26th - 29th August - Amazon Basin Pampas, Bolivia
We arrived in Rurrenabaque, in the Amazon basin, following a swift but certainly memorable flight from La Paz. The 12 seater Cessna was definitely a better option than taking a 20 hour bus journey - part of which would have been down that good old "world´s most dangerous road" again.
The scenery was incredible as we began at 4000m in the cold, barren altiplano before passing over the snowy mountain peaks to then descend down into the tropical heat of the basin. Stunning changes in the landscape all in just over 1 hour!
As we came down to land we felt even more Indiana Jones, as the runway appeared before us....a strip of grass amongst the thick vegetation we had been flying over!
We did the rounds of various tour agencies and picked Fluvial for our 3 day Pampas (wetlands) adventure and 2 day jungle trip. So all set ready for some serious beast watching!
We have just finished the Pampas trip today, one night back in Rurrenabaque before we head into the jungle tomorrow morning.
The Pampas tour was fantastic - a great little group, brill guide, excellent camp and most importantly - loads of luck with the wildlife spotting! After a dusty and bumpy 3 hour jeep ride to the river we jumped aboard our little outboard powered dugout canoe and started cruising through the Pampas. Within minutes we were spotting aligators of all sizes, heaps of turtles (heaped on top of each other on random branches), masses of beautiful birds, capybaras (the largest rodents on earth - a bit of a cross between a guinea pig and wild boar! - quite cuddly looking), pink freshwater dolphins (although these were not quite so beautiful - looking more like waterborne Morlocks) and loads of tiny cheeky monkeys! At tea time we saw the best thing of all - two toucans come to visit us in the tree above the hammocks along with a couple of howler monkeys - this was the most beautiful sight.
A spot of anaconda hunting (rewarded with a 3 metre anaconda-cobra), pirranha line fishing (rewarded with enough for lunch!), night time aligator spotting, along with a couple of great sunsets and sunrises - all washed down with a few cheeky beers! Fantastic!
Off for a few beers now with the gang before heading out the the jungle in the morning!
P.S - notes for the phots coming soon!
The scenery was incredible as we began at 4000m in the cold, barren altiplano before passing over the snowy mountain peaks to then descend down into the tropical heat of the basin. Stunning changes in the landscape all in just over 1 hour!
As we came down to land we felt even more Indiana Jones, as the runway appeared before us....a strip of grass amongst the thick vegetation we had been flying over!
We did the rounds of various tour agencies and picked Fluvial for our 3 day Pampas (wetlands) adventure and 2 day jungle trip. So all set ready for some serious beast watching!
We have just finished the Pampas trip today, one night back in Rurrenabaque before we head into the jungle tomorrow morning.
The Pampas tour was fantastic - a great little group, brill guide, excellent camp and most importantly - loads of luck with the wildlife spotting! After a dusty and bumpy 3 hour jeep ride to the river we jumped aboard our little outboard powered dugout canoe and started cruising through the Pampas. Within minutes we were spotting aligators of all sizes, heaps of turtles (heaped on top of each other on random branches), masses of beautiful birds, capybaras (the largest rodents on earth - a bit of a cross between a guinea pig and wild boar! - quite cuddly looking), pink freshwater dolphins (although these were not quite so beautiful - looking more like waterborne Morlocks) and loads of tiny cheeky monkeys! At tea time we saw the best thing of all - two toucans come to visit us in the tree above the hammocks along with a couple of howler monkeys - this was the most beautiful sight.
A spot of anaconda hunting (rewarded with a 3 metre anaconda-cobra), pirranha line fishing (rewarded with enough for lunch!), night time aligator spotting, along with a couple of great sunsets and sunrises - all washed down with a few cheeky beers! Fantastic!
Off for a few beers now with the gang before heading out the the jungle in the morning!
P.S - notes for the phots coming soon!
posted by Polly and James at Tuesday, August 30, 2005
1 Comments:
Superb!! I have just spent about an hour of my Tuesday morning looking at all your pics and write-ups, getting increasingly jealous.
Enjoy the final month...
Matt
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