When you hear that you need between 17 and 23 hours in bus to reach a place (Rurrenabaque, the most common city to start a trip in Amazônia from Bolivia) at almost the end of your world trip, believe us, you need to be really motivated! But we were motivated :-)
It was a really difficult ride... 16h both seated at the end of the bus. The worse was that William was seated aside of an old man who probably didn't take a shower since days... He was a nice guy but that smell... Damn! So, we reached this city (unpronounceable) around 6AM and quickly found a nice hotel (Los Tucanes de Rurre) for a night. Our day was basically the following: showering, sleeping, eating, walking, looking for an ATM and a tour, eating and sleeping. Full time job guys!
Starting the Pampas Tour
Next morning, we started our Pampas tour for 3 days/2 nights almost everything included (except park fees) with 6 other tourists (from France, Switzerland, US, Colombia and UK). We did it with Scorpions Agency. We had 2 options: the jungle experience or the pampas to see many animals. As we already visited several jungles during our trip, we chose the pampas.
We headed to the city of Santa Rosa de Yacuma for lunch and took a small boat with our guide. From the first few minutes, we had already seen capibaras, turtles, different types of birds (serere, garza...), small yellow monkeys, and alligators and caimans. We didn't expect to see so much in such a short time. And what is really nice in this experience is that animals are really close to you. We also stopped a first time to swim with pink dolphins. Voila, it was a really good start for our first day.
After dinner, we went back to the boat to enjoy the night experience of the pampas. Even if we were tired, it was really cool. We had lights with us and the first thing you see when you light up is those dozens of crocodiles' yellow eyes sparkling in the dark :-)
Day Two: Howler Monkeys and the Great Anaconda Hunt
The second day started early at 6AM on the boat. We woke up from horrible noise. Like dozens of crazy dogs barking in the forest. Apparently, it was howler monkeys. We went to enjoy the sunrise — all beautiful as you can see on our pics. We want back to the lodges for breakfast and did a few walks to see those famous noise makers.
Then, we started a trek to search for anacondas. Normally, our guide finds one or two within 30 minutes, but as he said, nothing is easy when you are dealing with mother nature. Our trek finished after 4 hours under a strong sun... William (also with a bit of this "I never give up mot*** fu****") went with the guide and another guy to look for these big snakes. And they found nothing. Just at the beginning, we saw a baby alligator who ended on the head of William. We also saw a spider monkey. Anyway, we had no more water and it was almost 2PM. We were all starving and tired. We went back quickly to the lodge half happy, half dead.
Piranha Fishing!
After lunch, we had some time to rest but the rhythm of a tour never slows down. We took the boat to fish piranhas. William was so excited and it was the first time for Augustina — fishing, I mean. William built a fishing rod with a piece of tree. We were all ready and the first to grab one was winning a beer. And guess what? William picked up one first... Honestly, we had fun! Augustina fished 4 piranhas, more than anyone in the group. A first fishing needs to be fun, isn't it?
Before coming back, we stopped to see the sunset. It was beautiful. On the way back, we had a good surprise. We saw a big capybara in the water flipped over thanks to a big black caiman! We stayed a few minutes to see him returning to the ground with his victim... but we guessed he was looking to be alone :-)
Once arrived, we had a good moment all together around a good meal with 2 bottles of red wines. We fell asleep quickly! But we woke up a few times during the night because of many noises of animals. The Colombia lady and our guide told us they saw a jaguar close to our lodge. Arrrggg we missed it! Sad, we missed it!
Last Day and the Pink Dolphins
Our last morning was another nice promenade on the boat and we swam with pink dolphins a second time. They are not actually pink! They are clearly less funny than the ones we saw in the ocean. After, it's maybe because we are not able to see under the water, not clear enough. Who knows?!
This tour was really amazing, it's worth it! Next time maybe, we will be able to see anacondas, a sloth, parrots and jaguars!
Next update will also be fun! We arrived in Uyuni after 14 hours of bus to La Paz, 4 hours to Oruro and 5 hours to Uyuni. We are exhausted but with smiles :-)
September 30 – October 4, 2018