Pampas, Contiki Style!
Came back from the jungle (pampas - the wetlands in the Madidi area part of the Amazon) this arvo and will be heading out to the actual jungle tomorrow for another 3 days. Hopefully this time it will be a more authentic experience than the last 3 days.
We are currently in the town of Rurrenabaque, which is a popular spot to venture into the jungle. It´s a lovely little town and full of tour agencies and eateries. Overwhelmed by the amount of choices and the fact that everyone seem to be doing exactly the same thing, we decided to go with the oldest agency (called Fluvial).. not expecting that they would put us into another agency due to insufficient booking, and the next day we founded us in a group with 5 Isrealies who have just finished military service and are ready to party! Turned out to be an "interesting" experience as they spoke in Hebrew the whole time, and along with our young and a bit macho tour guide, we had the pampas tour, non-eco style.. Our first lunch was spent in a restaurant with a live band playing the loudest spanish sentimental music I have ever heard.. I saw the first Tucan, with its wings clipped and its leg tied to a pole, for the viewing pleasure of the tourists. And from then on things got even more ridiculous.. We saw countless number of aligators sunbaking on the riverbanks during our trip to the cabin site, but at night we ventured out on the boat again, trying to capture one for the photos. After an hour or so the tour guide managed to capture a small one, let it go free on the boat to scare the girls.. who screamed and stood up and I thought we were going to fall into the water along with my camera. Then after 20 minutes of so of posing in front of the camera for each of the 5 people, they let the little gator go and went looking for another one. Eventually we found a bigger one, captured it and posed for camera for another half hour or so.. I was both scared and annoyed at their crazy behaviour, but what can I do.. Next morning we went Anaconda hunting. Spent about 3 hours walking through mud and almost knee-high swamps in a pair of gumboots that are 3 sizes too big. After I complained my tour buddies kindly got some leaves for me to stuff my boots with.. and I used alot of leaves! We nearly didn´t find any but on the way back to the campsite my friend spotted one and this time the tour guide pulled the snake out of its hole along with some help from other tour buddies ( we had already learnt from guidebooks and information centres that the sunscreen and inset repellents we wear are pretty dangerous for the snakes, and it´s strongly advised that we do not handle them). I walked off at that point as I wasn´t trapped on the boat. After lunch we started making some jewellery from the nuts (which was fun!), and then off to Pirana fishing. I didn´t managed to catch anything, but the rest of the group (mostly the guide) caught about 10 fish for the dinner. Then off to see the sunset. However on the way we came past a lazy aligator which is not moving very much and seemed like an easy target. Our tour guide couldn´t pass the challenge and proved himself one more time by capturing this one, which was pretty big, and dragged it into the boat, knocking its head at the side of the boat a few times during the big struggle. Then kodak moment once more! What a hero!
Today was less eventful.. my friend and I woke up in time to see the beautiful sunrise and we all saw even more animals on the way back to town, eg. Monkeys, aligators, caymans, lots of turtles, birds, a sloth(!), a carebar (dunno how to spell, but looks like a giant guinea pig) and some pink dolphins. It was wonderful seeing so many creatures, if only we were in group that appreciates the environment a bit more.. Still, it wasn´t all bad.
posted by Susan @ 4:56 PM
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