Rurrenabaque and the Amazon Basin, Bolivia

After getting on a little plane for 25 minutes, we were back at sea level in the Amazon Basin.

The town of Rurrenabaque

After exploring the town for a couple of days, we took a trip to Madidi jungle for four days. 

The 3 hour boat trip along the river...

Our jungle lodge,,,

The wildlife... in our room!

And outside the camp...Tony the Taipier was an orphan until the Madidi jungle guides adopted him. He lives in the surrounding jungle but comes to the camp everyday.

Spotting the wildlife on route to piranha fishing...

Hiking in the jungle to try and find a good spot by the river...

Matt caught 8 piranha and Sarah caught 2 - good effort all round.

The largest piranha was taken home for dinner....

After the fishing we got back into the boat and and got off at a single beach. Henry, our guide, said that one of the crew had found some jaguar footprints and we went to take a look. 

We then followed the footprints to the 'prize'. The jaguar had caught a capybara. Henry explained how the jaguar had killed it and showed us in detail! We then decided to get out of there sharpish as the jaguar was most likely watching us to make sure we didn't take his food.

After the excitement of the day before, Henry woke us up at 6am to see the howler monkeys - they were so loud that we were already awake!

Much of each day was spent trekking through the jungle with Henry. The diversity in flora and fauna was mind boggling, to say the least... 

The strangler tree..

A spiky tree...

On our last night, Henry showed the resident tarantula in camp. This is a baby.... about the size of my face!!!

We got to meet some of his neighbours on a 'night trek', including a Rainbow Boa Constrictor living just a few metres from where we ate dinner...

Sarah: Harmless apparently!

After 4 amazing days in the jungle we headed back to Rurrenabaque to catch a flight to La Paz. From there we headed west to Lake Titicaca, and a tough re-acquaintance with high altitude...