Gallivant 2.0: Bolivia

Sooooooo as you can probably all guess the blog is VERY far behind where we actually are now. I lost my blogging mojo a bit and there is nothing worse than trying to force it. Also, we started moving around quite a lot and the last thing you want to do after a long bus journey is go and sit in an internet cafe. But now I am BACK!!! Huzzah. Hopefully to bring everyone (nearly) up to date.

Many moons ago we were in Bolivia and after a interesting theft incident in Copacabana we continued to La Paz to catch our flight to Rurrenabaque, which is in the Bolivian jungle. JUNGLE!!! I know, super exciting right.

It is a very scenic 30 minute flight over the mountains to the jungle. The airport in La Paz is at 4000m and the flight climbs up right over and very close to the mountains and then descends straight down into the steamy jungle.

After being at height for so long getting off the plane was a bit of a shock, the heat and humidity hit us like a wet flannel. The first thing Bruce did when we got to the hostel was shave off his beard and then collapse on the bed with the fan on full blast. And then we went and drank beer on the river front because what else does one do when it is hot???

So we had a 3 day jungle tour sorted and the next day off we went!! About 3 hours up the river by boat to the lodge. We were with four other people, one couple who was on the some tour as us and another who was only there for two days.

Our trip the to jungle involved A LOT of good food, walks to find wildlife (as in stalking monkeys and wild boars off track through the jungle, great fun!!), camping out for one night, rafting and swimming on the river, making sugar cane juice and feeding ALL the mosquitos in the jungle.

So it turns out the mosquitos bite through clothing. If I had been walking around in my underwear with repellent on I would have less bites. We merrily put repellent on all our bare skin and they just as merrily bit our legs (and Bruces knees for some reason!) through our clothes. Soooo many bites it was ridiculous.

Highlights for me were swimming in the river and leafcutter ants. The biggest highlight was when our guide gave us normal looking green leaves and told us to rub them in our hands really fast. We did this and they turned to mush and then when you do it longer you can squeeze the leaves and RED DYE comes outs.......WHAAAAATTTT!! Totally.Blew.My.Mind. Seriously. Crazy jungle.

I think Bruce liked stalking animals through the jungle most. And also the food. Outrageously good.