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Rurrenbarque
Booked our tickets for a Amazonian Basin experience (3 days/2 nights) in La Paz and were told that we would be met at the Airport on arrival. Taxi to Airport was 50 Bs, a bit more than we expected but evidently more or less the correct price. The plane was a 20 seater turboprop and there seemed to be a lot of people waiting to get on but most were hooked out of the boarding line so perhaps they were all standbys?
The plane skimmed a wee bit close to some of the mountains as we threaded our way through the Andes and I couldn't help remembering the movie about the plane crash in the Andes!!
All too soon (and as expected there were neither hostesses nor breakfast on the plane) we were landing on the dirt strip at Rurrenbarque. Plenty of moto-dop taxis and a bus available for transport to town but no travel agent. Caught the bus (5 Bs) into town and booked into a Hotel directly opposite the Airline office - Pahuichi Hotel, 80 Bs/night. In the middle of refurbishing but a nice spot right in the middle of town.
Found the right tour
Co but no-one home so went for lunch at cafe opposite and eventually a woman came and found us saying that there were 5 of us on the tour so far and we were to meet at 0830 at the office.
Managed to utilise the warmer weather and the room fan to wash a few clothes that night and were then up bright and early in the morning. The agent grabbed us whilst having breakfast to say that the other 6 in our group were ill and getting injections so we would be delayed about 1 hour. After a lot of waiting around we were finally sold to another tour Co (Inca Lands) and got away about 0930. We had ourselves, a Japanese boy (med Spanish, no English) and a French girl and her 2 brothers and the American girlfriend of one of the French boys. The French all spoke excellent English, their family having lived in Australia for some time.
The vehicle we had was (emphasise was!) a SWB Landcruiser with broken back seat, only one working back door, a windscreen covered in stone impacts and cracks and had to be push started whenever it stalled! Mind
you most of the other vehicles appeared to be in similar condition. It took just over 3 hours to get to the river and reserve over a bumpy, dusty dirt road and after a nice lunch we met our guide Eric.
We spent about another 3 hours driving around the river before heading for the lodge and we saw a lot of birdlife but not a lot else. The dolphins would surface ahead of the boat and then disappear, so were extremely hard to photograph. After settling into the lodge we headed off to swim with the dolphins but couldn't find any so Eric took us to the sunset bar to watch the sunset, of course no-one took any money as we didn't know about the bar until we arrived (most of the lodges don't allow alcohol to avoid problems).
We then headed back for dinner and afterwards we were introduced to Phillippe, the lodges resident cayman. He was too shy to come all the way out of the water but was impressive anyway. We then headed out spotlighting caymans but failed to find any.
Next morning was an early start in order to watch the sunrise
on the Pampas and we only just made it. After breakfast we dressed for the great Anaconda hunt but despite trekking around the Pampas and swamps for over 3 hours we never saw a sign of one. We weren't all that keen on finding any so wasn't all that bad and did get to see a lot of wildlife. Did also see a few pawprints in the mud that may have been a puma. Talking to other groups we found that the anacondas were hard to find and only one other group found a small one.
After lunch we were sent for a 3 hour (!!!!) siesta to prepare for piranha fishing but Eric changed his mind at the last minute to go swimming with the dolphins but didn't tell us or the Japanese guy so we went off without our togs. There were plenty of dolphins about but they weren't co-operating as they kept moving away from the swimmers. We then headed again to the bar to watch the sunset but this time I was prepared having tucked some money away - just in case! The French were not so lucky having left their money behind again.
Poor young Eric was not having a lot of luck, only new to guiding, he was always a little too slow in seeing or doing things but his main problem seemed to be that he believed that telling one person in the group was sufficient for communication. Hopefully he will improve as time goes on. After dinner we were told that we were finished for the night (8 pm) and we should be up at 7 for breakfast then a walk to look for large animals. We went off to bed only to hear the boat start up a short time later and see the French going off on another spotlighting trip!
Next morning things deteriorated again when we dressed for the Pampas (long pants, long sleeved shirts and boots) only to be taken piranha fishing. He only had 3 lines for the 8 of us and not surprisingly we never caught anything. We then headed off to another lodge (Fluvial tours) where he got some directions and more fishing lines but by this time we had noticed monkeys in the trees alongside the lodge and a cayman on their front lawn so we wanted to stay for a
Not the best place to be
Try and book with Fluvial Tours, looked to be much nicer. while and take some photos. The people in this lodge were also able to catch piranhas from the bank in front of the lodge (at a respectable distance from the cayman of course) as well as seeing dolphins play in the river. We did eventually catch 3 piranhas but I only managed to catch a couple of bait fish.
All in all, it doesn't sound as much fun as it was when you write it down but we did enjoy the trip - the wildlife, especially the birds were just amazing. A tremendous variety although not many parrots, I only saw 4 parrots on the whole trip and none very closely. Dolphins were everywhere but hard to photograph and the caymans were prolific as well.
We arrived back in Rurrenbarque covered in dirt and dust and set up the laundry service again. Our room is now strung with washing lines and hopefully everything will dry overnight before we leave for La paz in the morning.
Next stop La Paz for one day and then on to Cochabamba.
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