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The choice was a 45 minute flight or a 16-20 hour bus journey. One was $8 each way, the other £100 return flight. “We’ll only be here once” was the only saying that would get us there, with whatever means of transport we took. And horror stories of the bus quickly made our minds up for us....”We’re flying!!”
DAY 1
Naturally the flight was delayed, a very claustrophobic tube was the be our vessel, 2 seats wide with an aisle. Definitely the smallest plane I’ve ever been on. The scenery was stunning, flying level with snow capped mountains before dipping down into the jungle. You can see why the bus takes so long!!
We were diverted to Reyes airstrip (a better airstrip - as if a grass field can be better than the next!!). Surprisingly a grass strip was a relatively smooth landing. We were then bused to the office in Rurranabaque, and put on a bumpy 3 hour 4WD race to the Pampas.
The second we stepped onto the thin dugout boat, small 2 stroke engine we knew this would be relaxing. The boat sat level with the water, and you could brush your fingers in the river
as it washed past. Sun blazing, breeze in your face.....nice.
We had another 3 hour boat ride ahead of us and literally 5 minutes in; our guide spotted a plethora of wildlife. You literally wouldn’t have seen them in a million years, so we just stopped looking as hard, sat back and chilled because we knew he was on it.
We arrived at our camp which sat on the water on stilts, complete with a hammock room and stunning views over the pampas. Then headed up for a spot to watch the sunset and being the only big peice of land it naturally turned in to a football pitch and it was here we got our first taste of the Mosquitoes!!! As the sun started coming down, well it was like something out of “Dawn of the Dead”. It was INSANE. Every inch of your body was being pulverised with the damn things. And as there were just so many they would fly into you from every direction and every part of your body. A poor girl who was on our boat was attacked so badly she had over 200 bites on her legs - she just couldn’t
brush them off fast enough (WARNING : DO NOT WEAR BLACK LEGINS AROUND MOSQUITOES, THEY LOVE IT!!)
That night we went Caimen hunting in the dark, searching for their eyes by torchlight which was spooky and very cool. Our guide managed to spot quite a few and grabbed one baby from the water which he’d spotted from miles off!! The mosquitoes weren’t too bad by this point as the moon was full and bright, and the stupid Mosquitoes would fly towards that instead of bother us. Still we wore thick clothes and still they managed to give me 7 bites on my arse as they came up through the chair and my jeans (they can bite through jeans!!).
DAY 2
So our first night was fun. We had chosen the beds underneath the beam that the family of bats were nesting on. So we were weed and poohed on all night (the mosquito nets keep out the pooh but not the wee unfortunately). Good times. At one point I ended up in the rafters with a flip flop in hand....swear words too.
That day we went Anaconda hunting in a swamp complete with wellington boots and a
branch to keep the mosquitoes away who were on a frenzy again!! And we were really lucky to find a baby one. It was about 1.5m long. Luckily we didn’t find an adult, which can be anything up to 6 meters long (we wouldn’t have been able to hold that one!)!!!
Later that day we cooled off in the river chasing Pink River Dolphins. It was so cool to see them jumping just metres from you (they really are pink) - one brushed my foot, but that is as close as we got.
DAY 3
In the morning we went Piranha fishing. There was such a knack to it, that we just failed miserably. Our guide caught 4!! And one beauty. Nasty little buggers they are. They were cooked up for lunch that afternoon. We headed back then to the mainland on the boat which had been our faithful mode of transport for the last 3 days - none of us wanted to get back in the bumpy 4x4. As a treat we saw some turtles and more monkeys to finish the trip.
We stayed that night in Rurranabaque which was a very cool jungle town and
caught the flight back the next day to cold La Paz. SA is so weird for its extremes - we went from boiling heat in the jungle and then to altitude and cold cold weather, in just 45 minutes!! Strange!! It was one of the things we’d really wanted to do whilst in SA and it is definitely one of the highlights, worth every penny!!!
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