Rurrenabaque

The pampas and jungle tours are based from Rurrenabaque (or "Rurre" as the locals call it), an hour north of La Paz by plane, or 20 hours on a bus. Transport in and out of Rurre was tricky when I went. The flight I did book was delayed by a day due to the airstrip at the other end being too wet, and when we did arrive we found the town busy with people who'd done their tours but were still waiting to get out.

The thing was, apparently there'd been a factory planned for near Rurre, but the location was changed not long before construction was due to commence. The locals, unhappy that more jobs wouldn't be coming after all, did what Bolivians do best (next to striking) and blockaded the roads in and out of the area. This had been going on for 2 weeks before we got there, and they spiced things up by setting off dynamite on the roads to boot. All of which meant no buses were getting in or out, leaving hundreds of gringos to compete for the limited number of spaces on flights, on the days they were going.



Another consequence of the blockades was a shortage of gas, which made it harder to find an agency offering the tour we were after. In Rurre you choose between a jungle tour, which is said to be better for plants and insects, or the pampas tour, through more open terrain, which is said to feature more animals. Nothing against bees or trees, but it was the pink dolphins we were after. The agency we wanted had no gas for the pampas tour, but we found another which did have gas and was just starting up pampas tours, having in the past specialised in the jungle. Most of the agencies doing pampas go to the same part of the river, but this agency would go to a different part, and offer horse riding as part of the tour. We fancied something different so we chose them, and were the 2nd group they'd ever taken.



On one part of the river we had to stop and clear some trees that had fallen and were blocking the way through, which involved hacking with machete and pulling all the roots and branches out. With alligators in the area this was something of an adrenaline rush.



It's amazing how your perception of an experience can change over time. The tour was always fine, and we had a good group, but at first I was a little underwhelmed at the wildlife. Maybe after the Galapagos I'd expected there to be hundreds of pink dolphins waving us in with their flippers, and was disappointed to find just a few solitary ones occasionally breaking the surface, and certainly not hanging around to swim with us.



But looking back on it, there were huge birds of paradise swooping through the air, we saw more alligators than I could count, the occasional capybara (a rodent the size of a pig), and of course monkeys, and some turtles too. So while it wasn't quite evidence of that concentration of biodiversity I'd heard about, it was still pretty bloody good. Back in Rurre afterwards, the roads were by now open again, but we were still stuck for a couple of days waiting for the backlog to clear. I could happily have been stuck there for longer, it was such a great little spot.