Juxtapositions in the jungle

Bolivia is a land of contrasts.

- Walking down the crowded streets of the marketplace in La Cancha (the biggest market in Bolivia) you get hit with amazing smells of fried chicken, baked empanadas (little rolls filled with ham or cheese), incense or the fresh juicy pineapple and oranges being cut open. But just when you take a big whiff to enjoy the moment, you realize you’ve passed inadvertently on into the 'sewage and urine' area.

- Or seeing Bolivians working all day long trying to sell juice or potatoes or second hand CDs in an attempt to make a living, while they’re chatting away on their top of the range mobile phone.

- Or the fact that everyone here is always late, and yet when you drive anywhere people always seem to be in such a hurry to overtake on blind corners, or even in the face of oncoming lorries. This is a great irony.

- Or being in a climate which is cold and dry and arid, then only a couple of hours away being in the hot and humid and noisy jungle.

This last one was how we spent yesterday.

After leaving at “5”am (although our driver Manuel eventually turned up to get us at 6) we were prepared for a 3 to 4 hour drive over the mountain and down into the jungle area of Villa Tunari, right on the edge of the Amazon.

Local swimming river. The jump from
 that concrete is exhilarating.

After 6 hours we finally got there – at first we were delayed by a landslide on the hill, and then by the fact that our battery ran flat as we tried to start moving again. Imagine many angry Bolivian lorry and bus drivers tooting and beeping at us as they went round our stranded vehicle on both sides (impressive enough on what was only just a two lane road), until we flagged someone down for help.

Once in Villa Tunari we refreshed ourselves after the cramped car ride by jumping into the river. Amazingly warm! It was full of locals taking the opportunity to soap up get the laundry done. One guy was even struggling to give his dog a bath in there.

Then we had some lunch – the delicacy there is the fish, since it’s a river town. Traditional jungle food of friend banana, rice and yucca. Delicious.

Fish, banana, rice and yucca.

After lunch we went to one of the parks where you can walk up through the jungle, looking out for monkeys, pumas, exotic birds and so on. They charged 10Bs for every camera to take in so we just took the one, and I have no photos from it yet. But I had a great time sweating my way through the trees, swinging from vines, exploring waterfalls and climbing through river beds. We were out of the jungle just in time to jump back in the river afterwards to wash away the sweat.

It’s fitting that as we left another contrast was on show. Our last swim in the river was in bright daylight, and a relief to get out of the hot humid and sticky air. Within half an hour of that we were in the car driving back up the mountainous road in the pitch blackness of night and with heavy rain pounding on the windscreen and lightning flashing through the sky.