Amazon Adventures

All you zoologists and biologists, be jealous...very jealous! The amount of wildlife I saw on the Pampas tour was phenomenal. In the space of 3 days I caught a glimpse of pink-river dolphins, capybaras, red and black howler monkeys, capuchin monkeys (which I fed a banana), turtles, as well as a huge variety of bird species including: a royal, black and imperial eagle, blue and yellow macaws, vultures, many egret-like species and lots of smaller exotic birds. Too many to name. And too many I don't know or remember the name of. Both evenings we went alligator-hunting and successfully caught one. The second evening the guide thought it was a good idea to put the rope around the neck of a 3-metre alligator and unsurprisingly, it put up one hell of the struggle. It was enormous! The beast looked like a croc. I'm glad he decided not to drag it into the boat because I can guarantee there would have been casualties of some sort. He assured me that was nothing: in some of the lakes nearby the river that we were exploring, alligators grow up to 6 metres in length. Insane.

I also went piranha-fishing and managed to catch 3! Between our group we caught all three species living in the river: red, yellow and white. And what do you do with piranhas once you catch them? That's right, eat them! Our cook fried them for us. There wasn't much meat on the fish but they were actually quite tasty. The food on the trip was fantastic. In a basic kitchen with no electricity the cook literally prepared feasts. On one of the mornings, we spent 4 hours wading through knee-deep swamp looking for anacondas. Cat and another girl in our group were the only ones who saw one slithering past, but within a split-second it was gone. Fortunately on the last day, on our way back on the river, we had time to stop off for half an hour to look again. The guide went on his own, but came back with a two and half metre long monster! It was incredibly heavy (I held it for a good 2 minutes), but stank like hell. Not long after the anaconda-holding session we came across a mother capybara and her 2 cubs. They were amazingly photogenic and just chilled out on the muddy banks while I was happily snapping away.

The highlight of trip for me has to be swimming with pink-river dolphins. They got as close as 1 and a half metres from where I was swimming. The feeling is just incredible. Mind you, the water was alligator, caiman and piranha-infested! However, dolphins are apparently an indicator that there are no piranhas in the surrounding area, so we were safe. Plus, I'm sure they could kick alligator-ass anyday. At one point I did feel something nibbling on me, but I think it was only sardines. Little bastards! The whole trip was absolutely brilliant, without a doubt one of the highlights of the last 2 and a half months. Give me jungle over high-altitude anyday. The only downsides are the mosquitos and the humidity.

The 17-hour busride to Rurre was dusty as hell but much less painful than I imagined it would be. A few hours before arriving the driver blew one of the tyres, but he repaired it relatively quickly. We arrived in complete darkness: there was no electricity in the whole of the town, which apparently is quite a common problem, so we had to wait until the morning to see what the town looked like. Rurre's a really picturesque and chilled-out town. A great place to wind down. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we need to get a move on and head down to Chile. We treated ourselves to a flight on the way back, just for the easy and comfort, although it was pretty turbulent towards the end. Coming back to La Paz was a shock. Damn altitude difference! I'm in La Paz now until Thursday evening.

Sorry for the delay, but here's the link to Jean-Sebastien's blog (the French-Canadian guy I was volunteering with in Villa Tunari). Now, I know the majority of you won't be able to read the text, but if you scroll down you'll find a few photos. Check it!