We had heard great things about the Amazon and were excited to get to see it. The tours of Bolivian Amazon start out of the small town Rurrenenbaque. To get here either means an hour flight or an 18 hour or longer bus ride on a very sketchy route. After much research we decided to air on the side of caution and fly, while it was much more expensive we felt we would much rather spend the money and arrive alive.
We arrived in the heat of the Amazon and stayed in a hostel on the river in Rurrenenbaque for a few days before booking a pampas tour with escorpion travel. There is a choice of jungle or pampas tours r a mix of both. We were assured you would see more animals on the pampas tour and didn’t have the time or money to do both.
A three hour bumpy and dusty ride in a 4wd bought us to the pampas where we boarded our narrow wooden boat and headed off down the river.
We past dozens of alligators, multiple species of birds and saw a few cheeky monkeys playing in the trees before arriving at our lodge for the next two nights. A basic but comfortable wooden lodge with dorm rooms and an area to relax in the hammocks on the banks of the river. A few of the guys went swimming out the front of the lodge but we were a little skeptical after the large number of alligators we had seen on our way down the river.
Later that night we jumped back in to the boat and went spotting the red eyes of alligators with our torches, one we spotted hanging out just a few meters away from where everyone had been swimming that afternoon.
The following day we were up bright and early to watch the sunrise before going anaconda hunting. After walking around through mud and reeds in the boiling sun, brett and I gave up and headed back to the boat to sit and wait for the others. While we were relaxing the guide found an anaconda and we all rushed over to see it.
We went fishing for piranhas later that afternoon to no avail. We caught a few small ‘salmon’ or so we got told and headed back for dinner.
Our last day we headed out on the boat to go swimming with the pink Dolphins. Jumping into alligator infested water was pretty terryfing. Apparently the alligators don’t come near the Dolphins so it’s supposed to be safe but there were alligators 30 or so meters away from where we were swimming. Nevertheless no one got eaten and there were plenty of Dolphins swimming around and playing with everyone in the water. One of the Dolphins bit one of the guys on our tour, but I’m sure it was just a play bite.
We headed back that afternoon and returned to Rurrenenbaque.
We didn’t fall in love with the pampas tour, we found it a bit touristy and tedious. It could have been the tour we were on, we didn’t enjoy our guide very much and felt we could have been told more information about the Amazon, but all the groups have a similar itinerary and it was hard to feel like you were in the ‘Amazon’ with so many other tour boats around. But it was cool to visit the Amazon and we are glad we made the trip.
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