Note: this is taken from emails sent in 2001. Hemi
hola amigos!
i have always known that “back from tuichi” would be the title of one of my emails from SA. its the title of a book i read about 15 years ago, by yosi ginsberg an israeli gringo that got lost in the jungle and barely survived.
most of the book is filled with exaggerations, if not out and out lies, but still it was good reading and it instilled in me the urge to travel in SA during my tender teenage years…
after that brief literary commentary, i shall update you on the last week or so.
Rurrenabaque
i arrived in “rurre” as it is called by locals at mid morning on aug 22, and got settled in.
this tourist town is the starting point for 2 types of excursions
1 – the jungle – not like africa though.
2 – the pampas – a swamplike savvanah abundant in wildlife the pampas tour is considered easier so i signed for a 3 day excursion set to leave the next day.
in the afternoon i met an old acquaintance from sorata (last week) who is a drummer in seatle ad came to bolivia for 3 weeks with his 15 yr old son.
really interesting guy and we talked for hours. BTW all those looking for a job, there is a shortage of progammers at microsoft in seattle….
PAMPAS
the next morning i left with a 4by4 to santa maria , a 4 hr dirt road drive to the yacuma river where the pampas tour begins. with me were emma an australian girl that like me signed up for 3 days, and 3 fellas from scotland ireland and germany that came for only 2 days.
our first stroke of luck was midway through the cartrip when our guide adelid screamed at the driver to stop. he ran to the dirt raod, grabbed a 2 meter anaconda snake by its tail and after swinging it in circles for a minute or so told us to come take pictures.
so now i have a picture of an anaconda on my shoulders, shitting on me.
boy o they stink. after everyone took his turn, he put the anaconda in a plastic bag to take to the yacuma river nature reserve.
sitting next to him i was not too happy, more for the stench han anything else…
after arriving at santa maria and having lunch we set off on what would be our vehicle for the next few days – a 12 man motorized canoe.
virtually minutes after setting off we started spotting various wildlife – alligators, river turtles, kapivara (huge rodents the size of sheep!), all sorts of water birds, monkeys that could be bribed to eat bananas from our hands, and more.
we reached a place in the rivr that was a bit wider and in these places there are pink dolphins swimming about. of course we jumped in to swim with them but unfortunately they were shy so it di not quite work out.
by the way there are alligator just 20 metres away but they dont go to the deep water. in the deep water there are pirannahs though…
all this time we were enjoying the sights mostly through the shutter of our cameras – how japanese can you get!
we reached our campsite on the bank of the river and it was quite nice, a big netted hut with each bed having a personal mosquito net as well.
the river is lined with trees but behind this thin line lay vat swamps and grazing fields for cattle. at dusk we took some corny sunset shots.
the evening was quite lovely as there was also another group from the day before there so. when we all retired to our beds jokes were flying around the room for almost 2 hours. no nationality was spared…
the next morning we were woken early by the guides for a quick upriver flight to a great spot for….
sunrise photos !!!!
afer breakfast we set out to the swamp area for anaconda hunting – big ones.
after 3 hours of failed attempts which included getting bogged down in knee deep mud and loss of several sneakers (the mud sucks them off your legs – not to worry , all were retrieved) we were about to give up when one of the guides found a 3 meter anaconda. experienced from the day before, i did not touch the filthy bastard.
after lunch we part from the 2-dayers, and emma and i go pirranah fishing along the river. the fihing device is a piece of wood with several meters of nylon cord attached to it and a hook. the metod is quite simple, attach a piece of raw beef to a hook and the moment you feel a tug – pull hard and virtually yank the fish into the boat. the poor thing does not even bite the hook o its really easy to repeat the process many times. we caught some pirannahs, sardines and a catfish too. none longer than 15 cm. at night we had fried fish but to tell the truth pirannahs have almost no meat on them so its a good thing there was lots of rice.
the next morning we took the boat upriver to look for more animals and it was pretty much the same as the first day. this time when i swam with the dolphins i coul feel litle bites at my birthmarks and nipples – pirannahs!!!! the water in the pamaps rivers is quite muddy so i could not see the little buggers. no worries it hurts less than mosquito bites. as for the insect bites, i really did not get bitten much so i was ready to take on the jungle…..
the way back to rurre was dull except for the driver who was really tired so the intervals between breaks got shorter and shorter.
JUNGLE
the following morning i quickly signed up for a 3 day jungle tour figuring that since anything under 10 days is usually very touristy because you dont get far enough away, and less is not really seeing much and it takes a few hours just to get there and back.
with me were 2 young doctors from england, emma – a family doctor, reserved and very ladylike, and dapu – an anestheasist (puts you to sleep before the
operation) a wild character who is in fact a nigerian who came to england at the age of 8. he had some interesting stories about his country. its the world leader in corruption (bolivia is number 2). his parents live in nigeria where his dad is a businessman. his 70 year old dad has 7 wives, the last wedding this year to a 23 yearold. dapu has brothers and sisters he has never seen.
also with us were the guide and a cook.
we sailed up the Beni river in a motorized canoe for about an hour and a half and then up into the tuichi (!) for an hour more. the Beni has muddy waters but tuichi has a moe green seethru 30 cm water. as this is the dry season, the water level is quite low so we scraped some rocks every once in a while. we even had to get out and push at one point.
the tuich has a very strong flow. it is really difficult to stand even in knee deep water.
we reached the campsite at noon. its about 10 minutes walk into the jugle from the shore. inside there is thick jungle forestry though not as thick as i had imagined. the sun get through only a little so its a bit dark, and for many pictures i took the camera automatically added flash. after lunch and a siesta, we went for an afternoon stroll with the guide. every few minutes he would stop to show us a plant or tree that had some medicinal or culinary talent.
animal are hard to spot in the jugle due to the thicket, but the guide promised us that at night we would see some.
so after dinner at around 9pm we went to beach area with flashlights and some moonlight too and hoped to see something. NADA ! not one animal.
The only animals were the mosquitos and god know what other insects and the dudes were hungry…
the next morning we packed our stuff and food for a day as we were going to hike to another campsite near the shore of the Hondo river were the guide promised more luck.
“weather report – its hot, damn hot, hot and wet, which is good if you are in bed with a lady, but not if you are in the jungle” (good morning vietnam). and so it was – 10 minutes into the 3 hr hike we were dripping wet. never in my life have i sweated so profusely, icluding all the army crap i did.
and the biting insects dont take any lunch breaks at all, they just keep coming at you. (well maybe the people travelling in the jungle are the luch break).
the first thing we did when we reached the rio hondo is go for a swim. the water was great and the flow was ok too. while we chilled the cook, who came with us prepared lunch. we then spread our matresses and sleeping sheets under a makeshift junglew tent, set up the mosquito nets and took a nap. the heat really made me tired.
in the afternoon we went fishing. emma had all the luck. she caught a huge 5 kilo fish 3 minutes after we began. later she caught 2 turtles and a manta ray which we promptly released.
in the evening we had a delicious fish dinner, and at night went looking for the promised animals. guess what – correct – nothing.
in the morning we hiked back to the first camp itching and scratching and sweating. after 2 days with the guide explaining about all the medicinal fauna, the doctors could have set up an operating room for heart transplants in the middle of the jungle.
there were some interesting things like a tree whos sap is so poisonous that when an arrow tipped in the sap hits a person it can paralyze him within minutes. or branches of a certain tree that when cut off contain pure fresh drinking water.
another nice thing was the vines hanging from the huge trees, we used them as swings just like in the tarzan movies.
but no animals.
by the time we returned to the camp i was truly ready to leave the jungle.
after lunch we swam a bit and returned to rurre.
the hilights of the jungle trip were no doubt the good food and the view along the river.
I spent the evening itching and scratching, and had dinner with some new friends i met at the end of the junge trip.
the tourist agency had bought me a flight ticket back to la paz for the next day, but as i unfortunately found out it was for the noon flight not the morning flight.
Getting to La Paz
the flights are with TAM – trans aero militar , the military transport planes. they use fokker (netherlands) planes from the sixties. the company does not exis anymore. i wonder where they get spare parts…
the next morning my friends left on the early flight and we arranged to meet at Catedral San Fransisco at 5pm later that day.
Boy was i optimistic. the morning flight left at 1pm. i wassupposed to leave at 12pm and left at 3pm but to Trinidad – the opposite direction to La Paz!
In trinidad we switched to another plane to La Paz, and finally reached the capital at 7pm.
The good part about the flights was that i asked to sit in the cockpit with the pilots and after showing them my aircrew card, they were actually happy to talk with me. we discussed differences in bolivian pilot life as compared to israel, a bit about the airforces and the wars in israel and in bolivia.
they have lot of missions dealing with stopping drug trafficking. one of the plots had a german name and told me his grandfather emigrated from germany.
i was thinking to myself could this be one of the nazis that escaped to SA after WW2 ?
At the airport i helped a young israeli gringa whose muchila got sent to santa cruz to sort things out and we shared a taxi into town.
She of course went to EL LOBO – the place where all the israelis sleep eat and herd in lapaz. The funny thing is i had met Zeev, the owner in the airport in rurre a few before. he is 60 yrs old, a polish jew formerly living in israel but 25 yrs in bolivia, apparantly had some problems with the israeli authorities and never came back. his daughter and husband run the very uccessful ellobo operation and he looks for new business opportunities. he had just bought some land near rurre and plans to set up EL LOBO 2, i guess.
Back to La paz, of course i had missed my rendezvous with my friends, but i went to the hotel they were staying at and they left me a note inviting me to stay with them in the room.
i then went out to the food stalls on the prado (main street) and for one and a half dollars had 2 skewers (shippudim) of cow hearts and potatoes, an egg filled saltena, a churriso sandwich, and for dessert some cherries.
at 10pm i retured to the hotel and met the friends. its about time to introduce them dont you think ?
christian , german 24, finished a masters in electronics at univ of illinois and will now work in berlin sebastian, german 24, height 204 cm! really stands out in this country. also studied EE in illi, will return to bavaria for work there.
phillipe, 23, french, normal height, also studied with the above two, will also work in germany after the trip.
really nice guys with interesting stories.
yesterday we went on a one day excursion that included valle de luna , right at the edge of la paz, which has a supposedly moonlike landscape, and a climb of mount chacalataya. this is the bolivian ski resort, the highest in the world at 5400meteres. the slopes though are only 700m. some japanese dudes were skiing and at the end of the run there was a local guy waiting for each of them with an oxygen mask. i tried to rent out equipment for an hour but it was impossible. also this is not exactly the ski season. anyway the driver who brought us refused to take us up the road so we walked up for
2 hrs from 4700m to the top at 5400. having arrived from 0m in rurre the day before, i thought i might get a headache or something, but to my plesant surprise, i felt quite good.
in the afternoon my friends, who were not as fortunate as me, all went to sleep in the hotel and i wandered around the city a bit.
I must say that sometimes first impressions can be wrong. I am beginning to like La Paz, it is much more than the filthy tourist area.
in the evening we went to the posh Sopocachi district, which has good restarauts, pubs and clubs (like the rotschild street aree in tel-aviv), with rich locals that look very european in contrast to the indian looking poor folk that account for 80% of bolivias populace.
we interrupt this letter to bring you the following message – there is a radio here and now they are playing the original spanish version of David Brozas famous song “sigaliot”. I asked the lady working here about the lyrics , they are basically the same as in hebrew. neat huh?
so we sat in a french pub with St germain (a french electronic cool funk-jazz band) in the background and very upscale bolivianas at the bar.
this was the first time my friends and i saw a good looking local girl, by western standards.
today my buddies are buying some souvenirs, because tommorow they leave for home. i am contemplating the issue as i dont want to carry anything unneccessary with me in the 6 week left.
tommorow i might go on a 2 day mountain trek not far from la paz and after that i will head out to Peru, to cuzcu the inca capital turned biggest tourist attraction in SA.
forgive me for the typos, the keyboards here are of poor quality.
forgive me for the longevity, i just had to share the stories with you.
forgive me father for i have sinned 🙂
any comments, questions or jokes?
i am always happy to read.
seeya later
hemi