Pampas Trip

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It was abit of a mad rush in the end for the pampas trip even though
our flight wasn't till 4. We chilled out too much in the morning
having breakfast at Loki then dossing around and having dinner at the
Wild Rover. Then we tried to find out how long and by which means we
would get to the airport with everybody recommending the bus but all
giving different times; 1 hour 45 minutes, 1 hour 30 minutes and
depending on traffic one women saying 20 minutes, so we decided to
give ourselves 2 hours to be safe.

We walked down to the main street and every bus to the airport that
passed was full so we headed towards where they were coming from,
passing an ice cream store with a big a queue. I got a 'doble' which
was 9 B's with bubble gum and m&m ice cream, BIG MISTAKE! A second
later the airport bus showed up and it was full but he let us on, so I
was stood up in a rammed minibus with a massive ice cream dripping
everywhere not to mention the fact the bubblegum ice cream had pieces
of gum in it. It was very difficult to chew chewing gum, lick ice
cream, prevent it from dripping on anyone and keep my balance stood up
on a Bolivian minibus in La Paz, by far the most inappropriate ice
cream I have ever had.

The minibus took 15 minutes which meant we had to wait an hour in the
airport before we could even check in. The aeroplane was tiny and we
were lucky the weather was good because there can be delays of upto 10
hours we had heard if the weather isn't perfect and if they do fly in
the bad weather the flight isn't meant to be the nicest. The flight
took 35 minutes with some awesome views out of the windows.

We landed waited in the jungle airport shack they called the departure
lounge for 30 minutes then got transferred to Rurrenabaque. After
picking up our tickets and confirming the departure time for tomorrow
me, Hollie and Colum went searching for a hostel/hotel. We found a
very cheap standard place called Hotel Jasmine which was only 25 B's,
no hot water but the heat meant you wouldn't use it anyway. We sorted
out our bed so mosquitoes didn't have a feast, freshened up and headed
out to find somewhere to eat.

One of the best meals in South America followed, I have forgot the
name but it was a little popular French/Italian place, there is only 1
French place in Rurrenabaque so shouldn't be hard to find. I had steak
with red wine sauce, chips, rice and salad, it was unbelievably nice!

After tea we headed to Monkeys bar which was cool we had a few games
of pool, quite alot of beers and met two female Kiwis. Knowing we had
to be up at 8 to be at the place for 9 we headed to bed at 1ish.

Day 1 (Arrival and Sunset bar)

We woke up at 8 went to breakfast at a small cafe near the travel
agency and Ross was sat having breakfast so we got some rounds
introduced him to Colum and headed onto a jeep to the canoe point.

The jeep took roughly an hour and a half stopping a few times to see
various animals (ostriches, caimon and a dead porkipine) we made a
short stop for dinner and 10 minutes later we were about to start the
boat trip.

Our guide was called Luis he spoke perfect English, knew everything
there was to know about pampas animals and had a real passion for the
pampas itself. It took about 2 and a half to get from the land to camp
seeing the most animals in one dense place I have ever seen, more
dense than the galapagos (not better just more dense). Alligators,
Caimons, over 20 types of bird, spider and howler monkeys, turtles and
pink river dolphins.

When we arrived at camp there was nothing planned for the night apart
from watching the sunset at our bar (the sunset bar) with a couple of
beers. After that we had tea, played cards then went to bed. The rooms
we stayed in were full of 8 beds all with mosquito nets, it was weird
like sleeping in a tent and no chance of a creepy search we just had
to lump it.
Actually before day 1 finishes I must tell you about the second best
card game in the world called Mammoth. Ross showed us how to play I
will teach people when I see them it's too hard to explain on here.

Day 2 (Jampacked day)

As Luis had give us a briefing the night before we knew today was
jampacked and we would be very busy all day.
We started off by grabbing a pair of wellies (loads had holes in) and
heading to the boat to be taken to the swamps. We docked the boat and
walked for about 45 minutes walking past the usual swamp as Luis had a
better swamp where we would see more. The aim of the swamp was to see
alot more birds, some big pampas rats up close and hopefully an
Anaconda. As none of the group wanted to walk through the actual swamp
(choosing to walk round the outside) it was me, 2 Israelis and the 2
guides that searched for Anacondas. We were really lucky because
everyone we ha spoke to already at the camp hadn't seen an Anaconda or
only a dead one whereas we saw 3 live Anacondas which was well cool.
After the swamp we walked the long way back to the boat with Luis
looking for something in the trees.

We arrived back at camp and had dinner if I haven't mentioned yet the
food was amazing, no two days were the same, everything was fresh and
if you wanted more you just asked the chef. After dinner it was time
for swimming in the pampas river which I was very apprehensive about
to begin with mainly because of the number of alligators and caimon by
the sides of the river. The only reason I got in was because I trusted
Luis' knowledge of the river and he said it was safe. I assumed when
they said swim with the dolphins they would interact with you but they
were very shy and never came closer than 4 foot away, it was still
cool swimming in the river and seeing caimon and allogators at the
riverbeds.

After the swim we went Piranha fishing, Luis brought a piece of steak
with him which we attached to a hook on the end of a piece of string.
We told as soon as you felt a tug pull as hard as you can which I kept
doing with no luck. A couple of us caught the trees nearby, Hollie and
Ross caught sardines but Luis was the only one to catch Piranha
catching 3 in total. After fishing we headed to another camp with a
bar, volleyball pitch and a football pitch where we were meant to
watch sunset but because Luis was determined one of us would catch a
Piranha we were too late. This meant we couldn't get a game of
football either but I managed to sneak myself onto a volleyball team
and we beat the French, 3 straight sets.

After the camp it was dark so we did our night river trip which was
one of the best things I have done since we came away. It started off
slow just shining our torches at the gators eyes to show how they glow
in the dark, then Luis reversed onto the shore jumped out of the boat
and caught an alligator, it was dark so I couldn't see everyone elses
faces on the boat but I was in shock. We we all got off the boat and
got pictures with each of us holding the alligator, Luis said it was
2-3 years old and would have just left it's mother so we didn't have
to worry about an angry mother coming to eat us. We weren't told not
to tell anyone but I think everyone knew we hadn't paid for that and
Luis was definitely getting a good tip from me, especially as he
explained us holding it wouldn't stress it or harm it's life.
We got back to camp had tea (again amazing), had a few beers and
played cards, before heading to bed in the dark (generators were
switched off at 11).

Day 3 (Taste of the Jungle and return to Rurrenabaque)

As the journey from camp to Rurrenabaque took around 3 and a half
hours we were restricted to what we could do so Luis decided to give
us a taste of the jungle. We woke up had breakfast and headed out on
the boat to the little jungle that was inside the pampas, Luis
explained it wasn't the jungle as such but had the same trees and some
of the animals you would find in the jungle.

Luis stopped on the way as he wanted to show us an Ostrich nest in the
wild. We got off the boat and walked 5 minutes then saw an Ostrich
running in the opposite direction, we headed to where it had been and
there was about a dozen massive ostrich eggs laid there.
Back onto the boat we got and 30 minutes down the river we got to the
jungle. The jungle was really interesting we saw the jungle owl, loads
of snake skins, different kinds of trees and flowers, we also tried
some termites which people said taste like chocolate but I didn't
think so.

When we got back to camp we had dinner, packed our gear and got on the
boat back to the mini port. Two hours later we arrived back on land,
tipped Luis 180 B's (20 each) and got on our 4x4 with no back windows
back to Rurrenabaque. It was hilarious when everyone got out the 4x4
because of the fact there was no back windows everyone was covered in
dust from head to toe and looked like they had aged 10 years.

Me, Hollie, Ross, Colum and Raj headed back to Hotel Jasmine as it was
cheap got showers and headed out. I got the cheapest beer I have had
yet a litre of beer for 10 B's (a quid) then me and Hollie wanted to
check out Mosquitoes so we met the french guy and polish girls there
had tea and met everyone else at Monkeys, having a brief argument with
a Dutch guy about the world cup final beforehand. We had a few drinks
as we didn't want a hangover for the 20 hour overnight bus the next
day and headed to bed.
Our bus back to La Paz was at 10, so we woke up had breakfast and
headed to the bus station with Ross.

I am not looking forward to the new Death road bus!

Muchos Love

Brown

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