I’d made the long journey to Rurrenabaque to head into a part of the Amazon jungle, the edge of the Amazon really. With limited time, I opted for the 3 day Pampas tour, exploring the wetlands and rivers in search of wildlife. And the wildlife did not disappoint! During the drive towards Santa Rosa, we already stopped to watch sloths high up in the trees and caimans in the shallow waters. The real adventure hadn’t even begun yet. That came after lunch, where I suddenly saw a tucan pecking at the plates on another table. It turned out to be a pet tucan, just like they had pet parrots as well. For the real adventure we boarded a long wooden boat to explore on the Yucama river.
The ride to our accommodation was a search for as many animals as we could find. We immediately saw a bunch of turtles sitting on a tree trunk in the water. Yet as we approached, they jumped into the water one by one. We were on a brownish river that we knew was the habitat of piranhas and caimans, but it was refreshing to stick our hands in the water and splash around a bit. The humidity was brutal and the sun was out. Soon our guide steered our boat practically in a tree. The tree was filled with squirrel monkeys that were actively walking across the branches and getting very close to the boat. A bit further on we saw the awe-inspiring jaws of a caiman who was taking some sunshine. Then we stopped along with another boat. There was a dolphin in the water. The Amazon has the endangered pink river dolphins. Not the prettiest in my opinion, but still as playful as you think a dolphin would be. That made it a bit hard to catch a glimpse of it, as it was swimming around swiftly in an area where two rivers met each other.
After a few hours we arrived at our accommodation for the next two nights. The river water rises significantly in the rain season, so the accommodation consisted of several buildings and pathways on stilts. There was a lookout tower to watch to the sunset and the river, a dining area and several toilets and showers. We slept in a big dorm with well used beds and mosquito nets. The mosquitos hadn’t been bad at all during the day, but as the sun set, they came out to play. After dinner we headed out in the boat again. It was completely dark and we were armed with headlights. My favourite moment was when we all turned them off though. The stars were incredible! But we needed lights to spot caimans. Their eyes light up in red when the light hits them, which makes it easy to “catch” caiman in the dark. It was an exciting experience to get on the water in the dark, listening to the sounds of the animals without seeing them. We saw plenty of caiman. Most were hidden in the bushes, but some showed their full size. It’s this mighty animal, but they were just lying there, calmly, not bothered by us at all.
On day two we had a walk on the itinerary. It was still humid and hot and quite frankly, the walk was very unpleasant. As soon as we started walking through the wetlands, armed with rubber boots to protect our feet, the mosquitos came out. I shouldn’t have been so surprised. After all, we were walking through water that almost reached our knees and came into our rubber boots at times. Mosquitos thrive in this environment. They didn’t care how thick your layers of clothes were, they’d find a way to get to your skin, despite repellents. We were there to try to find an anaconda. Apparently there are different types of anaconda, of which some could be found here. They love the wetlands and can swim well. They could be hiding under the water, or in the bushes of water plants that were everywhere. The longest anacondas can be around 6m! Then our guide casually says we should spread out to increase out chances of seeing one. I was somewhat uneasy, and really clueless about what exactly I was looking for. We each had a stick for balancing and prodding and I prodded away as I was finding a way through the swamp that wouldn’t get my boots filled with water.
It didn’t take me long to be completely over this wet walk. It was uncomfortable, mostly because of the mosquitos, and I had given up on finding a snake, any snake. Suddenly we hear excitement from a different group. “Quickly” we hear our guide saying, pointing us in the right direction. With big strides I half ran to the other group. Their guide was holding a 2,5m long snake, probably a younger one. It was impressive. Mostly I was thinking that I never would have spotted the greying thing in this murky water. The other part of my brain was thinking I’d probably had multiple big snakes swimming around my feet without even noticing. The group of Israeli the man was guiding wanted to take selfies with the snake and touch it. Our guide was more hesitant. He said the snake shouldn’t be touched because of all the chemicals, eg. sunscreen and repellent, we have on our hands. Besides, it shouldn’t be out of the water for too long. So we continued our journey, kind of returning, but taking the long way to see what else we could find. It didn’t take us long to see another long, dark animal in the water: the caiman. Twenty meters further was another one. Turns out they are migrating because the water levels are changing. So I had been walking between snakes and caiman. Right!
The afternoon program had fishing on it. We’d returned to the accommodation all sweaty and enjoyed a shower first. Then, during lunch, it started pouring down. I played some games while others took a nap. Later in the day it had stopped raining but it was freezing. I was so not prepared for this weather! They’d told me to just take a small bag on this trip. The packing list had a longsleeve for mosquitos, but didn’t mention clothes for the cold! So I left in the same clothes as before. It was fine at first, but as we moved from our first fishing spot to our second, the rain started again. I was so thankful for the poncho I’d bought last minute. Fishing was simple. You had a piece of would with a fishing line and hook. We’d put some meat on it and hoped the piranhas would bite. If you felt it biting, you’d had to jerk the line out of the water. But that they bite, doesn’t mean they hold on. Often I pulled out the line, without any fish, the meat completely eaten. Several times the fish jumped off the hook before I got it in the boat. Then I had something! It was tiny. It was a sardine! At the end of the afternoon I’d only caught two sardines, which I had to throw back into the water. Most of us had had more luck with sardines than piranhas, but luckily our guide Antonio had caught some, so we could taste them during dinner. They are delicious!
On the last day we had the chance to swim with dolphins, but it was still freezing. I hadn’t really slept because it was very cold. Nobody was excited about getting in the water, or rather, getting cold getting out of the water. Therefore we went on another wildlife spotting trip. Everyone was distracted when I shouted: “Oooooh there! Please go back! There’s a whole capybara family!” They were so cute. Mom, dad and their three kids were just chilling on the muddy banks of the river. The other animals we saw, were animals we’d seen many times. The big white birds were always flying away when our boat approached, landing 15 meters further. So they had to fly away again as we approached their new spot. There were kingfishers flying across the waters. We also saw many, many shit birds. They sounds like they are pumping an air mattress. Although their official name is Hoatzin, our guide kept calling them shit birds. Apparently they are very smelly. They still have features birds had years ago, like their chicks have clawed wings. Fascinating bird! One of our group did end up taking a swim in the river. We saw a couple of dolphins, although they didn’t show themselves much. Another boat was there too and one guy on that boat was preparing to swim. Our guy ended up swimming in solidarity, mainly because he was challenging the other guy. It was more a dip in and out and while they were in the water, the dolphins were nowhere to be seen. We ate our last lunch, with a delicious fish called pacu, and then we went back to civilization. As we arrived at the exit of the national park a couple of dolphins were giving us a show. A farewell to a great adventure!
