I never thought I was into wildlife and nature much. When initially planning my trip I didn't even include the Galápagos let alone the Amazon. I concentrated on cities and beach destinations. On leaving Melbourne though, after many hours of googling "South America highlights" and "must dos South America", the Amazon and the Galápagos were the two adventures I looked forward to most.
The jungle did not disappoint.
The departure point for trips in Bolivia is Rurrenabaque, a small town which, with its tourism, humidity and motorbikes, reminded me of South East Asia. It's a bumpy 45 minute flight from La Paz or an even bumpier 20 hour bus ride.
The jungle did not disappoint.
The departure point for trips in Bolivia is Rurrenabaque, a small town which, with its tourism, humidity and motorbikes, reminded me of South East Asia. It's a bumpy 45 minute flight from La Paz or an even bumpier 20 hour bus ride.
One of my favourite things is being driven around. It's weird, but I love being the passenger in any form of transport, just daydreaming as I look out the window. This pastime is not for everyone though, and the four couples jammed into the back of the jeep for the three hour drive to the National Park on a dirt road didn't seem to appreciate the adventure as much as I did...
When we arrived at the Yucama river we didn't really know what to expect. Were we going to see much wildlife? This question was quickly answered when we were on the water as the whole river side was littered with caiman and alligators! Yes! There were also monkeys, a lot of cute turtles hanging out on branches and the funny looking capybaras.
During the many hours on the rivers we would get glimpses of pink dolphins so we were all pretty excited when on our last morning we were to go swimming with the dolphins. It took us awhile to find a spot were they were and after asking Jimmy a million times about the presence of crocs and piranhas in the water we all jumped in to play with the dolphins. They weren't very cooperative though, especially when trying to take photos!
The three days on the river have definitely been a highlight of my trip so far and I would say the pampas deserve their place on the "must do" list for Bolivia.
Oh, Bolivia!
In true Bolivian style the adventure didn't stop once we got back to Rurrenabaque. We were supposed to fly out at 4:30pm on the Friday but the plane was stranded in La Paz. For some reason they don't fly at night so when the plane turned up just before sunset there was a mad rush to get us all boarded. We had to load all the bags on ourselves in order to speed things up and had to just sit anywhere in the plane to save time fussing about. It was madness with all the airport staff yelling at the 40 passengers to hurry! Once we got all the bags packed and the seats were full they rolled the stairs back and we had to disembark. It was too dark and we were going to have to stay another night in Rurre and fly out at 5:30 the next morning...
Oh, Bolivia!
In true Bolivian style the adventure didn't stop once we got back to Rurrenabaque. We were supposed to fly out at 4:30pm on the Friday but the plane was stranded in La Paz. For some reason they don't fly at night so when the plane turned up just before sunset there was a mad rush to get us all boarded. We had to load all the bags on ourselves in order to speed things up and had to just sit anywhere in the plane to save time fussing about. It was madness with all the airport staff yelling at the 40 passengers to hurry! Once we got all the bags packed and the seats were full they rolled the stairs back and we had to disembark. It was too dark and we were going to have to stay another night in Rurre and fly out at 5:30 the next morning...