Jungle and Pampas Adventures

Before we finish this trip, there was no doubt in our minds that we needed a healthy dose of jungle fever to satisfy our cravings...so off we went into the depths of the Bolivian Amazon. Over half of Bolivia is located in the Amazon Basin although most people never consider Bolivia to be on the top of their list for jungle adventure. We went in head first and were well rewarded with a good idea of what comprises of jungle life in the amazon.

So after hearing of how heinous the 18hr bus journey is down and out of the Andes on a single lane dirt road, we decided to get there via riverboat from a gold mining town called Guanay. This place is like Dawson City, Yukon was after the goldrush left it with people still plying the rivers looking for that left over gold. Seriously, they are still mining with goldpans on the riverbanks (some of the more industrious have a small pump mounted on a innertube with a 2 foot sluicebox on top - they walk around all day chest deep sucking up gravel from the bottom of the river). We were told that 18 hours of labour yielded $20 US - on a GOOD day! Poor guys...

Three days on the river was fun. Spent a night camping on a riverbank and another in a indigenous community of 32 people who you could tell had not had too much contact with gringos before - some had never even seen digital cameras! We also did a few hikes in pristine rainforest learning about the uses of all the plants and trees - get this there is a garlic tree whos bark smells exactly of garlic. WOW, you learn something everyday.

We finally pulled into the jungle town of Ruennebaque, a bustling little jungle town of 15,000 people. We spent a day checking out life here - have to say its pretty chill, no rush to get anything done and feels like there are not too many worries around here. We also booked a tour to go check out the pampas for the next day.

Our trip out to the pampas was a blast. It was funny, three people never showed up, so we ended up getting our own private tour for regular price, which turned out to be great. Our own private guide, boat, cook, and riverlodge that slept 35 people! The pictures will speak for most of it, but to sum it up we passed our days fishing for pirhanas, spotting and swimming with pink river dolphins, feeding monkeys, spotting countless birds, seeing aligators and we were even lucky enough to find an anaconda (even though its pretty rare in the wet season because there is so much more habitat for them to hide). Holding a wild anaconda was cool even if he was just a 6 foot long, 2 year old baby...

On our return to La Paz we booked a commercial flight and upon returning to the town of Rurre, we were told that the weather had been poor, resulting in two days of cancelled flights and the resulting number of people backed up waiting to get out. Then our tour company (Inca Land Tours is Great by the way!) told us that because of this dilemma, they had resolved our problems by booking a charter flight for us and two others back to La Paz. Whoo Hoo! Imagine the look on the faces of 30 or so disgruntled gringos as they watch us taxi pass them on the jungle strip of the airport, wishing they had booked with our comapany!. Oh the joys. The flight in a little cessna was hilarious. You climb from 200m to 5500m to clear the Andes, which takes almost 45 minutes of continuos asccent. Then 15 minutes later, you land at 4000m. We definately noticed the change in altitude with this drastic step!

So back to the Altiplano we go and head south to check out the Salar de Uyuni - the world´s largest salt desert....

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