Jungle bashing in Madidi National Park

Bolivia's slice of the Amazon Basin encompasses half of the countries entire territory and, being relatively undeveloped, is renowned as a prime (and somewhat wild) place to experience pristine rain forest.

The jewel of this region is the Madidi National park. More plant and animal species grace this park than any other preserve in South America (including an astounding 1100 bird species, over 10% of the world's total).

I read about the park in an amazing National Geographic article in 2001 and have been eager to explore the park ever since. I opted for a 5 day hike into the jungle with a local guide.

Ally and Russel who were not quite as passionate as me about clambering around in humid, sticky, bug infested jungle (what is wrong with them!) chose to do a one night camp over with me in Madidi and spend the rest of the time exploring the Pampas swamps nearby from the relative comfort of a river boat. There were times I wished I was with them (see last photo in this post!)

To get into the park, we had to take a 3 and a half hour boat trip from the small town of Rurrenabaque. Our travel companion in the photo is Michelle, an adventurous lass from Ireland. We also had a guide (Mario), boat driver and a cook so it was a full party. The cook and boat navigator left with Russel and Ally after the first night, and Mario and I were left to fend for ourselves.

The jungle was absolutely gorgeous - wild, overgrown, pristine and literally humming with life. Many of the trees had grown enormously tall in their frantic effort to reach the light and thick vines twisted from their branches like giant snakes. There were some simple paths that aided our entry into the deep overgrowth but Mario was regularly forced to use his enormous machete to open up areas that the vines and ferns constantly reclaimed.

Although Madidi is crawling in mammals and bird species, I soon realised I was unlikely to see a large number of them. They tend to be secretive and hide away in the tall canopy or deep ground thickets. You can hear them clambering about (particularly during our night walks) but actually seeing and identifying them is a whole new challenge. Photography is also difficult as, in a ddition to the wildlife being hard to see, the light tends to be poor.

Having said that, we did pretty well. I got to see countless species of insects (some of which were alarmingly oversized and creepy, though always fascinating). I saw 8 new species of birds including two gorgeous macaws and the strange, primitive Hoatzin bird that regurgitates its food like a cow and can only fly 20 metres at a time. We also saw 7 mammal species including 3 different monkeys, racoons, marsupial mice (very cute) and wild pigs. The jaguars, tapirs and giant armodillos stayed well hidden.

Fungi and mushrooms thrived everwhere, as you would expect in a hot, damp jungle. Many were absolutely beautiful.

Spiders, locusts, ants, catterpillars, butterflies and moths. They were everywhere. Many advertised themselves with their enormous size and beautiful colours. Others, like this spider, opted for a more shy and camouflaged approach. 

I loved the leaf-cutter ants. They cut the leaves into such myriad different shapes and their trails went on for miles. Sometimes an ant will not only carry a leaf many times its size, but also several lazy ants taking a ride on the leaf too.

The butterflies were very impressive too - though hard to photograph at times due to their restless nature. This one obliged though.

Toucans are amongst my favourite birds. There is omething absolutely irresistable about their outrageousaly oversized bills and flambouyantly coloured feathers. They also tend to be very playful although the ones in Madidi were challengingly secretive.

We saw this very cute little fellow on a night walk with torches strapped to our heads. It was very surreal to be in a jungle at night, particularly when we switched our torches off. Thankfully no critters took the opportunity to attack us in the dark, save for some pesky mosquitos.

I was thrilled to see this turtle in a side river but the feeling was not mutual. It cantered off as fast as a turtle can move.

Swimming in the river was a highlight after the sticky days and as we ventured deeper into the jungle and our water supply ran ouit, we even drank from the river. At times, we also drank from vines. It is amazing how much water they store (up to 4 litres). You simply cut off a length of it and let the water splash into your mouth. Tasted deliciously fresh too.

On the 3rd day, we scaled a small mountain in the jungle and emerged up and out to this great view of the park. It was quite a relief to regain a sense of space (and feel the sun) after the claustrophobic dankness of the undergrowth.

On my last day, after several days of just me and Mario, we met up with some more backpackers and had lots of fun. Here I am introducing them to the joys of mud.

I managed to avoid the mosquitos and sand flies most of the time. Then on the final day, I got carerless and they got me big time! Bastards... I am still scratching 3 days later.

New birds seen

• Black Skimmer
• Blue and Yellow Macaw
• Blue-crowned Parakeet
• Hoatzin
• Cuviers Toucan
• Razor-billed Curassow