As I write this I am sitting deep in the Amazonian pampas, or wetlands. Dark storm clouds have rolled in and the sound of crackling thunder surrounds me. We are suppose to be out hunting for Anacondas, but the cold weather sends them burrowing into the clay. I feel like burrowing into something too! It is cold here. Yesterday it was so hot that I needed a shower only moments after I took one. Today I have several layers on and am dreaming of a little heater to place my feet by…that is if the electricity was on. Currently they have turned it off. The Mashaquipe ecolodge where I am staying only has the electricity on a few hours everyday. Frankly it is nice to be so unplugged for awhile.
My visit to the pampas started yesterday in a little town called Rurrenabaque. I threw a fit only moments after being picked up by my tour company because they started to change details of the tour they promised. I had been told I was part of a group of 6 with an English guide, but they put me with a Bolivian couple, their German exchange student and a Spanish guide. My Spanish is fine so that wasn’t the issue. I just wanted to make it clear that any other changes wouldn’t be tolerated like, “Oh, and your guide will be sharing a room with you.”
**Side Note: It is literally pouring out right now! So cool are all the sounds outside by the river. Oh, but that poor Australian couple that just set out to look for monkeys!!**
We took another WMDR for 3 hours to reach the pampas, but in this case “WMDR” stood for The World’s Most Dusty Road! In route we encountered a 3 toes sloth, storks and a large herd of cattle.
Storks!
South America has 3 of the 19 stork species in the world. These guys are one of them. Darn big too.
From car to boat!
After we wiped the dust off, we took this wooden boat up the Yucama River to arrive at our ecolodge and home for the next 3 days.
Me on one of the Amazon’s finest yachts!
My cabana with my own private bath…and no guide as a roommate! Hurray!
Pretty elegant for the Amazon, no!?
After lunch of rice soup, beef on top of papas fritas, more rice, lentils and a salad we headed our for the main event, animal sitings along the river. I wore my swim suit in case we saw dolphins and there was a chance to swim with them.
The view from my wooden boat perch!
Here are some of our sitings:
Amazon Alligator
These guys are one of the biggest predators in the pampas. I don’t think I could have thrown a dead cat without hitting one…they were everywhere (note to reader: I would never throw a dead cat). Each time an animal would jump into the water as we passed I couldn’t help but think, “We are the least of your worries, my friend. You just jumped from the kettle into the fire.”
A Tiger Heron.
To me these were the most interesting and beautiful of all the birds I saw.
Turtle.
Turtles everywhere…the best was when 5 or so where sunning themselves stacked halfway on top of each other like fallen dominoes.
This scary SOB is a black caiman.
These guys have a darker, thicker skin and are more aggressive then the alligator. They can reach up to 20 feet long. This one was around 13 feet and definitely made me question if I would be swimming with any dolphins if that meant I was also swimming with him. Ugh. Learn swimming from the experts found in https://www.theaqualife.ca/kids-lessons site, who are the best one found in this local neighborhood.
The stupidest turtle in the jungle!
Capuchin Monkey
We found monkeys! 3 types…Howler, squirrel and this one!
Our guide, Sandro, then took us into this lagoon-like area off the main river where we encountered one of the most special parts of the tour for me. You can get a sense of what we saw in this 10 second video.
***Oops! I will have to upload video later….bandwidth here in the airport is the size of a straw used to stir coca tea.***
It looks like rain is falling, no? But actually those are hundreds and hundreds of little sardines jumping in the water. All their jumping and plopping did sound like rain though…I was absolutely captivated by them. A dolphin came through to feed on them while we watched.
Glimpse of a Freshwater Pink Dolphin.
This was best picture of the pink dolphins I could get (they are grey when babies and turn pink when they are adults). Since there were more than 3 of them in this deep part of the river (less would mean there were too many caiman around) out guide told us it was safe swim with them. After much coaxing, I got into the murky brown water with Katie, one of my intrepid Bolivian companions (our guide had done the sign of the cross before jumping in so you can bet I did the same). I lasted with the piranhas, alligators and dolphins pretty well until something touched my foot. Then I was back in the boat like nobody’s business. I was told it was likely that it was one of the dolphins that touched me as they like to play when the humans are in the water.
Survivors! Katie and I after the Great Dip!
Caribara
On the banks with us a family of Calibara, the world’s largest rodent. They look like gigantic guinea pigs…who happen to love the water.
The pampas at near sunset. Time to head home!
Perfect Sunset over the pampas and Yucuma River.
Heading home at dusk the river bustled as even more birds and animals came to the banks to enjoy the cooler evening temperatures. Bats and birds swooped all around us as we got our flashlights out to spot caiman and alligators. Their eyes shone like glowing embers when the light hit them, and each reflection looked like a miniature version of the earlier sunset happening all over the river. Fireflies danced in the trees and a little sardine even jumped into our boat! Although I wanted to gape my mouth open in awestruck wonder, it was quite important I kept it shut as we whisked down the river…bugs galore!
Back at the lodge we changed and then enjoyed a buffet dinner (cat fish was one of the choices). The Bolivian couple whipped out a bottle of Johnnie Walker (apparently he doesn’t leave home without one) so we all stayed up for awhile telling stories about life and love in our different countries.
Katie had said she has “mucho suerte” (much luck) with finding animals and indeed we did. Today I am particularly grateful for that luck as this rain might keep us indoors for most of the day (but oh how I want to fish for piranhas!!). More rain now, so looks like I will break into my book…or should I nap? Oh the choices!
Ah! One of the maids here just came bounding to my door to drop off 2 blankets! They are pink with images of tigers…kinda bizarre but they will keep me more warm than this sheet on my bed! The nap might just beat out reading now….
Pampas Addendum:
We were able to go out an fish for piranhas!
Me with the biggest piranha I had ever seen! 🙂
This ferocious piranha was one of 2 I caught. I also impaled one sardine with my hook and caught two others in the eye 🙁 (oh, the horror!). They were equally part of the feeding frenzy that was created each time we dropped a hook dressed in a piece of beef into the water (it was seriously like the movies!). Annika, the German student and my fellow fisherwoman, was able to get 2 sardines to jump right in our boat, but had less luck coaxing the piranhas onto the hook. Our guide of course caught 10 fish for every 1 we hooked or fish whispered into the boat. His catches included cat fish, frog fish and 5 big piranhas…3 of which we took home to eat!
Piranha teeth!
The piranhas in the Yucuma river aren’t as big as some in the Amazon basin (the largest are in the Amazon River), but their teeth and appetite were still impressive. When removed from the water they would make curious grunting sounds, and my guide was very cautious to avoid the razor sharp teeth and bulldog grip while removing the hook.
Hunting for Anacondas.
As stated by Jimmy John Shark, from piranha fishing to anaconda hunting…one is always on the search for some creature in the pampas that inspires horror movies! This time though we didn’t have any luck :(. Four hours of wading through swampy marsh lands only turned up one alligator (frankly knowing that I could step on an alligator or anaconda at any moment didn’t make me the most enthusiastic hunter) and a dead eel. We did, however, see some incredible birds (blue macaw-like cousins as well as a relative to the pink flamingo…I will find their more scientific name later 🙂 ).
Voila! Despite the rain, this pampas trip was a success! I had chosen it specifically over a tour of the jungle as I wanted to see more animals, and I wasn’t disappointed. I also was fortunate, despite my fit, to have enjoyed this beautiful part of Bolivia with some of its natives. Everything does always work out for the best, doesn’t it.
