finally the Amazon story (part 1)
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Chantal
31 Maart 2015 | Bolivia, Periodista
While drinking a Sureña beer in a nice little cafe in Sucre, I will tell you about my experience in the Amazone village of San Miguel del Bala.
I arrived in Rurrabaque (a small town with a tiny airport) on Saturday in a storm. The same storm that killed people in the Atacama dessert and later we also heard that on that day a young English girl was killed in a lodge because a tree fell on her and 2 other tourists where severely wounded. So the panic of the taxi driver was understandable.
Saturday, as I already told you, we stayed still in Rurre, me and Ben and we spent the day with Oksana from Siberia.
Sunday morning Ben spent the day with his family in Rurre and I went on a boat with other tourists (a young Dutch couple (yes, we are everywhere!) and a mother and son from Argentina. They had tours booked and went to the Eco lodge, about 40 min by boat.
My chance to see this. Normally you could walk to the village from there, but a lot of paths were blocked by fallen trees (BIG trees! with complete roots). So I went with the Dutchies to San Miguel de Bala and we had a tour there: they showed how to make sugarcane juice, all the fruits that grew there (coconut, oranges, grapefruit a, mandarins, papaya,banana mango, cacao and some fruits which I didn't know before like copazu. We also visited a house where they had a monkey as a pet. It lived in the "attic" of the outdoor kitchen.
Then we went back by boat to the lodge for lunch. And then it started raining terribly!
Then we did a hike. It was a path showing the (old) hunting methods of the Tacana people. Interesting! But the path was one big mud pool and we had to croll under and over big trees since they fell on the path or the guide had to make a new path straight through the jungle plants with his machete: hot, humid and lots of insects! And very big ants! The Dutchies had to catch the boat on time to go to the airport but at sudden point we really couldn't walk any farther: big trees everywhere, hilly and no path, so we had to walk all the way back, but just in time for the both.
On their way back to Rurre, they dropped my off at San Miguel del Bala. I stayed with a local family in a house made of bamboo and with palm leaves.
Hermosinda is the lady of the house, around 40, at that moment her 16 year old daughter was there (who lives half in Rurre since she is studying there) and Yoan (11), Brenda (9) and little Milady of 1,5 years old, who they call Mile. Every time Mile looked at me, she had to cry. According her mum she was afraid for foreigners.
The father was working at a guide and not home (only some night later in the week). I had a bit of privacy since my wooden bed (plank) who in a corner and separated by blankets and I even had my own table and chair to put my stuff on.
The floor was sand/mud with chickens, ducks, dogs and even a baby cat walking in and out. The toilet was a western pot in a small bamboo "house" with a curtain. Also the sink/wash basin was outside. They had an inside kitchen on gas (for when it rained) and an outside one on fire and wood.
Inside the house there was a big eating table and a bunch, a little store selling things like chips, candles, soap et cerera), kitchen shelf and the "private" bed room of the family with 2 big wooden beds and some shelfs with clothes, also separated with curtains. It was during the day already dark in the house and in the evening pitch black, but they had candles, torches and I had my head light.
They had a pair of ducks and some chickens with chicks around the house and fruit trees (grapefruit, coco, cacao, mango (not in season) on their terrain.
During the day it was really hot and humid! I thought I could stand heat pretty well, but even here I was sweating very much and just wanted to sit in the shade and do nothing.
The first night it was the birthday of some family member so they had a small baby bathtub full of chicken meat (lucky me!) which had to be fried in oil. So I helped the daughter to turn the pollos in the oil. I think that they continued frying these till nine at night! It was already pitch black then. They prepared me dinner early and I went to bed pretty early, a bit exhausted by the temperature.
(I will post this part now, and continue later with part 2)
To be continued...
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley