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Published: April 24th 2007
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It felt like I couldnt go anywhere more contrasting...from the snow and cold temperatures at 6000m to 150m above sea level, 40 degree heat and 98% humidity!!
We headed to rurrenabaque straight from La Paz )only 40mins away) on a scarily tiny plane that isnt so good for anyone that even has a touch of claustrophobia....we made it after taking a nose dive into the amazon!! The lfight was pretty cool, you fly sooo close to the mountains and then the jungle is soooo vast its amazing!! It just scared me a little with the sudden descent in the jungle, felt like we were just hurtling towards the trees but a grassy runway saved the day!!
Rurrenbaque is a cute little town in the middle of a vast rainforest, with not much going on apart from tours to jungle and pampas and a bit of karaoke nightlife, which we obviously had to sample!!
What I realised in this place was that you dont have to fully enjoy everything in life, I think the mountains are more for me than the jungle life......no mozzys up there!!! First off we did the three day Pampas Tour up River Yacuma
and got eaten alive by mozzys...I had 75 bites at the end of it and Sal 74 and for those of you who have been lucky enough not to witness my mozzy bites....they normally blister mmmmm and that was applying insect repellent every 10 mins, wearing a sexy long sleeved top and pants and hiding under the mozzy net as soon as night set in whenever possible!!
Aside from trying to avoid mozzys at every possible chance (impossible cos they swarm you) it was a lovely tour and went a little something like this:
It started with a long and very bumpy 4 hour 4x4 drive to the river Yacuma...10 of us stuffed in thethings, was good fun but hot and bumpy! We changed to a cool boat and all buzzed doen the river with our guide Luis, it was brilliant scenery, so green and lush!!
First stop was to see the pink river dolphins, you can swim when they are around as they scare the alligators away!! then we stopped to feed the lil monkeys, this was cool and they handed me bread to feed them...before Iknew it I had a monkey on my hand....its hands
were sooo soft, softer than fairy hands!! We saw some bigger monkeys and then dropped our stuff off at base, then headed to sunset bar to watch the...you guessed it!! This was a lovely sight too - very pretty but uh oh mozzy time, quick hide inside, doh..that doesnt work they just follow you!!!! and bite through trousers!!! grrr. Headed back to camp, ate and quickly ran to the safety of my mozzy net...welll not sooo safe, one buggar bit the bottom of my foot through the net-painful!!
Woke up very early needinga pee but had to hold it cos didntdare step out of the safety of my mozzy net until sunlight!! We joined in thefun of the Anaconda search or cobra or rattle snake search, this entailed trudging with wellies through a field of some sort, where the water goes way above your wellies and there are leeches in the water...deffo not my idea of heaven!! I was so paranoid about tripping and wetting my camera that I really didnt care if I saw a snake or not...oh and tehre was the small matter of fending off daytime mozzys in this lovely wetland grrrreat!! was soooo glad when
it was time to go to the boat!! was funny to see everyone else going through the same pain....full wellies, tripping over shrubs and trying to stay upright!!
Got back to camp and showered and got to meet the pet alligators - cute.... and got to witness the blind alligator cruising through the water looking cool and not seeing the boat moored up in front of him...clonk...funny!!! Then it was time to go and see sunset...FEAR of the mozzys going through me....but we wentfor abeautiful ride, saw a sloth in the trees, some black monkeys, cool birdsand then watched sunrise with a beer in a cool hangout...had dinner and ran to bed again for the safety of my mozzy net!! The Isrealis and Americans went to spot alligators but we didnt dare face the mozzys so we faced a long night ahead in our nets...but atleast we were safe!!
I was sooo hapopy when the final night was over and it was also time to go piranha fishing - the highlight of my trip!! After much patience Icaught one and then another straight after.....I nearly junped off the boat when I had to drag them in...scary after all
the things you hear!!! We caught enough for lunch and headed back to sample them....Ihave to say they are really tasty yum!!
Then it was time to head back to land, we stopped and let everyone swim with dolpins...I didnt.....if you know me youknow I am scared of the water and especially when I KNOW its got things in it!! Well as it goes, if dolphins are there then no alligators...but it was only as we were leaving the swimming spot that we spotted an alligator 2 metres away lurking in a bush...nice!!
Another long cruise back in the truck, was a cool three days but wouldnt put myself through the mozzy hell of it again...actually have decided to try and pursue places with minimal mosquitoes and mark places on their mozziness!!!!!
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