Day 48-49 - Rurrenbaque and Somewhere in the Amazon Basin

This is another destination that wasn´t even on my radar when I was planning my trip. After hearing about the pink dolphins, though, I had to go to Rurrenbaque. Like most adventures in Bolivia, I am learning, it was not without its hassles, but completely worth it.

The flight to Rurrenbaque, which was not easy to find, was on a tiny nineteen-passenger plane. Everyone got a window seat because there were no aisle seats. The scenery, or at least what we could see of it out of the dirty windows, was amazing. We landed in a valley surrounded by dense jungle mountains. It was HOT and HUMID!

I was lucky to meet up with people that I had met on the Salares trip, Ben and Dustin, and some girls that they were traveling with, Regina, Lauren, and Julie. We arranged a three-day tour into the Pampas with Fluvial Tours. Despite the repeated dishonesty of the agency and our tour guide, we managed to have a fantastic adventure.

Our first day started with a two-hour drive to the put-in. By the time we reached it, we had already seen a couple of caymen (sp?), a tree sloth, and an anteater. Then, on the way to our camp from the put-in, we saw Capibaras, giant water rats that look like beavers without the paddle tails, and a variety of colorful birds. At camp, we were greeted by Jorge Luis, our cook, and his ¨friend,¨a blind alligator that lives in front of the camp. It's like living in a zoo!

After lunch, we relaxed in the hammocks before taking a boat ride to watch the sunset. On the way to the Sunset Bar, a man in a shack that has a cooler with really expensive beer, we saw the cutest chichilla monkeys and we got to feed them bananas. After the sunset, we did a short walk to look at alligator eyes, which shine red at night when a light is flashed in them. I was preoccupied, however, by the fact that I had been stung by yet another bee.

After dinner, we escaped to our mosquito nets.