Karen and Elliott's Rainforest Adventure

Elliott and I ventured into the world of backpacker travel with a weekend trip to Rurrenabaque, in the Bolivian lowlands where the mountains meet the amazon basin. We had an awesome time!
A little table of contents for this entry: you will first find our top ten lists, then Elliott's commentary, and last links to the full photo album and a zipline video.

Top 10 highlights:

1. Riding ziplines through the forest canopy

2. Hiking through a narrow canyon with bats flying overhead, tarantulas underfoot

3. Taking part in pressing sugarcane through a hand-turned mill and drinking the juice

4. Swimming in a pool at the foot of a waterfall

5. Stars! For Karen--this meant seeing the milky way & the southern cross in an amazing night sky from San Miguel; for Elliott, discovering “Star Wars” could be rented and watched at the internet café in Rurrenabaque
6. Boat rides on the Beni river

7. The thrilling ride on a motorcycle "taxi"...the only kind of taxi there is in Rurre, which means you hang on the back and hope for the best!

8. The saving grace of Rurrenabaque: the refreshing mirador swimming pool

9. The yummy yucca treats for breakfast at the San Miguel de Bala Ecolodge

10. Hanging out in hammocks, singing with Santiago

Top ten not-so-good things

1. Walking around tarantulas, and under flying bats less than 1 ft from your head.


2. Ravenous "marihui" biting sand flies. Ouch.


3. Incredible heat and humidity: I have not sweated so much, ever.


4. Motorcycle taxis: not only could I imagine the worst, they were expensive.


5. Traveling by plane that only holds 19 passengers, and on an airline that has had 2 crashes involving a member of Sergio’s family!


6. Discovering that what makes a town charming to backpackers maybe has very little to do with us (late-night places to hang out, internet and phone amenities, ultra cheap lodging). The trusty Lonely Planet guidebook made Rurrenabaque sound like Shangri la; I would skip the town entirely next time around!!


7. Remembering that the reason backpacker “hotels” only cost $13 is because they don’t offer towels or soap or quiet, and the included breakfast of bread and coffee isn't such a bonus!


8. When you have talked up and anticipated the ziplines for months, and your guide isn’t finding the drop-off spot along the river…and of course this is not cell phone country…worrying about the unspeakable disappointment to your son if it all just falls through.


9. Our casita at the San Miguel de Bala ecolodge was lovely, but a hefty hike, 65 steps up from the dining hall/central area. Worst part…that meant working up a sweat, no matter what!


10. Right before bedtime, having our guide point out what to look for in an insect i.e. how to keep an eye out for scorpions!

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Here's Elliott’s commentary on select topics, (as dictated to me):

Bat canyon hike: when we were going to the bat canyon, I had no idea what we were going to experience. First we had to walk a bit and then at one point before we were going to enter the canyon we had to roll up our pants so we wouldn’t get wet. When we first entered the canyon I wondered how much water had to go through to make the canyon look so smooth on the sides. And then when we got to the half point, there were bats flying above us, very close to touching our heads. At one point we saw a small little spider and then we saw a TARANTULA! I was a bit scared of the tarantula. There were some lizards in there too and Eduardo found a fresh water crab too. When we got out of the canyon, I didn’t know we had to go back through it. I was a little nervous if you ask me. But it seemed must faster on the way out. All that was missing was a boulder to chase us out past the tarantula and all (like Indiana Jones).

Rurrenabaque, what it was like
In the town of Rurrenabaque it was H-O-T. I could almost not resist it. The hotel was way too basic, they didn’t even give us towels. The shower was pretty much the whole bathroom, and there was only a fan for air conditioning. When we saw the hotel, I thought what would we do all afternoon. Gratefully, there was a super, super nice swimming pool outside of town. And we got to go on a MOTORCYCLE there since those were the only taxis in town. At the swimming pool, there were turtles and trampolines and a giant see-saw too. Last but not least a nice cool swimming pool. We stayed all afternoon. It was very nice. Then we got to ride MOTORCYCLES back to town. That night a dinner I ate a huge plate of spaghetti with pesto which was declicios. Then my mom went upstairs to write an email and one guy gave me movies to look through and guess what I found….STAR WARS (the Empire strikes Back). So I had to watch it for $3.50 which let our stomach digest. And then we went back to the hotel and I slept in my underwear with the fan on high. The next morning I had some coffee and it made me hyper on the way to San Miguel de Bala.

How to make cana juice
To make cana juice [sugar cane juice] there was a special machine that you had to turn a big piece of wood in a circle while someone puts the stalk of sugar cane through the machine and it smushes and tons of cana juice comes out. And we tried some fresh from the machine. It was really good. When we added lemon it was even better.

The Swimming hole
Another hike we did in San Miguel de Bala was hike to a little water hole. First we got in the boat as always to get to the staring point. In the boat there is always a breeze on your face. It was a 40 minute hike at least and it was super hot again. They even had ladders there to climb up some of the rocks. And when we got there I surely jumped in the water with my clothes on (exaggerated!). I got in and felt the nice coolness of water and played in the waterfall. I swam back and forth over the whole of blackness (dun, dun, dun, dun) I even made my mom come in.

Zip line: The zip lines were the coolest things. But it took a LONNNG time to get there. We were sweating and it was hard walking uphill but we saw some of the coolest things along the way. Like a caterpillar that was gigantic and leaf-cutter ants. But when we got up to the zipline part it was worth it. Because after all the sweating we did, we got to feel the breeze going down the zip line. The first zip line, I wanted my mom to go first, I was nervous. It was because we were just going connected to a big string from one tree to another going over the canopies of all the trees. We had to put on a harness and special things to connect you to the zipline. We also had a leash to connect us to the platform so we didn’t fall off. And we also had a helmet for safety. We had a glove kind of like a baseball glove that we used on the cable to brake. After the first one, I wanted to go first every time. Because when I went on the first one and I felt how fun it was I had to go first on every one. It was fun because you were up high, going fast, breeze in your face, and looking at the view below. There were 8 different ziplines, some were long, some were fast, some were short, all were totally EXTRAORDINARY!!!!!

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For a 10 second video of Elliott on one of the zip lines, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/437iBEXDSUISmq8CwRcANA?feat=directlink

For the complete picture album, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/krchildress/Rurrenabaque?feat=directlink