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Published: June 21st 2008
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Day 265 - Wednesday 10 June
I woke up today and its actually raining. I think this is only the fourth day its rained since I´ve been in South America and I´ve been here for nearly 3 months.
I got picked up from my guesthouse at 11 and went over to the bus that will take me to Rurrenabaque. Its a twenty hour bus ride down a road thats referred to as the worlds most dangerous road. I don´t know much about it but theres only 1 bus a day and one day last week the bus went over the edge of a cliff killing everybody on board. Hopefully that means the drivers are being extra cautious at the moment.
It sure was quite a scary road a bit like being on a rollercoaster except one small mistake by the driver and were all dead. At times we were clinging onto the edge of the hill face with a huge drop directly below us. Even the locals had their hearts in their mouths. The driver was also going a bit too quick for my liking. To compensate though there was some of the most amazing scenery i´ve ever
seen my whole life. Once it had gone dark it was ok as I could no longer see how close to death we all are.
Day 266 - Thursday 11 June
I managed to arrive in one piece and was met at the bus station by the tour comapny. On the downside its absolutely bucketing it down and they asked me if I still wanted to do the trip today. I don´t think there´d be much to do in the town when it rains and they reckon it´ll probably be ok in the swamps so I took a gamble and decided to go.
There was a couple of hour wait until we set off so I managed to grab some shelter and met the rest of my group. There all English so it should be a laugh. Its a three hour drive from Rurrenabaque to the swamps and Im pleased to say its stopped raining. On the way we overtook the bus going back to La Paz. Its got stuck in the mud and is sat at such a crazy angle that it looks like it might topple over at any time.
After a luch stop
we boared our canoe that would take us down the river to our lodge where well spend the next two nights. This was the chance to spot all the wildlife we´d all come to see. Almost immediately we were seeing Caymans, Alligators, turtles, monkeys, loads of birds and some weird huge guniea pig type creatures. It had taken a couple of hours down the river but just before sunset we reached our lodge. Were lucky its one of the few with a bar. Being all Brits we dumped our bags and headed for the bar where we spent the whole night.
Day 267 - Friday 12 June
Were going to spend the morning hunting for Anacondas. Unfortunately its a cloudy and chilly day so they´re likely to be hiding away and our guide doesn´t think well find any. We set off nethertheless. Four hours of walking in a swamp was actually pretty tiring and we hadn´t seen anything. It was all a bit of a waste of time but at least I was the only person who´d still managed to keep their feet dry.
It had been quite tiring so after a few hours rest back at
the lodge we set off on our next hunting trip. Were going to fish the river for piranhas and eat them for tea. There really must have been thousands of them in the river because we caught loads. You only had to put your line in for a couple of seconds and something was biting. The only problem was most of them were too small to eat so we had to put them back in. Still we caught enough to eat tonight.
Whilst the cooks prepared the piranhas we being typical Brits headed for the bar to wait for dinner. If you want to know what Piranhas taste like they taste just like cod. As we didn´t catch any Anacondas our guide Oscar took us out for a trip down the river by night. If you shine a light under the overhanging foliage at the waters edge you can see the reflection of the caymans eyes. There were hundreds of them. I hope there not hungry.
Day 268 - Saturday 13 June
Its our last day on the trip today and we get to swim in the river with pink dolphins. They're freaky looking creatures really weird.
Given the amount of piranhas that had been in the water yesterday and the number of caymans and alligators both in the water and at the waters edge I declined to swim. The suns out for the first time and as its been a while I was quite happy to chill out in the boat and soak up some sun.
It was an early lunch then we took the 2 hour trip back down the river to the jeep. Oscar kept stopping on the way to quickly search at Anaconda hotspots but I think its destined not to be. The drive back seemed to go on for hours and we finally made it back into town at sunset. I still needed to sort out accommodation and a bus ticket to La Paz tomorrow so whilst everybody else headed to watch the football I got myself organised.
I seem to pay less than most people for stuff but everyone reckons that the locals put the prices up for foreigners. I know many times especially in the markets I´ve paid the same as the locals but on buses im not so sure so I decided to put it to the
test. I´ve heard you can get back for 70 B so when I was quoted 80 B I said it was too much. Sure enough he went down 10 to 70. I then told him that thats the gringo price not the local price and he went down to 60. Its only 10B (80p) but its the principle and if I save that 2 or 3 times a day over a year thats another months travelling.
Pleased with myself I went to join everyone else. Unfortunately they're all in a bar aimed at gringos. Apart from the staff there isn´t a single Bolivian in. It might be cheap compared to back home but for the locals its way out of their price range. I still stayed till about 1 am but then I chose to go to a local bar instead. They look really rough from the outside but i´ve found once your in them they're ok and everyones realy friendly. I'm back on the malaria tablets but the consequences of that are that it doesn't take many drinks and i'm absolutely hammered. Tonight was no exception. Theres a club accross the road from my hotel so I went
Hunting for Caymans at night
Those colourful dots are the reflections of their eyes to check it out. Your supposed to pay 10 B's entrance fee but somehow I managed to get the bouncer to waive it. I dont really remember much of the place. I remember staying for a couple of drinks and talking to some people but thats about it.
Da 269 - Sunday 15 June
I woke up today and could feel I'd had a heavy night last night. Its one of the few times on my trip that I´ve woken up with a hangover. However I've a bus to catch so cant mope around all day until I recover. I quickly dashed to the nearby market for some much needed fluids. It didn't really help I didn't feel any better.
I thought I'd got a good deal on my bus ticket and yesterday had been rather pleased but waiting for the bus I saw that some of the locals had 45 B on their ticket. I asked them where they were going and they said La Paz. Next time ill barter harder.
The rest of the day was spent sat on the bus making the long journey to La Paz. At least this time it'll be
dark when we tackle the scary bit so I wont be able to see.
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