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Published: April 25th 2008
Although it's possible to do trips to the Amazon basin from many of the South American countries, I chose to visit from Bolivia mainly because it's the cheapest place to do it from!
To get to Rurrenabaque you either have to take a hellish 20 hour bus ride or grab a quick 45 minute flight from La Paz for 70 pounds return. I chose to splash out on the flights, with the only problem being that the flights are often delayed or cancelled due to bad weather at Rurrenabaque (the runway is made out of dirt so they can't land safely if it is wet). My flight was delayed once, then cancelled and rescheduled for the next day, but I got there in the end! The plane held about 20 passengers and went soooooo close to the mountains that it was a bit scary (although beautiful!!!)
In Rurrenabaque there are 2 choices of tours that you can do- the pampas or the jungle. Although it sounds cooler to go to the jungle, everyone I spoke to that had done them recommended the pampas because you see more wildlife. On the pampas tours you go on a motorised canoe through
a river on the wetland savannahs, and that is what I chose to do in the end.
The 3 day tour starts with a 3 hour jeep ride on a dusty road to the river. My bum was soooo sore after this bumpy ride and I was completely covered with dirt! A good start. Next was a 3 hour ride up the river in the canoe, stopping to see different wild birds (again, I do find it hard to get excited about birds!) and alligators sitting on the banks! They were so weird- they looked like statues most of the time as they don't move at all until you get really close. Often they lay there with their jaws wide open. Apparently this means that they have just eaten and are waiting for little birds to hope into their mouths to pick out the bits between their teeth!!!!!
The lodge we were staying in was basic, but quite nice. Our cook managed to prepare really amazing buffet style meals (which didn't last long because I was on the tour with 7 guys!!!) In the evening we went up the river to a riverside bar to watch the sunset
snail eggs
They were everywhere!and have a beer. Was very strange to have a bar in the middle of nowhere! Sunset was not very impressive as it was really cloudy and it just got dark without us seeing anything!
On the way back we went down the river in the dark, using our torches to spy the alligators' reflective eyes! Spooky!
The next day we went to some marshy land to look for anacondas! Our guide hadn't seen once since December so we knew it was unlikely we'd find one. I was quite glad when after 2 hours we stopped looking!
In the afternoon it was time to go fishing for Piranhas! I was one of the 3 people who actually caught one! Maybe fishing will be my new favourite thing! Or maybe not! One of the boys who caught one got a bite on the finger when he tried to take it off the hook! We took them back to our lodge to have as part of our dinner!
On the final day the last activity was swimming in the river alongside the pink dolpins. We'd seen the dolphins all the time on the trip surfacing above the water
for short amounts of time. Of course it is pretty impossible to get a photo of them. I have lots of photos of just the brown water and a bit of a ripple on the surface!!! I was a bit scared to get into the water at first- I couldn't stop thinking about all the alligators we'd seen and the piranhas we'd caught! Anyway, I got in in the end and it was lovely when the dolphins swam past. They were a few feet away from us, but I've heard other travellers say that they've had their toes nibbled by them!
Anyway, was a fun 3 days and I managed only to get 7 or so mosquito bites (through my clothes- how do they manage that!!!!)
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Georgie (Catherine's friend)
non-member comment
Crash!
We (including my poor parents) had to do the 20 hour bus down 'the world's most dangerous road' because our plane had a bird in the engine, the landing strip was flooded and the only other plane had crashed a few days before on the highway - at our lodge we even met some people who had been in the plane when it crashed and they were a little shaken up.