The Pampas
Trip Start
Jan 28, 2008
1
60
83
Trip End
Sep 18, 2008
Rurrenabaque,
Bolivia
Saturday, June 28, 2008
It was a 3 hour car drive from Rurre to Santa Rosa, along a dirt road. Most of the time we could see, but sometimes, if we got stuck behind a truck, it was just a cloud of dust. We shared the drive with 6 other tourists, the group that we would share meals with throughout our tour. Rebecca, Rosie and Ed (UK), Guy (Israel) and Liam and Yvonne (UK, Neth.). The 3 Brits were a laugh a minute, having loads of fun. They all had a great attitude towards travel in foreign countries too, and shared some great tips for future destinations
We love our reptiles!
. Guy was chilling out, perhaps taking a break from the rigours of the army (?). Liam and Yvonne lost thier sense of humour somewhere at the beginning of the dirt track, and we struggled to get a smile from them the whole 3 days.From Santa Rosa we got in a long, wooden boat. Jory drove and Cameron and I enjoyed having the luxury of asking him to stop when ever we saw a bird or animal worth taking a picture of or asking questions about. We are sure the other 6 werenīt quite sure at first why we had a boat all to ourselves, but they were happy enough when we expained later that evening that we had paid extra for the priveledge. It was a glorious 3 hour river trip up the Rio Yacuma to Indigena Tourīs riverside cabins.The Pampas is a little similar to the Pantanals in Brasil. We knew this in advance, and I was particularly interested to see the differences. Generally there were less water birds, but more diverse river fauna, including Pink River Dolphins, two species of alligator, and many turtles.
The sunsets were brilliant, and we enjoyed both from the Sunset Bar, a rambling riverside lodge complete with beach volleyball court (for matches between Bolivia and the rest of the world), mosquitos, and cold beer. All the riverside accommodations are made from jungle wood, nailed together so that the cracks arenīt too big
Heaps of turtles (apparantly good to eat)
. They have fly mesh up, but this doesnīt keep all the baddies out. The first night we had a mouse, I think. The second night there was a little bat.We joined an Anaconda Search one morning. There were about 20 tourists and 4 guides, wandering around in gum boots through long grass, mud and cow paddocks. One Swiss guy stumbled upon a medium sized Anaconda. His guide encouraged him to pick it up (not sure if that was a joke or not). Anyway, he ended up getting bitten about 7 times on the hand before he finally secured the snakeīs head. Luckily, being a strangling snake, Anacondaīs are not poisonous, and all he got was a rush of adrenalin. We all posed with the snake, poor thing getting strangled itself by 20 tourists before it finally was left to slither away in the bushes and recover.
Someone also spotted a deadly species of rattle snake, which even freaked out the guides a little. I didnīt go close enough to see that one. Finally, one of the guides found a cobra (only slightly deadly), and stunned it so that those brave enough (i.e. stupid enough) could pose for a photo. Cam and I didnīt feel the need. I think Australians have a greater respect for snakes than other nationals.
Not a moment to spare, we also had an afternoon to swim with the river dolphins
Little guy playing near our boat
. Its a great marketing ploy actually. Everyone gets super excited about swimming with dolphins, so much so that you almost forget that they share the river with toothy piranhas and alligators! The water was pretty cold, so you had to keep moving around to stay warm. The water was muddy too, so when I had a dolphin brushed up beside me, I jumped a little, my mind expecting a reptile rather than a mammal!Jory took Cam and I out in the boat during the nights. The first night we looked for alligators, their red eyes shining in our torch light. The second night we walked onto the bank and into the forest, looking for nocturnal wildlife. It was pretty quiet though, and we only spotted an owl, some bats and a South American possum. There were also loads of mozzies, and we thought it was a good time to ask if this was a Malaria infested region (better late than never right?!).
Our 3 day 3 night trip quickly came to an end, and we endured the return journey back to Rurre, tired and grubby. We had a great hot shower in our hotel in Rurre, and then quickly organised a trip to the Madidi National Park with another local tour company.
