Alligators and cheeky monkeys!
Trip Start
Nov 25, 2004
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Trip End
Jan 26, 2005
The Pampas,
Bolivia
Thursday, July 28, 2005
A hawk perched in a tree
! We even saw a caiman and a capybarle which neither of us had ever seen before! And on top of all that it was great just being in the sunshine again! We arrived at our camp which was pretty basic with mattresses and mosquito nets! What else do you need????? They'd laid out a great afternoon tea for us which was quite spooky actually as it was exactly the same as what we'd had on the Salkantay Trek down to the same biscuits! Spooooky! And then headed out down the river to watch the sunset...accompanied by our best friends...mosquitos!!! One thing we hadn't missed! The next part of the evening was spent cruising down the river in the dark spotting for alligator eyes with our torch lights! There were so many and it was a bit creepy seeing lots (and I mean lots!) of red beady eyes pearing at you from the bank...not that far away at all! Bats flying around, fireflies dotted in the trees, jungle noises everywhere and the most amount of stars I think we've ever seen! Excellent! We had a quick alcohol stop and stocked up with rum & coke (on holiday remember!) and headed back for some grub back at camp! Our first night in the pampas was a combination of jungle noises and yacking from the drunken group who were leaving the next day! Nice!
The most bizarre thing though was being woken by howler monkeys the next morning
A huge Jaribou bird in its nest
! It's the hardest thing to try and describe...it was like a really strong wind blowing almost but not quite...I thought it was the guides playing silly beggars and trying to spook us out but no it was howler monkeys!!!!! We'll play you a video clip of the noise when we get back, that's the easiest way! Up for a yummy brekkie and then some wildlife spotting right infront of the camp! A kingfisher kept dipping in & out for fish, there was an alligator right infront of the camp and some funky red headed punkrocker birds making a racket in the trees opposite! Not your everyday breakfast viewing! And then wearing attractive wellies, we went on an anaconda hunt!!!! Der der derrrrrrrr! This involved splashing through deep mud and grass trying to spot a slippery snake...eughhhh! Not for the squeamish but great fun splashing around! And for a change it was someone else that fell on their arse and kept getting stuck in the mud! Yeah! The guides disappeared for a bit and eventually had success finding a small (?) anaconda at a metre and a half, a big one grows up to 6-8 metres! YIKES! Took some quick piccies and gave him a quick feel (OOOERRR!) and then splashed our way back to the camp! Paul was doing his tracking thing and spotted jaguar & alligator tracks in the mud! I started walking faster back to the camp! Hee Hee! After lunch & a quick siesta (anaconda hunting takes it out of you I tell you!), we were back on the longboats to go swimming with the pink river dolphins
An alligator comes close to our camp
! I was a little bit dubious about this partly because of all the alligators swimming around and partly because of the colour of the water...don't like it when I can't see whats in the water with me but following in Paul's footsteps and for the team, I eventually jumped in!!!!!! It was very cool, the dolphins were amazingly close to us and they really are pink underneath! Their fins are completely different from sea dolphins as well - not like a sharks fin but bent over! They were so playful as well...when everyone splashed, the dolphins came over and joined in and I tell you - they would win any splashing contest hands down! Paul kindly refrained from telling me that just before we reached the bit where we went swimming, he'd seen an alligator sliding into the water!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaah! Then it was back to camp, and onto the sunset bar or should we say the 'Irish' Bar as the whole of the Pampas had been invaded by the Irish & the Mozzies of course!!!! A few beers later and abit of drink driving from our guide straight into a bush, we had another yummy dinner, vino, rum & coke and chats galore with our Irish friends! All Paul's dreams were nearly answered when the 3 Irish girls thought about waking Paul up in the night to protect them from the scary noises! Hee Hee!And then before we knew it, it was our last day in the Pampas! Woken again bright & early by the howler monkeys, we were off to catch some piranhas for lunch
Anaconda territory
! What a laugh! We had little lines with hooks and a little pile of meat each to use as bait! I perfected the art of feeding the fish but failed to actually catch one! Booooo! Paul managed to catch 2 and nearly gave me a heart-attack when he dropped one in the boat right next to me!!! Eeeeeek! Paul had no shoes on either! Hee Hee! Our boat were definitely the champions anyway with the most and the biggest piranhas going...no thanks to me but we were happy to have our photo taken with the catch! Yeah! I really wanted to catch one as well so think it will definitely need to be on the itinerary when we head to Brazil!!!!! Just you wait Brazilian piranhas!!!! And then it was back to camp to fry up our catch (yummy!) and head back down the river for a spot of sunbathing and more wildlife spotting! We were really sad to leave but had the BEST time and saw more than we ever expected to!!!! It was then a mad dash back in the dustmobile to Rurrenabaque to try and make it to the airport for 2 American guys in the group! They missed it! Whoops but we were OK (hee! hee!), so we watched our last sunset, reconfirmed our flight (very necessary with Amaszonas!) and relaxed on our last night of our mini-hols! 
