Last Bolivian Adventure for 2015: Pampas Tour (Bolivia)

Pampas River Tour

Right before leaving the country, I visited the Bolivian lowlands, near a topical city called Rurrenabaque.  Mary, Jennifer, Mike, and I took a riverboat tour around segments of the Rio Yacuma.  The Rio Yacuma is an area of the pampas, or flat, low wetlands, which is part of the amazon basin.  It's one of the most bio-diverse regions in the world, containing countless varieties of animal, plant, and insect species.  We planned to explore the river and wetlands for the next three days.

On the first day, we had to get there.  This meant a three-hour jeep ride on a dirt road that could be likened to swiss cheese.  To break up the ride some, we stopped every now and then to see a cayman in a roadside pond or a native bird perched in a tree.  My favorite spied-animal was a sloth that unfurled itself in a branch nook to peer over at us.

Once we got to our lodgings, we had time to unpack our things, change, and hang out in the hammocks until it was time for our first activity: swimming with the pink river dolphins.

It was exciting, but intimidating as well.  When we arrived to our swimming spot, our guide pointed out a cayman who had seen us and slid into a spot of water not too far away.  The guide reassured us that the pink river dolphins would keep them away, but also warned us about shuffling our feet on the muddy bottom, as sting rays liked to hang out down there.  The murky water seemed full of reasons to be cautious, but when the river dolphins started to play in the pond, we only hesitated a little to jump in.  The dolphins would come up to your legs and nudge you or play with the basketball our guide brought.  I jumped every time something touched me, but Mike, Jennifer, and Mary were one with the dolphins!  After dinner we went out into another part of the pampas to chase the sunset and explore more of our surroundings.  

                                

The second day we left breakfast to go piraña fishing.  I was especially excited because getting bitten by a piraña was something my father had cautioned me against before I left for Bolivia; hence, I was thrilled to show him that I could also defeat this threat.  (And no, this is the first time that the guide mentioned pirañas were also in the river with us... apparently the dolphins eat the pirañas, though, so we were safe...)

By the end of the drizzly morning, everyone caught at least two pirañas, although those fish are smart!  Most of the time the pirañas nibbled off the beef from around our hooks-- they were quite skilled.  Nevertheless, with our wooden sticks, fishing line, hooks, and raw beef, we caught quite a few pirañas (some were too small to keep) to add to our lunch menu. 

That night's activity was beading.  Our guide had some seeds he'd taken from the jungle, so we sanded them and wove necklaces and keychains from thread.

On our last day, we started the morning by waking up before sunset, loading into the boats, and floated downstream, listening to the noises of the different animals in the jungle.  Mowgli (from The Jungle Book) had nothing on this experience.

After breakfast, we donned our ponchos and rain boots and went upriver in search of monkeys and any other wildlife we could spot along the way.  Many of the animals were trying to stay dry, so our venture was relatively unsuccessful.  However, our second attempt bore more fruit --and slightly drier weather.

Capybaras, the world's largest rodent.
They can run as fast as a horse and swim to escape predators.

When we returned, we finished our organic jewelry, packed up our items, and motor-boated our way back inland.

The jeep-jostle was a bit more bitter-sweet this time.  What I've found is that it's easy to make fun of something meaningful, but jokes tend to be the bandaids that hold something together until it's removed.  Even in the rain in a boat, rocking to and fro just to give the mosquitos more of a challenge, I found a part of me that will always stay in Bolivia, even if I never physically return.