Pampas: Swimming w/ Dolphins, Gators and Piranha
Trip Start
Sep 24, 2008
1
65
76
Trip End
Jul 21, 2009
Where I stayed
Hostal Santa Ana, Rurrenabaque
Indigena Pampas Ecolodge, Pampas
Rurrenabaque, Bolivia
Friday, May 22, 2009
The Death Road is Not Just Where You Ride Bikes
Mary and I had been in the cold, the altiplano and the mountains for a long time. It was time to warm up, to see some green, to see some wildlife and head on down to the Amazon Basin. Popular excursions are a tour of the pampas (vast wetlands) and of the jungles (proper rainforest). We arranged both of these tours (Mary already did a jungle tour in Peru, so I only booked that) and prepared to head to Rurrenabaque.
Rurre, as it is commonly known, is extremely remote, as is pretty much everything in Bolivia. In fact, the only paved roads in the country lie in the far southeast around Santa Cruz, the road between La Paz and the Peruvian border in Titicaca and the road connecting La Paz to Potosi, Sucre and Santa Cruz
Rurre 1
. That's it. There are three ways to get to Rurre from La Paz: by floating on a boat for three days (1,200Bs), by flying for 45 minutes (525Bs) though if it is raining in Rurre you cannot land and by taking a bus (80Bs). While the boat sounds great and the plane is convenient, you just cannot argue with a USD12 long distance bus. Or so we thought.By road, Rurre is only 440km (275mi) from La Paz. On any reasonable stretch of asphalt, this would take less than six hours. It took us 20. The road to Rurre is the extension of the World's Most Dangerous Road, or Death Road, that entertains mountain biking tourists nowadays. With exception of the first 60km or so, the road is narrow, dusty, bumpy, windy and insanely dangerous. This is up there with the worst bus trips I have seen in India, but it is an experience that must be lived firsthand.
Apart from the absurdly uncomfortable ride and the roller-coaster thrills, it travels through some of the most beautiful land I have ever seen. The trip begins out of La Paz, with views of the Cordillera Real, and continues over La Cumbre and straight down into the Yungas. The Yungas are the unique cloudforests, grasslands and rainforests found only on the eastern side of the Andes mountain range. This portion of the trip is on a smooth, paved road, and should have posted no challenge
On the road to Pampas (Reyes)
. Of course, nothing is this easy in Bolivia. As soon as we were out of La Paz, everyone had to slam their windows shut as the most god-awful, England-in-the-Industrial Revolution-smokestack-black smoke came pouring out of our bus. It turned day into night on the left side of the bus and it was only noon on a sunny day! Somehow, once we were descending, the smoke problem was solved (there's no way we would have survived 20 hours of this) and we coasted down the paved road, with extraordinary views of the green jungles. It was the first time I had seen forests and trees like this since being in Daintree in Australia. Just as with the WMDR bike ride, there are extremely precarious and catastrophic drops off the side of the bumpy road as it is crudely carved into the sides of the mountains as they descend from the towering, snow-capped peaks of the Andes down to the river valleys in the rainforest. Once down in the "flats", the road loosely follows along the river, with vast canyons with forest-covered walls rising all around it. I was greatly reminded of the bus ride down the Red River from Kunming to He Kou in China. Much of this bus ride and time in the Amazon Basin reminded me of SE Asia.
As I said, the road is extremely narrow and windy.
Dropoff in Santa Rosa where we met Luis
It is also massively dusty, dust like I haven't seen since the roads of Cambodia. You combine the two and add in a pinch of crazy Bolivian drivers and you have a perfect recipe for near-fatal crashes at every turn. There were at least two instances where our bus stopped abruptly and everyone looked out the window to see that we were less than two feet away from slamming straight into a truck or another bus! There were times on the road where we went two-wide around a car, with our wheels seemingly holding on to the cliff side of the road by a small portion of the tread. It was quite a scary view looking straight down the cliff and knowing that we were not in control of the moving vehicle! Nonetheless, after a rough night on the road (all of these previously described near distasters occurred during the day, thankfully we rode the most dangerous and cliff-ridden portion during the day!) and an acquisition of a massive satchel full of oranges for 6Bs (
Rurre: A Throwback to SE Asia
As I said, much of the bus ride reminded me of Laos and Cambodia, with the vast palm-filled plains and lush mountainous jungles. Well, Rurre made me feel like I was once again chilling in one of the many quiet towns along the mighty Me Kong River.
Rurre is a small town of 8,000 people that feeds completely off tourism and was formerly a complete garbage-ridden backwater
Dropoff in Santa Rosa de Yacuma
. There is a small, dirt-road, grid system that runs parallel to the Rio Beni. Surrounding the town are beautiful jungle-covered mountains. The air is filled with sounds of birds, people and that symbol of SE Asia, the <150cc motorbike. There are few cars on the roads and tons of motos running everywhere. Unfortunately, one cannot rent the bikes, but it was such a wonderful and nostalgic feeling to see them scooting around town. Mary and I checked into the Hostal Santa Ana, a quiet and leafy outdoor hostel with hammocks strewn up in a gazebo. Once again, we were back to cheap rooms and meals (as compared with La Paz) and our room was 50Bs (USD7.00). Relishing the tropical weather, the humidity, the warmth and (thankfully) the lack of mosquitos, we decided to relax in town for a day before embarking on our pampas tour. We spent the day not on the internet, which was an extortionist 8Bs (USD1.15 and 4 times the average cost in the country), but throwing back delicious and cheap milkshakes and orange juice, walking around town and lounging and reading. Pampas Tour Day 1
We left with five others on May 18 for our three-day tour through the Bolivian wetlands. The Pampas, as the area is called, cover a vast area surrounding flooded rivers (our tour was around the Rio Yacuma). They are extremely rich in animal-life and are, by far, the cheapest and best place to see wild animals in South America
The Frenchies in their khakis
. The flooded pampas of Bolivia are quite comparable with the large Pantanal in southwestern Brasil. Unlike the jungles, it is much easier to see the birds, reptiles and mammals of the pampas because there is less foliage and cover to hide behind. Our group was made up of five other people: Geoff//Alex (Oz), Carrie (Norway), Justus (Ger) and Marisa (NZ). After a significant delay, we were finally off around 10am on another bumpy ride in a decrepit 4WD Toyota Land Cruiser; this must be the graveyard for rejected jeeps from the tours down in Uyuni. Thankfully, we took a day off before getting on another tough road trip; several of our tour-mates had just come off the 20-hour bus from La Paz! Just like the black smoke that poured into our bus from La Paz, dust came piling through the windows. With the palm-filled grasslands and farmland flying by the window, my face covered in dust and brown streaks in my hair, I could almost close my eyes and feel like I was riding motorbikes with Brad and Esther again. It was amazing to think that we were less than 300 miles away from the chaos of La Paz and 20,000ft+ mountain peaks!
We eventually arrived at Santa Rosa de Yucuma, which is a protected wetlands area. I was blown away by how well the municipality encourages and maintains sustainable tourism, both culturally and environmentally
Luis and our boat
. We paid our hefty 150Bs (USD20) wetlands fee (though it is for a good cause) and we were set to go. After an incredibly forgettable lunch, we arrived at the clusterf*ck that is the arrival area for the jeeps and departure area for the boats. Our transport for the following few days would be by motorized dugout canoe. There are constantly tons of tours beginning and finishing, so there was quite a wait for our boat to arrive, to get loaded and for us to leave. In the meantime, I jumped into the incredibly muddy and cloudy river for a swim. It felt awesome to rough it a bit and be swimming in water that contained pink river dolphins and potentially gators! With our gear finally loaded on our dugout canoe, we met Luis, our tour guide, and were off. Luis is awesome and speaks phenomenal English. The 28-year old guide has spent seven years conducting tours of the pampas and knows all of the wildlife and every inch of the waterways like the back of his hand. He is an incredibly hard-working guy who loves his job. He hails from a small town the size of Rurre, both of his parents died young from diabetes (50 and 49) and learned English on the fly while working in the tourism industry. The developing-world work ethic for survival never ceases to amaze me.
On our three-hour boat ride out to our jungle lodge, we were were surrounded by nothing but green and water
Pampas 1
. Even though there are tons of people visiting the pampas, we wouldn't know as we barely saw a soul. En route, Luis, with his hawkeyes, and we spotted tons of birds (many with their wings spread out to dry), jibo (I cannot remember the name) storks, gators, pink river dolphins, capybara (world's largest rodent with a massive snout), howler monkeys and squirrel monkeys. We pulled up to a tree full of the squirrel monkeys, who are quite curious and not shy, who came down to greet us, eat some fruits Luis fed (which was not good environmentalism) and steal a grapefruit! Those cheeky little monkeys knew exactly where the food was stored on the boat, snuck down and walked away with a fruit that was larger than its body. So cute! The boat ride reminded me of when I was with Brad and Esther on a boat trip through the flooded forest to Tonle Sap in Cambodia. The water was like glass, providing for surreal reflections of the small trees and large clouds and blue sky above. We were visiting at the beginning of the dry season, but it was hard to believe that the completely flooded plains were 2m lower than the high water mark. The water over land is 5-6m deep, while the water in the Rio Yacuma is 15m deep!
After a beautiful boat ride, we reached our ecolodge, in the absolute middle of nowhere
Pampas 2
. A simple wooden-hut lodge on the banks of the river, it is comprised of a large dormitory-style mosquito-netted bed room that is separated by razor-thin walls, a screened hammock room, a bathroom (with flush toilets and running water!) and a kitchen. There is a septic tank somewhere that collects all of the non-biodegrable waste. A generator produces power for a few hours in the evening. It was a surprisingly relatively sustainable and environmentally-friendly establishment. There was also a house mascot there to greet us. He goes by the name of Frederico. He is a massive wild aligator. He was so still around humans, that the gullible soul in me believed when I was told he was plastic. Luis, our guide, walked up and pet him. We saw the little girl (of the manager of the lodge) playing a few feet from him. Despite being a wild gator, he is so chill around human beings. By the end of my visit, I was petting him and sitting right next to him. Once again, Dad would not approve.
Just as with the Inca Trail, Jesus (our cook) had popcorn and beverages ready for us soon after we arrived. Something about the popcorn made in Peru and Bolivia makes it the best stuff on earth. We all then hopped into the boat and made our way just down the river to a small farm to catch sunset
Pampas 3
. In actuality, we realized that all of the local guides (most are mixed Guarani and European descent) take their groups here, so they can engage in an evening game of futbol and beatdown the tourists. Apparently, a group of Englishmen gave them a run for their money and beat them though! It is a tiny farm plot, with cows and horses running around, and provided for a nice sunset venue. Without a hill anywhere nearby, there was a large could-filled sky that turned all different shades of pinks and oranges with the silhouettes of a few palm trees in the foreground. Once again, another reminder of Cambodia! However, with sundown, came the terror. Mosquitos. And this was the dry season. I cannot imagine the plague-like amount of mosquitos during the wet season. They were absolutely everywhere. No amount of bug spray or layers of clothes could get rid of them. Back at camp, with the lights on, we stayed indoors as much as possible as there were disgusting quantities of bugs everywhere. After dinner (more on this later), Luis took us out on the book to look for caimans and gators. Caimans are black and much larger than gators. They are a relative of the massive crocodiles of Africa and Australia. Riding in darkness through the waters was a surreal experience. Luis knows his way around! We would guide him with our headlamps, which would invite an ungodly amount of bugs to slap us in the face, and also use our beams to survey the sides of the river, where the reptiles reside
Pampas 4 - bird drying wings
. Every now and then, we would see two orange glows just above the water's surface: the eyes of the gators. They wouldn't panic, but would sit quietly and allow us to pull up close before darting below the surface. There was so much life all around us and we were right in the middle of it! The mosquitos would have the last laugh with me that night as I was, once again, struck down by the food of Bolivia. This must have been the fourth or fifth night where my stomach was destroyed since I had entered the country. It was also unbearably hot in our unventilated room, so I went to bed in my boxers - without a shirt on. Well, I had to make several toilet runs through the night and embarked on these painful journeys unprotected and without a shirt. My back was absolutely killed. I had more than 50 massive welts on my back by the following morning; it looked as though I was infected with chicken pox!
Pampas Tour Day 2
The next morning was the Search for the Anaconda. For Mary and me, it was time to read and recuperate as we have extreme phobias of the evil creatures. Anacondas live in the fields near the farm where we watched sunset, and while our group was off looking for the large and vile reptiles while up to their knees in gumboots and water, Mary and I stayed behind
Pampas 5 - Howler monkey
. The snakes know to stay away from the farm because there are humans around, who will harm them, and they are quite scared. Despite our cautious efforts, we saw an anaconda. A member of one of the other tour groups was crippled, so his guide brought one out on his shoulders (another instance of poor environmentalism) to show to the guy. While a nice gesture for a member of his group, it was cruel to the snake and cruel to us as we had to see the disgusting snake. Alas, this was the only snake that the rest of our group saw as well; and they were wet up to their waists! Following our snake escapades, we were back in the dugout canoe and on the lookout for sloths. The incredibly cute, but shy creatures, are quite difficult to spot as they like to hang out far up in the trees. Alas, we didn't find any sloths this time out, but we did find an army of monkeys. This boat ride was by far my favorite part of our time in the pampas. We saw some large blue macaws (related to the parrot) flying in pairs and tons of howler, cappucino and squirrel monkeys. A group of cappucino monkeys led the way as a family of 60+ squirrel monkeys followed us along the rivers edge. It was amazing - they were climbing and jumping along at various levels of the tree. There was one clearing that we filmed, between two trees where we stopped, and in less than a minute all of the monkeys had jumped or walked across
Pampas 6
. It was like a circus act; I couldn't believe we actually saw this real Wild Kingdom before our eyes!After a short afternoon siesta, we took the boat out once again to go swimming with dolphins. They are very social creatures and it is quite a unique sensation to be swimming in completely brown and dark water and have a dolphin playing with your feet. At the dolphin-swimming zone, we saw the French family that had been touring with the same company. The really nice family, was unfortunately constantly made fun of by us because they all had matching khaki safari outfits and cameras at all times. Apparently, they were seen in southern Bolivia wearing the exact same matching outfits! Unfortunately, the dolphins didn't really want to play with us, but it was still wonderful to swim in the open and wild river in the middle of the pampas.
Once again, we wound down the day with some popcorn and refreshments and another beautiful sunset and evening futbol match at the small farm. After dinner, we all piled into the boat to go to the Sunset Bar at night. Exactly. However, on the boat, we were gifted with one of the greatest collage of stars above our heads. There wasn't even a trace of light for miles and miles and the contrast between the jetblack sky and the white clouds of the Milky Way and brilliance of the stars was remarkable
Pampas 7
. With Luis' knowledge of the river, we returned to our lodge without the aid of headlamps and saw the stars reflecting off the still and placid river. It was beautiful. That night was unfortunately one of the worst nights of sleep of all time as one of the guides was snoring louder than any father on the planet. Eventually, I got a little bit of rest, and gently woke up Mary in the morning who was resting like Sleeping Beauty in her mosquito-net palace. Pampas Tour Day 3
After breakfast, Luis took us out in the boat on another search for sloths. Somehow, he was able to spot one way up high and hidden in the tree branches. We can at least check the box and say we saw one. We saw more birds, gators and actually saw a giant caiman. Before returning to the lodge to pack up our gear, we went fishing for piranhas (another instance of poor environmentalism), alas all of us failed except for Luis.
Back at the lodge, I pet and sat next to Frederico, the wild gator, and then we packed up our gear and got back in the dugout canoe for our return trip out of the Pampas. Jesus made us a wonderful farewell lunch, including a delicious "Safe Travels" cake. Luis, the man that he is, raced back to the arrival area in Santa Rosa de Yacuma, flying by the other boats that were leaving the Pampas
Pampas 8
. It took us less than two hours to get back and it was an extremely fun ride. We all loaded back into the jeep, accompanied by Luis and his blaring MP3 pop and reggaton tunes, for the bumpy and dusty ride back to Rurrenabaque. In Reyes, fairly close to Rurre, our jeep broke down 10 feet from the gas pump. The battery had apparently conked. A few of us pushed the jeep and popstarted a massive 4WD vehicle! I have never seen that one before.
Mary and I checked back into the Santa Ana in Rurre, took a much needed shower and nap, enjoyed a pizza meal (which knocked my stomach out AGAIN) and met up with Geoff and Alex for a couple of drinks. We called it an early night and got a brilliant night of rest. What an excellent tour. If you are anywhere near Bolivia, do the Pampas tour. You will not regret it.
Jungle Tour: Abort, Abort, Abort!
May 21 morning was when I was supposed to depart on my Jungle tour. We both decided that the bus ride down was enough and that we would take the flight back to La Paz. Mary booked her flight for that morning and would spend a couple of days in La Paz, while my flight was scheduled in a couple of days, after my Jungle tour
Pampas 9
. After saying bye to Mary, I walked over to the Jungle tour office and found out there were not enough people leaving that day to depart. They wouldn't have a departure for two more days. We had limited time left in Bolivia and Mary was waiting for me in La Paz, so I didn't want to go when they had their next deparature. Addtionally, I couldn't afford two more days in Rurre and couldn't hire a tour with another company, since I didn't have that much cash on me and there are no ATMs in Rurre.
I made a quick decision to try and catch Mary at the airport and get on her flight. I raced back to my hostel, grabbed my bags from storage, ran into an said a quick hello to Rory (my buddy from the Uyuni Jeep Tour) on the street and hopped on the back of a motorbike-taxi to the airport. It felt so great to be on the back of a bike again and feel the breeze flow through my hair as I watched the tropical life pass me by. The airport is a liberal description as there is a small room adjoining a mud airstrip. There is no ATC or security check. Alas, the 18-seat aircraft was completely full and I dejectedly returned to Rurre to wait for the next available seat on a flight to La Paz, which wasn't until 6pm the following evening.
Despite being pissed off at being stranded and having my Jungle tour cancelled, I quickly realized there are worse places to be stuck and I enjoyed the extra day in shorts in a tropical climate. I spent the day reading, napping, eating, walking and relaxing in the town. I overdosed myself on delicious fresh OJ from a woman who runs a kiosk with her husband and whose adorable little girl runs around
Pampas 10 - Howler
. I actually babysat the girl for some time while her mom was working the stand. They are an awesome hardworking, happy and friendly family and I was only to eager to support their business and drink their juice! Adjacent to the kiosk is a weird bearded American who runs a banana bread stand. He makes a mean banana bread, which I indulged in several times, but he is an absolute religious zealot nutcase. Our conversation, while I was eating bread and throwing down my third glass of juice, started out entertaining enough, with him discussing the coming end of the world and New Order, the Illuminati and other such organizations and the planned eradication of most of the population of the planet. He had some reasonable arguments and I had some reasonable counter-arguments as well. Nevertheless, this eventually led to the Bible and Jesus as fact and as the word of God, to which I presented logical arguments why this may or may not be the truth. It is just a book after all, even if a brilliant philosophical one. Well, he took this over to the evilness of the Hindu faith and society. Some of his points were valid and I will entertain all objective discussions of organized religion, its merits and its many flaws. However, he crossed the line into prejudicial bigotry, to which I respectfully walked away. The next morning, I saw him spewing the same BS to some other poor tourists and we merely gave each other a polite good morning as I bought some banana bread and continued on my way
Pampas 11 - Squirrel monkeys
. Flying Level with a Summit
Late the following afternoon, I was getting down to my last Bolivianos and had to budget to make sure I could get to the airport and to my hostel to meet Mary in La Paz. I budgeted enough to pay for the first airport tax, not knowing there was a second one. Thankfully, I took the shuttle instead of a moto-taxi (2Bs or USD0.25 savings) as there was 15Bs (USD2) total and not 7Bs (USD1) of airport taxes!
It was such a cool airplane experience. The twin propeller 18-seater landed on the mud airstrip and promptly took off, once they had assured that the passengers and baggage were not too much weight. The plane, with an open cockpit that allowed the passengers to see everything the pilots were doing, took off noisily and provided us with amazing views of the rivers and rainforests of the Amazon Basin. The vegetation spreads as far as the eye can see on the horizon, one of the most awe-inspiring natural sights on the planet. As the plane continued higher in altitude, we reached our cruising altitude of around 20,000ft. We were heading to El Alto Airport, at 4,000m (13,100ft). Just outside of the airport, as I noticed the familiar mountains of the Cordillera Real near La Paz, we flew directly by a massive summit
Pampas 12 - Squirrel monkey
. I am talking about passing the peak of a mammoth peak like one drives by a hill on the side of a road. I quickly looked around and realized that this was the summit of Huayna Potosi. This summit, that was level with the airplane and clearly visible out my window, was where Mary and I had stood not more than a week earlier. Incredible! I landed in cold El Alto with my shorts on and 5Bs (USD0.75) in my pocket. I knew a taxi (40Bs) was out of the question. Thankfully, as I walked out of the arrivals hall, a micro (minibus) passed by that charged 4Bs to reach the center. The micro was not very packed and reached in the same amount of time as a cab would have taken. I made it back to the Loki Hostel to meet Mary with 1Bs left in my pocket. Mission accomplished.
It was great to see Mary again after a couple of days. We enjoyed a great meal at the Eli's Diner near us (cheesesteak glory!) and passed out in a comfortable bed, together. The following morning, we would head out to Copacabana and Isla del Sol, on the sacred Lago Titicaca.
