Advertisement
Published: August 29th 2011
Edit Blog Post
Rurrenabaque is a small riverside town in the Bolivian Amazon Basin. It's now a hub for tourists like us who plan on going to either The Pampas or deeper into the jungle. The Pampas are Amazonian wetlands that are home to thousands of species of plants and animals which is what we were hoping to see plenty of. There's a few thousand people living in Rurre, and tourism is their livelihood. The town buzzes with local shops, moto-taxis, and tour agencies.
I think it was Sunday when we arrived via our raft. Martin, Wencke, Sarah and I got the same hotel accommodation sorted out. We looked around town that night and set about getting tours arranged for Monday. As I mentioned, There are two main options that you have to choose from in Rurre: Do you want to go deeper into the jungle, or explore the Pampas? We decided on the Pampas tour since we had been travelling through jungle on the raft, and while deeper in would have been a richer look at the lush vegetation and insects of the jungle, the Pampas offered the chance to see a lot more wildlife. After checking three different companies, we went
with Aguilar Tours, who provided a great service in the end.
Martin and I were pushing for Wednesday as the day that we should leave because Man Utd were playing a Champions League game on Tuesday, and since we were in a village that had a ready supply of TVs and beers, it would be rude not to stay until then. During our Monday Night Madness Session which ended up @ Moskito Lounge, we scouted drinking holes. Eventually we found a cool, new bar for Tuesday; a pub owned by a lad from New Zealand and his Bolivian wife. Sarah quickly discovered some wildlife actually existed close to the bar…she was all over the few little chicks that were waddling around a flower bed outside. I let her down easy when she wanted to keep one. Man Utd took care of business against Shalke of Germany and we all had a fun few drinks before we left. The sunsets in Rurre were spectacular. We enjoyed a beautiful one on Tuesday night before readying for the Pampas tour next day.
Our mini-bus towards the Pampas left early next morning. It was a good four hour ride along a dry,
dust road until we got to our speed boat launching dock to meet our guide, Luis. Our Pampas tour was on, and we started to see animals, birds and reptiles immediately! First up was a gigantic heron; then yellow monkeys, pink dolphins, turtles and a big black caiman! It was into the evening when we got to our jungle lodge and dropped off our stuff. I was delighted to find out there was actually a soccer pitch in the wetlands, and after a late lunch that’s where we headed off to for our next rendezvous.
The playing area wouldn’t make the cut for World Cup finals but it felt world class to be playing ball again, and in the Pampas! Myself and Martin played footie with a load of other lads, while the girls passed us our beers as needed. By the time the game was over, the mosquitoes were starting to chow down on the player’s sweaty skin and so it was time to get going on our hunt for Caymans! We spotted quite a few by torching for them and the reflection of their seemingly blood red eyes gave up their location.
More food! We ate like
royalty in the pampas, and after our meal on night one our group played cards and drank a few beers. Sarah won, she reminds me. Next morning, it was time to look for anacondas...
With our Wellies on, we waded through swamp water and mud to a grove of trees. The anacondas eluded us, but we did spot a couple of owls, lizards, and Sarah got a natural berry tattoo! Exhausted after our fruitless search for serpents, we devoured lunch and relaxed in hammocks hasta la tarde. As evening came, we went out on the boat again and saw loads of wildlife before going piranha fishing.
You can see our piranha catch in the photos, and some of the many birds, reptiles and animals that we saw. The piranhas quickly chomped down on the chunks of meat that we threw overboard, concealing sneaky little hooks. The little fellas tasted quite good later that night too!
Final day in the Pampas, and today we were going to be swimming in the same water shared by alligators, crocs and piranhas! We took off early and spotted some pink dolphins swimming around. “It’s ok” our guide assured us, and with
that I was in. The dolphins swam around playfully and the rest of the boat crew jumped in too – Martin, Sarah and Wencke. The dolphins were with us for about an hour. At times they even played with a bottle thrown in by our guide.
All in all we had a great time in Rurre. We saw an eyeful of wildlife and had fun buzzing around with our friends. But eventually, we had to pack up and prepare for the long journey back to civilization. It was an amazing four days, and now it was time to head back to the high altiplano of La Paz, through Lake Titicaca to Peru, and a crazy gang of gringos that would be waiting for us in Cusco. Machu Picchu was on the horizon…
Advertisement
Tot: 0.081s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 31; dbt: 0.048s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb