April 12, 2000
Day 173 Day Two: In the Jungle and back to Rurrenabaque
All during the night a constant concert of insect noises makes for a good “jungle background”. At eight the cook serves breakfast of bread, jam and eggs in the mess tent. After that we fill our water bottles and head out for our jungle walk. The guide goes up front, whacking at vines and leaves blocking our path. We don’t follow an established path, instead follow our guide single file through the dense vegetation. Its sweaty work that only gets rewarded a little. Most of what we see, again, are bugs. The guide shows us some trees that are used for medicinal purposes. One tree has spikes on its bark. The sap is lethal and is used to dip blow-darts in. After a couple of hours the guide spots / hears some monkeys up ahead. We set in a quick pace, following the troop of monkeys that mainly retreats through the tree tops. The first people in line do get some glimpses of the rears of the primates, but there is not chance for a decent picture.
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We return to the camp for lunch and take a swim in the shallow river. The water is murky, the thought of lurking crocodiles is all too present, but according to our guide its perfectly safe. Before we leave on the canoe that just dropped off another load of explorers, our guide cuts us rings from some hardwood nuts he picked up during our walk. Polished with sandpaper and mud they look like ebony.
The boat ride back is nice. A cool breeze blows over the bow and since we are now going downstream it is a lot faster. We get back to Rurrenabaque at about six and walk back to the Hotel Asai. They remember us, we get the same room. The shower feels great. For dinner we head for restaurant La Cabana where they serve great fish!
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