Taaazan!

We left Rurre in a long thin traditional boat on a trip into the 'Madidi National Park', which was a spectacular 3 hour journey, through misty mountains and green green trees stretching as far as you could see.

We arrived at the lodge where we were greeted with a HUGE lunch, a great way to start! We then went on an afternoon hike for 4 hours around the lodge, where our guide was telling us about the park, about the rainforest and fun facts about hundreds of plants and vines that we saw! It would have been rude not to pretend to be Tarzan when we came across this huge vine!

We had just been told a story about how the wild pigs here stay in groups of over a hundred, and can attack humans and are omnivorous, when we heard the low grunting of the dreaded pigs! We were all terrified when they came through the forest towards us, luckily getting scared and running away (which sounded like a herd of elephants!!) at the last minute - phew! We were sure the guide had told us that story on purpose!

We had another huge meal for dinner, before going on a short night walk to see some HUGE tarantulas, which were nesting and hunting on trees that were much too close for comfort - right next to our cabin!