were little. Uphill. Both ways. In the snow. Barefoot.
Bacon”]
Choco Brings Home the [Banana
Forest Canopy
Huge Spiders Make Webs over the Trail
All too soon, our three days in Serere were over and it was time to return to Rurre. We had a dip in the river Beni, and began the hot boat-ride upstream. Tomorrow we would leave for the Pampas and have another adventure.
Deeanne first showed me a snippet about the world’s most dangerous road when we were reading through travel books in the U.S. and I said, “oooh, that looks fun”. She promptly said, “there is no way I’m doing that”. Well we just did it on a pair of borrowed bikes – lesson: never say “never”. It didn’t kill us but we’re definitely both sore.
The Summit of La Cumbre Pass
In 1995 the Inter-American Development Bank named the Yungas Road (El Camino de la Muerte, or Death Road) as the “world’s most dangerous road”. One estimate is that 200 to 300 travelers are killed every year along the road, which means about one vehicle every two weeks goes over the edge. Deeanne finally gave up pointing out crosses as we rode. The entire length is covered with crosses where vehicles have fallen.
Deeanne Geared Up
View from Summit
Cristian and Luisa, friends in La Paz who run Chuquiago Café, loaned us the bikes and took us to the summit of La Cumbre Pass at 15,256 ft. Cristian has this “super ride” he takes clients on that starts at the summit and does “The Ghost” road, then “The Death Road”, you then catch a ride back to the top and bike down the other side to La Paz, for a total of 62 miles of mountain biking. We opted just to borrow bikes from him and so set off from the pass down an old abandoned road that Cristian calls “The Ghost” road. None of the tour groups do the upper dirt road.
Deeanne on The Ghost Road
View Down the Valley
The road was single track in sections and mostly shale. I really, really wished we had full suspension, tuned machines. The ride was rough. Deeanne and I both ride occasionally in The States, but 42 miles of downhill starts getting to you fast. Those of you who mountain bike know you don’t sit going downhill, you hover. You have to keep your arms lose and hands firm, with one or two fingers on the breaks. This ride drops over 12,000 ft and usually takes 5 hours. That is 5 hours of bone jarring downhill.
Paved Section
The Death Road Begins
After the first abandoned section off the summit we hit paved road for awhile and then turned off onto The Death Road. Here is where the drop offs are deadly, 1,900 ft or more and the road is about 10 ft wide. The road was built in the 1930s during the Chaco War by Paraguayan prisoners. It is one of the few routes that connects the Amazon rainforest of northern Bolivia to the capital. Because of the extreme dropoffs, single-lane width, and lack of guardrails, the road is extremely dangerous. On July 24, 1983, a bus veered off the Yungas Road and into a canyon, killing more than 100 passengers in what is said to be Bolivia’s worst road accident.
Garret Passing
Deeanne (The Tiny Speck)
After three hours on the bike at downhill speeds my entire body ached. I told Deeanne that I thought the off-road Xterra Triathlon I did was easier and more enjoyable. She replied, “I’d rather be doing a Half-Ironman”; I agreed. I could not pry my hands off the handle grips, yet pulling the breaks got more and more difficult. We both found ourselves going faster just because our fingers were so cramped we couldn’t pull the breaks any longer. My lower back felt like someone hit me with a shovel. My legs were frozen, and you just didn’t want to sit down (big rocks and ruts don’t mix with hard-tail bikes and soft private parts). Oh, did I mention we had no bike shorts. What I would have given for even a pair of tri-shorts. Lunch was a welcomed respite.
Bulldozer Fixing Road
Crossing Marking The Way
Current figures estimate that 13 people have died mountain-biking The Death Road since 1998 (not so bad). Out-of-control cyclists have escaped by leaping off their bikes before going over the side. One cyclist, who actually rode over the edge, supposedly survived with just broken rims. I looked over the edge quite a few times and estimated if you timed it just right you might catch a tree on the way down and survive. We steered clear of the edge though and made it the two more hours to the bottom. Even starting after all the tour companies we somehow managed to beat everyone down. As we were trying to hitch a ride back up at the bottom though we realized they were all going to Coroico to soak in hot baths and laze around in pools. We were suddenly very jealous. Finally after waiting 30 minutes we managed to catch a bus back to La Paz. We settled into our seats for the 3 hour ride back and dreamed of hot tubs and massages, thankful that the new road from Coroico to La Paz is a bit safer.
Finally Near the Bottom
Bus to La Paz from the Bottom
The bus dropped us off in the upper section of La Paz around 5:00pm and we had to bike all the way through town in traffic to Luisa’s house. The worst part though was settling back onto a bike seat and trying to pull the breaks, I didn’t even mind the crazy La Paz traffic. We made it home safe somehow and now I can get that cool “I survived the death road” souvenir T-shirt that I’ve been wanting. Everyone is going to be soo jealous.
We arrived in La Paz a few days ago, and have spent several days catching up on Internet and enjoying the city. Our first stop in the city was Chuquiago Cafe, where we met Cristian and Luisa, friends of Biker Kevin (whom we met in Ecuador). Thanks to their hospitality we found ourselves staying in a spare room in Luisa´s home in South La Paz and cooking food for ourselves again! I´m sure it is in no small part due to the joys of living in a home temporarily and cooking Mexican food for ourselves that we have enjoyed the city. Garret and I were cleaning up the kitchen yesterday, and we had to chuckle to ourselves that it was actually a tiny bit fun to be cleaning! Maybe that means we’ve been traveling too long; maybe it was just really nice to cook ourselves a breakfast that was actually filling; it’s been a lovely stay though.
La Paz Near Plaza Murillo
La Paz is an easy city to stroll and just let the time pass. Plaza Murillo in the center of the city is near many important government buildings and a large resident pigeon population. We strolled here one morning and passed by a demonstration for disabled people. They were laying in the road so that no cars could pass. I asked our hostess, Luisa, later about the demonstrations and she said that it is an unusual day when there ISN’T a demonstration of some kind in the city. But for the most part, demonstrators do seem to live up to the cities name and are peaceful. I could do without the firecrackers that seem to accompany all street festivals, demonstrations and parades though—those of you who know me know that I HATE loud noises, but [unfortunately] South America seems to have an endless supply of the suckers.
Plaza Murillo
Plaza Murillo
Amazing Chocolate Cake for No Reason Whatsoever!
We also strolled through the famous Witches´Market, home to all kinds of unidentifiable objects. It is in a regular part of town, just a block from the Cafe, and at first glance you´ll find all the usual items in other street markets like hats, gloves, and other woolen items hanging in the streets. But look for more than just a casual glance, and you’ll see dried llama fetuses, dried frogs, kama-sutra-ish ceramic figurines, herbs, and much more. Apparently, close to 99% of Bolivian homes have a dried llama fetus under the foundation of their home for luck, and an offering to the Pachamama (mother earth god). The dried frogs are mostly for luck, the figurines for getting married and improving sex life or fertility, and the herbs for all manner of illnesses.
Street Market Near Witches´Market
Very Unusual Objects for Sale Behind Garret
La Paz is wonderful; our favorite part though is the Mexican food!
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How to Get a Bolivian Visa
If you have no plans on traveling to Bolivia anytime soon just skip on down to our account of dealing with Bolivian Beaurocracy.
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