So, I´m still traveling.
It´s true.
And recently I had one or two funny experiences, so I´m writing.
I´m still writing (sometimes).
It´s true.
I went to this town called Rurrenabaque. It´s located in the Amazon Basin of Bolivia. From there one can do tours to wetlands or pampas and see alligators and birds and anacondas and river dolphins.
Well, I did that, saw birds, alligators, monkeys and swam more or less with river dolphins, but I was unable to see anacondas and nobody on our trip caught pirahnas. In fact, the highlight of the trip is that I fell down, twice.
A little background. It´s the wetseason in the pampas now, so the river is quite high and the tours are carried out on riverboat. Our lodging was a series of raised houses built of wood that sit just above the water´s edge.
So anyways, I was walking to where six hammocks are strung out to relax and one of the floorboards gave way and I found myself suddenly stuck with legs dangling below the deck and unable to get up. Maybe that´s what it´s like when you fall and your old. I don´t know.
Then, when we were taking our car ride back to town we found a semi that was stuck in the mud and blocking the road. The driver of our car tried to go around the truck, but we ended up getting stuck as well. So then we all had to get out and push. The road was a pile of mud for miles and miles and so when I decided get out of the car by jumping out of the car to miss a puddle I slipped and fell, this time in the mud. People laughed, my clothes were muddy, it was the highlight of the trip.
But that´s not why I´m writing, I wanted to tell yáll about a boat ride I took after my pampas tour.
A little background (deja vu?)
I´m in Rurrenabaque, a town within the Amazon basin and set on a large, jungle river. I´´m travelling with these two Belgian girls who came on our pampas tour and we´re looking for a more adventurous way to return to La Paz. I arrived by flight, but needed something ¨more authentic¨ than a bus or plane. So we ask around and this guy ¨Waldo¨ says we can take a boat UP the river and it will take 2 days to arrive, he says we can stop off at a waterfall and play in waterpools created by the falls. So we think about it for about 5 minutes, pay the money and then *poof* we´re on a boat the next morning at 11 AM, it was supposed to leave at 7:30.
Now Waldo told us that it would be 2 guys working the boat and the 3 of us, but once we get on the boat we find four other guys there with us. So I´m a little annoyed by their presence, ´cause I thought it was going to be private. We go up the river for 2 hours in the rain, the river is surrounded on both sides by dense jungle and then we spot the waterfall. The guide points at it and we chug on past...no stopping...until...one of the four extra guys in the boat spots a group of spider monkeys up in the trees.
They yell, ¨Mari mono¨! ¨Mari mono¨!
And suddenly the boat pulls over 2 guys start loading up their rifles and jump out to hunt mari mono. I´m thinking. This IS funny, should we do something to stop it? Should I go watch? If they catch one, am I going to try it? Keep in mind this is in a national park, a jungle with some of the highest biodiversity in anywhere. And then we hear a couple of rifle shots, but no dull - thud.
After about 15 minutes the guys return, dejected. The capitan asks what happened, one guy says he hit the monkey in the side, but he didn´t fall and he´s just clinging to the tree, but will be dead tomorrow. So they killed a monkey and didn´t even get to eat it.
While this is going on 2 other interesting things happened. I had my first experience with ¨real jungle´. About 2 minutes after the boat pulled up to the river bank these adorable little flies or mosquitos or sand flies come up to the boat. The three of us are all wearing sandals and the flies for whatever reason love to devour our feet (I think it´s because there´s more veins there). The flies are so small, almost like gnats that you can´t really kill them, you can only swat them away and when they bite you, they leave a cute little pool of your blood at the top of the bite, and they itch worse than mosquitos, worse than chiggers, worse than death (almost) and they don´t go away, it was 2 weeks ago and they still itch, (sometimes).
The 2nd ¨funny¨ thing I found out was that the four people whom I resented for being on our boat were not just joyriding, nor were they getting a lift. They´re looking for a dead brother. About a week before when we left, one of the four´s brothers from a town called Guanay swam out into the river and drown in a whirlpool. The brother and his 3 friends have been plying the river back and forth for the past week looking for the body, so the family will have something to mourn over.
So then I didn´t feel so angry about having these 4 in the boat. Life can be humbling sometimes.
We continue up the river and then ¨el capitan¨ starts picking up people along the river waiting for a lift. The people are standing on the banks of the river, in what looks like dense jungle, with maybe only a boat as a sign of civilization. They wave and yell for us to pull over. I´m not sure what´s going on here, we obviously paid far more than these people are for the lift, they´re coming into the boat and making us stop, giving the satanic flies more opportunities and taking up lots of space, so, of course, I´m passive aggressive angry once again.
The day passes more or less the same. Finally night comes on, it´s becoming hard to see and ¨el capitan¨ pulls over on what looks like a deserted river bank. We unload ourselves and the cargo and then follow a small footpath through some jungle to a small clearing where there´s a fire, some pots and pans and few houses. At this point, we don´t know what´s going on. Like, where we´re supposed to stay, if we can cook etc. The 4 guys looking for their brother start cooking, finish and give us a plate of food, clean the pot and then let us start cooking. I make a pot of rice and some vegetables with tomatoes (we forgot to bring any protein).
Then the guys start drinking and we start getting ready for bed; the guys let us use this tent over which they draped a piece of plastic. We squeeeeze into the tent with no windows and no ventilation and try to sleep, but it´s damn hot. After about an hour of not sleeping, we hear this loud shouting, wailing and crying. The guy who lost is brother is shouting, ¨Mi Hermano! Mi Hermano! mata me!¨ (my brother my brother, kill me) At one point he stumbles upon our tent as well.
Then we wake up, get back on the boat and another moreorless uneventful day passes until the boat is basically full and i´m having flashbacks to Africa buses, brimming at the edges, so I go up to finally complain to El Capitan, who says we´ll talk at the next village. We arrive at the village, and El Capitan tells me the other 4 guys don´t want to go further, he doesn´t want to go further (´cause it´ll cost too much) and that he´ll refund us to get to the next town.
So, we do that, take a 2 hour taxi to the town of Guanay, then buy some oranges and take another 2 hour taxi to Carnavi, then it´s only 4 hours back to La Paz, but we´ve basically ran out of money. In all the little pueblitos in Bolivia there´s only these really crap banks that give you money for a 5% comission. We pooled our money so we would´n´t have to pay them, but then we arrived in Carnavi with about $12 between us, which wasn´t enough for 3 back to La Paz. We could have withdrawn more, except that the crap banks (Prodem banks) were closed because it was late Saturday, and there´s no ATMs anywhere.
Meanwhile the 2 Belgian girls are discussing going to another town Coroico, whereas I want to get into La Paz, that night so I can go out on a Saturday, but like I said, there isn´t enough money.
So i start asking trucks going out of town if they´re going to La Paz, so then the girls will have enough to go to Coroico. It doesn´t take long until a Coca Cola truck driver says, sure, hop in the back.
Worst decision of my life.
So, I hop in the back, which is stacked high with crates of empty coca cola bottles. The sun is shining, it´s about 5 PM. I´m on the back of the truck, sitting on my bag just enjoying the scenery, looking forward to a night out in La Paz. After about an hour, though, I notice some cars are going on the same path far quicker than we are. So, I think well, maybe it´ll take a couple more hours, like 6 hours instead of 4 to La Paz. I´m okay with that, I can get in at 11 PM and still go out, no problem.
Then night comes on, we are taking hairpin turns in an enormous truck at a murderously slow pace. Fortunately I have a birds eye view about 12 feet above the road of the 800 foot plunges below if we somehow slip off. We pick up another man and wife pair along the mountain trail, and by now it´s getting late, around 10, and we stop for dinner. I have 3 dollars in my pocket, but I want to save as much as possible in case the driver asks me for money for the lift. So I buy 2 pieces of bread for about 30 cents. Then I ask the driver how much longer they think it will take, and they say 5 or 6 hours.
I spy a few other parked cars hopefully on their way to La Paz. Most look full or with families who aren´t liable to pick up hitch hikers. I finally ask 2 guys if they´re going, and if I can go. The passenger says yes, but the driver looks not so sure...then I say, can I just get my bags and he says, no it´ll slow him down, and he gets in the car and drives away. *Poof* go my hopes of going out in La Paz.
So, I jump back into the truck, eat some more pieces from the bread and fall asleep on my bag and wake up at about 11 PM under fairly hard rain. I put on a raincoat over my soft-shell jacket, but both jackets are only water resistant and other than my sleeping bag that´s all I have to keep me warm. We drive for another 30 minutes or so and then the driver decides to pull over and go to sleep. By this point the rain is really pouring down hard, it´s probably about 40 degrees outside, with wind, and all my clothes are soaked through. Thank God for the 2 hitchhikers who got on the truck. They brought a big piece of plastic with them. They give me some to use, but it only covers my legs. So I sit in the rain and wind, wet, shivering, unable to sleep or think or do anything but wait for morning. I can´t keep myself from shivering and I can barely feel or move my hands or feet. Finally at about 4 Am do I realize that there´s more plastic than I had thought and enough to cover my entire body. so I pull out my half soaked sleeping bag from my backpack and put it around me and pull the piece of plastic over my body. I lay there another 2 hours or so trying to conserve as much body heat as possible until we start moving again, and I can at least imagine some end to the cold. We drive for another 2 hours or so, some of which is downhill, which is great because the half filled coca cola bottles tip over and pour out ice-cold water onto my legs.
Finally we arrive at the top of La Paz, I see we´re driving past where I should get off, but I´m too worn by this point to do anything but wait. The other hitchhikers finally ask the driver to pull over and they start to get off. The guy goes first and then the girl second. I´m so eager to get off the damn bus that I start decending before the girl is down. I can´t really feel anything in my hands or feet and it´s only about the 3rd time when she tells me that I´m standing on both her hands that I realize what I´m doing. I jump off, apologize profusely and then pay the bus driver the $1.30 he asks for. I get a minibus to downtown, and can only think of a hot shower. I arrive at the hostel and then take about an hour to check in, unpack my bag and get my shower. Everything I´m traveling with is soaked through, except for a shirt and I can´t keep myself warm the rest of the day.
