The South American Odyssey

A 147-day adventure by The Craze for Travelling Read more

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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
More interesting stuff in the forest
October 24, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
Miguel also showed us how to drink water from inside the bamboo. We also saw the fire ants on one of the trees. We also saw the outer shell of the cicada.
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Some more interesting plants
October 24, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
We also saw the plant called Lágrimas de Maria (Tears of Maria), the black seeds are almost like black beads and are used in necklaces.
After that we relaxed for a while.
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
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Escorpion refuge
October 24, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
There were so many new types of plants, butterflies and birds, it was amazing. The air was filled with the sounds of exotic birds all singing their own songs.
Traveler 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
10/31/17Reply
Traveler Sardar ji, ......at last.
10/31/17Reply
The Craze for Travelling Yes.. From UK 😁
10/31/17Reply
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
More plants in the Amazon
October 24, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
Miguel showed us how to make soap out of the Solulo fruit. He also showed how the indigenous people make drawings on the dried calcified stools. He also showed different flowers of the Patahu, one we made into a claw and the other into a beak.Read more
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Swim in the Amazon
October 25, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
After relaxing for a while, we went for a a swim in the Amazon. It was a lovely experience. It was extremely refreshing experience after the long hike in the hot and humid forest.
After the swim, we came back to the refuge. It got dark very quickly after sunset. We had our dinner and then we sat talking till late in the night. There were typical night noises in the jungle. We even saw glow worms but in this part of the world, they glow orangish instead of yellowish. We even saw hares in the camp in the night.Read more
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Revenge of the killer ants
October 25, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
In the morning, we woke up to the lovely sounds of the various birds chirping and singing. After quickly freshening up, when I was coming back to our hut, I saw the whole ground covered with killer ants. They were in their millions. All moving like a cloud towards the hut. I went to the dining hall and told Miguel. He just told me to ignore them, that they were very common. He still came to have a look and the 1st word that came to him was... O shit!!
They were every where, now they had started entering our hut. They were even on the walls.
He quickly ran to the kitchen and got the ant spray ans started spraying all around. After about 10 minutes of spraying, the clouds of ants started marching in the opposite direction away from the huts.
Such are the joys of living in the wild 😜Read more
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
To the 2nd camp
October 25, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Today we were supposed to walk for about 10 kms to another camp to spend the night there, so we took all our belongings, added some food stuff and were off into the thick forest.
It was extremely hot and humid with absolutely no wind. We were all sweating like crazy very quickly. We heard many bird and insect calls on the way.
We even saw the capuchin and squirrel monkeys high up in the trees but they were too far and too quick to take pictures. It was an amazing experience setting down the heavy backpacks when we heard an interesting sound and then trying to track it in the forest.Read more
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Leaf cutter ants
October 25, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
Every step you take every plave you look you find some verity of insects, spiders, flies, beetles, ants. It was am exercise in looking at everything to prevent getting bitten. Then we saw one of the species I was hoping to see during these few days - the leaf cutter ants. These ants neatly cut leaves from the trees amd then take them down into their nests. They cultivate a fungus that eats on these leaves and the ants eat the produce from the fungus.
It was a pretty cool sight watching the ants march down the path each carrying a leaf.Read more
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More ants
October 25, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
As we started going deeper, the ground became more marsh like with a lot of water gathered in small pools. Some places we had to cross over using branches as bridges.
We also came across colonies of fire ants and killer ants.Read more
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
More wild
October 25, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
We continued walking for about 3 hours. On the way, we also saw a big net made by a family of spiders with hundreds of them sharing the net.
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Break in the trek
October 25, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
After almost 3.5 hrs of trek, we reached an area where we could drop our heavy backpacks and relax for a while. There was a lake nearby where we spotted some birds in the canopy and a lot of water plants.Read more
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The pig's disco
October 25, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
We had hardly sat down when we heard some noises. To me it sounded like the partial open door of a discotheque. There were a lot of of low frequency beats like bass beats and some noises like human cries im between. We started tracking the noise amd walked about a km back. We had to keep low to avoid detection. It was a group of pigs eating or drinking in the heavy undergrowth. Just as we were about to slowly move into the jungle to spot them, the wind seems to change and most probably they smelt us. Pretty soon they all ran away.
Here Miguel showed us a tree whose bark is very beneficial for back aches.Read more
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Continue to the camp
October 25, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
After relaxing for a while, we were off again. On the way, Miguel stopped to pick the fruit of the tree Bee Manzana. When the fruit is cut open and left for about 30 min, it turns blue. This is used as a color for temporary tattoos that can last for about 10 days. In fact when the tree dies, the whole inside of the tree turns blue.
This area was full of leaf cutter ants. They were marching everywhere each with a leaf.Read more
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2nd night's camp
October 25, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
After walking for another hour or so, we reached the 2nd night's camp place. It was a very basic single hut with some kitchen items and a place to sit. The sleeping was to be done on plastic sheets with mosquito net to protect from mosquitoes. There was a lake nearby with lots of water plants. We also saw some birds by the shore. After relaxing for a while, Wiki prepared fresh lemonade for us. It was truly heaven sent. We were all dehydrated and everyone drank 2-3 glasses each.
Here, we decided to trek further for a bath in the river and to do some fishing for the dinner.Read more
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Bait fishing
October 25, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ 🌬 32 °C
We went to the lake nearby to catch some small fish that inhabit the lake. We planned to use these as baits for bigger fish in the main river Hondo. We managed to catch 2 small fish.
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Bath in Rio Hondo
October 25, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
After a walk of about 30 min, we reached the rio Hondo. It was about 3 pm and it was extremely hot in the sun. We went and had a dip in the rio Hondo. The temperature of the water was about 20 C and it felt very pleasant in the heat. We were there for almost 45 min. We even used the soap fruits we had picked earlier in the day to clean ourselves. It was a very interesting experience overall.
The biggest irritant was the Sunflies. They would buzz around and sit on the exposed skin and bite the skin away leaving a small hole with blood there. From the moment I removed the clothes to the moment I was in water, I managed to get 7-8 bites on the legs.Read more
Traveler Water seems to be muddy,did you bathe again?
10/30/17Reply
The Craze for Travelling That's how it is in the Amazonas. 3 days of bathing in the rivers and lakes like these.
10/30/17Reply
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Fishing for the dinner
October 25, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C
After the bath, we walked another 10 min to reach the place where there were supposed to be bigger fish to catch. It was a beautiful location but directly in the afternoon sun.
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Setting up the fishing reels
October 25, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C
Miguel set up the fishing reels for us. After that it was a waiting game. The sun was directly beating down on us and very soon we were sweating profusely. Miguel in the meantime managed to catch a huge fish but his reel broke and we lost the fish.
After a while we decided to postpone the fishing for a while till the sun was a bit less harsh.Read more
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Dinner preparations continue
October 25, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C
While we took a break from the fishing, the ever efficient Wiki continued with the dinner preparation by digging a hole for the water and lighting a fire for the cooking. She even collected some broad leaves to be used as plates.Read more
Traveler Kand mool kha rahe ho,thank God there is oil for cooking.
10/30/17Reply
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Cat's claw tree
October 25, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
Miguel also showed us the Cat's Claw tree. The branch of the tree carries a lot of water. When he cut it, the water started flowing like from a tap. We all drank some.
The name is because of the thorns the tree has that look like cat's claws.Read more
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No fish dinner
October 25, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
As soon as the sun was low, we went back to fishing bit today luck was not on the oir side. We had to skip the fish. We had the vegetarian dinner Wiki had prepared for us. It was a salad, fried potatoes, rice and some cheese with vegetables. Wiki even showed us how to make plates from the leaves and stitch it with vines.Read more
TravelerWelcome back to plastic,concrete & artificial life.
10/30/17Reply
Traveler Circle of life....... Reminds me of your engineering college days, food from your hostel mess or PG food was not at all to your liking so regular 3star hotel resturant bills were always found in your laundry....remember. Now you had to take all this ,may be now there is no strain & burden of studies & you donot need a very nourishing diet? 😜😜
10/30/17Reply
The Craze for TravellingAll good things must come to an end somewhere
10/30/17Reply
The Craze for Travelling 🤣🤣🤣🤣
10/30/17Reply
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Pack up and back to camp
October 25, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ 🌙 31 °C
After finishing the food quickly, we waited for the lovely sunset and tjen started our way back to the camp.
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Night walk to camp
October 25, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ 🌙 31 °C
The walk back to the camp was in pitch dark. We used our torches to spots animals and birds. It was a very thrilling experience. We didn't see any big animals, just a few frogs and beetles.
TravelerWhen two lions were loitering,how could piddly animals dare come in their path?
10/30/17Reply
The Craze for Travelling🦁🦁
10/30/17Reply
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3rd day in jungle, morning chores
October 26, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
We woke up at around 8 am. After a hearty breakfast of cheese Empenadas and rings from Yukka flour, we were ready for the day.
The first task was to cut some wood for the fire for the cooking. Hristo helped Miguel in that.Read more
Traveler Was tea or coffee available?
10/30/17Reply
The Craze for Travelling Nope.. Not in the jungle
10/30/17Reply
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Readying the tattoo inks & beads
October 26, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
While Hristo helped with the wood cutting, I started with making the beads out of the 2 seeds we had collected for the necklace.
It was very hot even in the shade and there were a lot of mosquitoes and insects so we moved inside the kitchen area. There, we grated the fruit from the Bee Manzana plant to get the blue ink. The leaves from the Iridia plant were hand kneaded to get the red ink.Read more
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