~bandslam
in my four years in bolivia i have had many adventures...i have seen the salt flats, macchu pichu, iguazu falls, the perrito moreno glacier, lake titicaca and many other amazing things. however, there has always been one bolivian adventure that i never felt ready to attempt. rurrenabaque....the bolivian amazon. a three day tour of the pampas, full of animals.....monkeys, alligators, weird birds, anacondas, piranhas, and lots and lots of bugs. the only animal that came close to appealing to me was the pink dolphin. but was swimming with pink dolphins worth having to come in close contact with all those other animals? i wasn't so sure. i am by no means an animal lover....i only tolerate dogs! but since i am now in the midst of my last few months in bolivia, i decided to face my fears and tackle this final adventure. and what an absolutely incredible, perfect final adventure it turned out to be!
sunday morning began early, as we woke up at 4:00am to get to the airport to catch our plane to rurrenabaque. the plane was a double propeller plane, the smallest i have ever been in. but we made it safely, landing in a grassy field surrounded by green mountains. we quickly headed into the city to our tour agency's office, eager to begin. and soon we headed out for a three hour drive across the beni. the landscapes and small villages were beautiful, reminding me a lot of the dominican republic, making me long to go back to that amazing country. after our dusty jeep ride, and one flat tire, we made it to the river, where several dugout canoes were lined up ready to take the many tourists into the pampas.
we climbed aboard and began our three hour tour. we saw several amazing birds, lots of turtles, a caiman, and an alligator. we were very impressed with our guide's ability to differentiate a log from an alligator...they all looked the same to us! the highlight of this boat trip was a brief stop under a tree full of cappuccino monkeys. our guide took out a banana, and we each took turns letting the monkeys crawl up our arms to get to the banana. the idea of monkeys crawling on me had NEVER been appealing. but i decided that on this trip i would push myself to do those things i never would have imagined i could do. and it really wasn't that bad....i actually kind of enjoyed it! eventually we pulled up to our camp, which would be our home for the next two nights. nothing fancy....a bunch of shacks connected by wooden walkways, everything on stilts so the water wouldn't flood the buildings. our camp was also home to several howler monkeys (they make great alarm clocks!), an alligator named princess, and a very large, very frightening black caiman.
the next morning we awoke to the howler monkeys screeching above us and after a delicious breakfast we headed out on the most feared part of the trip: the anaconda hunt. we donned big black rubber boots, and started the hot, sticky walk through a large, grassy field. soon the dry path turned into a wet, marshy, nasty swamp. one step into the black, rancid water soon alerted me to the fact that one of my boots had a hole in it. my boot was soon full of water, yet i walked on....praying i wouldn't be the one to find the anaconda! after an hour of walking through the field in the blazing sun, we came upon a little forest and took a minute to relax in the shade. our guide began hunting in earnest for an anaconda. soon cries from another group brought us running to a tree...only to see a tiny green snake peeking out from a hole in a branch. definitely not an anaconda. a few of the others and i soon grew weary of searching for this large snake we weren't even sure we really wanted to meet and found a shady spot to sit and wait for the others. we did find several lizards, and my favorite, a huge wild amazon ostrich! but no anaconda. i really can't say if i am sorry...though it might have made the walk through the swampy field worth it!
after lunch we headed back out in our boat, this time to fish for piranhas. the first three piranhas were caught by our guide. they were much smaller than we had imagined, but their teeth were quite vicious looking. we were beginning to get frustrated with our ability as fisherwomen, but soon we began to get little nibbles. for a long time, the piranhas were faster than us, stealing the bait off our hooks before we could pull them in. then jenny caught a catfish, and steph and ali caught piranhas. i had a piranha out of the water but it jumped off the hook before i could swing him into the boat. oh well. the time spent fishing was relaxing and a great time for good conversation with good friends! after piranha fishing we headed to another place to watch a beautiful sunset, stopping to see a sloth on the way!
then after sunset, and after dinner, we headed out again....this time armed with flashlights to look for the red eyes of caimans and alligators in the dark. we set off and soon our guide pulled into a grassy part of the river. we thought we were stuck and were trying not to be too scared. he started telling us to look at the alligator next to the boat and hesitantly we shone our flashlights where he directed. when we still didn't see anything he came up behind us and pointed....holding a baby alligator about a foot from my face! i will admit, i think i screamed! the other girls began asking if they could hold it and he directed them in how to safely hold the little guy. i sat there thinking, no way, there is absolutely no way i am even touching him, much less holding him. this is where i drew the line on trying everything on this trip. but then i realized, there was very little chance of anything happening....and really what a great story to tell later. so i gave in, washed my hands, and held the alligator. i can't say i loved it, i can't even say i enjoyed it all, but i did it. and i lived to tell about it! we then let him go and went on through the river, shining our flashlights, looking for the glowing red eyes in the bushes and weeds. i actually got pretty good at spotting them....and while it was eery to realize how close these frightening creatures were, we all felt very safe in the boat.
the final morning was the morning i had been waiting for the whole trip. we were going to swim with the pink river dolphins! we had already spotted several on our many boat rides, but today we would go to places where several lived and actually get in the water and swim! and of course, it was cloudy, cold and rainy. but that didn't stop us. we jumped in and waited. the dolphins were shy, and while we could see them swimming and playing, they would never get close enough to let us touch them. after the initial swim, we got back in the boat and went to several other places to watch them play. we also saw capybaras, huge rodents that look like giant hamsters. they were perhaps the strangest creatures we saw on the trip. at the very end we went back to one more place with the dolphins and spent a long time playing with them and watching them play. it was the absolutely perfect ending to this great adventure.
in the end, i am glad i saved this trip for my last big south american adventure (for a while, anyway). it pushed me and stretched me more than any other trip. i have grown a lot in my time in bolivia, in many ways. but perhaps the most noticeable way is my new sense of adventure and love for the outdoors. and this trip was the perfect way to prove to myself that i really can do anything, no matter how scary it may seem. and the result is an amazing story to share!
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