Golden Shores

Trip Start Jan 08, 2007
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Trip End Oct 01, 2007


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Flag of Bolivia  ,
Friday, May 4, 2007

Along the banks of the river we have been passing teams of people working in the shallows some simply with pans and others using machines that pump water to wash over mud on car mats. These families are all in the process of Gold Digging and spend their entire day in the water hoping to find a few grams for sale at around 150BS per gram(about 10pound). We chose to stop several times and learn how they do it and whether any of them actually find anything. At this part of the river all that is retrieved are small specs of Gold as this far down all the larger lumps have been broken up. Those using pans may be lucky if they find a gram and a half each day but the machines can yield anything up to 7 grams or so. The local women all sported shiny Gold teeth and all of them were busy chewing Coca which suppresses the appetite and gives them the energy to work for longer periods of time.
The next stop was for a Beer break at a local village with Karaoke bar complete with disco ball 01 Check The Minera
01 Check The Minera
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While waiting for lunch we wandered through the Jungle to sample some termites which take on the flavour of the tree they invade. These were kind of minty but you can find lemony ones as well. Next we quenched our thirst from a water vine whose porous sponge like interior yields a surprising amount of high mineral content water. Antonio explained that a liter of this stuff can fetch a ridiculous price in dollars as has medicinal properties and the exterior bark of the vine can be used to ease and cure many ailments including Arthritis.
Before returning to shore we went on a foraging mission for jungle fungi and then constructed a lovely handbag to transport them back to Amy our chef.
Lunch was eaten surrounded by huge and amazingly coloured butterflies including the truly fantastic Blue Morpho some of which were quite happy landing on you, while highly dangerous and extremely toxic caterpillars fell from the heavens just to give that element of adventure.
Further upstream the river turns into a fast flowing course of rapids and we were asked to get out and walk a short distance past the biggest which has been responsible for more than a fews deaths over the years before climbing back on board for a short while longer to set up camp near a small village. The local kids took extreme interest in all of us and helped make camp by collecting palm strips for use as twine to tie the mozzie nets to the palm stems before we treated them to a viewing of our pictures and let them have a play with some of the cameras.
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