Amazon Adventure

20 Oct 2002

I joined forces with a couple of Dutch girls who were on my hell bus to Rurrenabaque. We organised to go on two three-day tours: one to the Pampas, which is a massive wetland/grassland, and another into the rainforest proper.

When our boat arrived to take us into the Pampas, who should be on it but Amira, my Israeli friend from Lima! Alas, it also carried her new boyfriend Itai, a big surly brooder that made it very clear I had missed the (Israeli fun-times) boat. The guide and cook from Amira's tour were told to get straight back on for our tour. They were majorly pissed off as they'd been told they were going to have a couple of days off. But it was tourist season and they had no bargaining power, so we set off under an oppressing cloud of disaffected labour.

It wasn't long until the Pampas had worked its magic, though, as it was absolutely pumping with exotic wildlife. Water birds, turtles, monkeys, caiman. I was super excited to see a couple of toucans - they are so colourful and their beaks are outrageously large. There were quite a few capybara - essentially giant guinea pigs - grazing on the banks. But the highlight was seeing a few pink river dolphins!!! (Alas, no photos.) I hadn't realised there was such a thing, and to see dolphins so far inland was mind-blowing. We even swam with them (well, in the vicinity), though this memory is marred by the insistence of an older German guy to swim in the nude despite protestations from the rest of us.

Heading into the Pampas

Turtles on a log

Swimming capybara

Caiman

Monkey

Capybara herd

The next day our guide, Sulo, came down with a nasty illness. But he was a seriously tough guy and he managed to drag himself out of bed for long enough to find us a small anaconda and a cobra. We also spotted a jabiru standing sentinel in a massive nest 10 metres off the ground. We were happy to head back to camp so Sulo could rest, but the annoying German whinged about getting his money's worth until we all told him to shut the hell up. That afternoon we went fishing for piranha, which is cooler in the telling than the doing. I caught one about 10-15cm long, though it had impressively large fangs at least 10mm long.

Holding a baby caiman which the guide had hypnotised

Taking a bite out of an anaconda

Our guide Sulo with a cobra

Back in Rurrenabaque I got into a conversation with some German guys at a bar who were raving about their jungle tour. I was immediately jealous, as they didn't go to a base camp but walked deep into the jungle for several days - and their efforts were rewarded by seeing a jaguar!!! My jungle tour was not nearly so successful. This time Amira and her boyfriend were with us. Their dour attitude brought the mood down, and despite her affinity for animals, Amira was completely neurotic about insects, spending most of her time cooped up under her mosquito net. I started to think it wasn't such a bad thing that I hadn't hooked up with her.

Our guide, Juan, was tiny and muscular - exactly what you'd expect from a jungle guide. He seemed to know his stuff, but the rainforest is a hard place to see animals at the best of times, and they kept their distance from our base camp. We saw the hindquarters of a deer, a few monkeys in the canopy, and some more toucans. Mostly it was bloody hot and humid and the insects were ferocious. Worst, though, was our incompetent cook - she had left some mince out all day, much to the appreciation of the local wasp population. Needless to say, the spaghetti bolognaise that night tasted a bit off, and a few hours later I was throwing up in the pit toilet. The next day our guide gave me some jungle medicine, which was remarkably effective, but I would be plagued by bad gastro for the next few weeks.

A glimpse into the Amazon

Tarzan Garth

Jungle swimming hole

Snoozing on the Rio Beni: Amira, Mirten, Itai and Erika

After the horror bus journey to get to Rurrenabaque, many backpackers fly back to La Paz in a light plane. My ego and penny-pinching won the day, however, and I got on a return bus which was, despite being 20 hours, thankfully much more bearable.