Posted by: Jenn
After our amazing downhill cycling adventure, we scouted out an overnight bus to get us to Rurrenabaque where we could take tours of parts of Bolivia's amazon region. It was a long night ride, considering we were in the very back of the bus and the whole way was a rocky dirt road. At the time we were grateful that there was not a bathroom on the bus since we were in the very back, but after 15 hours I was about ready to hang out of the window and go like a mom did with her little boy in front of us. When we got to Rurrenabaque we napped and then started talking to tour agencies about costs and options. We could do a three day jungle tour or a three day pampas (wetlands) tour. The difference being that the jungle tour would be a lot of walking and not seeing many animals, versus the pampas where we would be in a boat the majority of the time seeing a ton of animals...hmm not a very difficult decision in my mind. We booked with a company that seemed pretty legit and took off that next morning for a three day, two night pampas tour. We were driven to a river about 3.5 hours away and we boarded a motorized canoe with four other Isrealies (who spoke perfect English but chose to speak Hebrew the WHOLE time...quite friendly those four were), our guide (nicknamed Mexicano), and Ava, our cook. As soon as we hit the water we immediately saw soooo much! Caimans (similar to alligators), monkeys, birds, capybaras (the worlds largest rodent), turtles, and tapirs.
We even pulled over at one point to watch for pink river dolphins that are extremely rare this time of year. We were told that we probably would not see any but we did! We got to swim with them which I thought was very cool. Scary, because we knew there were caimans near by, but were told that the dolphins don't hang out near the caimans.
After about two hours of boating, we arrived at our lodge for the night. We settled in while Ava cooked up a storm for us.
Dinner was delish and after visiting with another group at our lodge doing the same tour, we went to bed. The next morning we awoke to another delicious meal and then set out to go anaconda hunting. We hiked for a few hours in hopes of finding an anaconda.
After a few hours of hiking we hadn't seen a snake but we did happen upon a pregnant cow that had walked into some mushy ground and sank. She was stuck. Our group felt really bad for her and wanted to dig her out. We dug around her legs and with all of us pushing and pulling we were able to free her. It was exciting being able to help her because who knows how long she would have been stuck there.
After freeing the cow we headed back for the lodge but still in search of an anaconda. When I hear the word anaconda I think of the movie with the snake that is some 50-feet long and at least one foot around. However, it was soon discovered that the guides call anything that slithers an anaconda.
Seeing as this little guy was a third of the size of Rosco, this wasn't as exciting to Jonathan and I as it was the rest of the group. Plus the way the guides were handling the snake was a little disturbing. He ended up biting one guy in our group...we saw it coming.
We got back to the lodge, had lunch, and then headed back to the boats to go fishing for piranas. Jonathan and I didn't catch one but we had a lot of bites. Our guide however, caught six of them. We took them back to the lodge so Ava could cook them for us for dinner.
We got back to the lodge, had lunch, and then headed back to the boats to go fishing for piranas. Jonathan and I didn't catch one but we had a lot of bites. Our guide however, caught six of them. We took them back to the lodge so Ava could cook them for us for dinner.
Dinner was spaghetti with a side of piranas and the spaghetti was yummy...couldn't tell you how the piranas tasted. The next morning we had breakfast, went for a short boat ride to get a glimpse of some caimans up close and then headed back to Rurrenabaque.
The pampas tour was great. I loved seeing all the animals and spending a relaxing few days in the wetlands. We are now in Santa Cruz and are in the process of getting our Brazilian visa so we can hopefully head that way soon!