Welcome to jungle baby! You’re gonna… get eaten by mosquitoes

Having had enough of winded walks up small hills and freezing nights, we decided it was time to get out of the altiplano and head for the lowlands of Bolivia to sweat our asses off and get eaten by bugs. Rurrenbaque is small town on the edge of Madidi National park and the jumping off point for adventures into the jungles, wetlands and mountains of the most biodiverse place on earth. There are two ways to get to Rurre from La Paz, a 45 min flight for $75 or a 18-36 hour (depending on the road) bus ride for $9. Being our usual frugal selves, we chose the later. The road out of La Paz brought us on a harrowing decent along “the most dangerous road in the world”, a narrow path cut into the sheer faces of deep canyons. Out of the mountains, the terrifying cliffs were replaced by thick mud and we got stuck for several hours before finally reaching Rurre 24 hours later. Needless to say, we immediately booked our return flight back to La Paz for the following week.

Most people come to Rurre to take a boat tours of the wetlands (or Pampas) to gawk at the wide array of animals, from caymans and anacondas to tapirs and capybara. This being rainy season, the mosquitoes were out in force and you could see the results on the legs and arms of tourists returning from their trips as floating buffets. Another less popular option is a jungle tour, and though the chance to see animals was smaller, visitors can sleep and trek around the depths of the Amazon. Not really into passive observation (or mosquitoes), we chose a 5-day jungle hike. We definitely made the right choice.

Our first day kicked off with a longboat (lancha) ride up the river to our base camp, made up of a few traditionally made structures erected in the heart of darkness. From there we went out for expeditions into the jungle were we saw monkeys, hundreds of wild pigs, and countless birds. While we didn’t escape the incessant mosquitoes, the countless bites we suffered were worth it. Our guide Ignocio showed us different uses for plants, as traditional medicines and for hunting by poisoning dart tips. We learned how to make animal traps using fallen logs and jewelry from palm nuts. On the last night we camped deep in the jungle where we went for a night walk, able to observe a totally different jungle after dark. To cap it off we built our own raft from balsa logs and strips of bark to float our way back to base camp. By the end of our 5 day experience in the Madidi we were already talking about coming back for a longer adventure, tackling the jungle and the famous mountains… but this time in the dry season… sin mosquitoes.