11th/Aug
Jesus .... the plan fits 15 people and you can see the piolets. I am not a nervous flyer at all but this thing (plane) made me worry a bit. Luckily Barry a lad from Limerick entertained myself and Donna (a girl I met in line for the checkin) feel very at ease by telling us the story of the Andes crash where the rugby team were forced to eat their friends who had died after the plane crashed.The film about it is called ALIVE I think? It happened in the mountains we were flying over. Jesus.
Well obviously the plane didnt crash and Im still alive. We got to Rurrenabaque safe and sound and its like we landed on a different planet. No more cold, I was back to extreme humidity and heat. You never know whats around the corner when you travel... we tried to book into a hostel that was highly recommended but it was full and so we ended up going next door which was an army barracks that rents rooms. Well I can tell you now if there is ever an army you want to join for a good time its the Bolovian Army! ha It was a gas place where all the old army guys hung around listened to 80's classics and drank beer!!! It was actually a nice place with a deck overlooking the river.
I hadn't booked my trek in La Paz just flights so I went with Donna that evening to the company she had book with to see if they had any space on her tour the following day. And success they did. I opted for a Pampas tour instead of a jungle tour. This basically meant you were foucsing on the animals of the Pampas landscape rather than random things in the jungle. Very exciting!!!!!
12th/Aug
At 8am our group meet at the tour operator's office. There was Dan, Rich, Donna, 2 german girls whose names I forget, Joe, John and myself!!! Let the adventure begin. We had to drive for 3 hours first in a jeep to get to where we would meet our guide.
When we arrived we unloaded the jeep with all our supplies and loaded them into our baot that would take us down the river to our camp. After everything was loaded and we were introduced to our guide.... who Im going to call Ben because I actually cant remember his name and I never wrote it down........ off we went. The boat ride down the river was unreal. Literally every meter on the river bed there was an alligator. There were spider monkeys, countless types of birds, some crazy hamster like creature that was the size of a hippo and get this..... PINK DOLPHINS. WOW. The boat ride took nearly 3 hours as Ben went slow so we could see everything.
We eventually pulled up to our camp that would be home for the next two nights. The camp was cool. It was all built on high wodden stilts (so the alligators dont eat you when your sleeping) and we had a cabin to ourselves. We were fed a snack and then watched the sunset over the river which was stunning. We then had dinner and amazing meal and headed to the common room for cards and beers.
13/Aug
ANACONDA HUNTING..... Yes you heard, I was actually going into swamp land to look voluntary for Anacondas Ha. After a delicious brekkie (I have to note that I have been so so lucky that any of these types of trips Iv done I have eaten like a King!) off we went to the SWAMP. God I can tell you it was tough going. Walking through mud, in wellies and in the baking heat is not easy. I think we walked for an hour in this type of terrain before we headed into dryer land. We had zero luck with finding any Anacondas in the swamp which everyone was pretty dissapointed about. We then walked through some more jungle-ish terrain, all the time still on the hunt for the Anacondas. Our guide and co-guide knew exactly where to look for them but we had zero luck. We did however manage to find lots and lots of snake skins about the place. They were pretty cool but stank!
And then just as we had given up Ben lept into action and nabbed an Anaconda! I was releaved and dissapointed that it wasnt the bad boy that ate Jennifer Lopez in the movie, but I suppose if it was that guy Id have been eaten. Anyway we caught a snake wahoooo. I toucjed it for a split second but Il admit I was too chicken to hold it much longer than that. The poor guy got tormented but us for a while and then we let him off to do his thing. We were the only group fro our camp to have caught an Anaconda that morning.... they are shy little guys!
On the trek back to the boat we came across something very sad. A poor cow had gotten its self stuck in some ud. It had apparently been there for a few days. It was still alive but barely. Our guide and the lads from the group did their best to try and get it out. They did but it was so week it couldn't stand up. It was all bud dead so the most humane thing to do was to kill it. We walked off and our guide slit its throat :(
After lunch and a well needed siesta we went Parahna fishing. Like Im typing these sentences and Im likexcuse me you did what?! ha Yes Parahnas, the guys that will rip the flesh off your skin in a second!
On the way back to cam our guide got very excited. There was a Tapier swimming in the water! They are very rarely seen by anyone and so it was a rare and wonderful treat for all of us.
We headed up the river in the boat and hopped off at a small bank where there were no alligators. The fishing was tedious... I was the first out of everyone to catch something but unfortunatly it was a sardine not a parahna! We did a miserable job with the fishing, we only caught two.... and it was our guide who caught them!
We then headed further up the river to a spot on the riverbank where there was another camp. Here we watched sunset and even had a game of football against one of the other groups.
After it got dark we headed back to camp for dinner. On the way we all got out our torches and shined them at the water. By doing this we were able to see all the alligators eyes glowing! It was so cool. They are evil things just staring yellow eyed at you from the water.
After another serious meal, beers and many many games of Uno we headed to bed.
14th/Aug
Today was the last day of the tour. Up at 6am to go and watch sunrise. A very early start but worth it!! Then it was back to the camp to have some grub. Today was probably the most anticipated day as we would get to go swimming in the river with the pink dolphins.
Apparently when the pink dolphins are around all the other bad guys that might be in the river swim away! So we got the boat down to a spot in the river where the dolphins are known to hang around ..... AND IN WE GOT. Ugh it felt rotten, the bottom of the river was muddy and slimy and there was always that fear that a gator was going to eat your leg off! What was scary was the alligators on the river bank that were just staring at us like we were dinner!!! But it was great fun, the dolphins were there although they didn't come too close to us.
After lunch we got the boat back to where we had started the trip and then got the jeep back to Rurrenabaque.
We all checked back into the Army Base, cheap and cheerful! After a little siesta it was party time in the Jungle ... cocktails and tequila all round!
