Mapajo Tours

Well, Hayley (and everyone else),

sorry it has taken us a while to write back too, but you should see where we have been! From the mountains to the Amazon rainforest, and back! The trip out there took two days, and then two days back as well, on roads full of dust, mud, rocks, trucks, naughty drivers, chasey dogs and even waterfalls, but it was worth every bit of effort.

Rurrenabaque is a little town on a big river called the Beni, and most people who don't live there go there because of the rainforest and jungle. There is loads of wildlife there, living in one of the world's most biologically diverse national parks, called Madidi, and just across the Beni River in a biosphere reserve called Pilon Lajas. Biosphere reserves are designed "to promote and demonstrate a balanced relationship between humans and the biosphere", and they allow people to sustainably use the land and its resources, too. There are some in Australia, too - even part of Mornington Peninsula.

Anyway Emily and I walked around town checking out the companies which offered tours to Madidi or Pilon Lajas, and found a little tour company owned by local aboriginal people, and called Mapajo. We decided to go with them, of course - who better to show us around their land than indigenous people? Also, the company is a cooperative, meaning that all the money they make goes back to their community.

(This community and others around it petitioned for the Biosphere status to protect their land and their jungle, and now it is internationally protected - an activism sucess story of the highest degree - e)

So next morning we were up early, and pretty excited too! We had breakfast, then second breakfast like the Hobbit, because they had told us we would be travelling on a boat for a few hours. We got on the long, narrow boat made of a tree trunk (but with an outboard motor!) with about five other people, and set off up the river. It was hot and humid, the boat was small and the swirling river was big, but we were just stoked to heading into the wilds!

An hour or so into the trip, the boatman broke the propeller on a snag in the river, so for a few minutes we drifted downstream sideways, before the guide got out in the shallows and pulled us aground on an island. We sat there for a while, reading and eating bananas and paddling in the water, whilst they procured a new propeller. It wasn't a hassle, more a part of the adventure, and we were on the way again soon enough.

When we arrived, we were shown to our cabin in the forest, except for the mosquito netting, all made of forest things - palm leaves on the roof and walls - and with a hammock swinging on the front porch. Lovely! The showers were cold, just the thing in the tropical heat, and the food was delicious the whole time we were there too. What's more, nearly all the food was grown and processed right there in the community.

But of course we were there to be in the forest, so that is where we went. By luck we had a guide all to ourselves - his name was Dino, and though he was a young man, he was a real expert on the place he lived in. This aspect of the trip reminded me a lot of Anangu Tours, where Wally, Richard, Milly and all the crew have such expert knowledge about their desert. We went for four long walks in different parts of the jungle and forest with Dino, and he showed us loads of stuff.

Plants used for building boats and houses, as bandages, skirts, bags, nets, ropes, medicines for crying babies and lots of other problems, all kinds of stuff. He showed us birds, animals and animal tracks: macaws, monkeys (though they were far up in the trees and very fast), and an alligator on the riverbank. The tracks were of tapirs (kind of like a very big guinea pig, though related to horses and endangered too), capybaras (the biggest rodent in the world), and even a puma! More impressive still, there were the agitated scratchings of a jaguar on the trunk of a tree - Dino reckoned the big cat had been trying to hunt monkeys and got a bit worked up when they escaped.

I know Emily has written to you about the big trees, too - they were also very imressive.

We also went into Dino's village, and met his sisters and grandparents. They showed us and let us try various skills they use in everyday life, like husking rice, three different types of weaving (Emily learned well!), and spinning cotton.

Dino's grandpa taught me to use a traditional bow and arrow, too - I think Emily emailed you all about that too. I had a lot of fun, and hit the coconut target a few times too.

Oh yes and one of the evenings they had a party too - we drank some very strong stuff with coconut juice, and they showed us how to chew coca leaves as well. Mapajo is a tour company, but to spend three days with them felt a lot more like just hanging out with our new mates, learning their ways. And besides anything else, operating a tour company gives people in Pilon Lajas a way to earn a living which does not involve letting corporations cut down their trees. In fact, the people of Pilon Lajas fought for the area to become a biosphere reserve in order to protect it and its animals. Wow. I am sure staying with them will remain one of the real highlights of our year away.

Anyway I have been meaning to respond to your email and to tell you about this experience too, so there it is. And now that I have written it down, I might even adapt it and put it on our blog. Would you mind that?

I will have to go soon. Hope all the scales and arpeggios are going well, and thanks for telling us about your outings in the city and with the hippo! Hey pretty exciting that nan and pa are moving, isn't it? It looks like we will be home in time to help pack and lift boxes too!

Again, I really must go and write our blog.

Much love to you, Jem, mum and dad,

Uncle Bob and Emily.