Rurrenabaque Hotels
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Jungle and pampa´s
Entry 11 of 78 | show all | print this entry |
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I did the first part of my journey to Rurrenabaque with a MTB, a thrilling downhill ride where you can read about in the previous entry. For the next part I choose for a boat ride through the jungle, as the alternative is a grueling 20 hour bus drive over a very bumpy road that is by the way much too small for the busses that do the trip. I now that from my guide book, form some tourists I met in Rurre who tried it and from the 5 hour drive from Coroico to the beginning of the boat ride in Guanay. I did that 5 hour ride with private transportation in a jeep and that was spectacular, uncomfortable and long enough for me! The first part of the road we drove at the left side (= side of the ravine). The driver explained me that that was because the road was so small and bad, so the driver at the ravine side can look through his window to check how far he from the side of the road is when crossing an other vehicle. A little bit further we passed a group of people sitting at the side of the road. The driver pointed into the ravine to show me their car. Well, it didn´t keep him from speeding on! But it was also a beautiful ride with great views and interesting sights. As an example I mention the many coca plantages, sometimes at seemingly unreachable spots on the opposing valley wall.
  
View from the hostal in the morning, road works and loading the boat
Then, in the small town of Guanay, the actual tour started. We were a group of 7 tourists and 4 crew members (two boats men, a cook and a guide). The short time we spend in Guanay gave me the impression that it is very laid back and mainly very, very hot. On the boat it was better though, as the wind brought a little bit of refreshment. Not for long though as the motor refused to function any more after about 10 minutes. A little scepscis about this tour started to arise in my head, but the next days proved me wrong. The motor was fixed in little time and never complained again. Riding the boat was a relaxed event, gliding through the jungle.
  
On the river
The most remarkable thing to be seen were the many gold finders, in their primitive camps on the bank of the river. They are not looking for huge amounts of gold, but just for small particles, it looks like gold dust, of which they find some grams a week. This is the main source of income for the people living along this river and also in the village where we stop on the second day it is all about the gold.
  
Looking for gold and selling it
Along our three day trip to Rurrenabaque we slept along the river where the sand flies just eat you completely, no matter how much insect repellent you apply. There were mosquito nets to assure a peaceful night, but the holes in mine were a little bit too big to make that happen.
Food during this trip was good and abundant. Eating it was a little bit an adventure on it s own, as we were only given a spoon to eat everything, from spaghetti to meat. And I must say, at the end of the trip we managed very well!
  
Eating and walking in the jungle
The walks into the jungle we did along the way were rather uneventful, with some special trees here and there and a lost wild pig that crossed our trail but nothing more than that. The best thing beside riding the boat was the swimming we did in a natural swimming pool, including waterfall, on the last day. That wasn´t only fun and beautiful but also very refreshing.
At the end of day three we arrived in Rurre, a rather big jungle city, where tourism seems to be important. That s probably why it felt rather empty in low season. It has some internet cafes, rather surprising for a place in the middle of the jungle, and a real gringo bar named Mosquito with happy hour and pool tables. In Mosquito we spent the evening trying as many cocktails as possible within the two hour happy hour. Good music, nice, night!
The next day we left for the three days pampa´s tour. It started with a 3 hours jeep ride over a very stoney road. The stones tortured the car from all sides and also the front window had already had it s share. It was full of cracks and every time we crossed another car the driver supported the window with his hand so it wouldn´t brake. A comfortable feeling! But the window lived and so did we. It was the left back tire that gave up. Luckily the flat tire was replaced in no time. But the spare wheel was so used that less than 10 mins later that one also ran flat. With no more spare wheel we had to wait for another car to help us out. Ant that ´s when you hate low season. No car passed for the next 45 mins. But in the end we made it to the actual starting point of the tour.
Along the road the road, the guide had already proven his quality by spotting a sloth (from the driving car, which we could barely distinguish, looking at the right spot after the car had stopped. I only believed it was there when it started to move, you will just have to believe it from the picture!
  
A sloth, a capibear family and monkeys
The rest of that first day we spent riding upriver in our primitive boat. There were animals all over at the banks of the river: alligators, capibears, caiman, many different kinds of birds, monkeys, ... It was like riding through a zoo. We also saw our first pink river dolphins, a special kind that was once thought to be extinct until an expedition in the amazon found them again. Very rare, but abundant there! At night we stayed at a campsite along the river.
The second days was about more "dangerous" animals, anaconda to start with. To find those we walked through swamps, a bit away from the river. It was a smelly (rotten eggs comes close to how it was) walk with our legs sometimes knee deep into the mud. As it was cloudy the chance of seeing any snake was small. They normally only show themselfs when they come out of the water to dry in the sun. But our guide managed to find one anyway. Not a big one like in the movie, but his 2,2 meters impressed us nevertheless.
  
Anaconda, piraña and aligator at night
After an enormous lunch at the campsite, we went to fish for piraña. A simple procedure: put some meat on a hook, throw the line in the water, wait till they bite and pull the line hard so the hook enters the jaw of the piraña. Sounds easy and watching the guide catching one after the other, it even looked easy, But it is not at all! I ended up doing little more than feeding them and only Cathy succeeded in caching one. Luckily our guide cached enough of those meat stealing bastards for all of us to be able to try a fried at dinner.
We ended the day with a night ride to spot the alligators red eyes when shined upon. You see them all over looking at you, a special experience.
The third day was mostly returning to Rurre the same way as we came on day 1, except for a short stop to swim with the pink river dolphins. A special experience as the alligators are still around. But the guide explained that the dolphins would attack them if they would come too close. I waited for the guide to go in first anyway!
Back at Rurre we went to the same bar as before, where Cathy had the greatest idea to order a round of f***** horsefly. That is a shot composed of tequila, tabasco and something else, probably even stronger than tequila. The shots were huge and first they burn your mouth and troath and then they just mess up your stomach. It is something like climbing H. Potosi. You have to do it once to know what it is, but then never again!
 
Airplane and Rurre airport
The jungle adventure ended with a nice flight back to La Paz, in a small but descent looking plane but from a very basic airport.
Latest Comments (2)
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Re: Nice trip on the river indeed (reply)
Sep 24, 2006 18:21 EST by esbjorn
Hey hey, ik ga het in het Vlaams doen, t is hier al allemaal genoeg in t Engels, k zou nog graag een beetje Vlaams kunnen bij terugkeer. Maar voor de rest moet ik u gelijk geven, een zoo in de vrije natuur da s de beste omschrijving voor de pampa's tour. Het goud daarentegen, daar moet ge u nie teveel bij voorstellen. Da zijn kleine korrelkes, zoals heel fijn zand. Ongelooflijk da die daar van kun... show all
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Nice trip on the river indeed (reply)
Sep 24, 2006 04:03 EST by fierskes
Hi Esbjörn,
What a terrific trip this must have been. Surprising all over the way, I presume. It must have been quite heavy to carry all that gold ashore..
It looked like travelling on water through a grand zoo.
Spectaular !
Dad
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