The pampas- day 1

This morning, we got up and had the best breakfast we'd had so far on this trip . We got given pancakes with some lovely dulce de leche, a plate full of fruit, teas and coffee. I've never been given so much fruit on a plate for breakfast. It's all grown locally, so it tastes even better. They also had a little green parrot that gets all the leftover fruit, so that is one happy bird. After breakfast, we checked out and walked to the Fluvial office so we could start our tour. There were many groups of people waiting outside, so they must have a few jeeps departing. My thoughts were that I hoped we'd get a good group of people, and preferably English speaking ones at that.
 
We waited for a while, and eventually when we were all loaded up, we got in the jeep and met some of the people in our group. We had an English couple luckily, Laura and Sandy, who we got on with straight away, they seemed really nice, and we also have a Belgium couple of guys, who do speak English, and one Israeli guy, but luckily just one on his own. So hopefully it will be a good tour. We then stopped back at the airport to pick up another couple of people, this time it was an Irish couple, Paddy and Claire, so we should have a good craic with them on the tour too .

So now we are loaded to capacity, we set off on our drive in the jeep to get to the start of tour. It was a 3 hour drive along dirt track roads and it was so dusty while driving, especially if there was a car coming the other way. There were 6 of us cramped into the back of the jeep, plus a driver and the Israeli in the front of the truck. As it was so dusty, we couldn't keep the windows open, so it was really hot and sticky. It felt like a long journey, but we were kept entertained all the way talking to Laua, Sandy, Paddy and Claire. The others kept themselves to themselves, which suited us all fine. We were having a laugh chatting along the way, passing the time much quicker.

When we got near our location, we stopped for lunch at a small restaurant in a village. It was very basic, just rice, lentils and some meat. I didn't really like it that much, so just had a little. What did strike me was an animal i'd never seen before, it was kind of like a deer, but it was just waking around in the restaurant . It was open air and did have a garden, so it came in from outside. Perhaps it was their pet, or it could have been what the meat was... It was a cute animal, but it was scared of people so we couldn't get close to it anyhow. After lunch, we continued a short drive up the road, and our driver dropped us off by the river, which is where we are to commence the tour.

We had to wait a few minutes for our guide to pick us up. We got told when booking the tour that they couldn't guarantee they it would be an English speaking guide, so we were keeping our fingers crossed. Soon after, we were introduced to our guide, he was called Rosario and he did speak some English, so we were happy about that. He asked if we could all load our things onto the boat, when we saw it, it was a tiny boat which had about 4 rows of 2 seats, so all the couples sat together, and right at the front was the Israeli guy on his own, Orwen. We had to put all the luggage into a storage container, which Rosario would wrap up under tarpaulin in case it rained . As there is no roof on the boat, we are open to the elements if it does rain. It's just come into the rainy season, so it could rain any time, I hope it doesn't. 

Once all our stuff was loaded, we set off down the river. This section was the start of the tour, as while sailing down the river, we are likely to see animals along the way. The boat travelled surprisingly quickly down the river, and our guide told us we'd be travelling on the boat for a few hours, so hopefully we'll get to see the animals. The weather started off nice and sunny, but as we continued a bit longer,the sky turned grey. Rosario told us to keep our rain jackets with us when we loaded up the boat, just in case it did rain. Not long after the sky went overcast, did it start to rain, and it didn't just rain, it poured down. I had my rain coat with me luckily, so quickly put that on, and John had a large poncho which he put on. As the rain hit so hard, even my coat wasn't enough to keep me dry, and everything was getting wet . The rain eventually stopped after about half an hour, but the sky was still grey.

While we were travelling down the river, Rosario said look over there, and there were some alligators just lurking on the banks of the river. We went a bit closer to see them, and you could just see their eyes poking out of the surface of the water. I've never been this close to an alligator in the wild before. As we sailed further down the river, we saw more and more of them, perhaps the rain had brought them out of hiding. Some of them were over 2 metres long, and some were much smaller. A bit further along the river bank in the trees, we saw some squirrel monkeys, they were all hopping around the tree branches, so our guide took out some bananas and they came and took them from us, they were so cute, tiny little things. Along the way, we also saw many capybaras, these are like a giant rat like animal that live by the edge of the river. We saw a family of them and a little baby hiding away in the bushes . For the rest of the journey we saw many types of bird species including a pampas condor and a couple of green macaws just flying right over our heads. It was a great start to the trip, apart from the rain along the way.

When we finished sailing, we had arrived at the Fluvial Tours accommodation. It was a wooden platform, raised off the ground, with small bridges connecting each section of the place. When we arrived our guide shouted quick, look up there, it's a toucan. So sure enough, we looked up to see this wonderful bird just high up in a tree. After the amazement of that, we took our things into the room. It was shared accommodation and was all dorms, unless you had paid extra to have a private room, which we did not. So for the next 3 days, 2 nights we are all stuck in this room together.
 
Not long after we arrived, the cook had prepared tea and biscuits for all of us. That was a nice touch, so we all had that together. Once we'd finished that we could chill out for a bit, then it was time for dinner . I wasn't expecting much for dinner as we booked the cheaper tour, I thought the food would be just basic. However, when the food came out, I was really impressed with it. We had a feast out on the table and the food was all home cooked by a local lady. I would say the food was as good as we had on the inca trail, and we paid a lot more for that tour. Let's hope it's like this every night.

Later that evening, we had the chance to go on a late night boat ride to search for alligator and caiman. The two Belgium guys didn't want to come, so it was just the rest of the group who came along. We brought a torch with us and some of the other guys took head torches. We needed the lights to spot the caiman, but when the lights were turned on, it attracted hundreds of moths and flies, so we had to sail down the river in the dark. It was pitch black, and a bit scary being on the river in the dark, but an adventure. The river looks like a whole different place in the dark. When we pointed the torch over to the edge of the river banks, we spotted caiman, and alligators, all you could see was two eyes glaring at us, nearly glowing in the dark . We were all glad to be in the boat away from them. It was exciting to see both caiman and alligators, I never saw them in a river in the dark before, it's good to be able to see them in their natural habitat. So after our late night hunt for alligators, it was quite late and everyone was shattered so we all went to bed, as the power generators go out at 10pm.

Day 2

Hunting anacondas

So we have a busy schedule today, but luckily we don't have to be up too early to fit it all in. We got up and had a lovely breakfast including fruits, cereals, cooked breakfast and even pancakes, so it was the ideal start to the day. Well if the day had gone to plan, we would have got up early to watch the sun rise, however, the weather was not on our side, and it was too cloudy. So we all had a lay in. Rosario called us after breakfast, he was waiting in the boat ready to take us upstream to the wetlands . This is where anacondas are likely to be laying. We had to wear wellies as it's suppose to be really muddy out there. Our guide lead us into a field, which we had to walk through, but deeper into the pampas were the wetlands.

The weather was so hot and humid, so every step you take is a struggle in this heat, and there were no trees for shade. Rosario was carrying a long stick, but nothing more, so if we did see a snake, we didn't have much protection from one. The grass was very long once we got past the open fields I guess this would be a good hiding place for the snakes. You could hardly see me waking through the field! There were some lovely purple coloured flowers that covered a section of the field, but no anacondas. We carried on walking and suddenly Rosario ran and told us to stay behind as he'd seen something. We all followed cautiously, and to our amazement, he had seen a yellow cobra. We proceeded behind him so we could all take a look. The snake was moving and went into a hiding hole, so he prodded his stick near where the cobra was, we did all get a glimpse of it, but it was moving too quickly for us to take a picture of it. At least we got to see a snake, even if it wasn't an anaconda.

After the excitement of seeing the cobra, our hopes were high. We walked further inland and we walked right into boggy mud. My feet were sinking into it like quicksand, I didn't like the feeling too much, and to top it off, I had a whole in my wellies, so my feet became soaked . As that path was too muddy to cross further, we had to turn around and take another path. We walked around the other way through a swamp of mud and greenery, it was even deeper mud, but the guide said it was the only way through. There might be a chance that we see some anacondas here.

I gave it a go, John went on ahead with the guide and Paddy and Claire. As I was walking through the swamp, my foot became lodged in the mud, and I got stuck. As John wasn't there, I had to get Orwen, the Israeli guy to pull me out of the mud. I didn't like the experience, and neither did Laura, so we both stuck together to stay behind as we presumed they would all be coming back the same way. The Belgium guys stayed behind also. The others were gone for quite a while, and then they were signalling us to come over, right into the deep mud. At first we didn't really want to go, but then they kept calling us, so we thought we had to come over. We started walking through the mud and both myself and Laura got stuck again . This time, I fell flat on my bum right into the muddy swamp! It smelled disgusting and horrible, I wanted to get away from there as fast as I could, but we still had to continue deeper in the mud. Laura also slipped too, but luckily, she didn't fall right into the mud.

A close call with an alligator

All in all, I fell over 3 times in the mud. The last time I fell, Our guide had walked back towards us, he didn't check I was alright, he just laughed at me and said we were pointing you to walk towards the edge of the field, which wasn't so muddy, "well thanks for letting us know so early"! We walked towards the edge to join up with the group and they had a tale to tell us, perhaps they saw an anaconda. So we hurried along to hear what they had to say. In their search for anacondas, they heard something moving in the grass, so they went closer to try and find it, they were sure it was an anaconda. Claire the Irish girl felt something moving underneath her, and in her attempt to get away from it, she fell over backwards into the mud like I did . She was screaming, so the boys went to help her and see if they could spot the anaconda. She said "I think it was an anaconda as it's tail was slithering underneath me", so John and Paddy came over to see if they could spot it. Then suddenly, something moved again, although they couldn't quite see what it was, so called the guide over.

By that time, whatever it was, had long gone, so nobody actually saw what it was at the time. So on the hunt for anacondas, nobody actually saw any, however on speaking to some people from some other groups, they did see anacondas, and their guide even picked it up, so they all had pictures with it. Anyway, on our way back from hunting anacondas, Rosario told John and Paddy they what they had actually been standing on was an alligator! Basically Claire must have been standing on it's tail, which probably looked like a snake through the swamp. It must have been startled also with people standing on it's tail. They were all lucky that they weren't standing by it's head, or that could have been fatal . So our guide failed to tell everyone that they were searching for anacondas right near an alligators nest. I am glad I never did get that far down as where they all were, as I would have probably fallen into its jaws. It was an interesting story to say the least, but for Claire, it was a frightening experience.

After we'd finished the hunt for anacondas unsuccessfully, we returned to walk back to the boat. It was another hour walk in the baking sun, we all just wanted to get back to have a shower and be clean, especially Claire and myself, who stank of swamp water! Although we didn't get to see any anacondas, we saw a cobra, and heard about Claire's experience with the alligator, so we were felt like we'd had enough excitement for the day.

Swimming with 'friendly' dolphins.......

Once we'd returned and all had a shower to freshen up, it was lunchtime. Another great lunch was prepared by our lovely cook, which we ate, and then we had a spare few hours before our afternoon activity. This afternoon we get to swim with dolphins, although I did feel a bit apprehensive about this, but I'll give it a go anyway. It was raining, well actually we had a tropical thunderstorm while we were waiting to swim, so a few us all decided to play cards. Laura and Sandy, Paddy and Claire and myself and John played cards. This actually kept us entertained for the afternoon, although we all kept looking out at how heavy the rain, thunder and lightening was . We all love watching a good storm brewing. We carried on playing cards for over 2 hours which was actually quite fun. Cards are certainly a good method of entertainment when you are bored while travelling. The storm calmed right down, and it stopped raining, so it was time to get ready to swim with the dolphins.

We got changed and proceeded to go in the boat. We spoke to other groups, and not many of them were actually going to swim with dolphins, they were just going for the boat ride to watch those brave enough to take the plunge into the murky green river. The scary thing about it was the fact that you can't see anything in the water, so if an alligator was lurking, ready to attack, you wouldn't know a thing about it until it was too late. We got told that alligators and the pink river dolphins don't actually share the same patch of water, so if this is a section where the dolphins are, it would be safe to say that there are no alligators. We hoped we could count on this information being correct and not meet any alligators while we were in the water .

The pink river dolphins are something very rare and they are only found in rivers near or around the Amazon basin. We were all excited to be able to see a river dolphin, well actually for me, I haven't really seen any dolphins before now, so it will be a great experience to see them. Not long after we started sailing up the river, we spotted a dolphin, it was right in front of the boat and it jumped out of the water. It was really fast, so if you want to get any pictures of them, you'd have to be quick. The pink dolphin is actually a lot uglier than I expected. I'm used to seeing the stereotypical cute bottle-nosed dolphin that are grey and rounded. The pink dolphins are shaped more squarely than round, and their head doesn't look cute like the grey dolphins. It was still good to see it all the same.

Then as we went further upstream, we had a dolphin following the boat and sometimes it would just jump out of the water right next to us . It was still too quick for pictures. I think they love playing chase to the boats when they hear the motors running. Some of them like to travel in groups as we saw a few of them all around the boat at one point. Everyone was in awe seeing them, so they did not disappoint us. After seeing quite a few dolphins swimming around, I felt a bit more confident about getting in the water. Although a bit further upstream, we all thought we saw an alligator lurking around. I just hoped that wouldn't be the section where we'd be swimming in. Rosario said it wasn't an alligator, so we had to trust him on this one, although we found that pretty hard as earlier he didn't warn anyone that they were about to walk right in an alligators nest.

He carried on going much further upstream than where we saw the alligator, so hopefully we're back in the waters where the dolphins are. We bumped into another boat who'd just been swimming with dolphins and they said it was a good experience. So we all psyched ourselves up to get in the water . Well I didn't yet, but John was first in, followed by Paddy who went in soon after, then Claire and next Sandy. Once they were all in, Laura and myself were contemplating getting in. They said it wasn't that bad and the water wasn't actually cold surprisingly. So we braved it and took the plunge. The water was quite warm, but just looked filthy. You couldn't really see anything in that water. The guide said if we wanted to use the life-jackets we could. They would help keep us afloat and enjoy it more. I'm not a great swimmer, so Laura and myself took the life-jackets while we were in the water. We kept our feet up as you never know what's under there, so it's for the best. I asked John to stay close to me in case anything swam by us. Apparently the river dolphins have been known to bite tourists, so I didn't want that to happen to anyone.

John's encounter....

It wasn't so bad and we were just swimming around by the boat, but no dolphins had come right up to us yet. We saw some further away from us, so the guide tried to call them to encourage them to come over to us. We wanted to have the experience of swimming with them, but nothing more than that. We were getting a bit tired, and the dolphins were not playing ball, so we all got back in the boat. Rosario said he'd take us to another section of the river where hopefully, there will be more dolphins. Once we were back in the boat, we just had our towels on, so we were all getting attacked by mosquitos .

We arrived at another part of the river so we got back in the water. Well Paddy, Claire, John and myself braved it, while Laura and Sandy stayed in the boat. This time there were more dolphins around us, but not swimming near us. Paddy and John thought it would be a good idea to swim down to where the dolphins were. Paddy went first, but current of the water was a bit fast around that area, so he swam back. Then John swam down there, while the rest of us in the water stayed near the boat. He went right up to where the current was strong and said the dolphins were right by him. He could see them swimming around him, so he decided to swim back towards the boat to encourage them to swim up and follow him.

This is what the dolphins did do, and in the process of following him, John felt some thing tugging on his foot, then it sank it's teeth into his foot. Not having a clue if it was a dolphin or an alligator, he calmly shouted 'I think something's just bit me' . We said are you hurt, he said he thought there was blood, which in turn could attract the piranhas, so he wanted to get out of there. We all decided to get out of the water as fast as we could and to check what had bitten John.

Once we were back in the boat, John had blood pouring out from his foot and you could see a line of three teeth marks. It was quite a deep cut and was bleeding a lot, so we tried to put something on it to stop the blood. We think it was the dolphin that had been following him that bit him. Rosario was just laughing again and thought it was funny that John had been bitten by a dolphin. We all couldn't believe it was a dolphin bite, but Rosario proceeded to tell us that the dolphins regularly bite people as they are friendly and that was a friendly nip. We asked John if it hurt, and he said it did hurt, but not too badly. Once the blood stopped, we had to get some antiseptic cream on it once we got back to base.

So that was another eventful part of the day, but luckily it was only a small bite, it could have been a lot worse . When it stopped bleeding it was a cut in three lines and it was right on top of John's foot. He was so calm about it all, if it had have been me who got bit, I would have screamed! He thought it was actually funny that he had a dolphin that bit him, and it would be another tale to tell people. We actually popped into the local bar on the way back, even though John had a bite on his foot, he said a beer would make him feel a lot better. It was here that everyone started hearing about his dolphin bite, and he was lapping up all the attention. After a beer or two, John felt much better so we left to get the wound dressed.

The rest of the night was spent having another lovely meal and we played more cards. It was Claire, Paddy, John and myself playing, we knew the generators went out at 10pm, but we were caught up in the middle of our game, so when the power went out at 10pm, we carried on playing. When we turned on the torch, it attracted the flies and mosquitos. It was really annoying playing in the dark and I had lost interest, but Paddy wanted to finish the game, but that was only because he was winning! We hurried the game along, he won, and afterwards, we all went to bed .

Day 3

Alligator ahoy!

So after an eventful day yesterday, we had one more activity to do today, and that was to go piranha fishing. We had our last breakfast and there was a pot on the table, which said tips for the cook. As the cook provided excellent food, we did tip some money, for what was surprisingly good food for a cheaper tour option. Once that was sorted, we packed up our stuff as after the fishing, we come back for lunch and then take the boat back. Rosario gathered us all together and he said if you catch some piranha today, we can cook it up for lunch later. So people were hoping to catch some, although I don't know if I fancy eating that myself.

We set off down the river and after about 5 minutes of sailing, there was another boat pulled up at the side of the river. We wondered why, so we pulled up near them, and soon it became apparent . There was an alligator sitting right in the water next to the boat, we pulled up there, and Rosario said this is where we'll be fishing. Some people didn't want to be pulled up near the alligator, I didn't mind, as long as it was a safe distance from the boat. The alligator came out of the water and up on to the river bank. It basked in the sun for a while, so Rosario said we could all get out of the boat if we wanted to, so we did. I have never come this close to a wild alligator so this was an awesome experience. We were able to get within 20 metres of it, so we all got some pictures of it and as we were doing this, it started moving, so we all ran further away from it. Perhaps we were a bit too close for comfort!

We got back in the boat, and then one of the other guides thought it would be funny to feed the alligator some food, so he got something to show it's teeth snapping as he fed it something from a stick. You wouldn't want your fingers trapped in its jaws! Once the alligator had been fed, it started swimming towards our boat, we were panicking slightly as the boat had no protection from its big jaws if it did decide to attack us . It stayed near our boat for a few minutes, then when it got bored it swam off. That was a fun start to the morning.

Piranha fishing

So after the croc swam off, we could get down to business, so we unravelled our fishing hooks. There was a bag of fresh meat, so I took out a piece and attached it to my hook. I've never been fishing before, so it will be an experience, although if I do catch a piranha, I don't know how I'll react. We are all fishing out of the boat, and it was in such close proximity as everyone was standing up with their fishing hooks, dangling them outside the boat. After about 5 minutes, I could feel something biting on the hook, when I pulled the hook out, all I saw was that the bit of meat had become smaller. These little piranhas as quite clever. Other people had a bite, but didn't catch anything as such.
 
After no success in that section, Rosario asked if we wanted to move a little further upstream to fish, so off we went to find another spot where we might find them . This time, everyone fished from their own seats out of the side of the boat, so it didn't feel as crowded. John went right to the back of the boat right near Rosario. We were all getting bites around this area and after not long, Claire was the first to have something tugging on her hook. Then soon after, John caught something. After pulling it out, it wasn't a piranha, but a small catfish. As it was only a baby, he released it and let it go.

I felt a tug on my rope a little while later, but in a panic, I didn't yank it out of the water, but set it free. I think it was another small catfish and not a piranha, so I just didn't feel right catching it. Apart from that, nobody else caught any piranha, not even our guide, so no piranha for lunch then, not that I would have eaten it to be honest. When we did return to camp for lunch, the other group did catch some, so they all had a bite on that for lunch. They said there wasn't much meat on them, but they did taste good. It was nice to hear someone caught piranha today .
 
After that, it was time to pack up and leave. We set of on the boat journey back and then had to go back in the jeep for a 3 hour drive which we were not looking forward to. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here in the pampas, we met some great people, and I'd thoroughly recommend a trip here to anyone, but best to fly rather than take a treacherous 30 hour plus bus journey.

We returned to stay in the same hotel for one night, and just relaxed in the hammocks and chilled out. We went out for dinner with most of the group from our boat, which was lovely. We had an early flight tomorrow, so didn't stay out too late. Then we caught our flight back to La Paz and stayed that night. We arrived late and flew into a storm, so just grabbed some food at the hostel for the night.