La paz and the Bolivian rainforest

La Paz
La Paz did not do it for me . I am not sure what I was looking for but whatever it was I did not find it in La Paz . I suppose both me and Nikki are becoming a bit bored with cities and we prefer smaller places and nature parks . A couple more months of travelling and we will have turned into treehuggers .
This will probably not interest anyone but I will write about it anyway because it was the most important thing I had to do in La Paz . I went shoeshopping in Bolivia´s capital . That sounds easy enough but let me tell you that when you have size 45 this can prove to be quite difficult . Most of the shop attendants just laughed at me when they saw those two monsters I call feet . One even winked at Nikki and called her a lucky girl . She did not have any shoes in my size though . In the end I was forced to go to a shop which specializes in clowns shoes . So here I was . About to go into the jungle with a pair of oversized clownsshoes which happened to be the only pair I could find that kind of fitted me .
In La Paz we met Rosa Maria . This spirited lady has many interesting stories to tell . When she was young slavery still existed in certain parts of Bolivia . Maybe this knowledge fuelled Rosas need to fight injustice .
I suppose Rosa is a typical child of the sixties . Full of idealism and an urge to make the world a better place . She has been involved in the emancipation of ingeneous people who were not officialy recognised untill the nineteen nineties . But her main concern is the conservation of the rainforest . She helped set up Madidi Park and her new baby is Serrere . This will be our next destination .

Serrere
This may not be the most beautiful place we have been so far but it is the most tranquil and our favourite . The lodge we stay in is build next to a lake . There are a couple of more lakes further away in the forest . The lodge is about three hours by boat from Rurrenabaque , the nearest village .
We spend our days here hiking through the forest watching the birds and monkeys , canoeing on the lakes and fishing for Piranha´s . There are many Caimen in the lakes . At night when you are canoeing through the lakes you can see the millions of stars sparkling in the sky and fire flies sparkling in the foliage on the shore . Sometimes you see red lights in the water . These are the eyes of the Caimen .
Our guide is amazing with recreating the animal sounds . He teaches me some of the sounds . After two days I am an expert on the female mating call of the caiman . When I call out every male caiman in a two mile radius gets a hard on . And that I think is what nature conservation should be all about . Giving the animals a great time .
Back in Rurrenabaque we buy some bananabread from the bananabreadman . The bananabreadmans bicycle has a sign which says ´delicious bananabread´and underneath it ´the DaVinci code is ridiculous´. When you buy something he will tell you a conspiracy story . He has a different one for every day of the year .
On our last night in Rurrenabaque we get totally drunk and I end up almost buying the bar . You heard it right . Yours truly was almost the proud owner of a bar called Pachamama in the jungle in Bolivia . Luckily I have a smart girlfriend who inquired if the bar actualy made money . It did not which looking back does not surprise me as our friend Kitt never paid his tab .