Jungle Fever

We jumped on the rickety, non-bano equipped bus to the rainforest. The journey was hot and long, and filled with many heart-in-mouth, i'm about to go down this precipice and die, moments. However, the scenery was immence. I rarely fill more like a backpacker than when i'm hanging out the window of a hot crowded bus, getting slowly sunburnt with my jaw permanently dropped. All in all it was simply an experience then, and on entry to Rurrenabaque (at 5 in the morning) we went of in search of shelter. We were accosted on the way by Louis, a wheeling dealing Israeli who seemed like the man to put us on the pampas tour we were after. When we realised we had to leave that same day due to a national holiday fast approaching for the elections in Bolivia, we went all in. By 8.30 we were bouncing along dirt roads in a four by four with our guide 'Juan Carlos' who we were imformed spoke 'enough' english. We soon found out this was 'no' english, but actually his eternal smile and nod manouver had him sold to us from the start. After a few hours we reached a river, jumped in a wooden canoe type affair and sped into nowhere. On the way we saw flipping hundreds of alligators, birds of paradise, capabara, kingfishers, condors, eagles, turtles, monkeys (which we fed bananas) and... well, so much other stuff it just got silly.

The shear volume of alligators came back to haunt us however when Juan decided to beach the boat and hand gesture we should get out to push it off. When there is a language barrier, muddy water you can't see into and a significant amout of hungry looking alliators about you become more than apprehensive. Juan smiled and nodded. We all jumped out, and actually this became a regular theme when the river became shallow. I wouldn't say we ever enjoyed the experience however! It took a few hours to reach our lodgings - Wooden, stilted and basic to say the least, but equally f-ing cool! That evening we popped a little further down the river to the 'sun set bar' and sipped cold beers watching the sun go down over the Pampas. On the way back we saw some alligators by night and fire flies...

The next day we went on foot through the pampas anaconda hunting. Unfortunately we failed to find said snake, but did enjoy a few rounds of 'hit the alligator on the head', which came with some amusing results. After we returned to camp (using our engineering skills to ford the river and reach a well earned lunch without the guides) Juan did indeed find an anaconda, but we weren't in the vicinity. After a siesta in hammocks, we went swimming with pink dolphins, which Juan had us believe was totally safe despite alligators on the shore. Good fun though!

On the third day we went fishing! Pirana fishing... We caught sardines for bait, chopped them up, then reeled in the snappers. Stu was successful in both regards, and also managed to find some cat fish. I only made enemies with the sardines, but was pleased to catch anything on my first ever fishing trip. The piranas were cooked up (Juan was some sort of Guru and added significantly to the pile) and we ate them with lunch - very nice with a bit of lime! That left the return journey with even more hair raising out of boat moments. It also decided to rain and completely soak us, but we were so unclean and un bothered by this stage it just became funny. In the jeep our driver did a masterful effort with the wheels, and we sailed through the bog road when all around us jeeps were getting stuck (including that of the party boat - woop woop).

The bus back to La Paz was delayed, broke a wheel and was hampered by rain and the uphill journey. It was horrific, especially considering most of us were stuggling with stomach altercations and once again a lack of toilet, but we survived. Well worth it...