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Going to do a jungle tour was one of the things we wanted to do together.
We had not really figured out where, but we heard this was a good place to do it,
and for us it was very convenient geographically wise.
I think I first heard of this place when we wandered around the market in Arequipa.
We met these 2 Dutch women who had done this and told us they swim in this river, full of Aligators and Piranhas.
I thought they were crazy, but they thought that beforehand too.
I still thought I would never do it.
But let's see ...
We took a 1h15 minutes plain from La Paz airport, to avoid the Deathroad.
It is not only a different experience, it was beautifull !
You'd see La Paz underneath as you're heading towards Lake Titicaca.
Then there's the big plain, with the snowy mountaintops of the Andes to your right.
Suddenly you cross over and all you see is green underneath you, what a difference ...
 We were looking for some open space where the plane was going to land as we approched Rurrenabaque,
but we couldn't really find one except for this field of grass which more looked like a soccerfield.
But man, suddenly the plane was heading for it and we landed there.
The pitch was actually even worse than a soccerpitch and the building of the airport looked more like a early 20th century dressingroom ...
As we got out, we were overwelmed by the heat and humidity ...
 First things first, we booked ourselves a hostel and a tour and then we had a nice sim in the swimmingpool ...
You know, when you look back at the time when you were traveling, there are different memories coming up.
There are also some recurring ones, one of them is this Musquito Bar.
I loved it there, you had a beer, a game of pool and in the meantime you asked for your favourite songs ...
Brilliant, as simple as that ...
We also had our diners at this Social Club, where there was this Egyptian cook who took his experience from all over the world ...
To be quite fair, there's not a great deal to do, but that's why it was such a chilled out place maybe,
because we simply did f**k all ...
Playing some quitar, hanging out in the Musquito Bar ...
Untill we we're heading for the Pampas ...
Day 1
We set off with an old truck as we were heading towards the river.
We were with 2 English couples of our age, Emma & Wayne, Sam & Clive and then there was Elliot, a real jungle man ...
As we arrived we met the group who just finished their tour and they said that there were really a lot of musquitos.
Too much ...
We were well protected for that, having light-coloured clothes and long sleeve t-shirts and long pants ...
Well, at least we thought ...
We set off with our guide and the rest of the crew.
We were in a boat which lay deep in the water.
It was nice, we'd seen lots of birds, turtles and aligators !
They were hard to see, once they were in the water, because then you'd only see the eyes.
I remember the musquitos being not all over the place.
Well, that was when you were in the boat and moving as a whole ...
We had a brief stop on the shore and I went for a piss.
As soon as I took my Pinchudo out, there were like 20 musquitos around.
It was impossible, so I just pissed while moving around and having little runs ...
After a couple of hours in the boat, we finally arrived at our base camp.
Over here there was a shed to eat and one to sleep.
There was an extra cook.
That night we took our torches out as we set off in the boat.
We were looking for crocodiles.
Appearantly there were fewer croqs in that season, but we've seen lots of them ...
There were lots of red eyes around, much more than we were thinking.
There were also lots of stars around.
At around 9h30 pm we were sound asleep within our musquito nets ...
Day 2
We had an early start this day.
While sleeping we did not have any (or at least not much) musquitobites, but f**king h*ll,
the f**kers bit anywhere and through anything !
I even had bites on my arsh, that means biting through my pants and underwhere !
Today was the day for hunting Anacondas ...
Sounds insane eh ?...
Well, I agree and especially as you understand how we were equiped ...
Our guide had a stick with a T-head, to hold the head of a snake and he made me his assistent.
Basically I was carrying this big knife.
But it was more symbolic I suppose, as it was not sharp at all !
We walked through a little forest untill we arrived at the Pampas (=swamp).
We walked with the water reaching our knees.
First we walked behind each other but after a while we were more walking next to each other,
altough there were huge gaps between us ...
The guide told us that when an anaconda has eaten, he might sleep/ rest for about a month.
I thought they won't do that in the water, so instead I headed for the reed.
Once I got there I asked my nearest neighbour to join me as it felt really uncomfortable.
After 3 steps I finally got something !
It was like a big lump of shit !
I shouted for the guide and he picked it up.
Before I knew I had it around my next, holding his tale and head in my both hands.
Man, the muscles felt like bricks around my neck !
A few people had their picture and off we went again, now hunting for Pythons.
Hold on, are they not poisoning?...
Our guide said that there was a 60% chance of surviving once you're bitten, so nothing to worry about ...
Jesus, this time I really felt uncomfortable, but after a few minutes, as before with the anacondas, I felt like
Steve the Crocodile hunter again ...
We did not really find one, we'd seen one escaping through the water.
What we found though was a dead croq.
This was getting more and more eerie.
I just heard a story there are also Black Mambas (one of the most deadly and agressive snakes)
and the water was getting deeper as we were also heading back more towards the river ...
After taking a tooth of the dead croq our guide asked if we wanted to continue our hunt or go back to the camp instead.
I think we all agreed with the latter proposition ...
Now it were going to swim.
No there was so swimmingpool, it was swimming in the river !
We took the boat untill there was a junction.
Our guide tapped on the boat a couple of times and then we'd seen these pink dolphins.
Ok, he said, time for a swim as appearantly these river dolphins scare away the croqs and piranhas ...
He mate, but we just crossed a few croqs as well, we replied ...
Well, he jumped in and soon we followed ...
Amazing !
Swimming in the river with croqs and piranhas.
I never really went to far from the boat, but it was a nice refreshing swim ...
 Now it was the turn for finishing piranhas.
As it was pissing down at times, I was just wearing my shorts.
As we were fishing, we lay still and near the shore ...
Man, I must have been bitten by hundreds of musquitos,
in the end I couldn't be bothered anymore trying to scare them away ...
The fishing contained just a wire a hook and some meet.
As soon as you dropped it into the water you felt it was bitten by piranhas.
I was the only one to catch one.
More with luck than with skills.
As I took the wire in, the fish let it go, but it felt in the boat.
It was amazing how sharp its teeth were !
Day 3
This last day we did not do much anymore ...
Our guide put some traps next to the boat and got some piranhas and we ended up fishing for some more.
This time it was much more easy ...
On our way back we'd seen some Capybaras (? or however you wright the name) and the usual animals.
Back at the shore, where we started 2 days before, we counted our losses ...
I had more than a 1000 musquito bites !
No exageration ...
Already on 1 hand I had more than 50 bites ...
Back in Rurrenabaque we took our friends to the Social Club for some feed and afterwards to the Musquito Bar for some drinking games.
It was a very great trip, with stories to tell for the rest of our lives ...
Never fought I would hunt for deadly snakes and swim with croqodiles and piranhas ...
Pictures 1,2,7,8,9,10 and 15 are courtesy of our friends Wayne and Emma
Rest of the pictures on this page are courtesy of
http://www.dimspace.com/gallery/view_album.php?...
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