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Wow! I have just returned from THE most amazing 3 days! I decided that even though I wasn´t 100% better I would head to Rurrenabaque and go to the jungle as I had been so looking forward to it!
So I flew back to La Paz stayed a night and then got a 8am flight the next morning. It was freezing in La Paz so I was dressed for the wintery conditions knowing that as soon as I landed I would have to shed all my clothes as it would be so tropical.
The flight as 45 minutes and I met some lovely people at the airport and ended up sharing a room with a dutch girl. This was also beneficial as I didn´t have to trapse around all the tour companies and decide who to go with as she had already booked with Fluvial tours which were reccommended in Lonely Planet and also the cheapest.
So I paid my 700 Bolivianos ($140 NZ) and settled down in a hammock overlooking the Beni river waiting for the following day for my adventure to begin.
We set off at 9am in a jeep with 6 other travellers 3 french Canadian girls and 3 Isreali guys (South America and especially Rurrenabaque is FULL of Isrealis and usually they travel in big groups so it was nice to just have 3 of them and two had just returned from a 3 month trip to NZ which was cool.) So there were 9 of us in total in the jeep including the driver and we had a 3 hour journey ahead of us on a VERY bumpy and even more dusty road! By the time the 3 hours were over we were all covered in red dust.
But we arrived in one piece at our departure point where our boat and guide were waiting. After an hour wait (am getting used to this Bolivian time!) we set off on the river. I was lucky enough to get a front seat (ok I planned it that way but no one else knew so it was ok.) Cruising down the river was awesome we immediately saw turtles, birds and Monkeys!! Just hanging out in trees doing what monkeys do 😊 Further up the river we saw a pink dolphin. They are river dolphins and although there are pirana and alligators in the river if there is a dolphin around you can get in and swim so we did! But unfortunately the dolphin was being tricky and didn´t want to play with us so we didn´t get very close but it was so nice to be in the water as it was really hot.
We road for another hour and a half to our accommodation which was basic but adequate and had hammocks to relax in down time.
Much to my delight I then discovered that they had a rescued baby monkey there named Boo so I got to have monkey cuddles it was so awesome he was soo cute!! They also had a resident Camen that I thought was an alligator but apparently there is a difference! But yeah it just hangs out close to the huts which was very surreal.
After we had settled in we journeyed up the river to a place with a bar and volley ball net so we played volleyball and watched the sunset I just couldn´t believe I was really there it was just so amazing.
Post our volleyball and sunset we got back in the boat and went looking for alligators. But what we realised is that once the sun goes down there are so many mosqitoes I had to ride with my sunglasses and my mouth very shut so they didn´t fly in. It was pretty awful actually and suddenly looking for alligators wasn´t very appealing but it was part of the program so look for alligators we did. And we found some took photos and high tailed it back to home base for dinner.
The food was really good and post dinner we played cards in our raincoats sweating because we didn´t want to get bitten by the millions of mosquitos!
Day two we got up to a great breakfast and then headed up the river to the marsh for some anaconda hunting. We all wore gumboots that were provided but unfortunately most had holes in them so 5 minutes after walking through nearly knee deep water my feet were muddy and soaked but it was actually quite nice as it was so hot!
We waded through the marsh for an hour but to no avail, to be honest I had very little chance of seeing any sort of animal as I was making so much noise trying to not make my way through the undergrowth that anything would have been scared well away! We then rested under a tree that had a huge hornets nest but it was shady and due to this reason 3 of us decided to stay under the tree while the rest continued to look. After another half an hour they didn´t find anything so it was back to camp for lunch.
The pirana fishing!! Now I´ve never been one for fishing always thought it was boring but there was something about fishing for something with big teeth! So after the guide caught a small fish for Pachamuma (mother earth) we were given bits of nylon with hooks and some meat and told to go for it. I got a few bites to start off with but it wasn´t looking very good for anyone apart from the guide who caught one pretty quickly. But then my luck changed and I ended up catching 6! Only 3 were big enough to keep but still! Only one other girl caught one and the rest of the group were very disheartened about the whole thing but I thought it was fun 😊 Especially as I caught the biggest fish even bigger than the guides 😊
We then headed back for another round of volleyball and sunset and then back to camp for dinner and to eat our pirana! They tasted really nice just like normal fish.
Our last day we decided not to go and see the sunrise as apparently the mosquitos are still out in their thousands so we had a bit of a sleep in a nice breakfast and then off to swim with the pink dolphins!! Apparently the guide knew a "secret spot" which of course was not secret and had 3 boat loads of people. 2 dolphins came to play (apparently there are usually a lot more) and to start off with they were being very tricky and not coming very near but then they went really close to one of the french girls and nibbled her foot! She was very scared! But the guide explained they were just playing. After that I tried my hardest to get as close and possible and although the water was very brown I opened my eyes so I could see the dolphin underwater. And then one of them came close and I touched it and it let me swim with it for ages under water!! It was amazing!! It would then stop and turn and look at me circling and then let me hold onto it to swim again. It was just so wonderful I can´t really describe it! Only 3 in our group'really got up close to the dolphins and only I got to swim with them so I felt very lucky.
I was on a total high after this! We then went to another camp and saw more monkeys hundreds of spider monkeys they were so cute and they move so quickly through the trees.
Then it was back to camp of lunch and the final boat ride back to where we had started and of course another long jeep ride back to Rurrenabaque.
To be honest this is the most amazing experience I have had on this trip by far it was amazing! Fluvial tours were fantastic and the only thing that was missing was having a boat full of my friends to enjoy it with me rather than strangers but you can´t have everything!
Photos are at the link below
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150171680261895.297793.594416894&l=60f05b64df
xx
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Ben
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Wow!
I am so envious of you on this trip. It's a must do. And looking on google maps, it's in a simply amazing spot. Look at those mountain ranges on either side! Beautiful. Sounds bloody brilliant, Kate.