Rurrenbaque - Pampas time
Trip Start
Mar 28, 2006
1
65
94
Trip End
Ongoing
Rurrenbaque, Bolivia
Monday, December 14, 2009
16th - 20th
November
Rurrenbaque, what an amazing place, if it wasnt so hard to get too, or in Bolivia, it would be a hell of alot better.
The first problem is getting there and away. You can fly, but its pretty expensive, or take like a 20 hour bus down so hell road instead. And not a decent bus, a Bolivian bus, without toilets, tv, music, air conditioning and with locals who generally stink, mostly of piss and other body odours.
Anyway, the ride there wasnt so bad, mostly down hill with a driver who thought he was Aryton Senna. I thought we would fly off the cliff a few times, but once i knocked downs some sleeping pills I was knocked out.
Coming home was alot worse. All uphill, the bus overheated and we stopped for water like 4 times, before stopping for like three hours to change the water pump and some other parts. We also had a driver who drove like a 60 year old, and the sleeping pills didnt knock me out the same way they had on the way there, so my sleep was pretty bad. Plus, more locals who smelt like piss!
Anyway, once we got to Rurrenbaque we had a group of 12 of us, so we booked a tour and got a great price. We had an hour to kill, so we all smashed breakfast and headed off to drive to the river where our boat awaited.
In true bolivian transport style, we broke our crankshaft and had to change 4WDs, and the other car got three flat tyres.
Anyway, we made the boat and took off up stream to our accomidation (shacks would be the best description, basically beds with mosquitio nets and not much else). On the way we saw crocs and capibaras (worlds largest rodents).
We had a pretty decent group of people, so we hung out and talked rubbish most of the night, trying not to be eaten by bugs.
The second day we went looking for anacondas. didnt managed to find one, but the guide dragged out some sort of snake. The afternoon consisted of swimming in the river (mind you there were crocs about 100m either side of camp, and piranhas around the corner), and piranha fishing.
The next day we went to swim with the pink river dolphins and to feed some alligators. I felt like steve irwin, getting close enough to touch them on the nose. Allan was too scared. SOFT.
We headed back and spent one night in rurrenbaque before the hell bus ride home. Good decision to, a great little town, we all got pretty drunk and had a good time.
If you can afford to fly out there, id do it, if not, just drug yourself to the eyeballs and hope not to break down. Bolivian transport strikes again!
oh, and imagine 20 hours without a toilet and infrequent stops when you are passing stools the texture of orange juice! Fun, fun!
