Along the river to Rurre, a Pampas tour and Lake Titicaca

The next three days we spend on a longboat with some 8 benches as seats and a canopy for shade. Each day consisted of approx. 4 hours of riding along this pretty sad river: there was hardly any wildlife or views since the extensive gold mining on the shores had destroyed all that.

We visited a couple of small villages on the way to get more supplies. Because of earlier heavy rains, flooding and landslides this proved to be difficult: the villages were running short on food. Our cook still managed to create some delicious meals so we weren't too bothered by this.

Chilling on the boat

A village visit

Stav, the coolest Israeli ever and Marie-Lou, the coolest 8-year-old ever

We did a couple of jungle treks too on the way and learned a lot about the nature, for example how to find water from the forest etc. (check the pictures). One nice hike was to a waterfall! It was a beautiful place with clear refreshing water and a cool pool of rock where we tried some bouldering from the water. The campsites were full of mozzies and other biting insects and after a few days everyone's feet and arms looked pretty nasty. There had also been a bit of a mix up with the tents and most were horribly broken or missing poles etc. This didn't make it any easier to escape from the mosquitoes. But in the evenings we made bonfires to keep away the bloodsuckers and to roast some marshmallows. The second night's campsite had to be changed due to the floods! The original one had been completely washed away but I didn't mind: the new one had trees full of grapefruits which I ended up eating for dinner, breakfast and lunch :) At the new site there was also a local family which had a pet baby spidermonkey! The poor thing was hanging from the back of a small boy and I couldn't help but think that they had probably killed its mother to catch it...I wished I was wrong.

Bonfire and marshmallows

Mirador

Hike to a waterfall

Bouldering (or Deep water soloing?)

Crossing rivers

More chilling

River views

Boy and the monkey

Shy little fellow

Men making fire

Women looking pretty

Men hunting for grapefruits: that's how jungle works

A blind fish

Morning sun

Chris and a tree

Chris and a tree where you can drink from

After the three days everyone was happy to get out of the boat and into the small but cute town of Rurrenabaque aka Rurre. Shower,laundry, proper bed, no mozzies...heaven. We spend our last night together as a group eating, drinking and partying. Most of our group still stayed in Rurre for the Sunday like we before leaving for our 2 day/1 night Pampas trip to a community ecolodge of Mashaquipe. Most tourist in Rurre do either a pampas or and jungle tour to the National Park Madidi but since we came from the jungle, we opted for pampas instead. We wanted to invest in the sustainable community tourism instead of choosing cheapy and unlicensed operators. We payed a lot more for this but you really get what you pay for: we saw it the next day.

That Sunday in Rurre was hot hot hot and my wrist was paining weirdly. I didn't think too much of it before it really hurt when I tried to mantle my way out of a swimming pool. Both writs, fingers, and then ankles and knees were hurting like I had rheuma. I felt dead tired and I fell asleep in the afternoon just to wake up with a fever. My normal body temperature is pretty low, around 35,5*c so when the thermometer showed 38,5*c I was a bit alarmed. I still had appetite though (as I always do ;)) but the dinner wasn't too comfortable with the growing muscle pains. Chris fetched me some paracetamol and during the night I took 1500 mg with absolutely no effect.

A toucan on the swimming pool

Chris suggested that we stay in Rurre to see if my condition gets worse or not. I insisted we go to the Pampas: I could rest in the car and in the lodge while Chris can still go on the tours. So we left in the morning with a group of six: Ken from the Ride and River trip, Julia from Germany and her boyfriend Leo - a Russian guy who lived in Australia - plus our guide Ismael. The road to the lodge was horrible: destroyed by the floods, full on ditches and potholes and what not but we had a comfortable car with space and ac, unlike the cheap tours who put 12 Israelis in a Jeep with only windows as ac (not so nice on a dusty road and plus 40 degrees celcius outside). All was well until our car broke down: someone had forgot to put oil, woops. It was a bit inconvenient, especially when in a high fever. Gladly another company car took us in and we continued the journey that took more or less 3 hours in a car and some 20 min in a longboat on the river.

The ecolodge was beautiful, located in the middle of the forest next to the river with all the wildlife! We had a nice room and all the facilities were well maintained. I kept eating paracetamol but it didn't do much good. Chris placed some wet towels on my head to cool me down and if I wouldn't have felt so dead I would have been quite amused. I had to miss two wildlife tours in the evening and in the morning to rest but I still made it on another two tours: these were mostly riding on the river on a boat so not too strenuous.

Feverish Inka

River trip

The first tour was one of the most amazing things on the trip so I'm glad I made it! We swam with pink river dolphins! Not far from the ecolodge, on a wider part of the river, the guide said: "Hop in!". What? Right here, in the muddy water swarming with these pinkish grey massive creatures? Is it even safe? After a short thinking, Chris jumped in and then the others too while I stayed on the boat taking pics.

The dolphins were highly interested in the splashing humans and came to play and poke everyone. I decided to hop in too and the cool water felt so nice on my burning skin. And indeed there I felt it: a dolphin dove under me and poked my feet! It felt so strange, this rubbery skin somewhere in the darkness brushing past my feet! Everyone was gasping and letting out little surprised screams every time the dolphins made contact! The dolphins also started picking our feet, like tasting them a little bit but in a friendly playful manner. We had ball with us which the dolphins were kicking with their back fins, splashing water on our faces, and then taking the ball in their mouth and diving down. After a minute or so the ball would surface somewhere further. Everyone was excited about the experience and what made it even more special for me was the comment of the guide. Chris asked if he can try to pet the dolphin when it comes past and the guide said: "I don't recommend you to touch the animals, it is okay if they choose to touch you but not the other way". Wow, real actual sustainable tourism, I was so happy to have chosen Mashaquipe!

Capybaras

Catching the ball

Playing around

More playing

Another excellent thing we did on the pampas was piranha fishing (catch and release, sustainable as well ;)). I had tried fishing for these meat-eaters before in Venezuela but with no luck. This time I was the first to catch one: pretty little orange baby piranha! Happily almost everyone caught a piranha in the end though it took long, difficult to catch these fellows. (Finland still won the fishing contest 2-1 ;))

Piranhas!

Chris with his massive catch

We saw a lot of big birds, alligators, turtles, a beautiful green snake that almost swam in our boat and capybaras (the world's biggest rodents). Sitting on the boat was easy enough even with the fever and the food, people and facilities were so great that I was happy we decided to come anyway. And indeed the next day I felt better already: the fever was vanishing. I had developed a weird rash though and the pains were still there.

Tired but happy

Evening on the river

A toad

Pretty sunset

A woodpecker

Chris pretending to be a guide

Jabiru with a snake in its mouth

Dragons¿!

Alligator baby!

Butterflies

More mariposas and Inka

Happy Pampas fans!

Chris dragged me to the clinic in Rurre after we had matched all the symptoms to dengue. It was uncanny. But the test result unfortunately wasn't: it showed traces of dengue in my blood but one antibody was missing which meant that I didn't have dengue at the moment. Well, it was good news but we were still confused about the disease. If the fever would come back, we'd have to go directly to the hospital, doctors orders. I can tell you now that gladly it didn't come back and we continued our trip to La Paz and after a day we left to Lake Titicaca.

We spent one night in a horribly commercial Copacabana, walking around and up some viewpoint hills. At this altitude of 3800 m it was hard work but necessary practice: we had booked a trip from La Paz to climb up mt. Huayna Potosi (6088m) in a few days!

Next morning we left with a small boat to Isla del Sol, the Island of Sun, another horribly commercial but pretty place with nice views over the lake. I have been to the Peruvian side of the Titicaca lake some 10 years ago and remembered it being very touristy. The Bolivian side wasn't much better: you pay to enter the island, you pay to walk to the north side of the island, you pay to enter the ruins, you pay to take a picture of a girl with a llama, you pay you pay you pay. I was still feeling pretty ill and the altitude, sun, dry air and walking up and down the high hills really wore me out. But we took it easy, slept a lot and ate well. I was happy to return to La Paz though but nervous at the same time: next day we'd head off to try to conquer the mountain!

View from the plane from Rurre to La Paz

Copacabana church

View from the hill

More views

Sunset

Chris made a little friend

Isla del Sol

Didn't have to pay to take a pic of these donkeys

But would've had to pay for this pic...we didn't

La Paz and the Ride and River trip

We flew to La Paz from Santa Cruz to save some time: flights were cheap and the road dangerous and loooong at worst. La Paz is not safe either, especially in the dark so we shared a taxi from the airport with a Brazileno to the area with many hostels. It was a good plan, if the Earth Hour hadn't messed it up a bit: the streets were blocked from traffic and the center was completely pitch black dark. When we walked through the dark crowds with all our stuff I thought "Wow, this is probably the worst timing ever". Safety in form of a shabby hostel was found easily enough not too far.

Fasten seat belt while seated, life vest is your seat.

View from the hostel

The elevation of the city made it difficult to breathe. Every little uphill or staircase felt 10 x as exhausting as usual and the dry, polluted air made the throat sore. Luckily we didn't suffer from other symptoms, headaches or anything. Altitude difference or not, we still decided to check out the bouldering gym of La Paz: El Muro! It was the tiniest and cutest little cave I've seen: just one small room filled with holds from floor to roof. There were a couple of nice problems and we enjoyed the exhaustion after the lazy days in Samaipata.

El Muro

Tough work in those altitudes

Streets of La Paz

La Paz felt to me surprisingly nice, I had quite bad expectations but at least the "touristic area" felt safe and I really enjoyed the colors and the traditional clothes of the people. We only had two nights though, but we'd be back in a week or so: now it was time to leave for our 6-day Ride and River trip from Sorata to Rurrenabaque with Andean Epics! It meant 3 days of mountain/downhill biking and then hopping on a motorized dug out canoe and going down the jungle river and camping alongside it. I had never downhill biked before or even ridden a full-suspension bike but supposedly that wasn't a problem. Exciting!

Our great group consisted of a French family of four, who lived in La Paz and had two kids of 8 and 14; Ken (50) from Boston; Heath (42) from Canada; Jochem (27) from Belgium; Stav (22) from Israel; Hugues (27) from Canada and Marcos (52) our guide, from Australia! A very mixed group, I thought at first, but an excellent one indeed I learned!

Our trip started with a 3 hour busride to Sorata, and up the mountains during which we had plenty of time to introduce ourselves and get to know one another. And then at 3800 meters we geared up with helmets, jackets and pants and started off down a curvy asphalt road. The first day was 28 km and all on asphalt to get to know the bikes: the supereffective breaks, the right position on the bike, how to take the curves and all that jazz. I felt that I was going so fast all the time but still the guys rode far ahead :D The views were incredible, green mountains and valleys below us but there was not much time to look around, keeping an eye on the road was crucial. I still somehow managed to miss the upcoming speed bump and when I saw it, it was already too late. I was sure that that was it, and with a normal bike it certainly would've been but thanks to some instincts I didn't hit the breaks (was my first thought though) and the suspension caught the bump. I was fine!!! And still riding!! Pheww...

The speed bump wasn't the only obstacle: some school kids were trying to stop me with sticks and their bikes. No way, Jose, I was way too fast for them ;) At the very end there was a small uphill but afterwards I was really done. It took a lot of focusing and energy not to die on the way down so I think we were all happy to spend the afternoon visiting a huge cave with a lake inside and then resting in our pretty ecolodge near Sorata. The ecolodge had massive premises with camping grounds and gardens full of farm animals. Sadly the owner really ruined the place for us with his greediness but otherwise we enjoyed it, the dinner and the evening together with our group.

Happy downhill biking fans!

Cool stuff

Views!

The group

And more views

Bat cave?

Lake in a cave

Pool at the lodge

Waking up at 5.45 served no purpose since the driver was late but we didn't really mind, we had an exciting day ahead again. I didn't expect to get the first thrills on the way up already but indeed this terrifying journey up the mountain on the narrow, muddy and all kind of sketchy dirt roads with zero visibility did that. Fog and the clouds made it impossible to see 3 meters ahead and of course we were seated in the front. I made elaborate escape plans in case the car would tip over the edge though none of them were very likely to be of any use.

5.45. Christoph

Visibilty?

Llamas!

We survived the first part and now it was time for 65 km downhill (mostly, some ups and some flat too) descending from 4800 meters all the way to 1200 m. Full-face helmets, knee pads...I took all the safety gear available. We were just about ready to start and then it started snowing! Never mind, down we went anyway. Massive, loose stones, pot holes, washed away road and the steep downhills made the first parts scary and exhausting. Ken took the first fall but gladly didn't hurt himself too bad.

We took many short breaks on the way down to gather the group again and to rest the legs, arms and head. I never thought going downhill on a bike would be so strenuous but my god was I wrong!! It's far more exhausting than riding on the flat I tell you. The amount of focus it takes to read the path, the exhausting position of leaning back and standing in a half-crouch on the pedals and gripping the handlebars and the breaks is incredibly tough. The bumpy terrain made it so difficult to stay on the bike that I felt like I used up all the energy just no to fly off. Getting ready at 4800 meters

Geared up!

It's me!

Snow!

Me AGAIN!

And the whole crew

But after a somewhat clumsy and uncertain beginning I started feeling more confident and enjoying the ride. Although for the last bit, when my arms, back and legs were in such pain and my head so exhausted that I was afraid I'd loose control of the bike, the enjoyment was gone. It was a bit too long of a day, but otherwise superb.

On the way down we had a lunch break in a small village, in a plaza where our guides prepared the most delicious salad and sandwiches. The whole day was filled again with great views and some obstacles too: instead of school kids, it was the animal kind this time. Some sheep were crossing the path when we came behind a curve and the last little lamb got all confused in the hassle of sheep and bikes and started running as fast as it could after Christine (the mother from the French family) thinking it was its mother. Our guide had to guide the little lamb back to to the right place afterwards, it got so far from its group.

Dogs were also running after all the bikes around the villages but the scariest part were the bulls. I came behind a curve with a full speed just to find a huge bull with some pretty creepy looking horns right there in the middle of the path. Will it attack me if I ride in front of it!? I practically closed my eyes, went as fast as I could and hoped that it wouldn't feel any urge to use those pointy daggers on me. It was a mellow fellow, luckily, and didn't care too much (even about the red jacket ;) ).

On the way down

And more way down

Finally we were down and done. That day there were some uphills that also added to the exhaustion but we were warned: the next day we'd be riding in lower altitudes (aka hot, humid tropical air) and there would be a lot more of going up. My whole body ached and I wondered if I'd be able to ride the day after...But a little swim in a waterfall after the ride did recover some of the strength and after dinner everyone was happy and feeling great! Our hostel was hmmm rustic...to put it nicely :D We slept in a room that seemed more like a warehouse: it was filled with old loudspeakers (?). I'll leave out the description of the toilet or the shower :) Lunch break at a plaza

Swim at a waterfall



Last day of riding started again with an amazing breakfast that featured Marcos' delicious chocolate sauce and afterwards another 1,5 h of riding in the jeeps. This time it was too hot for jackets and pants but I still opted for the full-face helmet and the pads, just in case. I felt great! I really felt so confident on the bike, turning on the curves with speed was no trouble at all and taking the big rocks and pot holes was a piece of cake, I was fast! Of course Chris was far ahead, jumping over ditches and stones like a pro but with especially the flat parts and the uphills I was faster than the many of the guys who had overtaken me in the downhills the day before. I passed Stav in a steep downhill with a warning shout ("Passing from the left!!") when suddenly I heard I load noise behind me: Hugues and Stav crashed, Hugues was passing Stav but didn't shout and Stav rode in front of him! Luckily again everyone got off with just tiny bruises!

The words of the day were mud and uphills. The roads were in horrible condition, with huge landslides and ditches and holes, and every now and then there were muddy rivers crossing the path: one just had to ride through and hope that they weren't too deep! The uphills were killing everyone. It was hard to breathe, the air was hot, heavy and humid and with the full-face helmet I got claustrophobic sometimes. Still, everyone pushed on and the last part before lunch was an amazing long downhill where I had my best run, even with a scary skid that I managed to control in the last second. I felt invincible ;)!

River crossings

Exhausted Jochem

Break!

Another break

Max riding

Sweaty Holopainen

And sweaty Gysin

We had lunch next to a river where we cooled down, washed our bikes and ate again the same excellent lunch as the day before! Somehow we had all been in the false hope that the last part of the ride was downhill. Yeah right, it was mostly uphill or flat at best in the scorching sun. Motivation of the group seemed a bit low at that point but hell, it was the last part! We rode mostly through small villages were people would stare and shout and whistle...and throw rocks!! After the ride Stav and Ken told that some kids were throwing stones at them. Also some kid tried to poke Chris with a massive stick. Crazy. Everyone made it alive and the ride was a lot shorted than I expected! And in the ended cold water, beer and cola was waiting for us, and showers and nice rooms and clean toilets.

Lunch at the river

Mariposa and Marcos

Everyone made it

Cold drinks

Last days gear

We had a great evening, dinner and beers first at the hostel, everyone was in a great mood telling stories and relaxing. Afterwards we headed to a karaoke place where some pretty intoxicated versions of Losing my religion, Lemon tree and Don't worry, be happy were sung :D Good fun with good people.

View from hostel roof

Mari-Lou and a local kid playing

Karaoke evening

More of that crazy singing

Sitting on the roof

Moth

Next day we hopped in a boat but that's a whole different story.