As we were climbing up from La Paz airport we flew past some
amazing snow-capped mountains not more than about 100m away. After only 35 mins
we touched down in the jungle. Even though it was still early it was already
hot and humid and there was a lot of oxygen in the air!! This made a great
change after being around 3800m for the past couple of weeks.
We got to the travel agency in the centre of town and
checked in for our Pampas tour, this is a tour along the river in 8-seater
dugout canoe type boats with a 15hp engine on the back. The other Tessa and
Adam managed to get onto our trip no problem (there were 11others as well). We
met our guide, Victor, at the agency. To avoid confusion in the names on the
tour he called the other Tessa, Tessa Uno and Chennells Dos, this is probably
because he took a distinct liking to Tessa Uno during the trip. After pleasantries
exchanged we piled into 2 old red Toyota Land Cruisers and began the 3 and a
half hour ride that was probably the dustiest I have ever been on. Every time
we passed another 4x4 or truck the whole car would be filled with dust, by the
end of it, we were all covered and the shirt I was wearing will never be the
same again.
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| Our boats for the 3 hr journey up the river on day 1 |
A quick lunch in a local village and we were off to get the
boats to start our Pampas tour. The river was pretty low, but Victor said that
it was better than some years before where there was almost no water in the
river at this time of year. The rainy season is in Nov, Dec, Jan and so we were
there at just about the driest time.
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| Black Cayman |
Almost immediately as we left the banks we started seeing
wildlife and birdlife. Under pretty much every tree there is at least 1 cayman,
most of them are spectacled caymans but we did see a few black caymans. The
black caymans can get up to 8m long! There were also plenty Capibaras along the
river banks, these animals are like a hippo crossed between a hamster (are
apparently part of the rodent family). There were also plenty of birds along
the river, far too many to mention.
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| Spectacled Cayman |
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| Capibaras |
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| Amazon Fish Eagle |
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| Paradise Bird |
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| Swimming the murky waters of an Amazon tributary |
We knew that there were pink dolphins in the river and were
really hoping to see them up close. When we reached one point in the river, our
guide Victor, advised us that there were pink dolphins in the water and it was
safe to swim (apparently the pink dolphins keep the piranha and cayman infested
waters clear in this area). We could see the dolphins surfacing in various
places in the area, so I obliged and plunged into the murky, muddy waters of an
Amazon tributary. The water was really warm and I was concerned the whole time
about being bitten by a piranha, and then I felt something nipping at my side.
Needless to say I pretty much shat myself there and then. Victor was
unperturbed and calmly said that it was only sardines. After a few minutes it
was time to move on so we could get to the lodge before dark. There was plenty
more to see along the way, the spider monkeys being the most notable in the
last part of our journey. Hundreds of turtles too, all sunning themselves on
exposed pieces of wood, until the wake from our boat swallowed them up!
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| Spider Monkey |
After 3 hours on the river, we arrived at the lodge which
consists of a dining room, a hammock room and a whole bunch of dorm rooms for
groups of 7 or 8. At least the beds all had mosquito nets! Once we had put our
stuff down we all jumped back into the boats for a short trip up the river to a
bar to watch the sunset. Well as it turns out, it’s not really too much of a
bar at all, they have beer, but it’s pretty warm and there is nothing softer or
harder than that on offer. The sunset was worth it though!
Later that evening after dinner we went on a night cruise on
the river seeing the sights and sounds by night. It was pretty amazing, loads
of caymans (incl one large black one just around the corner from the lodge),
fish that jumped into the boat. One fished actually jumped into the boat
slapping Adam in the face on his way in. I found this hilarious, but I don’t
think he did quite as much! We also saw loads of bats and fireflies. A one
point we turned off all our headlamps / torches and just floated downstream,
the sky was full of stars and it was just so peaceful and quiet floating down
the river!
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| Anaconda hunting in thigh high grass! |
The next morning we were going anaconda hunting. This
entailed putting on some gum boots/wellies and trudging through thigh high
grass looking for snakes (they said we may see cobras too). Now this sounded
like a lot of fun to a lot of people, but growing up on a farm with half a
dozen types of deadly snakes tends to teach you to stay away from the damn
things, but off we went anyway! We left the lodge at 8 am and it must already
have been 28 degrees! The walk itself ended up being a 4 hour trudge from our
lodge around a few lakes in the sweltering head (it must have got up to 38
degrees in the middle of the day!!) and we did not end up finding any snakes!
We were kind of sad and I was kind of glad at the same time. Tess and I only took
1 litre of water each for the walk and both of us got back pretty dehydrated, I
think I downed a litre and a half as we got back.
We had a little chilled time before heading off to our
afternoon’s activity: piranha fishing. This once again could be rather
dangerous to one’s fingers, but as it turns out was quite a lot of fun, and
rather challenging to catch the little buggers. They are pretty sneaky as they
mostly manage to eat the meat off the hook without getting themselves hooked.
Tess and I each caught half a dozen or so and made sure we didn’t lose any
fingers along the way, but none of these were a decent size so we just tossed
them back. One of the other guys did catch a big one and we tasted that at
dinner that evening. It’s not bad at all and a rather mild fish. They are just
so small so you would need a bunch to make a meal of it.
After our fishing
Victor took us to a different sunset bar for a drink. We decided that chilling
having drinks watching the sunset was a much better way to spend time than
piranha fishing so we just relaxed and chatted amongst ourselves and to the
other groups that came for a sundowner. We headed to bed early as we were due
to watch the sun rise in the morning on the pampas.
In the night a massive lightning and thunderstorm started,
like the ones they have in Joburg, and it pretty much rained from then right
into the middle of the morning and when we were heading back to Rurrenabaque. We enjoyed seeing the rain and gave us a
little insight into what the jungle must be like in the rainy season in Dec,
Jan. It’s amazing how a night of rain can start to raise the river level! At least the rain made the 3 hour 4x4 ride
back to Rurrenabaque a dust free one.
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| Drinks at Mosquito Bar with Victor, Alice and Adam |
That evening in Rurrenabaque we met up with Leigh-Ann and
Michael, who had introduced us to Tessa and Adam in La Paz, and all went for
drinks and dinner at Mosquito Bar. Our guide Victor was there too and after too
many beers he did declare his undying love for Tessa Uno, much to our
amusement. It was a fun evening to end a great experience in the jungle in
Bolivia. We hadn’t seen jaguar or anaconda, but we had seen loads of other
animals and birds that made it an unforgettable experience.
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| All 7 of us (from right): Tess Uno, Adam, Marije, Tony, Alice, Tess and Me |
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