I enjoyed the pampas days, I loved the selva (jungle) days. So varied, so few tourists and lots of walking. It sounds silly but it was more authentic wildlife viewing for me, less seemingly manufactured for the hoards.

We set off on the morning of the 9th up the Rio Beni that eventually split with the Rio Tuichi – this was the one we headed up for a couple of hours. A strong, powerful river with caiman, piranha, turtles and the like but very hard to see simply because of its size. The landscape either side of the river was super – very idyllic. All was going well until we got out at the Madidi National Park office to pay our entrance fees (there were 5 of us in the group but 4 of them left after one night so I had 24 hours to myself with the guide) and …