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Floating in a tropical river, Day 2 of 6: River trip starts

8am in the morning Ruben brings me to his home for breakfast.  Just outside the courtyard is the river bank, the river we are going to float down.

After breakfast, Ruben takes a machete and goes upstream.  Later he floats down the river with a bunch of bamboo sticks.  I go to the town centre for Internet access.  When I come back, the raft is already made.  It's very primitive: 6 big tubes with a bamboo framework.

The whole morning Ruben keeps going here and there to buy something required for the trip: fishing hooks and line; eggs, vegetables, etc.  Although the itinerary said we should leave around 9am, the actual time is 3 hours late, after we finish lunch in town.

There are quite a few sacks on the raft.  My backpack is in a waterproof sack, tied with a rubber stripe.  It also serves as my seat.  My laptop and electronics are in my own waterproof bag, inside a watertight barrel.

When I look at the sands on the beach, there are tiny shining pieces.  They are gold.  I take a picture but seems we cannot really tell from the picture.

Along the river there are many gold mines, big or small.  It's a combination of big machines and labour:  big diggers dig masses of rock, sand and mud from the river bed; trucks take the masses to the top of a steel slide.  While the masses slide down, workers use high pressure water to wash the masses.  The rocks and stones go down the main slide, mixture of water, mud and sand go down through a side slide, and the pieces of gold is collected somewhere. (I don't know exactly how though.)

This kind of mining operation makes the river water very murky.  This murky water flows down along the river, merges into a bigger river, eventually merges into the main Amazon River and goes into the Atlantic Ocean.

Obviously we cannot drink the river water.  Luckily, there are some creeks on the side. We fill such clear water into bottles.  I add water treatment solution into the bottle for drinking.  The other bottles are for cooking.

The river is generally calm.  Still there are quite a few rapids, probably at level one or two.

Currently it's the dry season.  It may be a lot of rain during wet season.  We see a land slide.  When there is too much water, the vegetation is not able to hold the water and the soil, if it's steep.

About the sunset time, we arrive at a village.  This would be the last village we see on the river.  Ruben buys some tomatoes, a pack of cigarrettes, and a bag of coca leaves.  Local people chew coca leaves a lot, as it has some medicinal effects to ease altitude sickness.  But I don't understand why they also do so in low altitude jungle area.  Modern chemistry process extracts and refines something bad from coca leaves.  That's cocaine.

It gets darker and darker.  We find a beach and camp.  Unfortunately not too far away on the other side of the river, there is another gold mining place.  We hear the noise all night because they work day and night, none stop.

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Replies, comments and Discussions:

  • Floating in a tropical river, Day 1 of 6: Adventure on the road +6
    • I don't know if I would travel this way myself +3

      It seems very interesting and kind of sketchy. I don’t think it’s the kind of travel for normal ordinary people, it takes a lot of gut… But good for you for being so brave.

      I think it’s better to know more about Spanish if you really want to travel in South America though… and good writing by the way :)

      • It takes some time and experience to feel comfortable to travel in a backpacking way. Along my trips I've met numerous young backpackers. Many of them just finished high school.
    • Floating in a tropical river, Day 2 of 6: River trip starts +1
    • Floating in a tropical river, Day 3 of 6: Fishing in the river +1
    • Floating in a tropical river, Day 4: Catching fish +1
      • Ruben rocks!
        • For catching fish with bare hands? :)
          • For being a good guide and a handyman. :)
    • Floating in a tropical river, Day 5 of 6: Wild macaws +1
    • Floating in a tropical river, Day 6 of 6: It rains finally. +1
    • Just found that my American friend Kim, who I met in my Ecuador trip, also took the same adventure!

      Here's what Kim wrote:

      It was the best thing I did in Bolivia! Too bad more people don’t know about it... or maybe it’s a good thing!

      I was at the same check point waiting for the bus to come...only I didn’t have a plate number. The police were freaked out that I was sitting there for hours. I didn’t speak Spanish either. The bus ended up coming 7 hours late due to a flat tire that happened before I got on. Luckily I have 3 other gringos that were on the bus who knew to look for me and I woke them up when I got on the bus to see if they were expecting another gringo. We arrived at our destination at 2:30 am and Ruban wasn’t there. Luckily, I was the only one with a phone and was able to call him otherwise we wouldn’t have known what to do. In the end Ruban was awesome and the trip was well worth it! 
       

    • Some of the best memories in life are from traveling. +2
      • Exactly! Read a thousand books, travel a thousand miles...
        • Should be 10 thousands.
          • You read more and go further. :D
    • Thanks for sharing. I think it's an interesting but scary experience! It's an adventure but not tourism. Did you feel comfortable and peaceful to float on the river for 6 days (not a short time) , +1
      especially when you were having language issues and equipped simply?
      • Hello new friends, it's my first time to visit the Rolia english version. Please feel free to let me know the errors and mistakes in my english writing. Thanks! +1
        • Welcome! Your writing is amazing. No need to worry about mistakes, if there is any. It's like the way we use Chinese: there might be errors but we are not concerned.
          • Thanks!
      • I was expecting to have a group of guests. So when I confirmed that I was the only one, I was quite disappointed. But I felt peaceful. It was not a comfortable trip though. Very primitive. :)
        • Perhaps your name, Prince Sailor, makes you brave to face that type of adventures, doesn't it? 😁😁
          • It's just not as comfy as staying in a 5-star resort. But throughout the trip I was like a prince: no need to work, someone cooked for me... isn't it amazing? :D
            • Yes, that real 1:1 small group services of both guide and hospitality. +1
        • Perhaps you have had lots of experience and skills of living near and on the sea?
          • Not really. :p I don't know how to sail, how to fish using a net, etc...
        • Could I know how much (roughly) did you pay for the guide or the travel agency? Please don't be offended. I have no intention to dig your privacy numbers,
          but just want to learn the local economic conditions and estimate the possible public safety issues for travellers. Thanks for your understanding.
          • I paid the agency. Around USD $320. It's an expensive one according to Bolivia standard. Regarding safety, Latin American countries are not so good on this issue, especially in big cities. Avoid going out after sunset.
            • 6 days' adventure for $320. The cost is low. It's a good deal as long as no robbery or other safety issues.
              • The service is minimum though... :D Among the several Latin American countries I've been too, Bolivia is safer, especially in the countryside.
                • Thanks for sharing your adventure experience!