- Three hour river cruise to the private Serere Reserve
- Miserable circumstances and tame wild animals await us at the lodge
- Waiting all afternoon without doing anything
- Defend the house and kitchen from cheeky spider monkeys
- Short, nonsensical night walk without highlights
Fortunately, the clothes got dry overnight. So we pack our things again and get ready for the tour. After a fruit juice at the market, we are ready at the office. And it will start soon. The boat driver is once again not talkative and so we drive down the river for a good three hours. The ride on the wide and the sluggishly flowing Rio Beni there is little worth seeing.
Finally we reach the muddy bank and set off on the Walk to Serere Camp. It does not occur to the guide when we carry our things through knee-deep mud to fight. Well, that starts wellI still think to myself! Indeed, it shouldn't get any better. After about 40 minutes on the muddy jungle path, we arrive at the lodge.
There's a in front of the door tame tapirto run it Spider monkeys rum, a flightless macaw, a Capybara and a Collared peccaries marching around, apparently all orphans or injured animals. What seems somehow charming at first glance is in reality a shabby complex with unfriendly staff. Speaking of staff, suddenly all but Guide Tomba seem to have left, since tomorrow is Bolivian election day.
We are supposed to wait 40 minutes, then our bedclothes come and we go on our first jungle walk. Think, even after asking several times, nothing happens. That's how we spend it Waiting annoyed in the afternoon together with two English couples. Again and again the spider monkeys break into the building and the kitchenwhich are to be chased out again. Only the other wild animals provide entertainment. For the 6 of us there is only guide Tomba, who is now cook, cleaning lady and guide in personal union.
When the sun has already set, we finally get our sheets and can make the bed ourselves. The simple little house consisting of mesh outer walls would actually be quite nice, but unfortunately no water flows either. Tomba is now cooking while the English volunteer tries to calm down the annoyed tourists. No, that's not how we imagined it to be, at an impressive 70 dollars a day. After the simple but delicious meal, there is a schnapps as a consolation. Fittingly, we see on the way too short night walk Six of them and with the noisy tapir and collar peccary nothing.
