Amazon

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So we arrived at 5.30am at the TAM military airport. Still dark as we wait amongst dozens of uniformed officers and a handful of tourists. The plane held about 20 people. We entered the plane from the back where all our bags were stacked and to our relief our plane took off on schedule at 7am. Leanne popped a little valium as we peered out through scratched windows from our wobbly seats. Leannes fear of flying was quickly forgotten as the amazing views of the Cordillera Real captured our attention. This was an amazing flight as you leave the high mountains surrounding the already high La Paz, the land suddenly drops down suddenly 3000m to the Amazon basin. Looking out of the plane, all you can see is endless jungle and cloud. 50 mins later we held our breathe as the wheels hit the small grass runway.

The airport here is small and remote. It reminded us of Easter Island with locals sitting out front on motorbikes offering you transport into Rurrenabaque (the town).

Rurrenabaque rests on the Rio Beni river and is surrounded by a back drop of low lying cloud and amazon rain forest. The place is very relaxing.

Having already organised our Pampas tour from La Paz, we met our guide and headed out of town in a jeep for 3.5hours along a very bumpy gravel road to the Pampas region.

The Pampas is a flat lying region which has had a lot of trees cleared for cattle. Along the Yacumi river, where we stayed, there is still vegetation which is abundant with wildlife. Our programme over the next 3 days involved wildlife spotting out of our dug out long boat and relaxing in hammocks between palm at our ecolodge (life is tough here!). We were well rewarded for coming to the pampas with fantastic sightings of many animals including black howler monkeys, sloths (which live up to there name), hundreds of speckled and black caiman (alligators), cute turtles, capybaras (giant guinea pigs), giant snails, amazing pink river dolphins jumping and playing around our boat, as well as a huge variety of bird life including egrets, eagles, hawks, herons, storks, voulchers, macaws and parrots.

We spent one of our afternoons fishing for piranhas which was a different form of fishing than we are used to. For starters you use red meat as bait and as soon as the bait hits the water there is a frenzy of bites. Crazy! Along with piranhas we also caught cat fish but missed out on the sardines.

At night we travelled the banks in our boat spotting hundreds of red peering eyes largely from our friend the alligator. Fire flies buzzed above our heads beneath on amazing ceiling of stars.

We had one unsuccessful morning hiking in search of the anaconda but none to be found. Maybe this was for the best!

In rainy season the river floods out to cause a delta effect at around the surrounding planes. Given we had arrived at the start of dry season the river was concentrated to the width of a road. The benefit of this was the concentration of wild life which can be challenging to spot in the rainy season. This was a big factor in our decision NOT to swim with the pink river dolphins when it was offered. If you want an example of piranha and alligator infested waters, this was it. Bar one other couple we had the lodge to ourselves and 3 days was the perfect time to return to Rurrenbaque to relax before our flight on the 5th of June.

Tomorrow the plan is to hike into the jungle to water falls and swimming holes.

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Photos

Lunch Time
There were hundreds and hundreds of these big boys..

Turtle
Wheres the Pot

Piranha
Look at those teeth

Capybara
Big as a Pig

Comments

[Sarah]

We lose....
Ok, Montana can definitely not compete with that.... what a wonderful few days you both describe and show photos of.