We left the hostel at 7am, and I drove for the first half, where there was a lot of descending and 70% paved roads. Eventually, he told me, he began to relax as he saw that I was a “very good driver”. Yay. I let him drive for the intense offroad, though. They say the road up north there is worse than the tourist attraction: the worlds most dangerous road, and they were right! The roads could barely fit a car, so you had to honk before every turn to let them know you`re coming. From there, it went straight down, faar, far. Many areas are made up of mud and puddles, and you pass by a lot of landslides. Some places, rocks were still falling. One massive rock fell off a truck, and landed one meter from us.
Day one:
We drove for quite some time, and it had become hot, so we went for a swim in the Amazon river. – Amazing! But then we encountered trouble: a long line of trucks and cars lined up towards where a landslide had destroyed the road, and they had apparently been rebuilding the dirt road for already a day, and wouldn’t finish until night time. We were told that one could drive a smaller road up the hills, so Fernando went for it, while I crossed over by foot and walked to where he was supposed to come down. Unfortunately, it didn`t work, so we went back to the nearest town to spend the night. While I was waiting around for him, I met some guys who were going to join the navy. I didn`t know Bolivia had a navy, as they don’t have any ocean line, since Chile took the northern part of Atacama, but they still practice in places like Lake Titicaca.
Driving here is intense and beautiful. Quite the adventure! It often smells like Colombia, which makes me all nostalgic, though Bolivia is wonderful, too. We could hardly see anything on the way back to town; there was so much dust that you had to honk extra. We were also all covered in dirt and mud, so after washing ourselves, we gave Tornado a wash in the river. He`s now getting a new front light.
Day 2: We visited Rurrenabaque, which was an hour away. Its packed with tourists.
As for the Ayahuasca ceremony, I`ll have to hunt it down sometime, somewhere in the future. In Rurrenabaque, they don`t do it right. In Iquitos they do. In Rurrenabaque, you get a weak potion from a shaman thats from
La Paz. Some locals told me that you had to live with the shamans for months before they`d give you it, or you could go to where they grow it and ask around a lot. I was, mildly spoken, bummed.
We struggled a bit with the lack of gasoline. Another motorcyclist had to push with one foot, while driving, so that we could get to Rurre, to buy some overprices gasoline from a water bottle. Gasoline just wasn`t reaching Rurre.
We then cooled down again in the river, before dinner and reading a bit. I`m now reading "Zen and the motorcycle maintenance".
Day 3: And so it rained
To expect rain in the rainforest, in the rainy season, is not exactly crazy. There was nothing to do when it first began. I was tired, so sleeping the whole morning in the family hammock was way okay for me. Later
in the day, we explored the nearby area and gathered guava fruits and some other fruit, I can`t remember the name of. Before sunset, we played football with the locals, with a big handball. In between that, the family, as always, fed me with way too much food, so that I had to relax and write some. I`ve been writing about people this time, only its not for publishing. Just for me. It was nice to recall.
The food bit makes me feel a bit bad. It`s been a while since I`ve had to deal with politeness, and when we went to a family birthday party at their friend`s place, they fed us even more. Chancho, the meat is called.
White and delicious. The house was packed, and some people couldn`t sit. There was a loud buzzing of a motor, as that was running to keep us entertained with electric light! All in all, a very good day in the little town called El Horisonte, with the family of El Chaco.
Day 4: Entering the jungle
Right now, you can`t do tours on the rivers, where one normally does them, as the rivers are too fisty. Most tourists say that the problem about the Amazon in Rurrenabaque, is that its too touristy. With a local tour guide that hadn`t done a tour in a whole year, far from where the others were doing it, I didn`t have that problem.
He actually owns a great part of it, saving it for later, when it holds greater value. We spent the nights in the shelter of a roof, though we did buy a tent for the mosquitos. They didn`t sting me much, but God, they are annoying!
The reason we couldn`t go yesterday, was that rain makes the rivers too tall for crossing, and we had to cross two of them. We went early, as it does get really hot in the day. It did. There`s a lot of mud and dead trees
right now, and our guide, El Chaco and his budd, were very upset by this. Both kept saying over and over that I Had to come back in the dry season, and that its just so much more beautiful. I still did find it beautiful, though.
Its a bit like the jungle in northern Colombia, only that you`ll find much more interesting animals and fruits, for instance. I discovered one of the best fruits I`ve tasted. Chocolate! Not kidding, chocolate! Surrounding the seed
used to make chocolate, is a wonderful and sour fruit that resembles passion fruit. I just discovered this fruit(or was handed), right before we encountered a big tarantula. Just standing there, really.
I enjoyed the four hour walk with machetes, but got tired of mosquitos in the end, and was glad to get a fire going. The guides wanted us to rest, so they left us to search for prey, while we constructed a bench and found
trees to climb and swing in. I read as they came back, while Fernando was cooking. I keep letting the men do the cooking. What a terrible lady I am.
Day 5: Jungle trekking
The walk today was much prettier, though tiring. Like the locals, I`m chewing a great deal of coca leaves; just got the hang of it! This gives you energy and a lot of nutricion. Thats why the two of them chew so much: they
work with timber. I gave away my ibux and panolin, as he said they made wonders for his back problems. They were just as wonderful as lime. Lime is amazing. Lime cures everything. Sugar is bad, but with lime its all good.
"no pasa nada".
In that photo, I`m drinking very healthy water from a tree.
We were walking slowly, creeping up on monkeys a lot. They`re fast little buggers, but we got to see a great deal of them from afar. As we were walking, El Choco suddenly throws himself back at me, in fear, hoing a word I didn`t
understand. Apparently, there was a big snake. The other guide killed it with a machete(photo), and we could see a frog just standing a few inches from where it had been, possibly in shock and bliss that we had just saved its life.
Close one!
As for other animals, we found a massive turtle that Fernando brought with. It didn`t occur to me that we`d be eating it for dinner and breakfast. It was actually really good! Poor people eat a lot of it. One shouldn`t eat too much.
After a nap on a plastic carpet, we were going to go hunting for Chancho, but they got away. That just reminded me that I forgot to try their rifles! Damn...
Day 6: The return
It seems like a short trip to visit the Amazon, but it didn`t bother me, really. We`re still in the jungle, in some way. Just not squeezed in between trees and mosquitos. Its still beautiful and warm.
We woke up to rain again, thinking; nooo. But the rain passed, and after some turtle pasta, we were off again. As we started out a bit late, it got Hot! Then a powerful wind started to tear at the treetops, so that trees were falling, and the rain was on again. It wasn`t cold, and I didn`t mind the shower, so I walked without poncho. It reminded me of good old, rainy days, playing football, for some odd reason. Luckily, we could still cross the rivers.
The family had cleaned all my clothes and shoes. Most of them got dirty again the same day, but the effort was delightful. We said goodbye, and head off an hour later. We didn`t make it all the way, as the roads were awful, but it
was so beautiful in the hours before sunset, that I was thrilled to be on the back, taking photos. There were a lot of kids with waterballoons on the sides of the road, but we avoided them, luckily. Its carneval season in Bolivia, and in Oruro, especially, madness rules. Fernando said that yesterday, all bolivans were wasted. In that little town, some women with colorful, big skirts, were dancing in the streets to terrible orchestra music. Other than that, people decorate their vehiculos. I was considering to decorate Tornado a bit.
Day 7: San Borja
We drove one hour to San Borja, which is a quite large town. We found a nice hotel and head off to swim in a little lake. There was a very nice little area with a flat, wooden boat, that I sunbathed in, while Fernando was manoovering. He was too much of a chicken too swim in the waters, even though the family living there, said it was fine. We just got back, and the rain is pouring. We, who were going to see some local tribes living without shoes!
This town loves karaoke, so I have a feeling we might fall for that trap, tonight. After some spare parts shopping today, we`re off to Coroico, tomorrow.
Day 8: My ass!
Sore. So sore!
We drove off at 7.15 with fresh gasoline and an extra waterbottle full, just in case. For a few days, we couldn`t get hold of gasoline from the stations, as the trucks didn`t make it cross the bad roads. The scenery was still great, yet cloudy, for the most part, but it was hard to always enjoy it with that sore butt, from in total, ten hours of humpty dumpty roads. It was really, really bad somewhere, and I had to get off to walk a few times. Reaching Caranavi to have lunch, swim in the river, and sunbathe, was amazing. After that, we were off for another two and a half hours to Coroico, which is a stunning little town on a mountainridge, surrounded by many other green, lovely mountains, and a river below. I`m quite swoomed, and wouldn`t mind staying here, really. But the whole morning tomorrow will have to do. I`m considering catching a night bus to Sucre(roads are said to be terrible) and then later to Potosi, before returning to La Paz. I think its a good idea to go straight to Uyuni from La Paz, avoiding that detour. Buses are cheap as hell anyways.
No comments:
Post a Comment