Saturday, November 24, 2007
Rurrenabque
Pampa: What is pampa think of the jungle, now think of what it would be like if it was cleared of most of the trees.
We were running a tight schedule to meet up with Shelley so we booked up all our trips with American Tours in La Paz. The choices of getting to Rurrenbaque are around about a 16 hour trip in a 4x4, usually a Toyota Land Cruiser (if you`re un-lucky a Jeep, American enginering at it´s worst, you may not get where you´re going). The times can vary, if it rains the wheels spin and you slide all over the road. By plane is the second option a bit more pricy but only 40 minutes. The thrid option is boat, but that takes 6 days, it´s a bit more predictable. With rain the road turns to mud and the thing we didn´t think about was so does the runway. Planes at rurrenabaque land in a cloud of dust and squerm about trying to brake. In the wet! No way.
We were waiting at our hostel waiting for our taxi to the airport, organised by the agency, or so we thought. It never arrived. We jumped into a taxi and headed for the airport. After checking in we say our plane. Trying to get to a seat in the 19 seater involved bumping your head every step. The trip was bumpy but fun, I find flights in small planes less scary than the large planes, where the clinical environment makes you feel like you`re not flying. Flying over the Andes is spectacular, snow capped mountains eventually gave way to trees, grass and rivers. Then we saw the runway. An orange brown strip of dirt in the middle of the Pampa. A bumpy landing and we were there.
Now the day before I had a kebab and some serious food poisoning. Having paid quite a bit of money for the trip I started Cipro to kill off all those bacteria giving me the cramps. The first day in Rurrenbaque we spend just in the town, as we wanted to see the sites, that took about 5 or 10 minutes. The day after we set off on the Pampa trip in a Land Cruiser, sharing it with two other travelers. Phil and Marina two New Zealanders. Later that day we went out on the river to see some of the wildlife Caymen, pink dolphines, capibara, etc. We had a fantastic day if a bit hot. That was the problem as the heat when I was already dehydrated with the food poisoning took it`s toll and I had to go to bed and drink rehydration drinks (thanks Phil and Marina) while the others went on a night time trek to se all sorts of fantastic things. Rehydration powder had made it on to my must take list it really makes a difference.
The day after I was feeling more myself and I was glad. We saw an anaconda in the morning and in the afternoon we went fishing. Now this is the first time I`d been fishing and the interesting thing is what was biting. Pyranhas infest the waters and so it was no surprise that they were biting. What was surprising is for such a small fish how they bit with such force. Baiting the hook with a chunk of meat and casting it in to the water got immidiate attention and within seconds the meat was stripped from the hook. I seemed to be the only one not having any luck with these fish. I then changed tactics and started fishing from the bank with fat instead of meat. They were still biting but not stripping the bait off.
Got one!
One of the Bala tours helpers got the fish off the bait, which was still ok. with the same bait I then landed a sardine, and then another pyranha. While the fishes were biting my hook the mosquitos were biting me. A lot! Lisa counted 43 and then lost count. The problem with my getting mosquito bites, is that I must have a alergy to them and the end up like boils.
The last day of the tour was wet, and we turned back early. We had lunch at the camp and then started off. The road was now water logged so we were spinning and sliding our way back to Rurrenabaque. Later the road dried and things we`re going more smoothly. Until there was another Land Cruiser that pulled out in front of us and our driver didn`t brake nor did he turn the wheel. He just drove straight into it. We were surrounded by police within seconds. Where did they all come from! The seemed excited that there was something to do. The Land Cruisers went off to the station and we were walking to meet them. I found another victim from the Land Cruiser, a cockaroach. Now I`ve seen roaches before but not this big. This one was as big as my hand.
On getting back to Rurrenbaque we found that all flights had been delayed, due to the runway being a bit muddy!!!! So our flight was delyed as well. We did eventually get out of the Pampa and back to La Paz.
We were running a tight schedule to meet up with Shelley so we booked up all our trips with American Tours in La Paz. The choices of getting to Rurrenbaque are around about a 16 hour trip in a 4x4, usually a Toyota Land Cruiser (if you`re un-lucky a Jeep, American enginering at it´s worst, you may not get where you´re going). The times can vary, if it rains the wheels spin and you slide all over the road. By plane is the second option a bit more pricy but only 40 minutes. The thrid option is boat, but that takes 6 days, it´s a bit more predictable. With rain the road turns to mud and the thing we didn´t think about was so does the runway. Planes at rurrenabaque land in a cloud of dust and squerm about trying to brake. In the wet! No way.
We were waiting at our hostel waiting for our taxi to the airport, organised by the agency, or so we thought. It never arrived. We jumped into a taxi and headed for the airport. After checking in we say our plane. Trying to get to a seat in the 19 seater involved bumping your head every step. The trip was bumpy but fun, I find flights in small planes less scary than the large planes, where the clinical environment makes you feel like you`re not flying. Flying over the Andes is spectacular, snow capped mountains eventually gave way to trees, grass and rivers. Then we saw the runway. An orange brown strip of dirt in the middle of the Pampa. A bumpy landing and we were there.
Now the day before I had a kebab and some serious food poisoning. Having paid quite a bit of money for the trip I started Cipro to kill off all those bacteria giving me the cramps. The first day in Rurrenbaque we spend just in the town, as we wanted to see the sites, that took about 5 or 10 minutes. The day after we set off on the Pampa trip in a Land Cruiser, sharing it with two other travelers. Phil and Marina two New Zealanders. Later that day we went out on the river to see some of the wildlife Caymen, pink dolphines, capibara, etc. We had a fantastic day if a bit hot. That was the problem as the heat when I was already dehydrated with the food poisoning took it`s toll and I had to go to bed and drink rehydration drinks (thanks Phil and Marina) while the others went on a night time trek to se all sorts of fantastic things. Rehydration powder had made it on to my must take list it really makes a difference.
The day after I was feeling more myself and I was glad. We saw an anaconda in the morning and in the afternoon we went fishing. Now this is the first time I`d been fishing and the interesting thing is what was biting. Pyranhas infest the waters and so it was no surprise that they were biting. What was surprising is for such a small fish how they bit with such force. Baiting the hook with a chunk of meat and casting it in to the water got immidiate attention and within seconds the meat was stripped from the hook. I seemed to be the only one not having any luck with these fish. I then changed tactics and started fishing from the bank with fat instead of meat. They were still biting but not stripping the bait off.
Got one!
One of the Bala tours helpers got the fish off the bait, which was still ok. with the same bait I then landed a sardine, and then another pyranha. While the fishes were biting my hook the mosquitos were biting me. A lot! Lisa counted 43 and then lost count. The problem with my getting mosquito bites, is that I must have a alergy to them and the end up like boils.
The last day of the tour was wet, and we turned back early. We had lunch at the camp and then started off. The road was now water logged so we were spinning and sliding our way back to Rurrenabaque. Later the road dried and things we`re going more smoothly. Until there was another Land Cruiser that pulled out in front of us and our driver didn`t brake nor did he turn the wheel. He just drove straight into it. We were surrounded by police within seconds. Where did they all come from! The seemed excited that there was something to do. The Land Cruisers went off to the station and we were walking to meet them. I found another victim from the Land Cruiser, a cockaroach. Now I`ve seen roaches before but not this big. This one was as big as my hand.
On getting back to Rurrenbaque we found that all flights had been delayed, due to the runway being a bit muddy!!!! So our flight was delyed as well. We did eventually get out of the Pampa and back to La Paz.
