Pampas trip from Rurre. Too cruisey.. and nice

from 24-26 Nov 2006

So the bread and butter of tourism in Rurre is taking foreigners to... well, the Pampas.

The Pampas, to be more difinitive, is an area of very flat swamp. It has low rivers running through it, and loads of wildlife.

Our plan had been to chill out for a few days, but at the last minute we were basicly grabbed by a very skilful salesman who gave us a special discount to get the minimum number for the trip to go. (As expected, everyone else had got a special deal too.. BUT ours was the lowest..$50US each for 3 days, and in our own cabin)

It was a very cruisey trip. No carrying bags cos all the activities were based from our cabins, right by the river. EXCELLENT food, and lots of it. Nice people in our group. And indeed loads of wildlife (at last!!)

Getting out there was a wee mission. Three hours on an extra bumpy road, followed by two hours roasting in the motorised canoe. Along the way we had lunch at a restaurant which turned out to be a zoo.

While eating, and minding our own business we first had a beautiful tucan hop under our table. Its massive bright yellow beak was so cool to see up close. Two mins later a racoon scurried under there too. He had a mean set of fangs, but was cool to pick up. Later we found him literaly inside the toilet, licking it..hmmm, time to wash our hands. Then a tiny money who scurried up a tree and tried to poo on our trip mates. Even a local cow wanted in on the action, but was shooed away by the waiters most quickly.

Our travel mates were three Oziie lads (Jim, Ben, Jordan) and a Frenchie (Tomas). All around 26. Good fellas. We passed a lot of time just talking shit (as you do). This was interupted with wildlife spotting. On the river journey in we saw two aligators, loads of stalks and eagles. I think we saw them cos our guide motored ahead of the other boats, who must have seen buggar all.

Our camp was all board walked, mosquito netted, and kitted with hammocks. Very flash compared to our recent river and jungle trips. The mosquitos were thick as though and we all got bitten a lot, despite applying litres of repellant. We also had a camp pet... an aligator! It was as tame as a dog (on land at least) and we all got to pat him... which was pretty cool.

That night we cruised up river 5 mins... and found a bar! Cool. Only had a couple trying to watch the sunset, hidden by clouds. Then we went Cayman spotting. They are bigger aligators, but spotlighting them, all we really saw was their eyes. By the time we got home it was 8.30... and with nothing to do...we went to bed.

The next day started with a hunt for Anacondas. This involved walking over the pampas itself in gumboots. They didnt help much when our guide insisted that we walk thru a wet patch that was up to our waistes. At least he found it funny...

So we finaly found snake, but let me tell you it wasnt easy... for the guides or the poor snake. The tree he was hiding under, in a hole, was obviously a well known spot to the guides, cos within 10 mins 5 different guides and their groups had converged on it. The snake just didnt want to come out though, so they literaly dug the poor bastard out. It must have been shitting itself (they also tried to smoke it out blowing ciggies into the hole, and prodding it with sticks!), and when they finaly managed to yank it out it was pissed. We held its head while wrappping it around our own necks, until it finaly threw up. Twice. About as politicaly incorrect as it gets really.

The afternoon was also pretty interesting. Jumping into aligator and cayman infested waters to try and get close with the local pink dolphins. The (proven) theory is that the crocs and piranhas wont attack when the dolphons are around. It took a few moments of belief in our guide for this one. More offputting was the FILTHY state of the water-visibility was approx 1.5cm. But in we went. The dolphins came within a meter or so but we all missed out on the ultimate good luck of one rubbing alongside.

to be continued

the suspicious lonely planet...

Hmmmm, while in Rurre we found a very old LP for Bolivia, the very 1st edition, from 1988 no less. There were a few changes in 18 years, ie then it was 1USD = 2Bols. Now its 8 bols!

Rurre wasnt even mentioned, it was yet to become a tourist town.

And the write up for the river trip we did from Puerto Villarole to Trinidad was still word for word!!!!! This explains why we wernt treated to wildlife every five mins as promised!! The wildlife from 18 years ago is all (well mostly) dead.

I ´think´ the LP needs to do a bit more research when updating their books......

Trinidad to Rurrenbaque

Trinidad wasnt the most exciting wee place, it has to be said. We stayed 2 nights then took the hell-bus to rurre yesterday.

In fact the most exciting thing that happened in Trini was going to the barber for a shave. I had ammased quite a lot of hair after a week on the river, and was intending to go clean. Per chance there was a poster on his mirror of some Hollywood prettyboy with an interesting trim, so i asked if he could mirror it.

Tosay he took to the challenge was an understatement... one and a half hours later the perfectionist had done a great job. I will add the photos in a few days.

As for the bus ride... we were supposeded to leave at 10am...which got pushed out till midday. It was supposed to take 10 hours...which somehow extended to 15. Getting into Rurre at 3am we were pretty shagged.The bus was more like an overland truck, with big offroad tyres, and high ground clearance. It was needed too. Full on dirt road. Had to cross three rivers on tiny barges too. Again i will post photos when we leave rurr cos..

Its 12 bols/hr for internet here!!!! For a wee town developing into a mini Kathmandu or Ko Phan Ang I was shocked! Everywhere else we have paid 2-3 bols!

So on that note.... I will go.

The plan is now: off into the local pampas for 3 days to check ot aligators and anachondas etc tomorrw. Then going to fly (yes really) up to La Paz... no mosquitos and cheap internet..
cool

5 days on the jungle river...

Well, good. We made it. Quite an intense week just passed for us,on a cargo boat plying the central amazonian riverways of Bolivia. This was NOT a trip set up for tourists, and there were more than a few moments when getting off would have been preferable...had we not been literaly hundreds of kilometers from anywhere resembling a town..

Our journey toPeurtoVillaroel was a mission to start with... catching a succession of share taxis (like a bus, but using a car..avoid the front seat where 2 pax are crammed). It took most of the day, but we got there. The town was bigger than we expected (though still tiny) , the river was dirtier than expected, and there were no other foreigners anywhere (as expected). The air was super muggy so the mosquitos were also out and angry, biting us hard. We ate, then escaped to a pokey hostel room where at least the windows were covered in mesh. Our enquiries to the harbour master had revealed that no boats were leaving ina hurry,and to come back tomorrow..

to be continued

refreshed and rearing to go

A couple of days in the city has done wonders to the energy levels. We shelled out an extra 20c or something similar for a nicer room than usual, with cable TV and air con. Ate good food, and just relaxed a bit. We take off today for Puerto Villarol where we hope to jump on a cargo boat down river for a few days. In preperation we purchased mossie nets, hammocks yesterday..which was a mission in itself.

What was not as big a mission as anticipated was getting my passport back from immigration. As predicted there were huge ques again, and everybody was stressed out. But to their credit the extension had been granted and after a bit of waiting around i had it. Yay!

Finding hammocks took ages. Evidently its a very Brazillian thing, so we finaly found a point on the map where such Brazilians hang out. A bit dubious we walked there from immmigration in blazing heat. The shopping experience with Brazilians was sooo different than that from Bolivians. Its been a very strange attitude from Bolivian shop keepers in general. As a rule of thumb they look genuinely pissed off that you are bothering the, and actualy buying something doesnt help one bit. Our Brazillian though was the most motivated salesman in the world. He made us try loads of different ones, weighed them for us when we said they had to be light, and discussed in great detail the dpros and coons of each. It was borderline hard-sell, but amusing at the same time.

There are some rather freaky folks who come in from out of town from time to time. Mennonites... think Hamish or Quakers in north america and you´re on the right track. Its only men we´ve seen.. all pasty white, wearing the exact same demin dungarees, check sirt and a cowboy hat. They look like freaks... but we are assured they are harmless...and ´very good agriculturists´

And who ever thought a ´fruit´drink could taste like fish? Yep, the ´Tamarindo´is a red juice which tastes like the run-off from oysters. Not good.

Saw a fire in a nearby hotel. The fire engine looked like it was straight out of the 1920´s which was kind of cool..

So with all this excitement... we are off to the river...

5 days bush bashing

We are back in Santa Cruz, as of midday today. The last five days have been pretty full on.. bush bashing. So our nice city beds and city food are being thoroughly enjoyed!

Last post I was feeling pretty grotty, but I came right by Tues morning when we took off for the jungle. Thank God..

Our guides were Julian, and his 20 year old son Limbiz. With in the Amboro national Park we saw quite a few animals, covered loads of ground, ate some pretty crap food, and scaled some pretty cool cliffs. The bush was actualy very similar to the West coast of NZ, but the insect and animal life present was much more intense.

day 1. Taxi´d to the park. Got the taxi stuck in deep mud, pushed it thru, then left the driver to return to town. God only knows how he got back thru again on his own. Walked for most of the day, passing the rough village where Julian and sons live. Camped under a cliff by the river.

We saw a couple of fox like creature on the way, but swimming/washing I met another creature a bit too close and personal... Thinking it would be clever to keep my clothes dry i jumped in naked... only to have a local fish get excited about a rather large worm presented... and bite my cock!! It gave me such an unexpected shock i screaned like it had been bitten right off! Funny now, but not then..

Day 2. Did some serious climbing today. Our guidebook had mentioned something about hikes into the park past a certain point being appropriate for ´hardcore´trekkers only. We hadnt paid much attention, but should have questioned why Julian was carrying a rope. The track was often damn near vertical. And in some places it was literaly vertical. THe most challenging pitch was approx 25m, in 3 pitches. Nothing overly technical you see, but a slip would have been a ´very bad thing.´ It was very exposed. Good fun!

We saw a couple more foxes, that ran right past us. Also some monkeys, and loads of bright green parrots.

Our campsite was near the park´s high point. It had been a bloody mission to get there, so it seemed a bit rediculous that we could see Santa Cruz lights in the distance that night!

Day 3. Went further up for the morning. We could see more of the park in the distance now. The park is huge - 322,000 HA. Only 5% of it has been explored. Having seen how many vertical cliff criss cross the land it was easy to see why. Julian postulated that there might be tribes in there which are literaly ´undiscoved´which i thought was pretty cool. That afternoon on the way down we were given a right show by a couple of monkeys beating their chests at us. We returned to our 1st nights camp. A well earned wash in the river.. shorts on ths time!

In the eve some animals visted us to feed on veges we left on the perimiter.

Day 4. Went bashing up the river for the morning. Saw a viper and loads of huge and colorful butterflys. In the arvo we ended up going down to Julians village, hoping to see some animals which had been coming in for sneaky feasts on their crops in the eve. The plan was good, but they didnt show up that night.

day 5. Serious bush bashing. Machete weilding stuff, and bloody red ants crawling onto us. Their bites seriously sting! We both got bitten by ticks too, which was a first for us both, and not nice. (Sara 4, me 2).. It was bloody hot today, and a swim was well earned. We finished the day walking back out to the pick up point, and into town for a well earned shower. A pretty sweet 5 days in the bush.

feeling crappy in the low lands

Havent been feeling the best over the last few days. Not much fun.

Our ride down (a long way down) to Santa Cruz (400m) was on an overnight bus. The busses only went at night.

I am never a fan of overnight travel, and this trip did not let down that assertion. We paid extra for the ´carma´(bed) bus with extra reclining seats. But no, it wasnt enough. The road was rough, I tossed and turned, then the bus broke down. After faffing about for almost 2 hours the driver gave up, and we managed to get on another bus, not carma.

So 14 hours later we got into Santa Cruz, feeling knackered. Spent the rest of the day sleeping, so there went any notion of saving money on accomodation by using night busses!

By the next morning though it was obvious that the problem was not just lack of slep. I must have eaten something dodgy, cos i felt bloody awful. Didnt get the runs, but generly felt shitty for the next 3 days.

During this time we relocated to little town Buena Vista, only 2 hours away. Caught a share taxi to get there with the counties worst race driver. Sara was not impressed. I was impressed with the local car´s fuel economy though. They run on CNG. 17 Bols fills the tank which runs 300kn. That means $3NZ gets 300km!!!! Staggering considering that Wanaka petrol has been as high as $1.84/Litre recently, giving about 5km/dollar...

One nice restaurant makes the town, the rest is a bit rough to say the least. As mentioned, I didnt really feel up to wanding too far away from our (dingy) room.

We had come to organise a trip into the Amboro National Park. Met a couple of guides and decided on one who seemed pretty genuine. five day, leaving tues. Cost = $25US/day.

But monday (today) we returned to the big smoke to sort a couple of things. Bussed it in the morning. Watched a lady change her babies nappies... then throw the soiled one out the window as we drove down the motorway!YUK YUK YUK!!! Nobody else battered an eyelid. We were also treated to a salesman climbing on board and doing a pushy promo for his eucaliptis products. He hard-sold to everybody... except us!

One of our missions for the day was to extend our visas. The immigration office was swamped with people, and it started seriously hosing with rain just as we arrived. We managed to beat the crowd (who are all here for passports, so they can go for a ´holiday´to Spain... and never return-big issue in the media here), but the beauracracy was as annoying here as many other developing countries I have visited. (NOT however, as annoying as Egypt-the toilet bowl of the world).

We were shuffled from one post to another, each one telling us something different, and maybe stamping something for us. And just when i thought it was all over, they took my passport, and said come back in two days! $20US too. Not cool.

Our second rabies shot from the chemist went smoothly. We actualy want to get bitten now just to justify it. Well, not really..

And lunch was pretty sweet, at the Irish Pub in the square.

So, we are about to bus home now, and will be in the park till sat. Hope the rains stops!!!