Blogs from Rurrenabaque, Beni Department, Bolivia, South America - page 24

After looking at a couple of the tour deals in La Paz we decided to fly to Rurrenabaque and book a Pampas tour directly from there. We booked a 3 day Pampas tour and set off the next day in a 4 wheel drive with the driver, our Chilean guide, "Nikos", and a few other tourists. Oh yeah, the night before we went to the Moskitto Bar, which is full of gringos. Was privilaged to hear one Irishman´s account of his extra long jungle trip in which some freak weather occurred which eventually led to the death by drowning of an 18 year old guide in front of his eyes. The matter-of-fact way in which he related this tragedy to us, all the while enjoying his steak and ships, was kind of sick. Thought i would ... read more

The difficulty in getting to the Amazon and its general natural power were forced on us before we even got there with our 60 hour delay, but after arriving every second was worth it. We were lucky enough to experience both the Jungle and pampas and neither of us will ever forget them Before we left we´d decided to fly from La Paz to Rurrenabaque to save time and because the road is apparently awful! Little did we realise that delays to flights were so common due to bad weather, the pilot not finishing his breakfast in time or whatever. We expectantly turned up at 4.30am on Monday to get through to the gate and end up waiting there until every other flight had gone 3 hours later. Finally someone admitted there might be a ... read more

Rurrenabaque is a little tropical town, really tranquil, and is totally different from the Altiplano high mountain area of La Paz. Cars are not common here, and people usually travel by 2 wheels - bikes or motorbikes. It lies in Bolivia's amazon basin, and from here people organize pampa and jungle tours to see some nature and wildlife. The way I got to Rurrenabaque was not unusual - an airplane. What was unusual was it's size - it was definitely the tiniest airplane I've ever flown in - just for 19 passengers. The airfield in Rurrenabaque was interesting as well, as it was not of concrete but of grass! In Rurrenabaque, besides the jungle and pampa tours (about which I'll add a separate entry) I've also enjoyed canopy, which is basically an omega from one tree ... read more

Yesterday we flew from La Paz (3600m elevation) to Rurrenabaque (105m elevation). La Paz is a lovely city contrary to what we had been told, we weren't robbed, the people were friendly & there was stuff to do. It was however, cold & we glad we had flown into the hot jungle even if it was by a twenty seater, twin prop plane that seemed to find turbulence in crystal clear skies. We had arranged a Pampas tour in La Paz with Bala Tours & were picked up from our hotel at nine in a taxi that would take us to the pampas in about three hours. The day became hot quickly & coconut, banana & papaya trees soon disappeared behind us as the landscape opened into grasslands. The road was dusty & whenever a truck ... read more

Back yesterday early evening all sweaty and minging (even more than usual). Had been on a 4 day jungle trip where I was thinking I´d see shitloads of animals. I think the guides were making all the monkey noises we were supposed to hear. Our guide would wait until the cook and the other guy had gone on ahead and then make a monkey call and we´d hear the reply but it sounded so similar that I couldn´t help but have my suspicions. The most exciting thing we saw was an (apparent) footprint of an ocelet or something. I reckon they just went on ahead with a dead animal´s paw and made impressions in the sand to impress us. Especially as it was just after we´d been complaining about not having seen any animals on our ... read more