Pink dolphins in pampas
After a day's rest in tropical (humid but cool?) Rurrenabaque, we booked a trip to the pampas with Inca Land Tours. Rurrenabaque is settled between the jungle and the pampas. The pampas is basically open savannah with swamps in between, but during the rainy season it is water almost everywhere.
We learned the morning we went that it would only be the two of us, so we have the whole camp and staff to ourselves. Johan was slightly worried as the tour was really inexpensive and wondered where the corners would be cut. When we were picked up from our hotel a man with only one eye was sitting in the back of the 4x4 - Johan thought, oh no - this is our guide - we get what we pay for! Fortunately this was not the case.
After a 3 hour 4x4 trip on a very bad muddy road, we arrived at Santa Rosa where we boarded a small dugout canoe with an engine. The camp is about 3 hours upstream from where we started. It is hard to believe that there could be any other region with such a high concentration of wild life and bird life - they were everywhere - all kinds of small and large birds every few metres - caymans (like crocodiles), alligators, pink (I kid you not) river dolphins, capybaras (the largest rodents on earth - like a guinea pig, but as big as a real pig), etc... The river is only about 10m wide and we had a fantastic time cruising it in search of all kinds of animal life.
That first night was an incredible highlight as we travelled down the river without an engine and with only flashlights that were switched on every now and then just to reflect countless pairs of red dots (alligator eyes). The stars were reflecting in the water and it seemed as if one could pick them up (except for the red ones, of course).
The next day we went anaconda trekking in the swamp. Armed with a stick and gumboots, we set off in the marsh which was almost knee deep. It reminded me of waterblommetjiebredie! At first I though that there were no snakes as we did not find any for hours, but I later thought that they were probably everywhere but we were too blind to spot them. We eventually found an anaconda of about 3m in the swamp, but the guide was not quick enough to catch it. We were glad as catching anacondas can cause their death due to trauma as well as ill effects of sunscreen and insect repellent. Janine would have loved to hold one though. This particular snake swam over a small river and looked at us from the safety of the other side.
Our guide was operating like a machine - mostly due to the coca leaves he was chewing. It is known to dull exhaustion and some mineworkers in the Potosi area worked up to 48 hour shifts with the aid of these leaves. We did our best to keep up the pace - no resting for 5 hours!
That afternoon we went piranha fishing. They are also everywhere in the rivers - no need to try to find them - Johan caught some 15 of these vicious little monsters in less than an hour - just use meat and a hook. There are many different types with also different colours. They complemented our supper that night!
One can hear the dolphins splashing in the river at night! There is also a cayman that hangs out at the camp that gets the leftovers - we watched as he polished last night's leftover pasta!
On our return trip with the 4x4, our driver decided to give his friend a driving lesson for the whole 3 hour trip. The guy was driving like a maniac and resulted in the feather springs breaking - this was fixed in a small town and set us back another hour! But we made it eventually...
We learned the morning we went that it would only be the two of us, so we have the whole camp and staff to ourselves. Johan was slightly worried as the tour was really inexpensive and wondered where the corners would be cut. When we were picked up from our hotel a man with only one eye was sitting in the back of the 4x4 - Johan thought, oh no - this is our guide - we get what we pay for! Fortunately this was not the case.
After a 3 hour 4x4 trip on a very bad muddy road, we arrived at Santa Rosa where we boarded a small dugout canoe with an engine. The camp is about 3 hours upstream from where we started. It is hard to believe that there could be any other region with such a high concentration of wild life and bird life - they were everywhere - all kinds of small and large birds every few metres - caymans (like crocodiles), alligators, pink (I kid you not) river dolphins, capybaras (the largest rodents on earth - like a guinea pig, but as big as a real pig), etc... The river is only about 10m wide and we had a fantastic time cruising it in search of all kinds of animal life.
That first night was an incredible highlight as we travelled down the river without an engine and with only flashlights that were switched on every now and then just to reflect countless pairs of red dots (alligator eyes). The stars were reflecting in the water and it seemed as if one could pick them up (except for the red ones, of course).
The next day we went anaconda trekking in the swamp. Armed with a stick and gumboots, we set off in the marsh which was almost knee deep. It reminded me of waterblommetjiebredie! At first I though that there were no snakes as we did not find any for hours, but I later thought that they were probably everywhere but we were too blind to spot them. We eventually found an anaconda of about 3m in the swamp, but the guide was not quick enough to catch it. We were glad as catching anacondas can cause their death due to trauma as well as ill effects of sunscreen and insect repellent. Janine would have loved to hold one though. This particular snake swam over a small river and looked at us from the safety of the other side.
Our guide was operating like a machine - mostly due to the coca leaves he was chewing. It is known to dull exhaustion and some mineworkers in the Potosi area worked up to 48 hour shifts with the aid of these leaves. We did our best to keep up the pace - no resting for 5 hours!
That afternoon we went piranha fishing. They are also everywhere in the rivers - no need to try to find them - Johan caught some 15 of these vicious little monsters in less than an hour - just use meat and a hook. There are many different types with also different colours. They complemented our supper that night!
One can hear the dolphins splashing in the river at night! There is also a cayman that hangs out at the camp that gets the leftovers - we watched as he polished last night's leftover pasta!
On our return trip with the 4x4, our driver decided to give his friend a driving lesson for the whole 3 hour trip. The guy was driving like a maniac and resulted in the feather springs breaking - this was fixed in a small town and set us back another hour! But we made it eventually...
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