Not having done our planning very well, we flew into Rurrenabaque on TAM on the early morning flight and arrived in a boiling hot Rurrenabaque. Our intention had been to do a 4 day jungle trip, but the agency advised us that the Pampas trip would be better (too hot and too many insects in the jungle, and more animals in the pampas). So we settled on a 3 day pampas trip, and tagged a 1 day jungle trip onto the end of that, starting the next morning. We left on the pampas trip the next morning (late, as usual) with a rather large group. It took about 4 hours of driving, and a 3 hour boat trip to get to the camp, but in the last hour of the boat trip, it started pouring with rain, so we had to head to camp as fast as possible, without enjoying any of the wildlife on the way. Thank goodness for my poncho, otherwise I would have been completely drenched by the time we arrived at camp! We were supposed to go alligator spotting that evening, but were forced to abandon it due to the rain, so we had a rather quiet night of playing cards and getting to know the rest of the people in the group.
The next morning we were given wellingtons and went out into the pampas to go hunting for anacondas. I realised quite soon that one of my (very big) boots had a hole in it, so I spent the entire excursion with water running into my left boot. Which was ok, until we hit the really smelly knee deep water. And my feet kept getting stuck in the mud, as I couldnīt pull my boots out. Not the most pleasant activity ever, but at least I didnīt fall over backwards into the disgusting water... Iīm not sure any of us had given much thought as to what we would actually do if we found an anaconda, but the reality of finding a snake was brought home to us when one of our guides dived head first into the water to try to catch a snake that he had spotted. Madness. We never found an anaconda, but were lucky enough to see one later that night that had been trampled by a cow and was being kept in a shed while it recovered. Iīm quite glad we didnīt come across it out on the pampas...
That afternoon we went to go swimming with the pink dolphins (too fast to take photos of), but I declined the offer of swimming, especially in light of the fact that our guides stayed firmly put inside their boats. The theory is that the dolphins are the "kings" of the river, and that when they are around, there are no alligators around. Given that we went piranha fishing in the same spot the next morning, and that when we went alligator spotting that night, we not only saw loads of alligators along the edges of the river, but saw a dolphin in really close proximity too, Iīm glad that I passed up the opportunity to go swimming...
After the dolphin swimming, we went for sundowners at a "pub" down the river, which is where we saw the injured anaconda. On the way home, we went alligator spotting with our torches - scary to see just how many there were in the river, including right next to our campsite. but apparently they only attack in defence...
The next morning we went piranha fishing, and I managed to catch a few, although there was a big one that was toying with me, but kept evading my hook.
We arrived back in Rurrenabaque that night and left on our jungle trip the next morning (late, again). What an awful experience! It was unbearably hot, there were millions of insects all over (it seems they really love insect repellant) and we ran out of water around lunch time. Had we not been climbing mountains in the jungle, it might not have been so bad, but after our lunch break, we had had more than enough of the experience and told our guide that we wanted to turn back. After waiting for 3 hours, our boat finally arrived to come and pick us up, and we were saved. Definitely glad we only did a 1 day trip!
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