The Amazon Basin

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Yesterday we flew from La Paz (3600m elevation) to Rurrenabaque (105m elevation). La Paz is a lovely city contrary to what we had been told, we weren't robbed, the people were friendly & there was stuff to do. It was however, cold & we glad we had flown into the hot jungle even if it was by a twenty seater, twin prop plane that seemed to find turbulence in crystal clear skies.
We had arranged a Pampas tour in La Paz with Bala Tours & were picked up from our hotel at nine in a taxi that would take us to the pampas in about three hours. The day became hot quickly & coconut, banana & papaya trees soon disappeared behind us as the landscape opened into grasslands. The road was dusty & whenever a truck passed we had to quickly shut or windows as plumes of dust that covered us obscured all visibility. Just in the taxi ride alone we saw various birds of prey, rheas, caiman, armadillos (although this was a rarity) & all sorts of birds as they flashed past the window. We couldn't wait to see what there would be in the park.
We reached Santa Rosa Park & took a ten minute boat ride to Caracoles Lodge. There was a group of Brits & French & a german family already there but they were on their way out so we were left the lodge to ourselves & the staff. After lunch we lounged in hammocks by the river as it was too hot for the wildlife to be doing anything exciting. At about three we set of with Aureliano our guide & Alan the five year old son of the cook on the Yacuma River. It wasn't long before we had seen tiger heron, snowy egrets, great egrets, water rails, capybaras & caracaras all along the river bank. At one point we heard heavy breathing that could have been a big cat but turned out to be hoatzins, ancient birds that eat leaves & have three stomachs similar to ruminant animals. Further on down the river we saw red capped cardinals, flycatchers, caiman, darters, cormorants, grey herons, parakeets, rosada spoonbills, giant kingfishers, turtles, storks, vultures, amazonas king fishers, & ibises.
At one point Aureliano stopped the boat & pointed to a blob in a tree which turned out to be a brown capuchin monkey. There were also black howler monkeys but they looked like blobs too.
On our return we passed pink river dolphins who were not normally in that part of the river & they drifted gracefully under our boat. Nearer home several boats were filled with people fishing for piranhas looking as if they may fall in at any point.
We had a three course dinner by ourselves surrounded by fly screens & the jungle.

Drink of the Day: Paceña - A beer with a marketing line "Paceña es cerveza" (Paceña is beer) in case you hadn't worked it out.

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