Pampas

Before we flew back to La Paz we were in the Pampas, the swamps, with the same company we did the jungle trip with. We didn't know what to expect from this area and the 3 days we wanted to stay there, could it be so different from the rainforest? It's only about 3 hours away by car, but we were told to show up in flip flops, as we won't need proper shoes, everything happens in or from the boats they said. Sounded good!

Ready in front of the office in Rurrenabaque, our packpack (we took the same stuff as for the jungle) on the roof and together with an english couple we set off in a taxi. We were told that the road will be pretty bad, so why the taxi? 'It'll work fine' i told myself, this is Bolivia, everything works out somehow. As we drove around the corner, not in sight of the office anymore, the driver stopped and started to work under the open hood of the car, all the tools already prepared. Did he plan to fix his car now, not the night before? It looked like it... He wasn't satisfied with the result and called a friend who showed up with a new battery. Good. We were off again. For 5 minutes, then he stopped again, saying he's sorry and "solo 15 minutes!" After he fixed the car 'properly' we kept going and broke down only two times on the way.

The road started okay, after an hour it got worse and worse and we were shaked, feeling those 3 hours in our bums. On the way we stopped two times for sloths, the driver knew exactly in which tree they live, our first sloths in the wild! Good animals to take pictures of, as they move slower than snails... The nature was absolutely different now, very flat, endless grasslands and pretty dry apart from some small streams and lagoons.

After another half an hour at the gas station (there were roadblocks further up the road and everyone wanted to get his car filled by the first truck who got through) we arrived at our lodge. The organisation here wasn't as good as in the rainforest and we almost missed lunch because no one told us. Afterwards we jumped on the back of a pick up truck with some camping chairs and a boat engine and we drove through some villages to a lake nearby to go piraña fishing and bird watching. At the place where our boat was were many local families doing laundry, standing in the lake and beating their clothes over the wooden tables they made inside the lake.

There wasn't a single boat on the lake apart from ours. The locals, we were told, are afraid of it as the legends tell that there's a huge anakonda in these waters, being responsible for several casualties in the past. Maybe that's why we were alone? After some time along the shore we found a narrow passage into the dense vegetation surrounding the lake. The water was really shallow now and we could see pirañas jumping, catching flies and mosquitoes propably. In the trees and bushes were countless different species of birds sitting, toucans, herons, hoatzins, kingfishers and the usual vultures making circles high up in the sky, we didn't know where to look! We also tried fishing again, i caught several branches, leaves and water lillies, no fish though. Anni managed to catch two, both two small (and i still think it was the same fish) and this saved their lifes. After the fish being fed we headed slowly back, enjoying the sunset, drifting along in the middle of the lake. Perfect finish for today!

The next days we went up- and downstream the river next to the lodge, the water level was absolutely low and therefor all the animals gathered together in less water, the river less wide therefore the animals closer to the boat. Perfect! The excitement of caiman sightings grew smaller after the first 30, we were only looking for especially large animals from now on, as there were so many in the water and on the shore on the sunny side of the river bank. One highlight were the pink river dolphins! First we only saw their clouds of water they produced when taking a breath on the surface, later we saw them playing around and jumping a bit, never more than a head out of water or the fins though. A small lake where 3 rivers meet is their favorite hang out place and if it wasn't too chilly we would've gone in to have a swim with them, despite the pirañas and the caimans (another group went for a swim and they told us they were pretty scared, especially when they saw caimans disappearing in the muddy water, not knowing where it might swim around now). On one occasion we were so lucky to come across a group of squirrel monkeys on a tree overhanging the river. We got so close to them, they could've jumped into the boat if they've wanted to, a real change to their behaving for us as we only saw them high up in the trees before, trying to get out of our sight. Capybaras were also around, drying on the shore after a swim. They're very calm and we could go pretty close without them running away.

Two times we went to look for anacondas by foot. The first try started behind the lodge on a farm's fields. To cut the story short, the biggest animals we saw were pigs, a furious farmer made us take another way back where we had to build (kind of) a bridge out of wood to cross a pond and, sure, we didn't find any snakes. The second go was more successful. First by boat and then by foot in the heat of noon we found a small anaconda (well, the guide did) about one meter long. Before we could get our cameras ready it disappeared in the water. Anakondas are crazy fast! On the boatride before we also had a little accident. We drove quite fast downstream around a tree lying in the river. Just as we turned around we saw another boat heading towards us, full speed. None of drivers made any attempt to avoid a crash, so we crashed. The other boat hit the tip of our boat and we almost fell overboard. Just as i looked up again i saw the tip of the other boat, half across ours, sliding towards me an before i could react it hit me full in my side and my right arm. I flew onto Anni, she got hit by my chair which was absolutely shredded after that. It hurt pretty bad but i could still move everything, so nothing was broken. The tourists on the other boat seemed to be pretty sorry for us by their looks. The only guy that should've been sorry, the other driver, wasn't, and after a few harsh words from our driver he took off. This was a Bala Tours boat. Don't book there, apparently they have quite a lot of accidents and the average age on their boats is around 90 years...

We saw so much more wildlife than in the jungle but if we had to decide, we'd still go to the jungle. All day in a boat, either up- or downstream is a bit boring after 3 days, and after 100 caimans no one's really excited anymore. But don't get us wrong, we were happy that we did see the pampas, too.