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Published: June 22nd 2008
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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 small plot of grass! So with time running out in Bolivia and still so much to do, we needed an alternative method of getting there...... this alternative method just happened to be a 15 hour jeep ride, where part of it was driving along the "Worlds Most Dangerous Road". (The flight only takes an hour).... Carma I guess!
Finally arriving in Rurrenabaque and
decreasing in altitude of 1060m from La Paz's 3660m, and also entering a sub tropical climate it was time to drop a few layers, and Amy eat again (the secret anorexic suffered from appetite suppression from the altitude).
The First Day on the Pampas Tour
Now getting used to the extensive journeys in jeeps we finally arrived at the river, where we met our canoe and tour guide to take us to our lodge, and what a peaceful and rare journey that was. We cruised along Rio Yacuma stopping for photos every 5 minutes. The animals were plentiful!
Crocs, caymans, pink river dolphins, squirrel monkeys, capybara, herons, eagles, birds of paradise and other unidentified birds to which my knowledge ends. The beautifully and adapted pink river dolphins loved the canoes, so were popping up all the time, was really great to see them from such close proximities. Unfortunately as soon as they ducked back down, they were no where to be seen as the river was of typical Amazonian colour and origin, a lovely brown muddy shading. The animal spotting basically took all day, ending at our eco friendly lodge. After a splendid dinner we went on a
Turtles
Always lined up on extended branch night tour listening to the sound of the jungle and trying to spot crocs by their glowing eyes.
The strenuous day 2: Anaconda spotting!
What a beautiful day it was to go anaconda spotting, and how unprepared we were. Setting off in rain jackets.... I dont know why, we soon realised that this was going to be quite the effort. About 2 minutes into the walk the jackets came off and with no sun protection we were getting a long way from home. Four hours of walking through swampy, marshy, anaconda poo smelling grass, morale was low as no one had spotted the beasty snake. Just as we started to make our way back to the lodge a group in the distance looked a little suspicious as if they'd spotted something..... I dunno, maybe it was the fact that all their heads were facing downwards!
So we treked through the swampiest part of the grasslands, Amy nearly dying on the way, and Lolly nearly being lost to general Lolly accidents, to get to the anaconda. Not quite what I was expecting...... I certainly wasn't thinking "I'm going to get a chance to hold this". I had a picture
in my head of the anaconda out of the film Anaconda. Bit of a stupid thought really as they're pretty deadly and can just swallow you whole. Oh well, just a baby anaconda for us then, but still well worth the strenuous trek!
(The lack of sun protection during the day, means Lollys now doing as the snakes do and sheding her skin... sexy!)
A good rinsing off was in order after the stench of anaconda poo remained, however, I opted out as we were going to go for a swim...... with pink river dolphins, Yay! Although my excitement could hardly be contained, I had this weird dubious feeling of nerves.... oh, I know, what about all the fucking crocodiles on the side of the banks! After a short and pretty much lost in translation conversation with our guide, he reasured us (I think) that we weren't on the menu. As we dived off the canoe into complete darkness of the water the dolphins appeared. After the feeling of something out of Jaws (but with crocs) was about to happen I soon relaxed and tried to swim with them. Although a mixture of a strong current and not being
Capybara
Largest rodent in the world. Similar to mouse features Amy. able to see where the little buggers were, we couldn't get that close. I was still very much impressed though, as you can imagine.
The last day.
Being woken up at 5 in the morning for sunrise always seems a little pointless at the time, until you get there and appreciate the shere beauty of the landscape. Well.... I did at least, lazy lolly and pointless poo stayed in bed catching their zzzzz's.
After sunrise a brilliant breakfast and then off piranha fishing. Hmmmm didn't I swim in this river yesterday... Me, yesterday being worried about the crocs, what about the bloody piranhas they never told us about. Like most things, I was a pro, caught about 5, one of them slapping Lolly in the face as I yanked it out the water. However, hats off to Amy, and full credit to her for even giving it a go with her pathitic phobia of fish, she managed to catch a small salmon.
Having left Rurrenabaque with a few more mozi bites than expected, the tour cannot be faulted. And the weather even managed to hold out for our flight back to La Paz.
Squirrel Monkey
The cutest of them all. Me and my mates.
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