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Published: August 2nd 2008
After the cold and high altitude of Lap Paz and Huayna Potosi, I was looking forward to getting back down to some warmth and having the ability to breathe at a normal rate again!
So after just two days rest, in which I was still experiencing headaches etc (the fallout from climbing Potosi was taking its toll) I made my way to the airport in El Alto, the highest part of the city of La Paz and jumped on a tiny propeller plane to head to Rurrenabaque.
After the initial security scare of having a man jump on the plane, rather than get in it, I boarded and we were off. 45 minutes of relentless ear popping later and we set down on a dusty dirt track of a runway. The flight itself is actually pretty special. As you leave La Paz, the plane does a quick about turn and you soar past the mountain range they have there. At one point the wing actually looks as though it's going to make contact with the peaks, then a little less than half an hour later, you're looking down on lush greenery (from the window you can see tonnes of
giant broccoli!! actually wait, now I come to think of it there's a slim chance it could have been trees) and the large brown River Beni.
In this town forget your normal taxi, I jumped on the back of a motorbike and before you can say 'shit, is he seriously still writing those travelblogs? I 've had to endure them for almost 9 bloody months!'...I was in Rurrenabaque! I checked into my cosy little hotel room, complete with balcony (all for just 35 Bolivianos, about 2.50 pounds!) and passed out.
The following morning we met at the agency and were divided up into groups for our tour. 4 English, 2 German and 2 Chilenos. We had plenty of time to get to know each other, as to get to our motor canoe a 3 hour uncomfortable drive in a jeep awaited us. Not only was this ramped, but as we were on a dirt track, everytime another vehicle went past, huge amounts of dusty crap flew into the jeep. By thetime we eventually reached the river, we all had half of the jungle lodged in our hair!! Thank god my hair is'nt thich and long and....oh shit wait
a minute!
So with the usual boring backpacker small talk of 'Where do you come from?, Where are you going? and How long have you been travelling?' out of the way, we arrived at the river. After loading up the boat we embarked on our first adventure. Another 3 hour journey to beckoned, only this time it would be a lot more relaxed and comfortable as we would be making our way down the river to our lodge. Stopping en-route to look at the wildlife as we went. Well we didn't have to wait long, almost as soon as we pull away from the bank, we spotted our first Caiman, lying under the water in some thick branches. The excitement of this soon died down, once we realised that there were hundreds of the bloody things! For those of you that don't know a Caiman is pretty much the Spanish term for anything Crocodilian in its appearance. Though it's slightly smaller in most cases, I say most because man did I see some big bastards!! They are actually very lazy animals and for the most part laze around on the river banks, warming their blood.
At one point
A Capybara
the largest rodent in the world and a relation of the Guinea Pig we managed to sneak up pretty close to one of them and just as my side of the canoe was passing him, he dived under the water with an enormous splash, much to the fear of most of the boat.....though not I of course, it takes much more than that to frighten me.....as you'll find out later.
The cruise down the river was actually really cool, we saw huge amounts of wildlife such as Capybara (really funny looking and for some reason wiggle their small ears when they see you), Paradise Birds (they make the knid of noise you would imagine monkeys to make) and dozens of other species of birds. Speaking of monkeys, we also saw some far off in the treetops. Unfortunately these tours have become a bit too popular I guess and the monkeys were lured down to see us at the prospect of half a banana. I disagree with this kind of behaviour, obviously we all want to see as much wildlife as we can but I don't think the guides should be feeding the animals in any way, as this can alter animal behaviour and habitats. One of them even jumped on our boat
It was no use......
Our guide had no chance of remembering where he parked the canoe! just to grab the banana! Right thats me off my soapbox anyway.
After a while we pulled up at a corner of the river where you could see Pink River Dolphins jumping about. So whilst some of the gang swam about with them, well near them anyway, I stood on the banks for what felt like ages trying to get a piccy of one of them with their head out of the water....almost impossible....ALMOST. So we arrived at the lodge, had some refreshments and then as you would expect in the middle of this remote wilderness, headed back on the boat to the Sunset Bar for a beer and to watch the sun set over the Pampas. Actually, its not as bad as I make it sound, its really more of a large treehouse.
A comfy nights sleep was had at the lodge, safe in the knowledge that your mossie net is protecting you from things that go bump in the night. Well that is of course presuming the thing that goes bump isn't a Caiman or an Anaconda, cant see your net doing bugger all t help you against them!
Speaking of Anacondas, after watching sunrise
If you go down to the Pampas today.....
this bugger swam right next to our Canoe! from the bush (the best time of day in the Pampas, there's a really cool mist on the river and lots of waking wildlife to be seen) we headed off for a walk in the Pampas, in search of this mighty serpent. I was a little bit nervy at first to tell you the truth. We were walking through pampas grass that reached my shoulders and that at times was so dense you couldn't see your own feet. I was hoping that a tourist suddenly disappearing from the pack wasn't their tried and tested method for finding these.
After about 1 & 1/2 hours of walking relentlessly in the baking sun, though it was early (about 9.30) our guide spotted one in the reeds and proceeded to make the area safe for us to get closer and have a look. He held him to the floor using the stick on the back of the neck method and then dragged him out so we could see him in all his splendour. Sorry to do this again guys but where did I put that soapbox?! I had a bit of a problem with this, hypocritically I wanted to see the snake,
but I didnt think it was necessary for us to yank him out of the reeds so that some members of our party could lift him up by the tail end and pose for piccies. Again to me this is wrong, fortunately something that the following guide agreed with as he wouldn't let his group members touch the snake. (and soapbox away again, man thats been a right pain in the arse to carry around with me for the last 9 months! Still at least I got to use it....unlike the stupid personal mossie net i've been carrying, I thought it might come in useful here but they already provide you with one!!!)
With an anaconda in the bag (not literally...we realesed him back into the reeds) and the temperatures starting to hit 38 degrees, now would have seemed like an ideal time to call it a day and head back right?, wrong...we walked further and further into the pampas, until people started collapsing! Ok, so nobody collapsed but man it was really tiring. After a while our guide could see we were spent and so we headed back. Though the guide was walking a fast pace, meaning we
This necky bastard.....
was just chilling on a log watching the world go by...alright the world is probably a bit of an exagerration, there were only 9 of us on the boat! all had to follow suit or face being lost in the Pampas! The sweat was running down my face so heavily at one point that I could have done with windscreen wipers on my sunglasses! All I kept thinking was, if I collapse im gonna be whipped or shot in the back! Seriously I was getting fatman sweats with no curry in sight!
With my final ounce of strength I crawled back into one of the hammocks in the camp and collapsed.
During our break, I spotted a Caiman very near the banks of our lodge and bravely tried to sneak up on him to get some piccies, wildlife photographer extraordinaire, thats me!! Some really cool close Caiman piccies in the bag, as I wheeled away rejoicing though, I dropped my sunglasses, which landed far too close to the Caiman for my liking. I was about to retrieve them, when my guide told me not to in no uncertain terms. Thankfully he had realised the world needs me to enlighten their day with my droning travelblogs and so rescued my sunglasses on my behalf.
After a group siesta (in different hammocks obviously) we suited up in our swim
Gotcha!!
man these Pink River Dolphins were hard to capture on picture...fortunately I had planted several depth charge mines in the river....come to daddy. gear and headed out to the dolphin infested waters for a dip. Its actually a bit un-nerving jumping into the water when you can see Caiman on the banks around so some of the group decided to wait on the canoe. Probably a wise idea.....not me, I smeared myself in fish guts and Chileno blood and dived right in screaming c'mon you reptilian scum, i'll have you!! Im please to say nobody was hurt in the making of that gag, except the Chileno of course....it's survival of the fitest in the jungle!
Another couple of beers in the sunet bar and that was day two in the bag.
The third and final day we were to do a spot of fishing. Piranha fishing. I had been looking forward to this after encounters already with Caiman and Anacondas, another deadly creature provided no challenge. That is of course until we climbed into the boat. The German girl behind me screamed,which caused me and one of the Chileno lads, Diego, to jump up and see what the problem was. She was ok but panicked as a small frog she hadnt noticed, was right next to her seat. 'Oh thank god,
Pampas Grass
slightly easier than the Dolphins to take a picture of. we thought it was something scary!' I said. Then as we were calming down the frog launched itself at Diego and I, to which I think we both yelped and tried to move out of its way. For those of you that have never been on a canoe, they are long, thin and very unstable. Almost immediately the canoe started swaying, nearly throwing Diego and I into the river, much to everybody's amusement. I spent the rest of the day trying to assure people that this was no ordinary frog, and right before it jumped I saw it mouth the words 'im going to kill you'. But it was no use, the girly screams that we had let off betrayed us.
The Piranha fishing was good fun though, if not a little dangerous. Though as is usual in this world, it was man rather than beast to blame. 8 people fishing on a small boat is not good, the boat was rocking and hooks were flying everywhere! You have to fish in shallow water for Piranhas, and so when they nibble on your chunk of meat (not that chunk people) you have to pull the line in with haste!
A Bolivian Squirrel Monkey.....
I think he was having a bit of identity crisis. This even menat a few Piranhas landed in the boat, unhooked and flipping about....thankfully they were more worried about taking their last breaths than their last bites! (Dont worry animal lovers we didnt leave them to die struggling for oxygen, that would be cruel....no our guide simply out a knife in their head.) The Chilenos and the Germans were having their own contest whilst the four heroic english floundered! (pardon the pun, It wasnt meant to hake you laugh and I wasnt trying to cause any huss.....seriously, im home in 10 days so no more will you have to read this! Please just hang in there. It gets batter......sorry)
Once we had caught a fair amount, we headed back to the lodge, where our chef fried them up and we had them for lunch. Very bland and very small, but man they have really sharp teeth and even in death managed to look menacing! Back to the canoe and back to civilisation all in the space of about 5 hours, much to everybody's dismay. (I think part of it was knowing we had that jeep journey to go again!)
That night we headed out for a few beers
He'll bring you to your na na na na na knees, knees!!
The only song going round in my head for the last 4 days has been Welcome to the Jungle....thankfully that song rocks!! in Rurrenabaque to say goodbye to each other. I was getting my flight the following morning back to La Paz, whilst some of the group (the nutters and the skint) would be taking the 18 hour bus ride.
I have only ever made my way into La Paz by bus before, and so everytime the altitude doesn't seem to really have affected me, this time however flying in from sea level to an altitude of over 3600 metres really did make me struggle for breath! Though perhaps not as much as that night. A couple of the girls and I had arranged to meet for a few bevvies back in La Paz, which we did and then followed up with a curry in the only curry house in La Paz. Unfortunately they didnt have my favourite Jhalfrezi on the menu, so instead we opted to share a Madras and a Vindaloo. You may recall when we were in La Paz back in January, Brad and I had challenged each other to a Vindaloo eating contest. I duly managed to eat all of mine and sorry Brad but yes the sauce does count, therefore you lose I win. Anyhoo, having
The locals call it an Anaconda Cobra...
Just an observation but thats sounds very similar to Anna Kournikova to me! had it before I knew it wasnt as bad as the waiter was telling was making out when he said 'you will die!'.
Now I like spicy food, but this was ridiculous. When the dish arrived, there were about 8 bits of chicken in it and about 8million chilli seeds. One lick of the spoon was like kissing Satan himself! (you'll just have to trust me on this people) We spent the next hour and a half, trying in vain to eat our way through this monster, to no real avail. Even the tables next to us were laughing at the amount of beer and yoghurt we were going through!! Im not kidding it was the hottest thing I have ever tasted. Thankfully I had already decided the next day was to be a rest day.....Something told me our paths might cross again.
Well, I came to La Paz with some specific missions in mind and having conquered 6000+ metres of mountain and the Jungle (well except for frogs) its time to get on the home stright and bring this baby back to where I started............Lima, here I come.
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