Day 1 Jungle

Weather: Back to hot humidity.

Mosquito Count: Unknown. Plenty of UFTs though  (Unidentified flying things)

Despite the soggy third day in the pampas I had enjoyed the experience so much I decided to go into the jungle. Luckily (as I couldn´t take much more political, religious argument circles) all my companions decided to fly back to La Paz.

The Morning:

Another three hour boat trip (this time without the fun truck off road experience) deep into the Madidi National Park. My new companions aren´t really the political sort.

The  Dutch.

One female student who has just graduated, and is suffering from the ubiquitous Bolivian stomach upset, and her boyfriend who works at Deloitte.

The French

Two agric students. Exactly like English agrics, but French.

We arrive at the jungle lodge, which is completely in the middle of nowhere. The jungle has some seriously anti social insects. They are deafeningly noisy and they bite.

The afternoon:

First four hour trek into the thick jungle. The guide is called Jimmy. Jimmy likes using his machete, at every opportunity he slashes down a bit of tree. The forest eventually bites back. We find some monkeys after about an hour wandering around, while trying (and failing) to take pictures the monkeys decide we are trying to shoot them and decide to perform their defence technique. They all jump out of the tree from about ten metres up and land like cannon balls around us. Everyone escapes unharmed, with the exception of Jimmy. One lands directly on his crutch. The Spanish that followed was even more incomprehensible than normal, however the words like anaconda and the girls don´t understand were pretty clear.

Once Jimmy had recovered the trek continued. Turns out he is the son of a Sharman and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of all plants uses, and can imitate pretty much any animal. The spanish lessons are beginning to pay off, and I convince myself I can understand what he is going on about.

We find a Cobra scarily close to camp, and head back for dinner (rice potatoes and fried chicken.)