After two and a half months of high mountains and bright cold weather, we have spent the last two weeks in the steamy green jungle and flatlands of Northern Bolivia. From La Paz we took a minibus down the Death Road, descending 3500m from the Andes on a narrow unmade road, with crosses on the bends marking buses and trucks that had gone over the edge, down to the beautiful sub-tropical town of Coroico with flower filled gardens.
This area produces coffee, oranges, tropical fruit and some of the best coca leaves in South America. In Bolivia the growing of coca leaves is legal, as is its widespread use for chewing, making tea, other traditional medicines and for religious offerings. We had a go at chewing but did not have the patience to carry on for the necessary two hours, after which you get a high; the effect also masks hunger and discomfort. On long bus journeys in the mountains at least half the passengers are chewing away. The manufacture of the coca leaves into cocaine is illegal and we passed check points on the Death Road where the police search for any of the eleven chemicals used.
Travel is slow in this part of Bolivia. Our next bus ride was 15 hours overnight to Rurrenabaque. On the banks of the Beni river, this jolly town has access to jungle and pampas for animal watching. We took a three day pampas and river trip with two American nurses, a local guide and his helper. We certainly saw lots of wildlife with alligators and caimans lying out on the muddy banks of the river; yellow tinged squirrel monkeys in the trees; and square-headed giant guinea-pigs called capybaras. Along the river banks the trees are full of birds: big Jabiru storks, herons, snake birds, parrots, cormorants and sererres with flamboyant head feathers. In the slower flowing water of big pools we saw pink river dolphins who sound like human swimmers as they surface for breath.
Away from the river where the soil is poor, there are vast stretches of water-logged grassland: this is the pampas. Our three hour walk in the pampas is an experience I hope not to repeat too soon. Wearing `special shoes` supplied by the guide (which turned out to be school plimsolls) we walked through the muddy water, which varied from ankle to knee deep, trying very hard not to fall over. Guides here seem to think that tourists only want to take a picture of an animal and touch it, as opposed to being interested in learning about the landscape and wildlife, much of which is protected. Our guide and his helper ran off across the pampas to `capture' an anaconda snake for us, since that is what he expected all tourists to want. We had tried to explain that this wasn`t necessary but the guide took it as some kind of personal failure if he could not get a snake for us. So we stood in the smelly sludge (it stains your feet wonderfully) for thirty minutes feeling rather silly. The guide succeeded in grabbing a three metre anaconda and dragging it over to us, he drapped it around his neck and looked proud. A greater stress on protecting the poor wildlife might be needed for the future, though the anaconda did manage to bite our guide on the leg.
The river has lots of fish including piranas so we went pirana fishing from a wooden boat with a metal hook, a plastic line and a bag of chopped up meat as bait. The piranas are about 8cm long with a pretty pink tinge to the fins. They have quicker reactions than us and managed to grab the bait in their sharp teeth far faster than we could pull in the line. It took me 40 minutes to catch one pirana. The guides were much better at it and we ate our catch, fried, for lunch. You get a lot of bones and a tiny amount of sweet white flesh from each pirana.
Back in Rurrenabaque we caught up on washing and eating good food before heading to the remote back-country of northeast Bolivia. Rain had washed away a road to the east so our bus was 31 hours late. We then had a scenic but slow 23 hour ride up to the border. A hundred years ago this area was briefly rich from the rubber boom but now it is very sleepy. We took a ferry across the river Mamore and entered Brazil.
Our impressions of our first few days in Brazil include the much talked of ethnic mix; greater prosperity; and a more European feel. The change of language to Portuguese is the most noticeable difference for us. After so many months of being able to understand pretty much what people say in Spanish and be understood ourselves, it is rather disconcerting not to be able to understand people here. The nasal vowels and the `j` and `z`sounds will take quite a bit of practice.
Brazilians also seem very outgoing and vocal. On the bus yesterday to Porto Velho half the passengers took part in a loud and heated discussion of the reasons for the current violence in Sao Paolo (or that is what it sounded like); at times it seemed it might end in punches but then everyone dissolved into laughter.
