The Jungle

Because every good story should start with "deep in the Bolivian jungle," that´s where we will start this one!

 A 45 minute flight out of the capital La Paz, (taking us over Mt. Huayna Potosi  where we had been only 15 hours earlier-it refreshed memories of a lack of oxygen and waves of nausea) with a soft landing on a dirt air strip we were in Rurrenabaque.  The air was humid, hot and full of oxygen . Perfect!  We booked a 2 night 3 day pampas trip to begin the next day. The pampas is a massive expanse of flat jungle that is seasonally flooded by the  meandering rivers that make up the head waters of the Amazon. The next morning we rolled out of bed with stiff legs from mountain climbing  and limped our way to the awaiting Toyota land cruiser.  It was a  3 hour dusty drive to where the river began and our boat was waiting.  Cruising in our dugout with a 15hp outboard, it was only seconds before we saw our first alligator! Our guide Jimmy (pronounced "Yimmy") made sure to get us close enough to floss his teeth . After 3hrs of cruising up the river and seeing countless alligators, capibara, turtles, monkeys, pink dolphins and various colorful species of birds we arrived at our new jungle home. The huts were raised off the soil with boardwalks between for the rainy season and our lodge was complete with an alligator chilling on the beach front. The first evening we watched the sunset while enjoying a much needed cold cerveza. 

Huayna Potosi

Alli !

Capibara - largest rodent 

Turtle!

monkeys!

Howler monkey

Day 2 began with a 5:30 wake up call by howler monkeys above our hut grunting so loud it sounded like an orchestra of poorly maintained "Detroit" diesel engines.  That morning we went on a  trek through the wetlands anaconda hunting. Sloshing through knee deep mud following the slimy tracks was creepy as hell. You never know when you might feel one slither away under your feet!  We didn't find an anaconda but we did see a 4 m long black caiman crocodile. A nap in the hammocks and the afternoon was spent pirhana fishing! Chris caught about 6 keeping 1 to try for dinner :) 

Alli in front of our lodge

Pirhana!

Yimmy and our dinner

Day 3 started with a sunrise boat ride and a swim with the pink dolphins. Jumping in the middle of the dark murky river where you can't see more than 5 cm deep is just crazy! Lining the shores where we were swimming was alligators and nipping at Chris' toes were pirhanas. Maybe it's better that we couldn't see what was beneath us! "Yimmy" made Chris feel better about the alligators by telling him that they are vegetarian.  Heading back to Rurrenabaque the amount of alligators and crocodiles still amazed us! A dusty jeep ride and we were back. A slightly delayed flight while the ground crews chased a cow off the air strip and we were on our way back to La Paz.  

Chris swimming!

EEEKKKKK

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