The bus to La Paz was half the fun in my mind. We skirted around Lake Titicaca, crossed the border with no problems and then got on a boat while our bus was loaded onto a pontoon type of ferry to cross the lake at its narrowest point. From there it was a bit further along the Bolivian side of the lake and then along the edges of the gorgeous Bolivian mountains which were fantastic to see coming up out of the reddish desert type landscape around them. Driving down into La Paz was an eyeopener too. It is set in a bowl shaped depression and is enormous. We got dropped in the central area near what the travellers call the witches market. There are heaps of stalls selling all sorts of strange talismans and herbs as well as dried up llama foetuses for people to bury under their homes for good luck! The ideal way apparently, for maximum effect, is to bury the foetus under the first stone laid for your new house. Slightly creepy and I tried to get a photo but failed as I felt rude. The stall owners clearly did not approve of my camera being out so I gave up. It was a fascinating sight though.
Nadia and I decided that it was time to go out and celebrate our new nephews arrival so we grabbed a bite to eat (the street stands sell these great roast pork rolls with hot sauce, pink pickled onions, lettuce and tomato!) and then cabbed it down to a place that was recommended as one of the happening spots in La Paz. As with all things read in the Lonely Planet, a year since publishing can make a big difference. Still the place had good drinks even if they were served by staff in surgical gloves and paper masks. Swine flu or just hygiene gone mad? Who knows? We had a few celebratory drinks then tried to call home to congratulate Leith and Jodie but couldn´t get through so we headed back to our part of town and tried once more. Still no response so we decided to find another bar to see if it was more lively and have another drink! On the way home later we tried one more time to call and then gave up and went and got a terrible hamburger from a street stand that was still open near the roundabout on our street. Once back at the Hostal Copacobana we devoured said hamburger despite its bad taste and then got onto the free internet for a bit of drunken emailing...
After a sleep in we decided that we should really get a move on and arrange our tour to the Pampas near Rurrenbaque. We had decided that even though the Jungle trips looked cool, we would prefer the Pampas one as you see more animals.
This in mind we went and checked out a few tourist places and ended up in Indigena Tours. Given that we wanted to get on a tour as soon as possible we did our organizing amazing race style. At 3.00pm we booked ourselves on a flight to Rurrenbaque that was departing at 4.50pm! This would ensure that we could join a Pampas tour the next morning at 9.00am and spend 3 days in the wilds of Bolivia checking out all the critters it had to offer. We ran out of the office to get withdraw money so we could pay and confirm ASAP and then took our tickets from the agent and rushed back to our hotel to pack a small bag with 3 days of gear for the trip. Very proud of ourselves we packed in record time, arranged to store our bags at the hotel and made it to the airport in a taxi with 20mins to spare.
The flight was fantastic. It was a little 20 seater plane and it flew from La Paz over the mountains in such a way that we flew between two huge snow covered peaks that were level with the wings when you looked out of the window! Once over the mountains the view was of green jungle below. Check out the pics on facebook and tell me that the landing strip in Rurrenbaque does not remind you of Phantom comics!
Rurrenbaque itself was a pleasant surprise. We arrived to about 30 degrees and what felt like 90% humidity which for us was awesome. Finally, some heat and sun! The town is really small and reminded me a lot of Vietnam. Hazy horizons, humidity, slow pace and good vibe. We spent the night in a simple hostel and had a few more celebratory drinks on our nephews behalf before finding an icecream shop and devouring a lovely but sickening (you know what I mean) icecream sundae.
Up and excited the next morning Nadia and I had breakfast and were at the tour office as instructed by 8.30am. By 9.30am our jeep was finally ready adn we started out on our 3hour journey along bumpy and extremely dusty red dirt roads. By the time we arrived for lunch we were filthy! There was about another hours travel after the lunch break to get us to the river where our boat was waiting to take us into the depths of the wilderness. Our guide was called Negro (I was sure I had mis-heard him at first) and he was a friendly enough guy. He spoke only basic english but we explained that we were fine as long as he didn´t talk too fast. The other four people on our boat were two french couples who really were not allthat chatty but oh well, Nadia and I were content to soak up the sun and spot animals. Spotting them was definitely no problem at all! From the minute we arrived there had been something to look at. Before we even got in our boat there were pink river dolphins cruising around in the water nearby and as soon as we got underway we saw alligators, more birds than you can imagine, monkeys and these cool creatures that I am not sure how to spell. I am going to run with Capibarra - they are a wierd cross between a guinea pig and a wombat and you will have to get on facebook to see my pics of them, it is worth it!
We spent our time in the Pampas (3 days 2 nights) cruising in the boat, walking through the wetlands in search of an anaconda which our lunatic guide picked up, pirhana fishing, night spotting the red eyes of the alligators, enjoying the sunsets and just generally relaxing in the warm, humid sun. On the last day we were offered the opportunity to get in and swim near the pink dolphins. Given that they were not the friendly, playful type like many ocean going dolphins, we declined. It also had a lot to do with the fact that we had spotted more alligators than I could count and some of them were 4 or 5 metres long! I was also not encouraged to get too close to Pedro the friendly neighbourhood alligator that we were taken to see when Nadia noticed that our guide (who was feeding it chicken) was missing a few fingers! We asked him about that and he said - No, no, not Pedro, he is my friend. It was another alligator years ago that I used to catch and bind it´s jaw shut so tourists could take photos. One day it was too fast and got my fingers. Do you think he is a slow learner or what!
After another rough jeep ride back to Rurrenbaque we were filthy dirty again but without the joy of being able to put on clean clothes. We tidied up as best we could and went in search of dinner and beer before having an early night in preparation for our 7am flight back to La Paz.
***Highlights:
1. Seeing Nadia fall on her bum in the mud while anaconda hunting.
2. Getting to hold one of the pirhanas that our guide caught and eating them for dinner.
3. Not having caught malaria...so far, I think!
