Day 22 Madidi

We woke up lateish and had breakfast before setting off for our second forest camp at around 9:00.

Jo snapped this picture of our guide Jesus's pack cover, which both of us thought pretty funny.  Jesus was a tough manly man.  With a chipmunk pack cover.  I do love the way they roll in Bolivia; if it get's the job done, who cares how it looks?

This is Arciela, the lovely cook.  She was a funny and sweet woman who had grown up in the jungle all her life.  She was always laughing and smiling; a pleasure to hike with.

Some cool stuff we encountered as we hiked along:

Is this a praying mantis or a walking stick?  Either way, it's pretty awesome.

Mushrooms.

Another mushroom.

And another mushroom.

We came to a hanging vine, and we couldn't resist shedding our packs so we could play Tarzan.  Observe:

And then we trekked on.  More cool stuff we saw along the way:

Guess what?  More mushrooms!

A "walking" tree.

My lovely Cuban clad boyfriend.

Ginormous ant.

More coral reef fungus.



I'm not quite sure where one tree ends and the other begins.



Trail shot!

I wanted to take a picture of this because it looks just like a sea urchin.  Doesn't it?

Leafcutter ants.  We encountered these guys along the trail quite often, since they seemed to enjoy using the trail to walk along as much as we did.  Jo and I never tired of watching these busy little suckers go about their business.

Jesus, sharpening his trusty machete, which never left his side.

One of the very few streams we passed that day.

We thought this little guy might be building himself a cozy cacoon.

It started threatening rain towards the last hour of our hike, so we all sped up in order to make it to camp before the downpour began.  We were in the jungle at the very start of the rainy season, so we didn't get that much precipitation.  This was actually only the second time we got rained on during our stay in Madidi.  We got to the second forest camp just as the rain started coming down.  The second camp was not as swanky as the first because 1.) it wasn't as used and 2.) it had been robbed a few months prior.  Still, we were grateful for the cover.  We set up our mosquito nets and took a nap, listening to the sound of the rain on the tarp.

Our sleeping quarters, complete with the obligatory mosquito nets.  Without them, we would have been eaten alive by the mosquitos, which were quite pesky.

After it stopped raining in the afternoon, we headed back up the way we had come.  Jesus wanted to show us a lookout point that he thought would be worth our while.  How right he ended up being.

Although the lookout point itself was nice, the view was not what made this place so special.  Although we were still a little too early, soon wild Macaws would be coming back to roost in the cliffs immediatley below us.  We would be able to watch their return from our perch.  We had to wait a bit before they started to come home, so until then we enjoyed the glorious views:

Our vantage point really was right on the edge of a cliff.  Only a few years before, a 21 year old Israeli boy had fallen to his death as he posed for his friends in front of the camera.  He was hanging on a tree when he lost his grip and plunged to his death.  It was a sobering reminder of how fleeting life can be.

But even though this was a place that had seen death, there was an enormous amount of life here as well.  As we waited for the macaws, we watched flocks of small, green parrots flitter above the tree tops, chattering the whole time.  We talked about the tapirs, chanchos, and jaguars living their lives in the forest below, concealed from our vision by the thick canopy.  We talked about the amazing encounters Jesus had had during his time as a guide.  And we talked about what a magical place we were in.

And then...they came!

Macaws are monogamous birds, and flew back in pairs to return to their cliff nest for the night.  They are gorgeous birds who are as obnoxiously loud as they are beautiful.  Usually, their raucus cry could be heard before we actually saw them.  Jo and I were enthralled by them; watching them soar in from the jungle was a mind-blowing experience that both of us agreed we would never, ever forget.

 

We kept hearing that god-awful screeching coming from a tree near us, so we snuck up to the tree's base to see if we could spot the culprits.  Sure enough, we found the noisy parrot responsible for all the racket.  It knew we were there, and kept a wary eye on us.

 

We headed back to our vantage point so we could catch the last macaws coming in for the night.  On the way, Jesus pointed out these Barber Bees, which turned out to be the most ridiculous bees I could have imagined.  When provoked, their reaction to the assailant is to "attack" the hair.  We got a little too close to their hive, and some of them flew out to deter us.  Instead of stinging us, like a normal bee would've done, they flew into Jo's hair and started vibrating wildly.  I honestly don't know what they were doing.  They don't bite or sting, so we plucked them out of Jo's hair gently before continuing on.  They sure showed us, alright.

We stayed for a bit more, but the rain was on its way again, so we turned back, thrilled at what we had just seen.

This was our last night in Madidi, so we made sure to take advantage by going on one last nightwalk.  No disgustingly, hideously large spiders with pointed legs this time, but we did see a couple of these snakes.

And then, back to our mosquito net haven for some sleep.