Welcome to the jungle

Amaszonas Airlines obviously hadn’t read the Rough Guide’s description of their flight.

“Unbeatable views of the Andes and rainforest as you descend to the Amazonian plain,” it said.

The pencil

Unfortunately we were greeted at our early morning flight by a very small plane nicknamed “the pencil” with dirty, almost opaque windows. Amaszonas had also neglected to read any airline regulations so we took off silently, ignorant as to what we should do in an emergency.

After 40 minutes we landed into the tropical heat and (relatively) thick air of Rurrenabaque. We met our guide (who had a real name but we know him as Jungleman – a self-assigned moniker) and were whisked through a bustling Sunday market to our boat, which motored us up the Beni to Mashaquipe jungle lodge, via an audience participation sugar cane-crushing demonstration.

Crushing sugarcane the traditional way

Leaf cutter ants

The lodge was lovely, and we soon saw our first fauna of the day (aside from wasps and spiders) in the form of some Spider Monkeys right next to the dining building. After the first of many substantial meals and a welcome siesta, our afternoon ‘Jungle Walk’ saw us explore what else the area had to offer. We learnt that the area – Madidi National Park – was named after a carnivorous ant, how to listen out for venomous snakes (first hand), and which plants and mushrooms we could eat if we wanted to hallucinate (we didn’t).  We also saw bright red orchids, a huge stick insect and a very small, very poisonous spider and learnt that if a disturbed spider scurries away it is not poisonous, but if it crawls slowly it probably is and is preparing to strike!

In the morning we were awoken by the howls of Howler Monkey, which sound like the opening up of a portal to the underworld. Once we’d freshened up (opting for the millipede in Toilet 1 over the spider in Toilet 3) and breakfasted we began the day’s walk, to a jungle camp where we’d spend the night.

Puma paw prints!

The walk included picturesque viewpoints over the Beni river, from which we could see white heron stalking the water's edge. We grazed on the plentiful fruit (under the strict instructions of Jungleman) including a juicy sugar-cane-like bamboo good for kids to chew if they have diahorrea. Huge bright blue butterflies that I'd only ever seen in books ambushed us then fluttered off ahead. In the lower land we saw a fresh Puma paw print! 

After setting up camp (a mattress on an open-sided platform under a mosquito net and wooden roof), we continued along the river to a high cliff viewpoint from which to see brightly coloured parrots. A gravestone nearby showed where someone had died trying to get good photos, so we kept our distance from the sheer drop.

We saw lots of pairs of red parrots swooping past, accompanied by “Photo! Photo!” from Jungleman. During the walk we also saw a toucan high up on a bare tree. Anteater burrows were pointed out, and at one point we saw the disappearing behind of a wild pig! By then we were so comfortable with the day-time jungle we weren’t too perturbed at becoming momentarily misplaced when Jungleman lost his “secret trail”.

We ascended another viewpoint later that afternoon to watch the sunset

Night, however, was entirely different. Our cook summoned us to see a tarantula in the dining hut and another bigger one was spotted right next to our sleeping platform. Knowing tarantulas to be pretty harmless, we still gamely set off on our “half hour” night-hike, only for until-then-jovial Jungleman to sternly warn us not to touch any foliage whatsoever, especially with our heads, since the most venomous spiders and insects would be on the march in hunt-mode. After this the evening descended into an hour-long torch-lit fight against the (mostly imaginary) horrors attempting to buzz, crawl or jump onto us, interspersed with pitch-black stops in the middle of the bush for us to “enjoy the stars” while we imagined what we would discover at our feet once our torch relit. Needless to say we did not spot the Puma of the paw prints, only a very dazzled nude-coloured frog and a nesting moorhen-looking bird.

Jumping monkey - almost the whole troop made the leap

Look at that mud!

We survived the night by sleeping surprisingly well, and in the morning headed to the river amongst a huge troop of swinging Cappuccino Monkeys (above). We also spotted a rarely seen Leoncita monkey with a fierce-looking black face. At the river, Jungleman swiftly made a log-raft with our inept help, and we set off down river. We soon proved more adept at steering (thanks to our punting experience), so Jungleman slept while we navigated some slightly bumpy rapids.

Back at the lodge we showered, lunched, and all too soon were on a boat back to Rurrenabaque and the pencil plane back to La Paz, a world away.