Cool animals on the Pampas tour
Trip Start
Mar 09, 2007
1
141
169
Trip End
??? ??, 2008
Pampas,
Bolivia
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Started out with a 3 hour jeep ride to where we would be taking our boat. We stopped at this lunch spot that was pretty entertaining. They had a pet boar that just lay on the floor asleep while his pet parrot sat around and protected it from the picture taking tourists. I'm not kidding, this parrot would basically sit on the lying down boar and chase away tourists that got too close. When the boar got up and walked around, the parrot accompanied it in front. Hilarious. They also had a pet deer that would poke its head into the kitchen to see if it could get a little snack.
The boat was one of those narrow and long boats (enough room for two people to sit next to each other facing forward), pretty cool. We loaded our stuff and food on, and took off on a 3 hour boat ride down the windy river and swamp land. Along the way we stopped to check out the various wildlife. We came across tons of various birds (Jeremy and I are still confused at the whole bird watching thing, thank god there weren't any bird watchers on our tour), various kinds of monkeys, snakes and pink dolphins.
We got a sweet surprise when we arrived at our camp. There are three alligators and one Cayman that hang around our camp, mainly to get food scraps. Sweet. The camp is basically a set of wooden board walks and little huts that are raised a couple of feet above the water. The river and swamp water freely flows under the entire camp. The alligators come and go and hang out in different spots.
We arrived around 5pm at camp, had some chill out time and then went to go check out the sunset. After sunset we gathered in the kitchen area and ate a pretty good meal, drank some booze, chatted with the others and then called it a night.
The second day we went hunting in the swamp for anacondas, boas and other snakes. We got outfitted with rubber boots and took off on a 30 minute boat ride to get to our spot. We then hiked into this unforrested swamp area to start looking for snakes. We started on dry land, then moved into swamp that was mid-calf high water, then we moved into water that was over the top of the boots and then into parts where the water came up to our mid-thighs (just short of hitting the boys). It was pretty sweet. Our guide, Bizmar, said that our chances of catching a large snake were slim due to the rainy season. The more water there is, the easier it is for the snakes to move around and get further away. Turns out he was right. No big snakes were found, but we did find a anaconda balled up inside a tree trunk. We didn't want to disturb it, so we weren't able to see how long it was, but we put it at about 3 to 4ft and a good inch or so thick.
We wandered through the swamp area for about 2 or 3 hours and then called it quits and headed back for lunch. Lunch and a siesta in a hammock were well welcomed. In the afternoon we went swimming with the pink dolphins. These dolphins are apparently blind (that's what I am told) and use their ultrasonics to navigate. We hopped into the water and started splashing around and making noises to attract them. There was about four of them swimming around. They would rise up for air, then disappear again. They don't really get close and they aren't as playful as I have heard dolphins can be (I have heard salt water dolphins are quite playful). They nibbled on some peoples feet, but that was about it. The closest they got was about a foot away, but before you could reach out and touch them, they were gone. We swam around for about an hour, it was pretty fun.
There are supposedly piranhas in the water as well, but it's the same problem as with the snakes. Since its rainy season, there is more water and they go other places to eat. The groups in the dry season go fishing for them, but our guide said it just wasn't worth it, so we didn't go. Hannah (the Swede on our bus) caught one, she was the only one in her group that did. I saw the head, crazy little teeth on that bugger.
The second day ended with watching the sunset, drinking some beers, eating a nice dinner, and then drinking a lot around the kitchen table with our group as well as some other people.
We rose early on the third morning to float down the river with our engine off to watch the sunrise and all the animals wake up and make their morning wake up noises. Pretty cool. After breakfast, there was another boat excursion planned. There was not going to be any new unexplored territory or animals, so a few of us stuck behind to chill out on the hammocks while the others left. Glad I stuck around, because we got to feed and touch one of the alligators, Casi Miro. In English it means 'almost saw.' He got his name because his left is now totally blind and he doesn't see so well anymore out of his right eye. All his eye damage apparently comes from fighting with other alligators and Caymens. We fed him chicken scraps and it was all done up close. We would dangle the chicken part in front of his nose, then he would slowly open his mouth open wide till it was fully extended and then we would toss the food in. I got a sweet video of Emilie feeding it. We touched it on its nose and back. Em got a bunch of pictures of me feeding it. Pretty awesome.
After lunch we took off back towards the jeep. The boat ride only lasted an hour since we weren't stopping as much to check out animals. It took us a long time to get back in the jeep since there was a ton of mud and our jeep kept breaking down. We were glad to be back in Rurrenabaque for a shower, a beer, a good meal, and a nice bed.
