Advertisement
We have just returned from a three day trip in the pampas near Rurrenabaque. It was amazing! We got a jeep to the river from here which took three hours, then spent a while sitting around waiting for our guide to turn up, typical Bolivia.
Our boat was a long wooden canoe with an outboard motor at the back. When we booked we had been told that they couldnt promise us that we would see very much wildlife, especially as apparently its a little cold at the moment (its still boiling!). However within about 10 minutes of being on the boat we spotted some of the pink river dolpins and jumped out of the bnoat to swim with them. Then we saw a caiman (like a huge crocodile), and some monkeys. The monkeys were incredible and ate bananas out of my hand!
On the rest of the trip we saw capibaras, more monkeys, loads of crocodiles, alligators and caimans, and macaws, lots of birds, fish, and more dolphins. One night we went out searching for crocodiles by shining torches to catch the reflections in their eyes. We found a 5 year old and our guide 'Rambo' caught it and brought it into the boat. I was petrified. He then made us stroke it till it fell asleep, apparently the warmth makes it drop off. Then we had the fun of waking it up again! He showed us the see-through eye lids they have for seeing under water.. which was pretty cool, then put it around my neck for pictures.. not so much fun! After we had returned it to the water he told us not to tell anyone about the incedent.. i dont think his insurance covered him for having a croc in a boat full of tourists! Not very reassuring!
We also went phirana fishing.. and then ate them for dinnner.. they taste pretty good but have lots of bones. On the second day we also went on a hunt for annocondas. It basically involved walking through a swamp for hours in leaky wellies looking for a snake that i really didnt want to find! I whined a lot. In the end we found two, about 3m long each. The worst thing about them was that they smelled absolutely disgusting.
This morning we went to look at medicine plants in the jungle, then got the boat back to Rurre. It was a great trip but we are now very tired and dirty! Oh and when we went back to our hotel there was a huge tarrantula there! Bed tonight will be scary! xxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.162s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 11; qc: 49; dbt: 0.102s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Sue
non-member comment
Crocs
Don't swim in water that has crocodiles in it! Even if it has cute little pink dolphins as well. Sounds fantastic though!