part 4 La Paz and the jungle

So we got to La Paz on the 9th of January at like 11pm, and our bus was immediately swarmed by tourist police who ushered all gringoish looking people into taxis and even negotiated fares with the drivers for us- like nothing I have ever witnessed that is for sure! After a few days exploring, LaPaz, and bolivia in general, feels very similar to Peru, although the weather is pretty shitty most of the time in the city and there is a LOT of garbage everywhere (possibly due to the high incidence of strikes and demonstrations recently??), just piled up in the steets sometimes, although not so much in the centre where my hostel Loki is. It is a HUGE place, around 200 beds, and people are fighting for a place pretty much every day if they don't have reservations. Met a couple cool Danish girls and their Australian friend on our first night here and they told us about how they were taking a boat/jungle tour up to Rurrenbaque instead of bussing it or flying, so we sort of jumped on board with them on the Saturday as well.

It actually ended up being a 7 or 8 hour bus ride down the "death road" past Coroico and Caranavi, to Guayan, where we were supposed to get the boat. But because we ran into a few landslides on the way, one we dug out by hand with a big group of sweaty locals and their shovels, and the other took a bulldozer to clear. Plus there was a big tree down over the road so we didn't get to Guanay until too late to do any of the boating that day. Instead of camping, the company finally agreed to pay for our necessary hostel rooms. And to kill time, slash say that we had done it, the 5 of us girls and our guide (no one else was up to it apparently) took in the local nightlife, which was pretty amazing I have to say. The main place in town was this bar with a huge dancefloor, mainly taken over by underagers drinking fanta and dancing across from each other in 2 long lines. Not doing line dances. Just dancing in lines. Ridiculous. Later on when we were dancing with them, any attempts at deconstructing the rigidity of this system proved to be very stressful, and our circle dance attempt ended up forming a new line, just slightly askew from the others. Hilarious!

But the next day we did a few hours on the boat down this river which was pretty swollen with water, and our boat definitely was not really made for the rapids which we had to go through at some points. A little scary. But we stopped at little communities along the way, only reachable by boat, and did a big jungle walk in the day and at night, which were pretty cool for hearing about different plants and their medicinal properties, insects, etc. Not a lot of wildlife viewing, but still really cool. Camped in tents in the courtyard of one of these communities, and it rained so much in the morning that we had to get up quickly or else all our stuff would literally be floating. Could have been pretty miserable except for that it was so hot the rain was a nice relief, and also it felt pretty appropriate to be in the rainforest in the middle of some rainstorms. We went on another hike in Mididi National Park on the third day, after more boating to get there, where the highlight wildlife wise were some tracks from a large herd of 300ish wild pigs (like I haven't seen any of those before. yawn. haha) And then after a few more hours in the boat we arrived in Rurrenbaque in the evening of the 14th.

I would have loved to get my clothes washed, because they were all so sweaty and dirty and disgusting, and actually had dropped them at the laundromat, but then discovered that because pampas tours only leave on certain days, we had to leave the next morning. Which meant a sheepish return trip to the laundry place, where the girl hesitantly gave my clothes back, with an expression that said "you are so disgusting looking, are you sure you shouldn't have these washed?" Which probably would have been wise, considering that the dog at the tour agency was later so enthralled with my smelly clothes that he ripped open the bag and dragged my sports bra across the floor, much to the amusement of the staff and other clients.

Went out karaoking that night as well (and as I already told some of you, you may be surprised to hear that bolivian jungles are the hidden karaoke capital of the world. In a town where there isn't even a bank or a grocery store, they have karaoke bars on literally every corner. We're talking at least 20) However, finding a quality one proved a bit more trial and error, and the one we were at that night pretty much ignored all our requests for Cindy Lauper and Madonna, Backstreet boys, etc, until we basically stole the microphone from behind the counter and just started singing our own songs above the spanish ones actually playing. Soooo funny, but the karaoke supervisor girl wasn't all that impressed.

But then the pampas tour started the next morning. Three hours in a ridiculously bumpy jeep (oh and by this point, I had had some sort of allergic reaction to all the sandfly bites I had accumulated on the river, so my right foot was swollen to 3 times its regular size and superpainful. Only now starting to shrink) to get to a river, and the pampas, which is this huge network of rivers and wetland savannahish land that is just teeming with wildlife. On the 3 hours in the boat on the way to the camp, we stopped to swim in the river for a bit (although when we got back in only about 200m upstream there was a 3m alligator swimming-our guide assured us that they never attack in daylight. still a little disconcerting). There was a whole bunch of spider monkeys that we pulled up to and fed bananas, the guide even smushed some on our heads so they would come right on top of us and crawl all over. So cute, with a lot of little babies hanging on their mothers' backs. A ton of different birds, cormorants, eagles, falcons, parrots, etc. And where our camp was there were more spider monkeys, a resident alligator and nearby howler monkeys you could hear all night and morning. Really cool. That night after dinner we went out in the boat looking for alligators. Our guide caught a little baby one and we took turns getting pictures, petting it, etc., before he did the trick of touching its belly and putting it to sleep. Soooo weird. A ton of mosquito bites, despite the 100 percent deet, but totally worth it.

The next morning we went out to this more shallow area looking for snakes. Couldn't find any, despite wading waisthigh through waters where anacondas are known to congregate. But because it's the rainy season now, they're much more spread out and harder to find. But I did feel very JLo esque wading through there. Saw some more birds, and got bit by some fire ants when leaning against a tree (apparently a fire ant tree) to pour the water out of my boots. Hurt sooooooo badly, like a continuous wasp sting or cigarette burn or something for at least half an hour. Our guide said that the poison is powerful enough that only 250 or so of the bites can kill a person. Luckily I only got a couple, but still hurt like hell.

So no snakes, but after lunch we went out in the boat again and went swimming in the river in areas where there are tons of freshwater pink dolphins. So cool, and they even come up and bump your feet, playing with you under the water. At first it was kind of exciting, although always scared the shit out of me because the water is so dark that you can't see anything and all of a sudden you're just touched by something in this 12m deep river in the middle of the jungle. Could be anything. Creeepy. But they would splash around and stuff, and like I said it was pretty exciting, but for some reason they would not leave me alone, much more than any one else (most people didn't even get touched, but I actually had to get back in the boat after a while because it was starting to freak me out.) The only thing I can hypothesize is that my skin is so pale that under the water my body glowed fluorescent or something, I don't know. Very strange, but still really cool. And then we went out looking for more wildlife from the boat, and saw lots of monkeys, sloths, paradise birds, which are pretty much the ugliest things ever. And the most beautiful sunset I have maybe ever seen. Absolutely gorgeous.

Sadly had to leave the next day though, but not before my guide made each of us some customized jewellery (mine is a ring he whipped up in 15 minutes out of a cocoa nut shell, all buffed and carved with a really pretty design on it). He was a really nice guy, and knew soooo much about all of the wildlife it was unbelievable. He was definitely the most tarzan-ish one of all the guides on the river at the time, and everyone was visibly jealous of his skills. To be fair though, he told us that the community where he grew up is in the far northern jungles of bolivia, and from the closest city (Trinidad), you have to go 2 days by bus, 2 days by boat, and 7 days walking in order to reach his home. Really hard to imagine. But an awesome guy, and we tipped him well, especially when we found out that despite each of us paying 60 usd for a 3 day tour, he only gets paid 180 bolivianos for each tour (about 25 or 30 dollars). Absolutely horrible how the guides get treated here. Especially when they know their shit like he did.

But anyway, after one last jungle party in Rurrenbaque that night, I got in a jeep at 5am to head back down the death road for the 14 hours to LaPaz. It sounds like it would be horrible, given that it's mostly dirt winding roads around mountains, blind corners, etc., and it is kind of scary, but the scenery was so spectacular, I am so glad I didn't pay the 20 dollars more to fly, I would have missed so much.

But got back to the city last night, and spent most of today back doing some shopping at the witches market, catching up with people I know, trying to figure out how the next bit until my flight to brasil is going to go (still unsure), find out about buses, get laundry done etc. Feels like a lazy day, but really needed to be done. So probably will leave here tomorrow (won't hurt my feelings, after the hail I experienced this afternoon) for either the salt flats or the silver mines-will let you know!! More pictures are on the way, but I can't bear to tackle uploading them right now after more than 4 hours in this internet cafe already. Again, sorry for all the delays, but hopefully I can get better at this regular posting thing!!

much love