Long time no blog...

Wow what an eventful week and some change! Sorry I haven’t been able to write for any of my faithful blog followers out there. One of the reasons I haven’t been able to write is because I was able to take a 5 day trip to the jungle of South America! I took the trip with Father Jose (the founder and president of Arco Iris), Don Willy and 3 other volunteers – Sebi, Lena, and Vicky. 

The trip started with us taking a plane ride from the TAM airport in El Alto to Rurrenabaque, Bolivia. The sights from the plane window were pretty spectacular. Flying over the Andes was definitely the best part because as you  come from La Paz it’s very dirty and desert-like and as you come over the snow-capped mountains everything just turns green. The climate totally changes. When we landed the humidity and heat pretty much took our breath away! It was just like being back home in the Carolinas during the summer! I must say that I didn’t really mind it – oddly enough. But I’ve found that anything that reminds me of home is something I like to enjoy while I’m here.

The airport we landed at was something out of a movie. There was a concrete runway but that was pretty much it. Only one building (really something more like a large shack) made up the actual airport with a separate smaller building as a bathroom. There were cows and dogs that seemed to live right there at the airport… wild. As we drove into town we got a good glimpse of how the life there is so much different from La Paz - almost everyone drives a motorcycle (very few cars) and wears flip flops. The way people live is different too. Many of the houses had roofs made from the leaves of trees carefully woven together. Chickens, pigs, dogs, cats and other animals just wander around – I don’t know how people know which animal belongs to whom!

The main idea of the trip was to go fishing in the River Beni with some guides so we met up with them by the river (after a while of waiting). We had 3 guides with us. Their names were Rigo (main guide), Jorge (boat driver), and Edwin (cook). Yes we even had our own cook - which was awesome because it’s always good to have someone who really knows how to cook when you go camping. Oh yea, did I forget to mention we were camping in the jungle?? No huts and no mosquito nets, just tents and tarps!

As we were going to bed the first night it looked like a nice night so naturally we thought we were set for a good few days of fishing. But of course a big storm comes through at about 3am and lasted until around 7am – and because of the nice night earlier we didn’t put our rainflys on our tents. We just had a tarp with holes in it over us. Needless to say we got pretty wet that night. But what else would you really expect to get when you’re in the rainforest??

We spent most of the next day drying out our things with only a couple hours of fishing as the temperature had dropped drastically. The fish just weren’t biting. The good thing was that there were almost no bugs to deal with since the temperature change which was good because we ended up around the fire eating and waiting. Oddly enough I never had a negative attitude toward the trip even though the circumstances we were faced with would have made the average person just want to be cozy at home. I was just happy to be there.

The next day was dry but the fish still weren’t biting. The day was almost a wash until Don Willy pulled in a 36kg catfish. Needless to say that made everyone’s day. It was definitely the biggest I have ever seen someone catch… but that might not be saying much. That night we had some of the best fish (it was catfish, but not Willy’s) I have ever eaten as the cook and guide made it inside bamboo that they put in the fire. It was super tender and delicious. What made things even better was that Padre Jose kept bringing our German chocolates and German Wine every night. We ate really well out there in the rainforest!

Skipping over some things – we made our way back to Rurrenabaque where we got to stay for two nights in a hotel. It wasn’t anything fancy for sure as they didn’t even have hot water but it was a step up from sleeping in a tent in the jungle. After one night of staying in the hotel we took a trip (without Padre Jose who had a thorn in this foot) to view some Bolivian wildlife. This would normally sound like a great idea but the thing was that we had to drive 3 hours on a bumpy dirt road to get there (never going past 45mph)… and 3 hours back. The actual tour was about 2 hours in a boat where we got to view caymans, crazy looking birds, capibaras and even a couple monkeys - one of which came on to the boat and stole one of my cookies. It was worth getting a couple of good camera shots though. We even got to see a cayman chomp on – what seemed to be – an anaconda. Not only did we see the wildlife there but on the car ride we really got see how many Bolivians live in the jungle. It’s nothing like how people live in La Paz. Many people have houses made out of whatever materials they could find with leaf roofs. It was amazing to see that people lived like this and it was definitely a reminder that I am worlds away from home. A great experience nonetheless. 

When we got back we had dinner with the Padre at a restaurant in Rurrenabaque. It was another great meal that we actually got to have by candle light because power to the entire town was cut for about an hour. What topped it off even more was that Padre brought one more bottle of German wine.

The following day was our return trip back to La Paz, which we were actually somewhat looking forward to as it is now what we have to consider ‘home’. But it was a great trip – definitely an adventure – and one I will never forget. I feel so fortunate to have been able to go and experience the world in an new way!

Internet connection isn't very good so you only get one pic this go around...