Road to Rurrenabaque, Bolivia and Madidi National Park
Never mind that the mountain bike tour companies in La Paz claim that they're taking you to "the most dangerous road in the world" just outside the city. Riding the bus towards Rurrenabaque proves that they are bluffing...slightly. The 24-hour bus ride consists mostly one-lane dirt roads that jaunt around steep mountain sides with pebbles and urban trash flying off the road towards the river at the bottom of the valley. I had one of the best seats in the house. The very front row on the upper deck of the bus just above the driver. The window views look theatrical as I rested my feet on the sill and was in it for the show with the views of the steep but lushy green Andes landscape. While closely observing the driver's work on some of the most dangerous road in the world. We are on a single lane road, with one side being a rocky cliff just a couple feet away from the bus window and the other is nothing but a dream launch off point for hang gliders (if they existed in Bolivia).
Just when one of the bus wheels step in a little pothole on the outside side of the lane, it causes most passengers, including me, skip a heartbeat because the way the bus rolls towards the drop off, which is less than a feet from the 1000-plus foot drop to the river below. Being on the upperdeck enhances the feel of being rolled over but really were only being rolled by a few feet when the wheel sinks in one of the potholes.There are no shoulders. Nor rails. Bolivia, being the poorest country of South America, can't afford well-maintained roads just yet.
I knew we were safe. The drivers have done it million of times. But when there is another truck or a bus coming in the other direction, it it sort like a rock-paper-scissor deal scenario on who has to back up into a wider portion of the single lane to allow the other to pass. And especially, who gets the inside lane. It is exciting to watch. Sometimes, one of us has to back up as far as 100 meters to find a right spot to pass. I can't imagine being the driver looking at the rearview mirrors that only shows the sky and the valley, not road. How close is that back wheel is to the drop off? It certainly looked like we were in the sky. All passes were managable..only by a few inches and several good sign of reliefs.
I was glad to take the bus. It is the popular, and only, route to Rurrenabaque from La Paz. The scenery was awesome. It turned more and more into a jungle landscape as we neared the Amazon Basin. Hawks were soaring at eye level with the bus. So we had the bird's eye view. I agreed with my friend, Sheetha, from England, that this was way better than flying from La Paz to Rurrenabaque. We would have missed the up close feel of the scenery and the experiences ot the 'death' road. Even though flying would have saved us 23 hours and 15 minutes. But that time flies as we enjoy the scenery, sleep, read, and relax in the reclined seats as we are gaining distance over time.
Rurrenabaque provides a main gateway point to the Madid National Park and the Bolivian's Amazon. Crocidile-fested brown rivers and tropical tree lined streets with taxi-motorcycles outnumbering cars 4 to 1. The locals were used to tourists and lived out of tourism. They looked no different than Peruvians, except they are more modern dressed and sometimes hardly dressed due to the extreme heat and humidity. I booked for the 3-day jungle tour starting the next morning and simply spent the rest of the day in the shady hammock under a fan and hid from mosquitoes and heat.
The next morning, I joined a several backpackers from Europe and Canada and hopped on the lightwieght long skinny boat on the Rio Beni to begin the tour. The boat ride as sketchy as the bus ride when long skinny boat frame rolls a bit with the strong river currents. I watched as local fishermen, between ages 7 to 13, catch their meal of the day as we got deeper into the Madidi.
We stayed in the cabins with bunk beds covered with mosquito nets with a feel that we were in a kids summer camp. The jungle trees were so thick that sometimes you couldn't tell it it was a cloudy day or the sun was out somewhere. Still sweating hot and so badly I wanted to swim in the river but the crocs and piranhas were probably in there somewhere. We all were too busy doing some day walks in the area with the guides between meals and chillin on the porch with card games and enjoying some good social mix between english speaking Europeans and North Americans.
The next day, we took up three hikes in one day. The guide was our live narrator pointing out various of significant plants. Ranging from ones that can cure stomach aches to headaches to ones that can use for face paint to ones that can trip you as hard as magical mushrooms to natural cialis. Even one tree that walks six meters a year by growing forward 'legs' and retracting behind 'legs.' I didn't take the photo because it was dumping buckets at the time.
I don't have a whole a lot to say about my first jungle experience. Though I loved every aspect of it. I loved how rich green everything was. How complicated it seems for humans to live in it with all potentionally dangerous jungle wildlife can be with harsh climates. Which is fun to challenge. And love how it can be a photographer paradise with all those opportunities to shoot the rare but colorful bugs and plants. Though strangley for me, I did not get any 'portoflio' type shots. Actually it was a bit hard. It was either raining or sunny...lacking neutral lighting. Then we we got to walk, I had to keep moving with the group. Then I asked the guide if I can go alone but stay within 100 meters from camp, they did not allow me to. Then I ask him to take me out but they wouldn't go out unless the whole group joined. Grrrrr.
Next time I want to come back in the Amazon with some experienced hiker friends (not guides) and be more independent with more time.
Then next morning (the third day) we took the boat back to Rurrenabaque and I took the next bus back to La Paz.
Anyways my ex-roommate, Jed Nussbaum, whom is a growing journalist at the UM J-school, did a class profile assignment on me. Link: http://trespassmissoula.com/2011/04/18/shooting-without-sound/ . Meanwhile, both of my hearing aids have been down. It has been a while since I last put them on. But its ok. Im loving it actually. I love the 'quiet' world around me free from stressful sounds and constant whining from my crappy aids. They are not worth it anyways. I still manage to lip read and make friends. But Im looking forward to getting brand new ones when I get home in May!
Off to Potosi tonight then a Uyuni Salt Flats tour thereafter.