Warning - Blog may contain Spiders!

After leaving Puno, we crossed into Bolivia via Copacobana. Unfortunately, we were both a little under the weather and couldn't get to Isla del Sol, but it gave us a chance to rest and get our plans sorted for the final few weeks travelling.

We headed from Copacabana to La Paz, this is how our bus got over the water!

 Collectivos were very popular with the locals in Peru and Bolivia, here you can see one of the less crowded ones!!

 When we got to Alto La Paz we could see down onto the sprawling city below, the biggest city we had visited in a while...

Whilst in La Paz we changed our mind a number of times, but finally settled on a plan of action! After speaking to some fellow travellers, we decided to visit the Jungle! This had been one of Jons 'things to do'before we left but it hadn't looked likely. 

We booked our tour to the Chalalan Eco lodge, an eco tourism project completely run by Tacana villagers. Firstly we flew from La Paz to Rurrenabaque, this was our ride...

 After a day getting used to the change in altitude (around 3000m difference!) and a change in temperature (around 37 degrees), we set off to Chalalan. It was a 6 hour boat ride and gave us a good excuse to kick back and enjoy the wildlife.

 During our lunch break, we waded through an amazing number of butterflies!

When we arrived we were pretty impressed with our accomodation, given that it was bigger than our old flat!

This is a view over the lake that we were based around...

During our 2 days at Chalalan, we went on 2 long hikes in the day, a night hike and a night canoe ride on the lake. Here are some of our photos...

These birds were pretty large, and made a racket!

We were lucky enough to see 3 different types of monkeys during our stay. The Red Howler, Brown Capuchin and Yellow Spider monkeys, here you can see some of the Red Howlers...

Mother and Baby!

 This toad was huge!

Some of the many spiders...

A Tarantula...

 Our guide, Rigo, told us alot about the different plants and animals, and had an amazing ability to mimic the sounds of alot the creatures we came across! He showed us these cool trees, called 'walking' trees, because...they walk! They send out roots horizontally then downwards, and the tree actually moves its location untill it finds the perfect spot!

The brave explorers themselves!

This little fella hitched a ride with us on our evening canoe ride.

 We saw this Tree Boa, making its way very slowly to a bird in the tree...

 Here you can just make out the bird on the right, we returned a little later, but the snake had hardly moved, very patient!

 Soon it was time to leave, yet another highlight for us both!