Super excited to carry on our experience of the jungle, we this time set off to the pampas, an swampland area of the jungle situated near the river Yacuma. Being told to "pack for the beach" we were told to meet where we would jump on a 4x4 with some other people. We turned up to find we instead had a 2 wheel drive people carrier. Not the best start seeing as the five hour driver was over ridiculous muddy terrain which is why you're supposed to have a 4x4. But off we set all the same with 3 other travellers.
The trip seemed like it took forever, the only highlights of which were stopping for lunch and also seeing entire families being scooted about on motorbikes. This is the only one I took but we did see a family of 6 on one bike.
Finally turning up at the river Yacuma, we expected to be able to jump straight on a boat and be led to our lodge, but instead we found ourselves in amongst 2 other groups who had been waiting about an hour, who would finally be picked up, but we would endure the same fate waiting an hour for our guide. I did remain entertained though by noticing a cool anaconda in one of the trees above us who was stalking birds patiently. He never did catch one, well not in the hour whilst we were there.
We finally jumped on our boat and set off with our guide known as "Rambo", never did find out why. Being told that we would get an English speaking guide, we were pretty disappointed to find out he was only speaking Spanish, with the Russian and Austrian travellers with us knowing much more Spanish than me they helped translate where they could.
On the hour or so cruise down the river we were shocked to see the amount of wildlife we did, birds everywhere.
The best of which were these chaps with mohawks.
The good old capabaras made an appearance too.
We were surprised to see how many caiman there were out here too. We knew they were here but there was one at least every 20 feet the whole way down the river.
Arriving at a more open area in the river, we were told we were going to be able to see pink dolphin here, something which you might not expect in a Bolivian river, pretty far from the sea. But see them we did, pretty often too. Not that you can make out much from this photo but they did surface quite a fair bit, usually seeing just a fin or tail. We never saw a full head pop up. They weren't as inquisitive or playful as those we had seen in Puerto Madryn.
We were then told that we could get in a swim with the dolphins, to which the other three guys did from our group, but me and Jen were having none of it given the amount of caiman and piranhas in these waters. We were told that the caiman don't come into the deeper waters where the dolphins were and if they did the dolphins would chase them out but we weren't told anything about piranhas so we just chilled out on the boat with the good old British pasttime, my friend, Mr Beer.
With our tour mates paddling around in the water trying to get close to the dolphins, all they could do was watch from afar as they popped up further away from where they had last been seen. Then when they went to the new spot, they dolphins popped up where they has just come from, like they were taking the piss.
At this point our hilarious guide decided to reveal that he spoke fluent English and he just thought it would be funny to speak solely in Spanish for the first few hours. At that point I asked him about the caiman and if they ever attacked the boats as American crocs have been known to do. The answer was no, in 20 years of him running trips down the rivers never had he seen or heard of that happening supposedly because there is such an abundance of prey for them including fish, birds, monkeys and even the capybara.
Off we set again to our home for the next two nights, and an hour or so later we found the way up there. Thess perilous tree stumps. They weren't too difficult to navigate when dry but when the rain came down they were next to impossible with nothing to hold onto.
O well, at least we didn't have this to tackle like other lodges. I assume they had to jump out of their boat or scramble up the mud slide next to it!
But we were where we'd call home, and it was kinda cool in a way, not least as you had to walk along the run ways as there was a threat of being crushed by anacondas or bitten by venomous cobras.
And even the friendly frog got involved, as we walked past another groups dorm, this little fella hoped through the ajar door. That group never did find that frog.
After grabbing some munch with our tour group and guide we went back onto the boats in the dark to go and spy some crocs eyes. It was absolutely pissing it down, good job we'd already been in the wet jungle and knew to ignore the tour office ladies advice to dress for the beach. It was another cool experience though, apart from the fact that my head torch was absolutely pants and barely illuminated 2 feet in front of me. Luckily our guide Rambo had a super strong torch. There were glowing eyes everywhere which was a little eery but also fascinating, with yellow eyes in the water being caiman and red ones being that of alligators. You could also pick up the odd eye glow of birds or monkeys in the trees. We also all turned our lights off at one point which was a little spooky knowing all these crocs were around us but it was for the benefit of seeing all the fire flies in the trees which was awesome.
Time for bed though and off we went to sleep. The next day we had discovered that our 3 tour mates had only booked the 1 night trip whereas we had booked 2 and this meant that they had to go home. Which also meant that out tour guide Rambo had to take them home meaning that Jen and I were guideless and in the middle of the Bolivian pampas surrounded by killer animals. Great, Thankfully another tour group of 8 people were at the same lodge and their guide took pity on us and took us under his wing. So now we had joined another group who had all bonded and we were the outsiders but they were all really sound and welcomed us in. Sadly there were only 8 seats in the boat though and we had to sit on the paddle across the boat at the back which couldn't have been any more uncomfortable.
But off we set with our new group to go in search of anacondas, which was apparently a safe thing to do. So in the boat we arrived at the pampas, a huge swampland area where we were kitted out in wellies to walk around in what we thought would be a few inches deep swamp.
Oh, and our new tour guide looked like the Bolivian Paul Hogan of Crocodile Dundee.
Separating out into a row of 11 people, about 2 metres apart, we began trudging through the swamp (which stunk by the way) to try and stumble across an anaconda. Not sure why this was a good idea as these guys grow up to 30ft in length (yes thirty!) and our new guide put our minds at ease when he told us that an Israeli guy got crushed by one a few years back, shattering 2 of his ribs. So his advice was to tell him if we saw one and don't touch it, even though the method of finding them was to step on them and no doubt piss them off in the process.
Stomping about for a few hours, we didn't really find much, as we had been told would be the case as it was the wrong time of year, but we did see a massive bird thingie on a tree stump.
And besides walking into a bit of swamp that was a couple of feet deep and all the stinky water flooded my wellies, the highlight of the trip was someone finding a cobra snakeskin which our guide thought was a few days old so probably wasn't in the area anymore, which in a way was good given their poisonous nature.
Anaconda searching a bit of a failure, we went back for lunch and then hit the boat again, this time to go for some more dolphin action as this new group hadn't done that yet. Of the 8 of this new group only 3 girls and 1 lad who were travelling together all got in and were once again unsuccessful with the elusive dolphins.
As the rest of us were sat in the boat, we were all right not to get in as there was a big ass caiman literally 5 yards away from the boat in the reeds as these guys were the other side of the boat in the water. I knew these crocs must be moving through these deeper areas of the river! With us mocking the girls in the water that there was a caiman next to us, they didn't believe us til they got back in and saw it for themselves and pooed their pants a little, but they were fine and had the guts to get in the water alongside these beasts so fair play! Later we would see an anaconda in the water also, the boat was definately the best place to be.
All back in the boat we set off back up the river passing some cool looking trees worthy of a pic.
And even a bald eagle which was a rare sight.
We even got to see some monkeys again which were the cutest little things you'll ever see.
We even had the pleasure of getting up super close to them and one literally jumping yards over our heads to another tree the other side of the river. Not many people can claim they've done that!
Later on we all jumped on the boat and went off to a place called the "ranch" where you buy some supplies but more importantly booze! The four guys that got in the water earlier were more party inclined and bought a bottle of whiskey and some coke whereas the rest of us all got some beers and I put a chicken on my head......as you do.
Here we were reunited with our tour guide Rambo who had only just got back from taking them back to the pick up point. To be fair he was very apologetic and it weren't his fault, not sure why the booking company put a 1 night and 2 night group together. What if there wasn't another group there to join?! O well, we jumped back on our own personal boat with Rambo leaving the others to their boat and went back in pitch black down the river. Not quite sure how Rambo knew the river so well but he was tearing it back there with a tiny light from the back of the boat, whilst we were at front not being able to see a thing. Fair play Rambo.
Getting back to the lodge, we met back up with the other 8 guys and played some drinking games after Rambo showed us a pants card trick even though he was super impressed with himself.
We were joined by three Bolivians who claimed they understood English even though they weren't speaking any so Rambo was translating. At one point Rambo wanted to test their English so he asked me to ask them a question in English. The first thing that came into my head was "what colour is your left nipple?", not sure why but that's what came out of my mouth. Rambo literally fell on the floor and the Bolivians couldn't understand why so my suspicion that they didn't know English was confirmed. But at this point, mine and Rambo's bromance began. We were up laughing together all night, was a quality night.
We were told to get up at 7am the next morning to go out for another piranha fishing event but Rambo had a few too many last night and got up about 9am. With the rain absolutely hammering it down (the worst so far) we grit our teeth and went out to do it. Why not eh?! Jen had a waterproof coat and I only had a poncho but at least it would keep my legs try, unlike Jen who sat behind me trying to steal the back of my poncho to cover her legs. We both got soaked all the same. Here we are scooping water out of our boat in the morning with half a coke bottle. Took ages!
Getting to a nice little spot we started fishing and caught nothing. So we moved onto another spot and tried again only for the same fate, catching nothing and being absolutely sodden. At least this spot had a caiman sitting a few metres next to where we were fishing. He didnt't seem interested though and its probably why there were no fish around there.
Admitting defeat we packed up and went back to the lodge. Sadly our time in the pampas had come to an end and we were ready to return to Rurrenabaque. Saying bye to the adopted 8 tour group mates we set off on our own boat with Rambo. On our two hour journey back we would see both the most impressive but also intimidating thing I'm yet to encounter in this life of mine. Slowly going down the river I glanced over towards a tree and couldn't quite work out what I had seen through it. It was either an fallen tree or the biggest ass caiman ever. A little more down the river and it came into full view, a absolutely huge black caiman. With me being at the front and Jen slightly behind it had unfortunately retreated into the water by the time Jen got to see it and take a pic, but I saw the whole thing, as did Rambo who estimated it to be 20ft (6 metres)! This is the max that these things grow to and it really is something you can't quite comprehend unless you see an animal of that size. To be honest it scared the living boo boos outta me as we were in this little boat a foot off the water and these guys can, if they want to, jump 3 quarters of their body length out the water, giving it the capability of taking us out at ease. Thankfully it was dead timid and just slowly drifted under a tree but the picture below is just of it's head, with some crazy prehistoric white bump thing sticking out. It's head alone was about a metre long!
Further down the river we saw a less intimidating croc, and it was nice to know that they could get along with the capybaras without munching them!
Finally getting back to the pick up point, mine and Rambo's manlove came to its pinnacle - with us earlier talking about football and him saying he liked Chelsea I had to give him a lesson and gave him my Leicester shirt. I had worn it previously over the last two days and he had commented on what a nice shirt it was (if he knew the team he might change his mind) so I demonstrated my undying love for this man and donated it to him. I've never seen a man look so happy, they don't have much out here and they love footy and the footy shirts they do have, are usually really old and worn to death with holes all over them so I was more than glad to earn Leicester, it's first Bolivian supporter!
Sadly however, it was now time for our fun 5 hour journey home yet again in a people carrier (you think they'd learn!). We also had 2 other girls who had been waiting for a lift as well as a Bolivian lady and her daughter in the car, and along with the driver, that meant 7 people in a 6 seater. Road safety at its finest, especially on these roads. And to start with the driver deemed it the best idea for me and this lady to share the front seat which was super uncomfortable. Gladly after a while me and the little girl switched so I was in the back and the girl was on her mums lap.
And as if the pot holes muddy mess of a road wasn't bad enough we encountered a massive heard of cattle.
But not just any cattle, no no, this was Bolivian cattle.......Bolivian alien catttle, I mean wtf?!
Finally passing the heard we thought we were plain sailing but that wouldn't be the way of the jungle would it?! No no, our car got stuck in a massive pot hole, and with it being so wet and these clever people not having a 4x4, it was proper stuck. Not to worry though, the clever driver thought to get us all out to minimise the weight and with me wearing only flip flops, it was inevitable that those flip flops were going to get stuck and I'd be getting that lovely wet mud squelchy feeling in between my toes.
With the car getting out of the hole, the plan seemed to work, for all of about 3 seconds until it tried to take a short cut through the grass and round another pot hole and getting stuck there instead. With all the weight out of the car already it was truly stuck and there was only one option.....tug of war time! Attaching a rope from another stuck truck on the other side, we all took our places and flexed the muscles, I'm pretty sure it was only me and another lad pulling with everyone else being girls and putting in minimal effort! Finally pulling it free and with me having laid my flip flops on the floor, I had to stop and stare with a tear in my eye as I thought my beloved flip flops were about to get ran over but the car narrowly missed them and I was able to retrieve them and wash both flip flops and feet with our water which was meant for drinking. But clean flip flops were more important than fresh clean water to drink. I do love those flip flops!
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