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Published: July 11th 2009
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People that think the travelling life is easy is wrong. Don't get me wrong you do get to see some amazing places and the majority of the time life can be quite relaxed however it isn't always late nights and late mornings.....
On Tuesday morning my alarm went off at 4.45am as we had to be at the airport for 5.30am in time for our flight. So the four of us Sharon, Scott, Kate and I caught a taxi to the military airport and duly checked in. It was the first surreal experience of the day as whilst we were sat waiting to board the flight it felt like we were in a 1970's Bond film as the walls were painted yellow and blue and the military staff were walking around in coats with fur lined hoods and old fashioned uniforms it was very bizarre.
We soon boarded our flight and were on our way to Rurrenbaque in our two jet prop. On arrival in Rurre I looked out the window and laughed as I had heard that the runway was a grass strip and realised that people hadn't been kidding. As soon as we walked out of the
plane the heat and humidity hit and it was a welcome change!! 80+ degrees heat and 50% humidity. We waited for our bags to be delivered to us from the plane - delivery taking place by a trolley being wheeled across the grass. We then jumped into a van and got delivered to our hostel.
That afternoon we met up with Dave who told us of his bargaining power and he had a deal for the five of us to do a pampas tour together. We all agreed on his deal and decided that we would wait until Thursday to start it. That afternoon and Wednesday were spent completely relaxing as a group. Literally our movements consisted of food, hammocks, snacks, hammocks, beer, hammocks...... I am sure you can see a recurring theme!!
Thursday morning and we got up and headed to our tour company. The five of us piled into the jeep and were joined by Aron from Malta and Cynthia from French Polynesia. Thankfully the two additions to the group slotted in really well and we all got on famously. We initially had a 3 hour drive to get to the river Beni this was along
a typical outback Bolivan road i.e it was a mud track with 101 potholes. Following lunch we were taken to the river side where we were left and told our guide would be with us in 30 minutes. Whilst waiting a local boy started fishing so Dave went for a closer look and I sat and watched and laughed! Scott eventually also got into the action and it has to be said that both lads were pretty useless in comparison to the local boy. Eventually our guide, Bismarck, rolled up and we all loaded onto the boat. This is where the amazement started.....
I knew that we were going to see a lot of wildlife but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine how much wildlife we would actually see. In each of our boat rides we saw fish, alligators, turtles, capybaras (the biggest rodent in the world), birds of paradise, eagles, wood stork, crane, white casablanca and lots of other types of birds. On top of this on different boat rides we also saw pink dolphins, cappuccino monkeys, spider monkeys, howler monkeys, flamingoes, pampas condor, macaws and caimen.
Tuesday afternoon it took us two and a
half hours to get to our home for the next couple of days and for the full time we were all starring around us amazed and disbelieving. On arrival at the camp we were shown our rooms and then had some time to relax in the hammocks looking down the river. We then headed back out in the boat with torches and cameras to hand. Our first stop was the sunset bar where we were able to watch the amazing sunset over the pampas with a beer in hand. We then climbed back into our boat and floated down the river looking for alligators with our torches - you are able to find the alligators as their eyes glow red in the torch light. It was then dinner and an early night for us.
The next morning we got up and were told to find ourselves a set of wellingtons out of a big pile and this done we headed back into the boat and up river. We eventually pulled over and go out of the boat and went hunting in the pampas for snakes. There were two groups together so we spread out and were told to shout
snake if we found one. After about an hours hunting we found a dead cobra. Our guide thought it had died the night before due to eating a poisonous frog. The other guide shortly after found an anaconda. After this we headed back to our boat as there was thunder rolling around and our guide believed the rain was coming.
After lunch and a long siesta in the hammocks we headed back into the river and went pirahna fishing. This had mixed results and we then headed to a different river bar and had a game of volleyball before watching the sunset. After a dinner of pasta, vegetables and pirahna we headed back out into the boat although this time we floated down the river with no engine and light so that we could take in the sounds of pampas.... amazing is not the word.
Thursday morning and we once again set off in the boat we stopped after awhile and given the option of swimming with the pink dolphins - unfortunately I gave this a miss as the water wasn't the clearest and my skin had been playing up due to the amount of insect repellent I
had to use to avoid being bitten my the mosquitoes (the one downside to the pampas although I have to say that Boots own jungle insect repellent is amazing and neither Sharon or I suffered a single bite over the three days unlike the rest of the group who suffered terribly!!). We then floated down river a bit more with no engine and also stopped to look at some spider monkeys. Our guide had brought an apple with him so we pulled up on the shore and the monkeys soon ventured onto the boat and even onto me!!! After lunch we headed back down the river where we were met by our jeep and we had our long 3 hour return journey to Rurre.....
Unfortunately my words cannot convey to you the sights that I saw on this trip but all I can say is that it is singularly the best thing that I have done on my travels so far.
Due to the amount of photos I will start a fresh blog with my last few days in Rurre.
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