Searching for pink dolphins

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We left La Paz for Rarrenabaque by plane, not wanting to take the bus as you have to go down the Death Road. We went with Amaszonas airways, in a tiny 12 seat plane. It was amazing, the views were just stunning, we could see all over La Paz and went through the mountains, and when we left the Altiplano we could see the drop to almost sea level. The landscape was completely different just 15 Min's after leaving La Paz we were in the tropical rain forest.


We were here to go to the Pampas, a trip along the river Beni to see tons of wildlife. We left the next day with Anaconda tours, in a jeep - with our guide and our cook, 3 other girls and 3 guys.
The jeep trip itself was an adventure.. we almost toppled over a few times, its still wet season here - so the roads are very slippy.


Once at the river Beni we got into our canoe and our guide steered us thro the river. It was beautiful, really peaceful, sunny and very green. After a few Min's we saw pink dolphins (I know that my little sister Caitlin, will be impressed, her two favourite things - pink and dolphins!), We saw loads of turtles and huge birds. We got to our camp which had hammocks and toilets and everything. After sunset when it was dark, we left to go to look for alligators and other wildlife, we were all in the boat head torches on looking side to side.. looking for red eyes....

Our boat pulled up next to another groups, their guide had just caught an alligator and was wrestling with it, he passed it to one on the guys on his boat - who held it for about 2 secs before dropping it... it ran onto or boat and scurried to the front... Well panic broke out, the 3 girls on our boat were screaming, I ran to the back- adrenaline taking over- ran passed Lo, causing her to fall to her knees.. then we all just stood there petrified, not knowing what to do when you have a crocodile loose in the boat. The guide was laughing so loudly, then we realised that we werent going to get eaten by an alligator. The poor alligator was petrified- what a drama (a bit embarrassing too) !

The next morning I found myself wondering what the hell I was doing, wading in water waist high - hoping that a 12 foot Anaconda snake wouldn't find me...but the same time, hoping that we would find one so that we could see what they look like. We spent 2 hours searching for the snake, but only found giant snails and birds. And got a few more hundred mozzie bites. Unfortunately I haven't yet seen a live anaconda, they come out to get warm and the sun wasn't out so they stayed in..

After we went swimming with the dolphins (in the same water as the alligators and piranas!). One guy from our boat nearly drowned... after water skiing on a plank of wood at the back of the boat- apparently he wasn't a good swimmer, the guide pulled him out after what looked like his last bob under, we were a bit scared.

The next day we went fishing... for piranhas. The lake is full of them- they only bite if they can smell blood apparently, so we were OK to swim- but they must be in cohorts with the mozzies.
We dangled our lines in with chunks of beef on the hooks- they were so fast and clever- they kept taking the meat off the hook. They were really powerful too. Lo and I didn't managed to catch any- but the guys did- so we had plenty for dinner. Our cook fried them , they tasted OK- but a bit bland.
We got back on the boat, then in the jeep back to Rarrenabaque. It was a great few days in the jungle, neither Lo or I fell in the water!!

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Photos

Pink Dolphin
really!! it is difficult to get shots!

Piranha
And our guide