Bolivia

Renee woke us at 4:30 A.M. for our boat ride to the pampas. Yes 4:30 and that really is the middle of the night in the very dark, very rustling, very eerie jungle. We had a forty-five minute walk in the pitch black back to the boat and our torches lit up the various snakes, frogs, crabs and other creepy crawlers of the nighttime jungle. As the light began to break in the jungle, Sian suddenly stopped and threw down her pack and started tearing at her hair. Kate, immediately behind her, shouted and grabbed her chest and threw her pack down. I thought for sure we were being attacked by head hunting aboriginals but found out that instead we were being attacked by wasps!! The rest of us escaped unscathed but poor Sian and Kate had huge bumps from their stings. We arrived at the boat to find that THE BOAT HAD SUNK!! Transportation disaster number 9!! I felt really bad for the boat guys because they really should have slept with the boat and were now in serious trouble with their boss. The look on their faces was devastating. The boat was not only filled with water but tons of mud from the bank and was completely ruined.

So, we hiked back and waited for the company to send another boat which gave us time for a calm early morning swim/bath before setting out for the pampas. Another boat ride and a three-hour very dusty/bumpy Landrover ride brought us to our next camping spot on the river in the pampas. The pampas is not as beautiful as the jungle but because there is less vegetation, the animals are much easier to spot. We saw hundreds of alligators and crocs, monkeys, kapaburas (large mammals that look like big rats/dogs), pink dolphins, frogs, and the elusive anaconda. Of course, the mosquitoes were present in swarms and I again managed to get chewed alive. We stopped for a swim in the crocodile-infested waters... yes, a swim. It is possible to swim if you swim near the dolphins because they are the kings of the river and the crocs will not come near them.. A bit frightening at first, but we all jumped in for a refreshing swim with the dolphins, our protectors.

The second night it rained for 10 hours - pissing it down with rain - and we had to entertain ourselves until it stopped. Not great for us, but the frogs loved it and had quite a concert that night. Our guide explained that the rain makes the frogs happy. It certainly did. The noise of them is indescribable and kept me awake for most of the night under my mosquito net looking for spiders. After the rain stopped we went piranha fishing but only managed to catch some catfish. Oh, yes, I forgot to say that the river also has piranhas in it. The last day we went anaconda hunting. We went downriver and then hiked into the pampas. Because of the heavy rain and because it is already swamp, it meant water up to our calves and very smelly boots afterwards. However, we were determined to find an anaconda in the wild. The pampas´ vegetation is a combination of cornfield, grape vines, tall grass, and pumpkin patch all thickly entwined. When we reached the spot where the anacondas like to hang out, our guide told us to spread out into a straight line and all look under the vegetation for the anaconda, a snake that can kill and eat an animal many times its own body weight. What!?? He said not to worry just call him and he would come right away if we spotted one. Well, we all started out rather timidly at first and then ever rapidly as the mosquitoes and bugs were driving us absolutely mad. After only an hour (sometimes it can take all day), Dario, our guide, found a very small, smelly anaconda, only about 9 feet, which is quite small for an anaconda. We all got to hold it and learn about its habits and then we got the hell out of there!!!!!!!!!! Hot, sweaty, itchy and dirty is an understatement!

Back to Rurrenabaque for much needed showers. We celebrated by singing karaoke with the locals until the wee hours of the morning and realized too late that at a certain time the whole town loses electricity and we were in the jungle darkness unable to find our hostel. If not for a local who befriended us and guided us home, we would still be wandering around in the dark of Rurrenabaque.
The next day was a debacle of travel disasters. TAM, is the most inefficient, unorganized airline I have ever flown and we were delayed for five hours without anyone telling us what was going on. We were then rerouted to another airport, which was really just another field 35 km away. The flight was hot and we actually could not wait for some cold air in La Paz. We then took a bus here to Oruru which made for a very long, hot, twelve hour travel day. Exhausted, we found a really gross hotel and crashed. A really gross hotel is an understatement; the Norman Bates hotel is more like it. I wanted to take a shower and could not find a clean bathroom - they were disgustingly dirty with hair and toilet full of, well full of, you can use your imagination. Two guys showed me a shower upstairs and I quickly had a shower and then could not find my way back to the first floor. All the rooms upstairs had open doors, unmade beds, no people, and no lights. There were no lights at all in the hallway or the stairway. I got stuck in the pitch-black stairway for ten minutes of blind panic, tried various doors, and then started yelling, Help Me in English and in Spanish. Finally, I tried the right door and sweatingly made my way back to the room. What a nightmare!!!!