a) a 45-minute flight, or
b) a 18-30 hour (depending on the weather) bus ride
With the flight being about twice as expensive as the bus... Since we are on a budget and since Rich doesn't really enjoy flying or crazy bus rides, I asked Google which option we should choose. After reading in multiple forums that "everyone who catches the bus down, takes the plane up", our decision was made.
Rich was happy to avoid a night and day on one of Bolivia's deadliest roads, but the plane that would take us into the jungle wasn't really to his liking either. Only the prospect of some steaming hot days and his bottle of Valium were able to calm him down and rocked him into a deep sleep before we even got onto the plane.
I already have some experience in getting him out of his Valium-coma and he has experience in sleepwalking onto planes, so we boarded the 18-seater without any hassles.
Rich got to enjoy another sleep during the short flight, while I was trying to enjoy the view and keep my breakfast down - who would have thought that a 45-minute flight could upset your stomach so much...
We were both more than happy when the plane touched down on the landing strip at Rurrenabaque's bustling airport.
As usual, taxi drivers tried to get our fare as soon as we had our luggage and we gladly accepted a ride - not knowing that taxis in Rurrenabaque are of a different kind. An interesting experience with your entire luggage and a still drugged-up Rich...
We had come to the Amazon not only to enjoy the heat, but also to meet some of the local wildlife and apparently this is best done in the "pampas". We went to different tour agencies to find the best deal and apart from the usual spiel we also heard everywhere "We don't know when the next tour can go out to the pampas since there is a road block and the villagers are throwing dynamite at everyone who tries to pass." What seems unusual to us, is usual practice in Bolivia, and even if we were stuck in Rurrenabaque for a little while, there are worst places to be stuck in...
Rurrenabaque is a small town squeezed in between the Andes and the Amazon. The landscape is stunning and the climate hot and humid. And they even have a H & M...
... and a naval base. Which is rather interesting, since Bolivia is a landlocked country. They lost their sea access in the War of the Pacific in 1884 but the missing sea access is still a sore subject and the main reason why Bolivians don't speak too highly of Peruvians...
After a few days at the El Mirador pool and daily checks of the dynamite-status, we were finally told that they were 95% sure that we could head out into the pampas the following day. The next morning we got up bright and early, still thinking that 95% sure probably meant the opposite in Bolivia, but to our surprise the villagers had calmed down and we were off into the pampas. During a dusty 3-hour 4x4 drive we got to know the international crew that we would be spending the next 3 days with.
From the 4x4 we changed into our main form of transport.
Our camp was a couple of hours downstream and on the way we already got to see some of the wildlife that makes the pampas so popular with travellers. Caimans, alligators, turtles, monkeys, capybaras and heaps of different birds.
After dinner and a bath in our 80% DEET mozzie repellent, we left the safe(ish) enclosure of our camp to see who would eat us first - the mozzies or caimans. The mozzies clearly won and instead of the caimans catching us, Jimmy caught the one caiman that had dared to get too close to our boat.
All nine of us spent the night in a little makeshift hut, which had some fly screens (with big holes but better than nothing) and mosquito nets over each bed. For further mosquito protection, a few beds also had big spider webs around the edges... But still, I was more than happy to have some kind of barrier between me and the bustling nightlife out there. We did manage to catch a few hours of sleep and at dawn, we were gently woken by the impressive growls of howler monkeys.
After an unsuccessful attempt of watching the sunrise (the howler monkeys didn't wake us in time), we went to a swamp in order to look for anacondas. I do love snakes, but I must admit I found this a little nerve-racking to begin with. Walking through a swamp, not knowing where you were stepping while trying to find a possibly 8-meter long snake? I was just hoping, I wasn't going to find it...
The walk was beautiful though and the involuntary mud-bath of two of the English girls made it also rather entertaining.
We had already given up on finding an anaconda and Jimmy had wondered off to get the boat closer to where we were, when he suddenly called us over to show us his find.
A small little baby anaconda. It was a beautiful snake, a little small but still beautiful. I am a bit sceptic though, if Jimmy really just stumbled over it on his way to the boat.... But then, he was like Crocodile Dundee and somehow knew exactly where to find which animal. He finally won over all the ladies' hearts during a couple of rainy hours, when he made us rings out of a nut.
Afterwards, he caught us some pirañas for dinner. Rich had managed to catch a little stick. Ring and food from Jimmy. Stick and stick from Rich. Maybe life in the pampas wouldn't be too bad after all?
The next day, the howler monkeys woke us in time and we managed to safely walk past some sleepy alligators - or at least past what they had just dropped in front of our feet - to see the pampas come to light.
Before heading back to Rurrenabaque, we tried to catch some pirañas for lunch (again, only Jimmy was successful) and had a staring contest with our camp monkeys.
During the 4x4 drive back to town, Jimmy proved his supernatural skills one more time. Every day we had been looking for one of the laziest animals of the world and when we were in full flight on the dirt track back to Rurrenabaque, Jimmy somehow spotted it in a 20 meter high tree. A sloth! So we jumped out of the car and climbed over a few fences to get a closer look, from where we could admire the sloth climb up to the top of the tree.
The perfect end to a perfect pampas trip - thanks to Jimmy and our fellow travellers!
The next day we went into the jungle but what happened there, I'll leave up to Rich...
(In a separate entry, since this is already way too long...)
Even more photos here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/109362659982164453049/RurrenabaqueAndAmazon?authuser=0&feat=directlink
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