Las Pampas

From La Paz it was an epic 20 hour bus journey to Rurrenabaque where we got a 3 hour jeep ride down a dirt track to Santa Rosa where we began our stay in Las Pampas... well worth all the effort though. Once we met our guide in Santa Rosa, we got into a wooden canoe with a little motor and slowly made our way up the river, through the amazon. We saw many aligators lying on the side of the banks, as well as turtles resting on logs, brightly coloured birds and a family of capibaras. The guide pulled up by a tree where a group of squirrel monkeys were playing- he held a bannana above our heads and all the monkeys jumped onto our heads and crawled over our backs, then he let us feed the monkeys.

Once we arrived at the lodge where we were staying, we shoved our stuff in the room before getting back in the boat to view the sunset futher up the river. After sunset went aligator watching- if you shine a torch at aligators in the dark... their eyes glow red- very cool! We stopped at the edge of the river at one point and the guide wandered off only to reaturn, moments later, with a baby aligator that he let each of us hold. Back at the lodge we were fed really well with yummy, healthy food.

The next day a breakfast of pancakes, fruit and pastries awaited us before we pulled on some wellies to go anaconder hunting in the swampy part. We trekked for ages and the guide told me that due to the overcast sky, it was a 70% chance that we wouldn´t find a snake... but we did and I got to hold an anaconder. We reaturned late for lunch and then chilled in hammocks until pirana fishing. My first ever time fishing was in the amazon and I caught 14 fish... 3 of which were piranas- I felt pretty proud! We then motored to another great view point for another beautiful sunset and got back to have our piranas with dinner- if not a little boney, they were delicious. We spent the evening lazying in hammocks, overlooking the water and chatting to our guide.

The last day was great- we found a spot in the river to go swimming where pink dolphins popped their heads up every now and then. I was terriffied that an aligator would come and rip me limb from limb, but swimming in the amazon was incredible. Following an early lnunch, we made a quick get away, motoring back up the river to Santa Rosa. We managed to get a night bus back to La Paz (another hellish 20 hours) and arrived in time for christmas eve in the lively city.