The Pampas of Bolivia

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After two days recuperating in La Paz and discovering the Submarino (thank you Stan and Helen!!) which is a chocolate bar dunked in hot milk and possibly the best drink ever on a cold evening, we headed to the jungle.

Now...I knew it was a small plane that we were getting...but not that small! 18 seater, could not stand up, could see the pilots having a chat, run by an elastic band! Tom was absolutely loving it....I was clenching his hand trying not to cry every time it moved. I can see why everyone gets concerned in hospital when their machines are beeping (meaning nothing most of the time)...it was terrifying hearing it on an airplane! They kindly pointed out the mountains out of the window - announcing it in Spanish first meant that I thought they were pointing out the mountains we were imminently going to crash into. At this point however, I was rather glad that I could see them at the front looking happy and in control - not like pilots who were going to crash. After I´d settled in, I enjoyed(ish) the amazing scenery that changed below us from high mountains to lowland rainforest. We arrived to the jungle (happily they now have a tarmac runway, the grass one was gone yey!), steamy and humid, ready to go on our pampas tour.

The pampas is an area of wetland and savannah and is absolutely crammed full of animals. After a long drive on the delightful Bolivian roads in something that wasn´t a 4WD (that broke down on its way to the airport), we got on our boat. Well...they definitely weren´t lying when they said that there was lots of wildlife. Within the hour we´d seen Caiman (aligator type things!), Kapybara (incredibly cute oversized guinea pigs and the largest rodent in the world), lots of different birds, pink dolphins, turtles etc etc.

On arriving at our ecolodge we dropped our things before heading to the sunset bar. This is a little hut based in the savannah (was truly expecting some giraffes to wander by!) where they have chilled beers and chocolate around a football and volleyball court for the sunset. The following evening we tried our skills at volleyball...not sure quite how good we are but the resident chicken, dogs and children moved out of the way pretty swiftly!!!

In the evening we went on a night boat ride. Torches at the ready we shone them into the bushes. Dozens of red eyes lit up...that would be the caiman! Really beautiful trip though and the stars were stunning...

The next morning we went Anaconda hunting. Generally I make all the noise I can in a snake prone region to make them slither away. Was a slightly different tact having to keep quiet and try and find the things! Needless to say we had no luck whatsoever...just managed to get ridiculously hot and muddy! The dolphin swimming in the afternoon was therefore a welcome refresher...not that we really swam with them...rather near them until they splashed me, we got freaked out and back into the boat!!!

The following morning we were up for sunrise...which was fairly non-existent but all the animals and birds were waking up and was lovely to see them all. We then went pirana fishing.... Those things are vicious! Not a very good fisher...but did manage to catch a couple (which did got back in the water) without getting bitten myself - they probably got through more bait than we would have done fish!

That afternoon we headed back to Rurranabaqque ready for our trip to the jungle!

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