Crocs, Jungle and Many Mosquitos
Trip Start
Aug 17, 2005
1
25
31
Trip End
Jul 01, 2006
Rurre, Bolivia
Thursday, April 20, 2006
The bus resembled an old American School Bus (those yellow ones), but with worse seats, and Bolivians seating in the isle. The journey takes you along the "Worlds most dangerous road", which is a 70km strech on which, every year, and average of 100 vehicles come off, and many 10s of people die. We felt secure watching our driver stuff coca leaves into his cheek every 10 minutes or so - but after a few minutes you are captivated by the scenery, and pondering the 500m drops that are just 1 metre from your window. After a sleepless night we arrived in Rurre, which is a small jungle town, with loads of tourists waiting to go for trips into the jungle.
We took a 3 day Pampas tour, as you see more animals there than in the rainforest, which seemed to mostly entail looking at trees. We left our tour-operator promising to get us a flight out of Rurre to La Paz, as Luke was leaving soon, so we needed to conserve time (and, we really didn´t want to do the bus ride again).
The tour was brialliant; we were with a good group of people and were driven into the Pampas first by 4 x 4 and then in our dug-out canoe. Our lodge for 2 nights was equipped with hammocks over-looking the river, and resident Allegators (4 of them in all). Still essentially wild, it was brilliant to get so close to them. we were warned not to venture into the water, but once they were mostly out on the ground, they loose most of their speed. We could actually touch ones nose, feed it bread (we were dubious as to whether Allegators actually want to eat bread), and watch as fellow travllers risked limbs for good photos. That night we went Camen hunting (with torches, and saw the red eyes glinting in the bushes), and watched a sunset from a bar in the middle of the Amazon Pampas!
The next day we went "Anaconda Hunting", which entailed wlaking for 3 hours through Pampas. The water got up to our waists at points, and the shorter people (namely a few girls) were practically swimming. We started to suspect we would see very little after the first 10 minutes, and when our guide started to pull up water-lilies to throw at us all and shout around, we knew we wouldn´t. All we saw was a dragon-fly (guide still pulled us all around it to show us), a toad (spotted by Luke), and some tadpoles. After lunch, we set off in the boats to find a spot with Dolphins. In this area, the fresh water Dolphins have a pink colour, and are pretty friendly and want to play with humans. We all jumped out of the boat and waited - but they weren´t quite as friendly as we hoped, and kept a few metres away. It was still great to be swimming around them, and although we were promised that the Dolphins are only found in areas without Allegators or Pirhanas, we were all keeping a good eye on the surrounding water. Riding back to the lodge, the Dolphins followed the boat which was great.
The next morning we set off to fish for Pirhanas. There were loads there (mostly smal ones), and every time you put the chunck of meat into the water, it had gone within a few minutes. The hooks though resembled Captain Hook´s hook, so catching the little ones was hard. A few people caught them (but neither Me nor Luke did), and the cook presented them to us at lunch, and they tasted really good actually. We travelled back to Rurre, and were greated to the news that the operator, surprisingly, had not managed to get us on a flight. We ended up going to the Bolivian Military office, who would fly out a few tourists if enough wanted to...
The next day we were being driven to the airport on the back of motorbikes (with all our backpacks with us, clinging onto the back for dear life), and boarded a plane with 2 other passengers and 2 crew (in military outfits). The plane wouldn´t start for the first few minutes, and the palms started to sweat. The runway was a piece of grass about 4 metres wide, mown (fairly) short, in a clearing in the forest. Eventually the propellers started and we took off, shakily, over some stunning scenery on the hour-long flight. First Rain-forest with some clearings, ridges and rivers snaking through, then into mountainous areas with incredible blue/green lakes, and huge cliffs. Then we passed some of the highest peaks in Bolivia - right next to them, and finally landed above La Paz, which is a stunning view in itself from the edge of the valley/crater in which it sits.
The next day we met up with Mike again, but i feel this log is getting to long, and my fingers are tired, so i shall create a new one soon...
