As Ryan and I made our way north in Bolivia, we heard that Rurrenabaque was a unique place, not to be missed. Located just on the other side of the Andes, this tiny little town acts as a gateway to the Pampas and the jungle. Being that the Pampas was filled with more wildlife and less insects, we opted for this option. I had read in Lonely Planet that the bus ride from La Paz to Rurrenabaque is one of the worst in South America, and it is worth the extra money to fly; however, no one told me about the plane that we would fly on if we chose this option (which we did). Stepping out of the gate, I immediately headed for the Amazonas plane in front of me, but was quickly redirected to the tiny prop plane next to regular sized plane. The propellers looked as though they had been smacked onto the plane from some other machine. I could see dents on the side of the plane, and as I walked in I was immediately overwhelmed with claustrophobia and anxiety. I’m not normally an anxious flyer, but this 20 seater plane was forcing it out of me. Looking around the human rocket that I was trapped in, I was pleased to see outlets for oxygen masks, but then proceeded to read that in case of emergency, the crew would pass out masks. What crew? It was just a bunch of gringos, and 2 pilots, whom we could clearly see from our seats.
After a bumpy take off, we were on our way, and thanks to some country tunes, I was calm enough to enjoy the incredible view of the Andes that we had from the window. They towered above the clouds, making it look like a sea of clouds with islands scattered every which way. Once we had crossed the Andes, we began our descent into Rurrenabaque, making our way closer and closer to the endless expanse of greenery, broken up solely by rivers winding through the greenery. Out of no where, a landing strip appeared, and we made a bumpy landing before coming to a stop in the middle of no where. Upon getting out of the plane, I felt relieved to be on solid ground, and to breathe in warm air and sunshine. We boarded a small bus that took us down a dirt road to the Rurrenabaque International Airport, which was really just a house with a few rooms dedicated to various airport like tasks. I couldn’t help but laugh, as this was definitely my most interesting airport experience.
We waited a few minutes for our airport pick up, before making the journey into the main town, where we were dropped off at Dolphins Tour office, and then herded into a jeep to begin our tour. Once we were in the jeep, bumping along a dusty dirt road, we were informed that it would take 3 hours to get to the town of Santa Rosa, where we were to meet our guide. It had already been quite the morning, and I was beginning to regret our decision to come to the Pampas. Things continued to progress in an interesting direction as we made our way down the most horrendous road I had ever been on. Apparently there had been rain a few days before, and some of the dusty road was quite muddy. Although the mud had mostly dried up, it had dried up with 3 feet deep tire marks from heavy trucks passing through. As I smashed my head on the roof of the jeep, I was reminded of the bumpy ride we had taken from Santa Marta to the national park in Colombia… That ride was a dream compared to this one. After a few times where I was certain our jeep was going to tip over, our driver caught a slippery patch of mud and over corrected, sending us smashing into the small ditch. Fortunately, the impact was minimal and no one was even slightly injured; however, our jeep was worse for wear, as a steering axle had come loose. A driver from another jeep stopped to help out, and the 2 Bolivians did a quick fix, tying the steering axle back together with some rope. We unwillingly got back in the jeep, and continued on our way, getting stuck only once before the driver said that the steering was out again. We all climbed out again so that they could retie it. At this point, one of the guys from our tour noticed that the car’s shock was dragging behind. The driver attempted to drive with it hanging behind before realizing that that wouldn’t work, and getting out to fix that as well. As we finally neared Santa Rosa, the driver realized that he had left the shock behind, and dropped us on the side of the road to wait for him while we went back to fetch it. When we finally reached Santa Rosa, I was ecstatic to be out of the death jeep. Unfortunately, the fun wasn’t quite over yet, as we were herded into a small river boat (more like a canoe) with foldable chairs to sit in to make the final 2 hour journey to our ecolodge.
After getting over my initial weariness of the boat, it was actually quite a lovely journey. We were able to spot our first pink dolphins, caiman, capybara (largest rodent in the world), storks, birds of paradise, and much, much more. Arriving at the lodge, we were introduced to our home for the next 2 days. The accommodation was definitely basic, but it would do the trick. Basically, we were staying in a shared room with the rest of our group, and each of us had a bed and a mosquito net. Then, there was the kitchen, dining area, and bathroom, all of which was suspended about 2 feet off the ground. Below us was shallow water, home to 2 caiman!! After getting settled in, we had a coffee and snack, and visited with our group while waiting for dinner to be served. Our group consisted of 2 Swiss girls, an Irish couple, a Belgian guy, and a Czech guy. As it turned out, one of the Swiss girls was celebrating her 19th birthday, so we proceeded to help make her pampas birthday extra special! With a lovely meal, a cake, and good conversation, this was hardly difficult.
The following day we were up early and out on the boat to search for wildlife. As our driver maneuvered our boat through tiny waterways, I felt as though I was driving down a water road with a beautiful deciduous forest on either side of me. Throughout the morning, we saw multiple howler monkeys, a sloth, and many more birds, caiman, and pink dolphins. We even saw a few eagles and macaws. At one point, we got out of the boat and trekked for about 20 minutes to try and spot the macaws. Unfortunately, we were too loud and we scared them all off! Either way, it was a morning full of wildlife spottings, which was awesome. We returned to the lodge at midday for lunch, and to change our clothes. In the early afternoon, we headed out to a still water area where the dolphins like to hang out, so that we could swim with them. When I had initially read that we would have the chance to swim with pink dolphins, I was imagining the playful dolphins that you see in water parks around North America. These dolphins were definitely wild though, and were not up for cooperating. We spent quite a while in the water before a few of them warmed up enough to play with us, and boy was it worth the wait! They would swim up below so you could feel them with your feet, and then they would be right in front of us so that we could touch them. A few of them would dart away, popping up so we could get a good glimpse of their faces. Unfortunately, they were too quick for my camera!
We returned later that evening water logged, but happy with our dolphin experience. After another delicious dinner, and a complementary bottle of wine, we headed back out on the boat for a night cruise. We spotted a few caiman hanging out in the trees, which was pretty cool; however, the coolest part of the night was turning off all of the lights and watching the firefly’s light up. I have never seen firefly’s like that before, and it was like watching a Christmas light up with a ton of tiny little while lights. When we were finished with our night cruise, we headed back to the lodge and headed to bed, in preparation for an early morning the following day. I drifted to sleep to the sounds of the pampas… bugs, frogs, and the occasional splash from a caiman hunting.
The following morning, we arose and jumped on the boat to watch the sunrise. This was one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen (I know, I keep saying that!), as the sky lit up orange, yellow, purple and pink, silhouetting the trees and the wetlands. We all wowed over the view, snapping multiple photos as the sun lit up the sky. From there, we returned to the lodge for breakfast, and then headed back out again to do some piranha fishing. I figured that fishing for piranhas couldn’t be that difficult, but I didn’t seem to have the knack. We baited our makeshift rods with raw beef and then attempted to catch them before they ate all the bait. Although everyone else on the tour seemed to have good luck with the fish, they didn’t seem to like me. Or perhaps, I am just not a very skilled piranha fisherwoman! Nevertheless, the experience was really fun, although it made me a bit freaked out to know that there were SO many piranhas in the water we had been cruising in for the last 2 days in our shabby canoe-type boat.
Once we had our fill of piranha fishing, we made our way back to the lodge one final time to pack up and have lunch. From there, we made our way 1.5 hours by boat back to our jeep pickup point. We all cringed as we saw the blue death jeep waiting for us, although the driver ensured that the jeep was in better condition. Although I’m not sure if this is true or not, the road was in much better shape, making the drive back much more pleasant. Ryan, the 2 Swiss girls and I all have a flight to make, and we were a bit nervous about it, but we made it with plenty of time to check in. We went through the poor excuse for security, where my hand sanitizer was taken for me (seriously?!), before we were ushered back onto the bus, and then onto our tiny prop plane. Packed in like sardines, I couldn’t help but feel nervous, but as we watched the sun set over the Andes, I was thankful for my pampas experience, despite the fine layer of dust covering my body!
My Love Affair with Travel 