Blogs from Rurrenabaque, Beni Department, Bolivia, South America - page 22

Covering a large proportion of South America, the Amazon Basin is the largest river basin in the world. My adventures in this continent, then, would have been missing something without an experience in the Amazon. This is partly why, despite 2 cancelled flights, I was not going to give up on making it to the small town of Rurrenabaque in northern Bolivia. Third time lucky, my flight with Amaszonas Airlines finally left La Paz, thanks to the Rurrenabaque runway being dry enough to accept a landing plane. The flight was an experience in itself. The plane was extremely small, with just 15 seats. There are no cabin staff and you can see straight into the cockpit. I´m not a nervous flyer but you would have to have nerves of steel not to feel some trepidation ... read more

We flew out of La Paz on the 31st January, bound for the Bolivian Amazonian Basin. There are two ways to get there from La Paz. The first option is to catch a 20 hour bus along a very ha¡ry piece of road, that drops off to about 100 metre cliffs in some sections. Not very appealing. Option 2 is to catch a flight with Amaszonas Airlines, which takes around 40 mins. Sounds very appealing. Not when you are then told it is in a 19 seater plane. Both are probably as dangerous as each other, however we chose the flight as the 40 min travelling time was just too appealing. The flight in the end wasnt that bad. It was bumpy sure, and the fact that you can see into the cockpit is slightly disconcerting ... read more

Up the river: the Bolivian wetlands South America » Bolivia » Rurrenabaque By TheTouringTexanDecember 16th 2006Andrew Stone Husmann In the north of Bolivia west of the Andes is Bolivia's tropical region. Unlike the equatorial rainforest, this area is more of a swamp/wetland. Because the canopy here is not nearly as high (in the river floodplain areas it's very similar to the everglades) there's a much more diverse array of plants and wildlife. The rich river waters support tons of fish, including pirhanas, which in turn support lots of birds, crocs, and river dolphins. One of the ugliest dolphins imaginable, the river dolphin... read more

You think South America, you think Brazil, you think Amazon- you think J.Lo. Which automatically transcribes into “Anaconda - worst movie ever- but man those snakes were big hey”.. 
Well apparently, the Amazon- being the worlds largest river, and dumps more water into the ocean in 24 hours than the Thames does in a year- is all over the north of South America. I know AWESOME!!
 So we decided to do a Jungle Pampas, which is an area of the amazon. A 3 day tour which includes crazy antics such as boat rides, croc hunting, snake handling and swimming with pink dolphins- I KNOW AWESOME!! Who knew they came in more than one color...!!
 Anyway, being wayyyy more precautious this time around with our guide selection after Frankie, we booked our tour company cautiously and set ... read more

Hola de nuevo amig@s!!! Después de unos días de descuido y pereza regresamos al culebrón!! Dejamos nuestro pequeño paraíso a nuestras espaldas y emprendimos ruta hacia la profunda selva amazónica. Entre medio habían 200 kilómetros de separación o mejor, seamos realistas, 16 horas de „chicken-bus“.... Tantas horas dan para mucho: dormir, leer, conversar con el vecino, disfrutar del paisaje y todas esas cosas que nos parece que podemos hacer mientras viajamos. Pero cuando las 16 horas son mayoritariamente nocturnas, poco paisaje se disfruta; cuando tus asientos son los de la última fila ( y por lo tanto NO reclinables), poco puedes dormir; cuando en lugar de 5 personas en esta última fila hay 7, lo que si puedes hacer es conversar (boca a boca); pero no se crean que mucho, ya que la nube de polvo ... read more