Our forty
minute flight to Rurrenabaque from La Paz was pretty spectacular, 40minutes of
flying and we passed over the vast Andes which soon turned into the edge of the
Amazon rainforest.
Here are
some pics
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| Good Bye La Paz |
We land in what is most likely the worlds smallest airport! One runway cut out from the trees of the land!
We get outside and the taxis are all motorbikes, I jokingly say to one of them that I will ride the bike to the hostal, to which he gave me the keys, jo went with another taxi and I drove mine! Wahey!
Rurrenabaque is a small town based on the Beni river, which stems into the rainforrest. It reminded me a lot like Asia, parts of northern Thailand and Laos, with its overwhelming heat, motorbikes and jungle village feel.
It´s mainly there for tourists, with easy access to do jungle tours and to do swamp tours to explore the local wildlife.
It was really nice to be somewhere hot again, and to cool us down, and mainly to stop Michael´s constant sweating we headed to Oscars swiming pool on top of the hill.
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| Rurrenabaque |
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| Oscars |
Having chilled out for the day we decided to go on a pampas tour on the swamps of the rainforrest. We met up with our friends from La Paz and got up early to go on our 3 day tour. The tour would mostly be on a canoe with a motor which would take us round the swamp exploring nature and seeing the wildlife.
We headed on a 3 hour juourney all 7 of stuffed into a jeep along bumpy roads to the Beni river where we would meet our guide and jump on the canoe and begin our trip!
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| The gang in the jeep |
As soon as we arrive it starts to piss down and it looks like we will be soaked for the rest of the day as there was no getting away from the rain on the canoe. We meet our guide Ton Ton and our chef Mariah and head off in the canoe, luckily the rain had stopped at this point. Immediately we see a pink dolphin swimming nearby, it comes close to the boat to come and play with the hose Ton Ton dangled in the water.
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| Our first sighting of a pink dolphin |
The water is very murky with it being a swamp so all we really got to see were the nose of the dolphin and the fin as it swam. None the less still a great thing to see, and a first for me and jo to see a dolphin in the wild.
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| Mike and I getting ready to board |
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| ANd we are off |
As we sail the swamps we come across many animals. Our guide Ton Ton was not much of a talker but he was great at spotting the wildlife. Here´s a selection from our first day...
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| Our guide Ton Ton |
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| Birds |
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| Vultures |
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| Sly Cayman |
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| Squirrel Monkeys |
Our accomodation for the two nights....
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| The bathroom |
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| Our rooms |
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| Our pet Pedro who lives under the huts |
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| Another pet, living above Pedro |
Our accomadation came with Pedro, a cayman, who had supposedly injured his arm fighting over a lady and also a cute cat who patrolled the walkways!! Pedro seemed pretty harmless and due to his arm could no longer survive on his own so the lodge had adopted him!
Our first day was over and we saw loads! Our second day we went off the swamp and into the jungle looking for wildlife, we saw a local rat, which is meant to be the largest in the world, but didnt get to take a picture. Apart from that we didnt get to see much else apart from these pics we took...
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| The gang going jungleing |
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| Spot of the day - boobies |
After our jungle adventure it was time to go Anaconda hunting.....
After an hour and half of searching, and constant moaning from the girls, Ton Ton finally talks and explains that the snakes dont actually live here at this time of year! So time wasted. But luckily we did see a snake on the local football field which had supposedly just decided to go on a wander just as we were returning. What impecable timing from the snake, or was it just a set up.....
Later that day we went piranha fishing, a first time for me and jo, fishing that is. Surprisingly us gringo´s didnt catch any fish, with only the experts managaing to catch two piranhas and a small cat fish. It was still great fun, as you could see them nibbling at the bait in the water, getting them to bite the hook was the tricky part and our chatty guide was not letting us in on the secret!
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| Fishing and beer |
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| Catfish |
On our last day we headed back onto the swamp to swim with the pink dolphins. We were promised that where there are dolphins present there are no piranhas or caymans in the water so it would be safe. Our guide jumps in the water and straight away in the distance we can hear the dolphins blowing air and see their fins coming out of the water, as if they knew who he was. We jump in and wait. With the water being merky it was pretty scary to swim in there not knowing what was going on undernearth you. The dolphins themselves didnt come too close, they enjoyed playing with a plastic bottle the guide had thrown in the water. After half an hour or so the dolphons came closer and closer, but still not close enough to touch. Although I did feel one brush my leg which made me swim at the speed of light towards the boat!!
That was pretty much our three day trip`....but here are some random pics
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