April 11, 2000
Day 172 Day One: Rurrenabaque and the Jungle
At 8:00 we are supposed to be at the Fluvial office to meet our group. Before that we join Sue to have breakfast. We can leave our valuables in the office safe and walk to the river where a long wooden canoe is waiting. It’s about 15 meters long, the bottom made of a hollowed out hardwood log with sides boards added to add draft. We have two guides and a cook with us. The group consists of 8 people, a couple from Uruguay, a Swede, Sue, and English couple.
We start with a three hour boat ride up river, first on the Rio Beni, then branching off on the Tuichi, both rivers are fast flowing and brown. The shores are covered in jungle: tall trees, lots of bamboo, wild bananas, grasses.
It’s nice on the river, the wind blowing over the boat makes it nice.
Until we get to the camp.
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Situated on a small estuary is a small cluster of pole buildings, covered with blue tarps and wrapped in mosquito netting. As soon as we leave the boat and scramble up the muddy bank, the tropical heat envelopes us. We put on long trousers to protect against insect bites. They don’t help against the heat though. We need to wait awhile for the previous group to vacate the sleeping building, but then we get to pick a wooden cot with foam mattress, a sheet and mosquito net. The floor of the hut is dirt. We see spiders and lots of bugs: Big ones, small ones, flying or crawling.
Lots of bugs in the Jungle!
In the afternoon we go fishing. First, we bushwhack our way, single file behind our guides who have machetes to a steaming, murky pool where we try to catch small fish. The plan is to use these as bait for piranhas later, but we only succeed in catching one small one. Two hours later, we give up and head down the river, stopping at calm pools to fish for the meat eating machines using chicken grease. No luck though. At sunset the only piranha we’ve seen is a dead one on the banks.
We return to camp, have dinner and go for a night walk in the jungle. Single file behind the guide, trying to spot reflecting eyes with our flash lights. Except for some spiders and lots of flying bugs, we encounter no wildlife. On our trail we have to cross several small, muddy streams. Some on stepping stones, some over a pole laid across. Two are pretty deep, the pole laid about a meter higher than the lurking water, below, (are there crocodiles here?) Only a liana (vine) stretched across to steady ourselves. The Swedish man falls in twice, on his way over and on the way back!
Back at camp, about an hour later, We seek refuge from the bugs under our mosquito net. Despite the sticky combination of bug juice, sunscreen, and sweat, and the thin foam pads over wood slots, we sleep fine.
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