Blogs from Rurrenabaque, Beni Department, Bolivia, South America - page 17

The dangerous thing about swimming with dolphins in the Amazon Basin has nothing to do with the dolphins, but rather with the alligators that laying on the river bank 20 feet away. I mentioned earlier about some of my confusions with Spanish; and while I know a lot of verbs, I still don't get the hang of the reflexive ones. So either the guide told us that the dolphins scare off the alligators or that the dolphins are scared of the alligators. But in both cases it was safe so long as the dolphins where there. The more dangerous part is accidentally drinking the river water. In of itself it isn't too bad as it gives you a pretty good upset stomach, but combine that with a 20 hour bus ride on a bumpy dirt road ... read more

Since leaving Alex and Kerri in Sucre, travelling hasnt exactly gone to plan.....We had to take a plane out of Sucre in the end, as we could wait no longer for the dame blockages to finish, however expensive that was, it was a blessing in disguise. What was meant to be a 14 hour bus journey with the possibility of chickens on our head, or in Amys case just a man leaning on her head (previous journey), was a mere 45 minutes to La Paz...... Amazing! After spending some very messy nights in the capital, we decided it was time to get our act together and book a tour into the jungle. However..... once again in true Bolivia style, all flights were being delayed to Rurrenabaque (jungle) due to bad weather, as their airport is a ... read more

Since the Amazon is so amazing we decided to give you both of our accounts...... Bridge´s up first.... Well, after leaving the salt plains, we headed to La Paz and then up to Rurrenbaque to go to THE AMAZON!!!!! After our 20 hour journey from hell on a chicken bus with fridges, luggage and washing machines strapped to the roof we made it to the tropical landscape of the Amazon! The town was beautiful, but we took no time at all in booking our 2 day trek in the jungle and 3 day ´Pamapas´trek to the wetland areas of the Amazon. After we packed our newly bought day rucksacks full of leech repellant, mozzy spray, antihistamines, marshmellows, sweeties and obviously maglites (oh and a few clothes) we headed to Inca land travel and met our 2 ... read more

La Pampas is part of the wetlands of the Amazon. After a high quality flight from La Paz to the very chilled out town of Rurrenabaque (where I couldn't have put my seat up even if I'd wanted to, and there was no safety announcement to sleep through - still - better than a 20 hour bus journey) there was a four hour 4WD trip to the Rio Yacuma where we boarded our little river boat. 'Twas a beautiful sunny afternoon and we managed to procure some cold beers which made for a most enjoyable afternoon on the boat admiring all the wildlife. The beauty of La Pampas is that there's just so much wildlife; five minutes into the boat trip and we saw our first caiman. Click click click went the camera not realising we'd ... read more

De retour sur terre donc, á Rurre... Rentres a 7 de Serere, on traine ensemble depuis quelques jours... Un groupe cosmopolite avec son australienne qui vit a Londres, son Neozelandais cameraman en europe, sa francaise et son hollandais qui vivent á Amsterdam et son couple d'Ecossais... (et moi !!!!) On a festoyé a foison et la, chacun reprend sa route... D'aucuns sur La Paz et le Perou, d'autres vers l'Argentine... C'etait sympa d'etre un petit groupe pour quelques jours, partager les repas, les soirees et... les piña colada bien sur (celles du monkey bar sont quasi aussi bonnes qu'a El Estor au Guaté, c'est dire !!) !!! Pour moi, je pars demain dans la pampa comme ils disent ici, c'est a dire la savane qui fait la transition avec la jungle... Je vais y retrouver Josh ... read more