Day 29 - El Bala & a trek in the jungle

I was up at 7am and met the Swiss couple and our guide for breakfast. The other teams had already had breakfast, and were just about to leave and head off into the jungle. The Swiss couple decided to speak with the guide about camping out in the jungle as this wasn't mentioned by the tour agency they had booked with. The guide told them they didn't have to camp if they didn't want to, but in the end they decided to go ahead with it. I offered to take and pitch my tent for them; I think the guide was grateful of this!

I decided not to query my tour package, although I clearly knew I wouldn't be camping a second night as I have to return tomorrow as the Swiss couple are flying back to La Paz! I am also wondering if I will still have a single cabin waiting for me on my return? I also decided to charge my tablet in the restaurant area (as advised when I first arrived), but the 'administrator' made a point that I was using all the power and asked how long I planned to charge my tablet! It seemed strange as it was daylight, and in the restaurant they had the lights on! I later discovered the 'administrator' was the boss, and he had ten brothers all involved in Mashaquipe, (so my guide told me!)

The four of us left at about 8:30am and headed into the jungle, we all had to carry plenty of water as we would need it for the return trip the following day. Again we saw plenty of insects along the way, and a few tiny frogs. I managed to grab a few close up photographs of some butterflies but that was about it.

Insect in the Jungle

Pupa in the Jungle

Spider in the Jungle

Butterfly in the Jungle

We finally reached our camp site (not a camp site as such!) at lunch time, where there was a lady in a make shift kitchen already preparing our lunch. We were all amazed at the amount of flies and wasps around the place, (because of the food). We all sat down to some rice, lettuce and an omelette, which didn’t satisfy any of us! After lunch the Swiss couple were shown where to hook up their mosquito nets (given to them and some mats by our guide). I think they were a little shocked at the sleeping arrangements! I offered my tent, but they declined.

Butterfly in the Jungle (Near my tent!)

Whilst our guide was at the kitchen area I informed the Swiss couple I was still hungry, they laughed and agreed the meal was dreadful, and we deserved better as we had all paid a lot of money for this tour. We decided to head back to the kitchen area and tell our guide. He looked a bit disappointed, but he did ask the lady to make us some coffee and popcorn, which filled a very small hole!

After our extra feed and at about 3pm, we all headed off into the jungle again where our guide informed us we were heading to a popular view point. It was quite a tough ten minute climb followed by a twenty minute hike to a wonderful view point where we spotted some red and blue macaws flying around in the tree tops. However there was a moment of sadness when we all saw the memorial remembering a young Israeli guy who fell off the edge and died in 2007. After soaking up the wonderful views we headed back to the camp for a rest before our evening meal would be served. We were all hoping for a massive feed as we were all still very hungry!

The Tuichi River in El Bala (which joins the Beni River) 

The Tuichi River in El Bala (which joins the Beni River)

The Tuichi River in El Bala (which joins the Beni River)

We had our evening meal of pasta under candle light at around 7pm, which wasn't a bad feed. Our guide informed us that after our meal we would be heading into the jungle again to seek some insects! We finally headed out at about 9pm and the lady cook also joined us! It wasn't long before we spotted a tarantula up a tree which was quite big! We also spotted a very bizarre insect that resembled a leaf and before too long we were seeing quite a few tarantulas!  After about an hour we headed back to camp, where we all had some hot chocolate before everyone went under their mosquito nets and I went inside my tent for the night.

Leaf insect in the jungle at night

Tarantula in the jungle at night