On my last day in Serere, we finally had a sunny morning again. During our morning walk, we saw quite a few fresh animal tracks: deer, paca, wild pigs, and even jaguar prints. These are jaguarundi footprints, a smaller relative of the jaguar:
The reason why we often only saw footprints of animals is the rainy season. During this time, there is plenty of water everywhere in the jungle. As a consequence, the animals are happy to stay where they are and drink there. In contrast, during the dry season many animals have to come to the lake to find water, and thus it is a lot easier to spot animals then.
An animal we did see, however, was a big fat tarantula:
In total, she was about as big as my entire hand stretched out. Good thing she didn't move, or I probably would have run away screaming ;-)
Much less dangerous was this liana - or was it? Lianas wind themselves around trees, strangling them, and in the end remaining standing while the tree has long since decayed...
My favorite moments in the jungle were when the sun came through the branches, emphasizing the jungle's wonderful colors - like on this small lake:
This being the last day, we left after lunch to go back to Rurrenabaque. I have to say that I was happy to get out of the jungle, mainly for two reasons. First, the humidity. There is a lot of rain in the rainforest (duh), and the air is very humid. This means that wet stuff doesn't dry properly, and everything smells slightly moldy. Yuck! And second, the mosquitoes. There were thousands of them, and they neither cared that I was wearing long sleeves, nor that I had liberally applied repellent. Consequently, I had hundreds of mosquito bites. My guide even made fan for me to help me survive the walks without going crazy, and gave me lemons to rub onto the bites to help me sleep at night. The locals working at the lodge were not really affected by the mosquitoes. Apparently, they get bitten, but the bites don't itch and disappear quickly...
The reason why we often only saw footprints of animals is the rainy season. During this time, there is plenty of water everywhere in the jungle. As a consequence, the animals are happy to stay where they are and drink there. In contrast, during the dry season many animals have to come to the lake to find water, and thus it is a lot easier to spot animals then.
An animal we did see, however, was a big fat tarantula:
In total, she was about as big as my entire hand stretched out. Good thing she didn't move, or I probably would have run away screaming ;-)
Much less dangerous was this liana - or was it? Lianas wind themselves around trees, strangling them, and in the end remaining standing while the tree has long since decayed...
My favorite moments in the jungle were when the sun came through the branches, emphasizing the jungle's wonderful colors - like on this small lake:
This being the last day, we left after lunch to go back to Rurrenabaque. I have to say that I was happy to get out of the jungle, mainly for two reasons. First, the humidity. There is a lot of rain in the rainforest (duh), and the air is very humid. This means that wet stuff doesn't dry properly, and everything smells slightly moldy. Yuck! And second, the mosquitoes. There were thousands of them, and they neither cared that I was wearing long sleeves, nor that I had liberally applied repellent. Consequently, I had hundreds of mosquito bites. My guide even made fan for me to help me survive the walks without going crazy, and gave me lemons to rub onto the bites to help me sleep at night. The locals working at the lodge were not really affected by the mosquitoes. Apparently, they get bitten, but the bites don't itch and disappear quickly...
