The Amazon

La Paz was a fantastic few days largely because the food was great, the city inexpensive, and we reunited with friends from the Uyuni tour. We just heard that getting into Peru might be a problem as one of our Uyuni friends was turned back fronn the border which was a bother.

Since we were all together again we decided to do the Amazon here. Bolivia is probably the cheapest option to do the Amazon basin. We found a package deal that was pretty good and included airfare to and from Rurenabaque which is the base for the travel into the Pampas or the forest. We wanted to see wildlife so we picked the grasslands (pampas) over the rain forest. Rurrenbaque is a one horse town with a fantastic french bakery!! Yup, it is strange!

Anyway, we started from Rurre about 9am in a rattly 4X4 that did nothing to soften the bumps on the crazy dirt road. About two hours into this uncomfortable dusty ride, when we were driving along a stream/river, I suddenly spotted an alligator sunning itself. It was surreal! The alligator just sat on the bank of the stream sunning itself, not more than 50 feet from us. Birds of all sizes, colours and shapes can be spotted all along this route. Soon we reached the spot from where we were going to take a long boat along the Yacuma river into the Pampas.

Our guide Rosauro was a podgy smiley guy who had a great vibe. The boat is a very basic one but with a decent motor attached. Simple chairs are attached to the boat 2 by two, with Rosaudo handling the motor behind all of us. Each boat sat 8 of us with our backpacks etc. The next two and half hours was unbellievable. we saw a pink dolphin, alligators and caymen we could no longer count, some of who were 5 feet from our boat, the cutest little yellow monkeys, heron, birds of paradise or Serere, beautiful black long necked birds, and a ton of others I can't name, and the cutest and biggest rodents called Kapiberas.

We reached our really basic campsite / refugio in stunned silence. A great lunch and we were off to see the sunset. Not the most exciting one we have seen but you could buy a beer at this spot!

That night we took the boat out to see croc eyes in the river. I'm not sure how ethical it is to shine torches into Caymen eyes to see them shine a bright red but we did it. On hindsight I think we shouldn't have but ... At one point out boat got stuck in a sand bank and we could see 4 sets of eyes staring at us. I thought we were going to pay for shining torches at unsuspecting alligators and become caymen food but luckily we all managed to scramble to the back of the boat and pull us out of that tight spot. No lack of excitement in the Amazon!

The night without electricty was interesting. Musquitoes abound but we had great nets and so we were safe, Not the best toilets, especially given the musquitoes waiting inside for warm human blood! Everytime you took a crap, you came back with an arse that was red and swollen with musquito bites!

Somehow the night was not all that bad and it passed quite quickly. Of course we were all dead tired. Woke up next morning to see a huge caymen on our shore!!