Days of heat and emotions in the Amazon!

Hey lads we are back to La Paz after a week in the wilderness of the Amazon basin. We started the adventure last Sunday going down the “Death Road” with bicycles. Was a good injection of adrenaline, just imagine going 3,600 meters downhill through an unpaved and rocky road with massive cliffs on the side. It was very foggy and pouring rain, so we did not get a chance to see the precipices, which in a way was good for us, as we did not shit in our pants…
The final destination was Coroico, a beautiful hilltop village, with tropical weather and vegetation and doorway to the Bolivian Amazon basin. After hanging around for a day we hopped on a bus to Rurrenabaque, a town in the midst of tropical lushness. The journey was quite long, around 15 hours driving on dusty and bumpy roads, but not as hard as we expected.
Once in Rurrenabaque we went on a 3 day tour through the savannah and the Yacuma River. Wow that was amazing! We went up flow with a canoe and was our first contact with the abundant wildlife. The river was infested with crocodiles and caimans, almost one in every river bank and plenty eyes watching us from the water. They are the ones ruling the place! Besides them we spotted monkeys, capybaras (the biggest rodents), pink dolphins, turtles and thousands of birds. The journey up the Yacuma River was jaw-dropping, because of the wildlife and also because of the enchanting trees and vegetation.
We based ourselves in a very basic lodge nearby the river were we slept and had our meals. At night was time to enjoy the countless sounds of the nature while canoeing down the river and again spotting crocodiles with the flash-lights. On the second day we went trekking on the savannah, all equipped with boots as we had to walk through many watery-muddy areas. The main target was to find the anaconda, we did not success but our guide did not give up and finally found a Bolivian cobra. It was a tough day, mainly because of the heat and the sun, but overall was, again, amazing! Afterwards, time to chill out and jump on the boat again to get some dinner! Yeah, fishing time! We got catfish and piranhas on the menu! The main enemy we had during these days were the mosquitoes and various flying insects, but was not that bad either.
The luck was on our side with the group we got. We shared these great moments with Cris & Nicole (from Holland), Nabila & Kristina (from Sweden) and with Lorenzo (100% Italian). And, our guide was brilliant, patient, the best! No surprise when his name was Jhordi…
Back to Rurre was time bid farewell while having the last drinks. The day after we took the bus back to La Paz, and damn, that was a wrong idea. Almost everybody fly back as the journey is extremely treacherous, but the two of us had to be different and believe us, it has been the toughest and hardest bus journey of our life! We got two seats squeezed at the last row, where the shock absorbers did not work (bad on an unpaved and bumpy road!). So imagine 20 hours in that situation!!! The nice part of it is that we got a chance to speak with many locals while trying to sleep on the shoulders of each other! We arrived to La Paz this morning and went straight to sleep! Next stop should be the Titicaca Lake shortly!
Wow, Bolivia it is a mind-blowing country. It has almost everything but sea. Just imagine that by doing less than 200 Km you can jump from La Paz and the high plateau at 3,800m to the Amazon and its tropical forests and wildlife.
That is all folks! All the best and loads of kisses!