Rurrenabaqui & El Parque Madidi

After some hesitating and budget considerations, I decided to go on a trip to Rurrenabaqui, the jumping point for visiting the Madidi national park. I decided to fly there, as the other option was to take a bus to La Paz, a 7 hour bus ride, then another bus to Rurre, a 17 hour trip on some bad roads. I decided I did not even want to do the bus trip to La Paz either, so I bought a flight ticket from Cochabamba, with a connection in La Paz going to Rurre. Just as I packed my stuff on Wednesday to leave to the airport, I received a phone call from Amazonas airline, telling me that the flight to Rurre has been cancelled due to bad weather, and that I could fly the next day instead. Later, after I arrived to Rurre, I found out that there was no bad weather, it had not even been raining for a few days already, the true reason behind the cancellation was that some people from the government needed to travel and they took all the Amazonas flights. I had to reschedule my flight to La Paz as well, and I paid an 80 Bolivanos penalty to reschedule it to the next day at 8:30 in the morning. I woke early the next day to catch my flight, only to find out that the flight has been delayed, the flight eventually left at one in the afternoon, luckily I had plenty of time between my flight, since my flight to Rurre from La Paz was scheduled for 15:00 in the afternoon, but I could have slept a couple of hours more, instead of waking up at 7 in the morning.

Eventually I made to Rurre at around 17:30, one day late. At the airport I met a group of Australians who were going the other way; boarding the plane back to La Paz. I asked them which tour agency they went with and they told the name of the agency was Indians, and that they liked their tour. The representative of the agency was at the airport, and I told her I am interested in the tour, she told me that they had a group going out the next morning, they had 7 people in the group and that I would be number 8 if I decide to join, and she promised me a special price if I do. I took a ride in their jeep back to their office in town, where she quoted me a 50$ price for a 3 day tour of the pampas, and she was going to give me an explanation of the tour, but I stopped her; I told her I will take the tour, and the I would rather keep everything as a surprise. Later I found out I paid less than everybody else, and I did not even need to haggle much for it, I guess they just need one more person to complete the numbers, as their jeep can fit 8 people.

I went back to town to check into a hotel, one that the girl from the agency recommended. An 8 year old girl and her younger brother were the only people at the front desk when I entered. The girl greeted me and I asked her who was attending, the little girl replied that she was. I hesitated for a moment but then, thought what the heck, I asked her for a room. She went on to explain to me the room rates, showed me my room, asked for my passport and registered my details in the check in register! By that time her mother had arrived, I told her that I was taken care of quite well.

The next morning our tour started from town, and then we ran into our first problem, there was no gas in the gas stations at the town. The problem was resolved as the driver found out that there is gas at the next town, and we drove there to fill up the jeep before heading to the Pampas, a three hour drive on a dirt road. The Pampas are swamp lands, covered by low vegetation, as opposed to the jungle were the trees grow on dry land. The jeep took us to a small port on the river, where we boarded a long narrow boat. A two hour ride in the boat through the river, going up stream, took us to our lodge. The scenery was just amazing on the way, and we stopped whenever we spotted wild life on the banks; monkeys, a large Capebwara, different species of birds, a green snake. We also spotted quite a few pink dolphins on the way, and things looked very promising with respect to wild life viewing.

Our group was diverse as well: Trevor and Julia a young married couple from California, Kfeer an Israeli guy, Ira a half Jewish American guy, Christian and Australian lad, Erica a young American women and Carla, an Australian woman. Back at the lodge, we spotted a couple of crocs around the lodge; apparently they just live around the lodge. We wanted to go for a swim, as we felt so hot because of the boat ride under the burning sun, Sabino our guide told us that the crocs were harmless and that we could go for a swim in front of the lodge. But no body dared to go in with a 2.5 meter croc setting just out there. So Sabino went into the water and patted the croc, and to our amazement the croc just got annoyed and walked away. We felt more assured after this, and we all went in for a swim in the river, all of us except Christian, who is used to a much more aggressive species of croc in his country, and he could not get himself to go into the water when with a croc around, despite Sabino’s assurances that he posed no danger to us.

Then Sabino, our guide, gave us a briefing of our tour agenda. Sabino has been working for 12 years as a guide in the Pampas, and besides guiding tourists, he had worked with a few scientists as well. After that we went to watch the sunset and have a drink at the local bar, the bar is connected to our lodge through a wooden ramp, which runs over the water for a couple of hundred meters. Then we went back to the lodge for our dinner, the food was delicious as it was going to be for our whole stay at the lodge. At night we went on a Caiman watching boat ride, but we saw none, Sabino already warned us that it will difficult because of the full moon. But then we had our worst mosquito attack, and even several layers of repellent did not keep away the bites; mosquitoes are the curse of the pampas.

Next morning we went on a snake searching hike; after a short boat ride, we walked through a long stretch of swamp land, covered with 2 meter long grass, and knee deep water. Our destination was a small island of dry land, where we were to look for snakes; we found none. Sabino has already warned us that it was going to be difficult to find snakes in this season, especially Anacondas; it was the period of transition from the rainy season to the dry season, and the water level was still high, and the water covers large areas, providing the Anacondas with a plenty of habitat. In the dry season when the plains get dry, the Anacondas recedes to the small lakes and streams, where there is still water, and then it is guaranteed to be able to see Anacondas.

After another delicious meal we had a siesta, and then went to look for dolphins; we found some in a small tranquil side lake. The idea was to swim with the dolphins, but it is really up to them to decide if they want to swim with us. We went into the water, but the dolphins did not seem to like us that much, they were still hanging around, but they did not get very close to us, nor allowed us to get very close to them. They were playing us, every time we got close they would dive and reappear on some other corner of the little lake.

On our way back to the lodge, we spotted a large Caiman, we could only see its head actually, which was quite big. Sabino told us it was probably 4-5 meters long, and unlike the crocs, Caimans are aggressive and they will attack humans, even in a boat. We then went for a different bar to watch the sunset, this time we had to use the boat to get there. Our next day was supposed to start at 5:30, to experience the sunrise in the pampas, but it was all dependent on the weather, and the weather did not cooperate this time, it was raining in the morning, and in the rain one cannot see the sunrise, nor enjoy the sounds of the jungle, so Sabino just let us sleep until breakfast. Then we went Piranha fishing, unfortunately it was drizzling and we could not catch any. Back at the lodge we had an early launch, and then we were to head back to the port. The boat ride was great again, the rain had stopped, and the clouds dissipated, but not completely; there remained a layer of haze, which dimmed the burning sun, making it quite pleasant instead.

Back at the port we had to wait for our Jeep. There were a few dolphins around, and I decided to go for another attempt at swimming with them. I was in the water for about an hour, first the dolphins stayed away, then they started to come closer, and every once in a while they would suddenly appear close to me, startling me, and then they would dive again, hiding under the murky waters. Since we had some rain, the road back to Rurre was in a worst condition, and we saw a couple of vehicles stuck on the way. We though managed to go through it with out getting stuck, the credits go to our four wheal drive and some experienced driving by our driver.

I wish I had planned for more time in Rurre, I would have if I had known it was so cheap there, it is only flying there that costs a lot, and once I am there I might is well take advantage and stay longer, especially if the weather is dry, as it generally was during my stay. I could have done a day tour in the jungle, and also done the canopy adventure, where you see the jungle from above, by sliding on ropes stretched between tree tops. But I had bought my flight back before arriving to Rurre, and I did not want the hassle of changing my flight back, especially because I had to deal with two different airlines, and I had a bad experience lately when trying to make changes with these kinds of tickets. Anyway Amazonas decided to tinker was my flight times anyway, with out asking me, putting me on the 18:15 back to La Paz, which meant I would have not been able to make my connection flight to Cochabamba. I was not going to take anymore of it though; I went to there office, and demanded I be put back on the three o’clock flight, which they did. All went well after that and I made back to Cochabamba.