Malcolm left, I had fairly tricky day paragliding at the base of Huayana Potosi, and then I flew out to Rurrenebaque for some time in the jungle.
Rurrenebaque is a friendly relaxed little town on the banks of the Beni River and in a beautiful location in a more mountainous area of the Amazon.
After a very pleasant time doing very little, I was all set to do an Ayahuasca ceremony but then discovered that the tour prices unilaterally went up by 300 Bs on the 1st July (an attempt by the government to promote more sustainable tourism as far as I could gather), so figured if I was to do a tour now was the time to do it. Given I was planning a few days in the jungle to delve into the depths of my inner soul I plumped for a Pampas tour (as opposed to a jungle tour): 3 days of cruising round in a boat spotting wildlife. A 3 hour drive down an unpaved road got us to the river Yacuma where we boarded our long, narrow river boat.
Our guide Marc had great taste for the dramatic.
Our guide Marc had great taste for the dramatic.
Look! An Alligator.
They can grow up to 2 meters...
And a half.
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| Marc showing off his tricks |
There were 8 of us on the tour. A Bolivian family from La Paz and 2 German girls. Culturally interesting but the conversations didn't exactly flow.
It was the Bolivian family's first experience of wildlife so it was fun to see their excitement. Not so admirable was their (well the son's) propensity to try and get all the animals we got close to, to do something (maybe he was expecting tricks) by clapping his hands. Our guide lacked a little respect too, mainly for alligators, and practically ran a few down to ensure we got the best possible view.
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| Sunrise |
Other than cruising around, we caught piranhas, went swimming with the pink river dolphins (sociable animals that like that to nibble on your toes - pretty unnerving in the murky water) and went for a traipse around a bog in the rain on a doomed to fail search for anacondas (snakes don't come out in the rain but we tried anyway).
What did we see?
Lots of birds: cormorants, herons, guineas foul type birds with funkier hair does, lots of others.
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