Amazon

Unfortunately we had to hang our La Paz the next day as our flight to Rurrenabaque kept getting delayed. The next morning it still wasn´t flying out due to the rain in the amazon basin...the runways there are dirt and fields so it gets too muddy to land. We decided to take a 20 hour bus instead - worst bus ride we have ever had! Anways, once we get there it is great. We have a day to wander around Rurre....really no cars, they all go around on dirt bikes and atv´s. The next day a small boat takes us up the Beni and Tuichi Rivers for several hours until we reach Chalalan in Midi National Park. It is a very clean, very nice ecolodge run by the village 3 hours upstream. We were only supposed to stay 3 days but we were having such a great time that we stayed an extra day. The days involved getting up early and going on hikes through the rain forest with our amazing guide who grew up in the village - we are talking hunting and gathering, huts, no electricity or running water and he is our age. Anyways, he was so knowledgable and would just stop and listen and could tell where we should go to find monkies and toucans etc. we saw 5 different kinds of monkies. Some are very noisy and easy to track since they play in the lower canopy. Others are quiet and lazy and we had to bushwack our way to find some. It was so hot and humid so after lunch we had siestas or went swimming in the lake - though that was not all that refreshing since the water must have been around 25 degrees. Later we went for another hike or took the canoe out - lots to spot around the edge of the lake. At night we would either hike and find tarantulas and cool coloured frogs and bats or we would go caman hunting! The food was amazing and the huts we stayed in were nice...though one night we had a bat trapped and it was so stressed it would fly into our headboards and fall....so glad we had nets on our beds! The howler monkey would wake us up at 6 am sharp with its LOUD howls. Pretty much had the place to ourselves too so it was really relaxing.

Anyways, we were able to fly out and catch a bus from La Paz to Copacabana Where we checked out Lake Titicaca and hiked around Isla del Sol for a day. Man, altitude hits you like a bus! Plus none of us were reacting so well to the Malerone. Still good though.

I left Ann and Liz in Copacabana and headed for Arequipa in Peru. Here I spend a few days before heading to meet my friend Sina in Quito.