Chris > Wouldn't you know it - on the morning of our amazon expedition came terrential rains, followed by the freakiest of freak cold fronts. The clothes we brought were useless. It is normally sweltering here, and was 30 degrees Celsius up until yesterday.
Our guide and driver packing the jeep under downpour.
I think this unfortunate turn of events for our group created immediate bonding between the eight of us on the way to our river boat. Eleanor from Ireland kept a humorous positive outlook, Adrian had a great Austrian sense of humour, Liam and Sophie were an adventurous couple much like us (but without the whinging), and the Japanese couple were always laughing anyway. Our guide Marcello (Marciel) was born in a jungle village in what later became this national park. This lovely, quiet man took great pride in his work and you could tell he was really at peace here rather than in town. We boarded our boat wrapped in ponchos above as much summer clothing as possible. Was this really normal jungle weather? The inhabitants of these wetland rivers soon had us forgetting all such worries.
Birds, birds, birds. Kingfisher, hawks, cranes. The best was a Prehistoric bird with 2 stomachs and 12 seconds of flight. I could tell that dear Marciel had a soft spot for birds as he slowed down to carefully appreciate every single one, especially the little red ones that were his favorite.
The first real excitement was when we spotted crocodiles making the boat rock a little. It turned out these caymans were everywhere. The girls promptly stopped dipping their fingers in the warm water to remark how bath-warm it was. The black Boliviano crocs can apparently grow up to 7 meters.
Then came the biggest surprise - giant rodents the size of a small bear! These capybaras are indeed the largest rodents in the world. They seemed to be peaceful creatures that enjoyed eating together as families on the river banks, occasionally going for a muddy dip in the warm waters. Sophie reckoned they would make good pets and we had to keep an eye on her luggage since her afffection could have led to a complicated smuggling incident. Adrian asked how they taste, and Marciel explained that the Capybara only eaten in Brazil but they actually taste fatty and fishy, according to his first and last taste.
Since this coldness is highly unusual, our camp had no walls but a few boards and some netting around mosquito netted beds. That night I had a bad case of jungle fever, perhaps from cold, wet socks on a windy boat, perhaps from the lingering effects of Bolivian food poisoning. I put on all four thin layers of lightweight shirts and pants I brought for a sweltering jungle trek before wrapping my body in blankets. We all did our best to keep spirits high by lighting a campfire, and huddeling round with a guitarlele. When we shined our flashlights just a few feet from the bank we could see the crocs eyes all glowing on the other side. It was a wonderful evening in the middle of nowhere in the Amazon.
The next morning we set off up river in our longboat. Our objectives were to spot a sloth in the trees and then try to hunt down the famous anaconda. Marciel tried so hard to find us a sloth. Feeling much better, I had also lobbied for a fishing trip on this day to catch a few piranhas! The Japanese loved this, catching yellow and red bellied pirhanas, plus one eel. Adrian was also quite successful and we had enough catches to fry up alongside lunch.
Marciel, our loyal guide, catching a pirhana.
Unfortunately the monkeys climbed right up in our face to beg since they are routinely fed by humans, a sign of some tours that are not so eco-friendly.
Marciel then moored up the boat and marched us all out through the tall grass of the floodplain. He went on ahead searching and searching for the anaconda who lives in these parts. All we found in this tall grass were some gator skeletons and a lot of gigantic snail shells. Defeated, we pushed through the tall grass and back to the boat. Then Marciel shreaked "sloth!" and all of a sudden there he was. A big furry creature at the top of a huge tree was moving rather hastily from branch to branch, perhaps from all our commotion. It wasn't exactly as thrilling as the other amazon wildlife but apparently a very rare find.
I must say that the cold weather did put a damper on the rest of our activity schedule and the entire trip. Let's just say the swimming trip on the last day was more of a spectator sport. We did spot a few river dolphins however (just a few glimpses they are very quick and shy). Many of our memories will probably be cold ones from being probably the least prepared in our whole lives (after all the effort we made to pack and buy the right gear).
Back in town we heard from 16-year residents that this was the worst weather they had ever witnessed in Rurrenbaque. We went our for a fantastic meal that night on the terrace of Casa de Campo. This tiny run mom-and-pop restaurant made our group a special table since it was packed. I watched as the old man helped his wife prepare some spectacular home cooking. Meanwhile the pampas crew exchanged our jungle stories with wine under the rain hammering on the roof until the place was empty. I think of our new group of friends could agree that we saw some incredible wildlife and our bright side outlook was thanks mostly to Marciel. His loveliness was warming and so were the campfires he built us.
Thanks to Eleanor for sharing your photos - they've made a wonderful addition to this blog posting.
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