After mastering the Worlds Most Dangerous Road the Mavrix decided to go tackle the jungle proper so off we flew to Rurrenabaque a little Amazon river town with a grass landing strip and a laid back atmostphere we loved. This little town is filled with all the old cliches and some we had never heard of, tanned locals with pony tails and alligator necklaces, Mormon families trying to get away from it all and strange old men that offer to sell you freshly baked apple crumble and blueberry muffins. But we could not linger too long here we needed get going so the next morning we crammed ourselves into a Land Cruiser that had seen better days and traveled 3 hours down a head bumping road to the start of our tour. For the next 4 days our motorised transport would be a long banana boat and the Amazon would be the road.
The river, the guide and a troup of pink dolphins would all greet us together at the starting point, the river doing what slow rivers do, the guide speaking in hand motions and the dolphins breaching to take a peak at the gringos.
The next few hours on our little boat we spotted Alligators, Kayamans (BIG alligators), turtles, monkeys, dolphins and birds as big as teradachtyls! And we didnt spot them like you do in the Kruger from a distance with binoculars, the driver had the habit of zipping straight up to the Alligators and parking you within arm or jaws reach! Good fun was had by all pointing and making oooww aaahhh noises.
Sundowners were held on land at a river bar overlooking the Pampas (swamps and fields) while the M played football with a mixture of locals and gringos and Vix tilted her pinkie with a drink. Sweet.
Day 2 was Anaconda hunt time! Pull on your wellington boots and get ready to stomp through the swamp. Yes the swamp stinks, yes the object of our hunt was to literally stand on an Anaconda (thats how you find one), yes sometimes your foot gets stuck and only supreme effort and outside assistance finally frees you with some large suction noises like an Electrolux finishing a milkshake. Boy was it fun! After 3 hours of sweaty swamp slushing the tyipical looking Norwegian fellow in our group finally spotted an Anaconda and boy was it big... 2m of snake is a lot of snake! Yes I know they have been said to get up to 18 meters but when you are faced with something that is taller than you are and swallows its food whole, trust us its big enough!
That night we headed out onto the river in total darkness looking for alligators.....doesnt sound like a good idea but hearing all the jungle noises at night and seeing the alligators eyes shine red was pretty cool if a little spooky!
No trip to the Amazon river is complete without swimming with pink dolphins. These cousins of the normal dolphins realised thousands of years ago that pink is the new black and adapted to make it so. Ok the real story is that as the oceans fled from South America thousands of years ago the dolphins got stuck and therefore adapted to their new fresh water rather than salt water surroundings...still pretty cool. Swimming with them isnt a very personal experience though, they are by their very nature protectors so when you jump in the water rather than running to you to play, they circle to keep away all the nasties that call the river their home. We could see Alligators but they wouldnt come close because the dolphins were there. At one point thinking that there were maybe only 3 or 4 dolphins in the water we threw a ball in for them to play, this action scared the hell out of them and us as the water started boiling with what looked like 30 dolphins rushing around to investigate or get away from the noise whatever it was.
The day finished with a spot of fishing....for Piranas. These little guys dont attack the meat nearly as enthusiastically as we had hoped but we did manage to hook a few which made a good lunch for the group!
So we got to hunt and hold an anaconda, swim with dolphins, eat the pirana we caught and see a ton of wildlife. All good fun, so much fun that after leaving the Amazon the Mavrix are looking for ways to get back as soon as possible! Its an amazing place that 4 days just isnt enough to see, we will be back!
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