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Published: November 11th 2006
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Currently stranded in Rurre. As it turns out if it rains here then the chances of getting a plane to land are slim to nil. It might help them a bit if they considered putting some gravel on the runway instead of the lush slippery grass that they currently have- just a thought!
The reason for our mission out here was for the much touted Pampas trip to explore a bit of the Amazon and see hordes of wonderful creatures. Quite a way to come on the back of a recommendation so hopes were high on day one.
Things were looking dodgy when we booked the trip as the whole town is absolutely swarming with hairy, arrogant Israelis and the last thing we wanted was to be the only 2 non hairband wearing polite people on the trip. Thankfully salvation came in the form of a group of friends who had been travelling a short while together. A lovely group of people, very friendly and funny and absolute rum fiends- I knew this would be a good trip. Things start off with a 3 hour bounce down a rocky road in the back of a knackered 4x4. It only got
a flat tyre once but as the spare was also flat that proved to be a slight problem. Jose is to be our guide and he doesn´t speak English and has a slight crazed look in his eye. Another 3 hour boat trip to camp and we spot Alligators and well that is pretty much it as far as real wild life goes. We did stop to feed some squirrel monkeys who excellently clambered all over us.
Night one found us watching the sunset in a farmers field with a makeshift footy pitch on it. A swarm of our hairy friends arrived and duly challenged us to a match. Well with my soccer prowess I was less than keen as I was sure we would get stuffed and the aftermath would be unbearable. I hadn t banked on Jack and a ringer Bolivian guy who helped us stuff em 6=1. I even bagged one myself amazingly. This went down very poorly with the Israelis who left the field in shame shouting at one another. We celebrated heartily on Rum by candlelight.
Day 2 and it has been pissing down solidly for 15 hours. This puts the mockers on our
planned activity of Anaconda hunting so we switch to plan B, namely sitting around. Not really as much fun. That afternoon we went in search of the mystical pink Dolphins. It wasn t too long until we found them. Freaky looking beasts with pointy noses, piggy little eyes and long snouts. They have peculiar colouring that make them look quite unhealthy. Not exactly flipper but dolphins non the less. I braved the water with them, assured that the dolphins scare the Gators away. Next we move literally around the corner and start Piranha fishing. Makes me wonder about my choice to get in the water but I still have all my extremities.
Day 3 is mercifully dry as we track Anacondas in the Pampas. The guide does much of the stopping and staring intently into bushes to make you think that the place is alive with snakes. Suspiciously the guides disappear out of view and return running, shouting and basically swinging a poor Anaconda around ( not exactly an Eco tourism company this one, the phrase Eco Smeco being used by us a lot as animals get run into with boats and the like). We all had a shot
Capybarra
The largest rodent in the world! at wearing it around the neck while it did stinky poo on us, I don t blame it.
I suspected the snake was a plant but it didn t really matter in the end. The journey back to civilization was absolutely agonizing. The boat was fine but the bus was awful. It was bad on fresh buttocks on day 1 but now it was just horrible as the road was rougher from the rain. Worse still if 2 days of less than ideal cuisine finally catches up with you as was the case for Em.
On reflection the trip was about average, certainly not worth the trip from La Paz and then being stranded for longer than anticipated. The saving grace has definitely been the good people we met who have made the whole thing worth while for us so thanks to Matt and Sharon, Jack and Anna and Marianna and Jerry without whom we may well have gone a little bonkers here!
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