In the jungle, the mighty jungle...

So spontaneously we actually flew to the Amazon - to be precise. Because it is still the rainy season, it is almost impossible to reach our destination, the Beni District, by land. The capital of Beni, Trinidad, is rather unknown to tourists, only a few travel providers offer tours into the jungle there. However, we had heard from other travelers about the Chuchini Wildlife & Eco Reserve: on the artificially created island, which was probably created about 1000 years ago, the veterinarian Efrem and his Swiss wife Miriam offer 'vacation in the jungle' already in the second generation.

The arrival was already an experience! From the highlands, La Paz, we first flew over the Andes. Shining in the sun, black mountain ranges, covered with snow at the summit, showed themselves in all their splendor, and in the background, we could still see the huge city of La Paz for a long time. Then the landscape slowly changed: the land became flatter and first greener, until the flooded areas could be seen from above: brown water as far as the eye could see, interrupted again and again by the green glowing trees or small hills, on which we could guess herds of water buffalo.

Arriving in Trinidad, we had a mototaxi take us to the hotel, to drive to Chuchini the next day. For that, we first drive about 45 minutes by car away from the small town, and then for another hour by boat to the lodge, which can indeed only be reached by river during the six-month rainy season. There is only electricity here in the evenings for three hours when the generator is running, no radio, television - the only sounds are made by the countless animals that live here in the middle of the jungle. A dream! Efrem skillfully guided us through the forest for three days, mostly by boat due to the rainy season, walking is currently impossible. Again and again, he draws our attention to different animals hiding in the trees: howler monkeys, night monkeys, capuchin monkeys, or black monkeys climbing around in the trees, water pigs foraging in the few riparian areas, pink river dolphins appearing several times, and even a bat surprised us as we climbed one of the tall trees to later slide down on a liana. Of course, we also saw countless bird species, which I can't list all now: green, red, blue parrots, various species of cranes and vultures, giant toucans, kingfishers, hummingbirds, or other small, cheeky birds nesting in the swamp and strutting excitedly on their long, thin legs when disturbed by the boat - and many more bird species in yellow, black, or blue plumage.

We caught our own food: with simple fishing rods attached to a wooden stick, we caught piranhas for lunch. However, eating piranhas is difficult: delicious, but because of the many bones, it takes a long time to eat... Not a fish to satisfy big hunger quickly!

An absolutely exciting highlight of our tour: a night boat trip to see alligators! Efrem shines a strong flashlight into the river and searches it for the glowing eyes of the animals. When he spots some, we slowly approach the lizards, which can grow up to 8 meters long. The longest alligator we saw was just under two meters long, actually small - but we were still terribly frightened when it quickly swam under the boat with a loud splashing and disappeared silently into the darkness. When the alligators are still very small, Efrem skillfully fishes them out of the water to show us the animals and explain their anatomy. Even a four-week-old alligator, hardly larger than 70 centimeters, can cause considerable damage with its teeth - so it is advisable to avoid being careless in the area - for example, swimming alone during the day or falling into the water at night.

We tried swimming the next day at the request of Efrem and Miriam. 'Absolutely safe if you don't have too big open wounds because of the piranhas and if you are loud enough so the alligators and anacondas run away.' Okay. Then let's go: on a simple wooden plank for water skiing in a lagoon inhabited by alligators, anacondas, and piranhas, and then jump right in with the zipline - a bit of thrill for us, but Efrem and Miriam assure us that everything is safe, and to prove it, they let their little children bathe with us. Nevertheless, we never stayed in the water for long because we can never completely forget the stories from Hollywood...

Now we are back in cold La Paz and are going to the Uyuni Salt Flat to have a good contrast to the jungle!