Stop 14: Rurrenabaque (In the Jungle the mighty Jungle)

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Following advice from other travellers against taking the coach to Rurrenabaque,  (the road is supposed to be worst in the country aside from death road), we boarded a 12 seater plane to leave cold, snowy La Paz and just 35 minutes later we landed in the middle of the jungle in 36 degree heat. This country is crazy. 
During this journey we learnt 3 things: 1. Small planes suffer acutely from turbulence. 2. Mountains (like those around La Paz) cause turbulence 3. When you combine said turbulence and small plane the result is a truly terrified Steve who is convinced he will not be visiting the Amazon after all. 
So after a tense flight (Ellie was so happy it was short, she couldn't have coped with anymore stress radiating from the seat next to her), and a spectacular landing we spent the day relaxing before embarking on our Amazon adventure.

The Jungle and Pampas that surround Rurrenabaque are all situated around the Beni river, a tributary of the Amazon. The Pampas is the place for wildlife and the jungle is the place flora and fauna (i.e insects). We chose to visit the Pampas. 

Our first day was fantastic as we cruised down the river amongst Alligators, turtles and more species of bird than you could name, Steve even had a squirrel monkey run across his lap! However that night it rained, and when it rains out here a plague of mosquitoes ensues. The result of this, despite covering up and religiously reapplying our 50% Deet, was over 100 bites each. The only place you were safe was under your mosquito net in bed and even then you would pray there was nothing in there with you. 

Despite being mozzie food we had a great time, we enjoyed fishing for piranhas (even though we were rubbish and only caught 3 each!), seeing the alligators' eyes glowing in the dark and simply seeing the plethora of wildlife in it's natural habitat. A particular highlight was waking up to Dawn in the Amazon, a very noisy experience and slightly scary if the howler monkeys are out. They make a very menacing noise. So after 2 nights in the Amazon (and not one tarantula spotting) we are once again La Paz bound. Now all that remains is to get Steve back on the plane...

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Photos

Piranha Fishing
You should´ve seen the one that got away!

Gator!
One of thousands.

Capybara
We don´t know how to spell it!

Steve Next to a Caiman Skull
We saw two live ones, they were massive!

Ellie Boarding the Plane...
...of Terror!

Comments

[Virg]

AMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZING
Nuff said.

[Mummy Cherry]

Monkeys are back!
Pleased to see the monkeys are back - as we said, we paid extra for those to look after you - they won't hurt you. They are just warning you of the gators - they are number 42 on the gator menu and they don't want you added to it. Fantastic photos, can't wait to see them all and hear about it when you come back. Love the 'punk-rocker bird' - did it have safety pin through its nose and a zip down its back? Small aeroplanes + turbulence and mountains = a fun ride - I love it. Best thing to do is just relax and pretend it is a funfare ride - you can be sure everything will be OK. The pilot does that all the time and the aeroplanes are designed for it so don't worry, just enjoy the ride. Dad Cherry

[Sarah Mullen]

Haha - glad someone else suffered too
This blog is pretty much the exact same blog I wrote about the amazon when we went - scary plane journeys (for the girl in the relationship though, not the boy, man up Steve!) and multiple mozzie bites! Wildlife looks awesome though. Keep enjoying it xx