Rurranabaque - Pampas: crocs and pink dolphins

We started our 3-day Pampas trip with a torturous 3-hour jeep ride along a dusty and very bumpy road to a small town called Santa Rosa where we stopped for lunch in a strange restaurant, the garden of which contained a parrot, a spider monkey, a pig, various cats and dogs, and a goat helping itself to a stack of bananas. Our fellow tourists, Lauren (UK), Corey (Tasmania), Graham (Oz) & Rudy (the Germanator) certainly bought a bright spark to an otherwise boring journey.

This was followed buy an even more torturous 3-hour journey upstream on a very hard wooden-seated boat, made bearable by spotting the oodles of wildlife to be seen along its banks. These included over 200 crocodiles, storks, some funny pig-or boar type animals, terrapins, chinchillas (little monkeys), a toucan, howler monkeys and also pink river dolphins which was a real treat.

It scared me rotten



After a relaxing dinner we went to the nearest bar to watch the sunset and down cervezas, and followed this with a night boat ride. To be honest all we saw were croc's eyes shining in our torchlight. Sadly it was rather spoiled by our guide leaping into the bushes and coming back with a baby croc in one hand for people to take photos of. El got rather cross and told the guide in no uncertain terms that it was wrong to interfere with nature, but when the rest of the group stared daggers at her she had to shut up and turn away in a silent moral objection.

Our second day saw us having a 3-hour (why is everything in batches of 3 hours?) walk around the swampy grassland looking for an Anaconda. Of course the guide said he'd catch it for photo opportunities and when El objected he pointed out that we'd not see anything.Who cares about a stupid snake anyway. In fact, what self-respecting Anaconda is going to let a group of 16 tourists come anywhere close to it? Of course there was no sign of a snake but some beautiful storks and birds, plus a wonderful array of pretty flowers which were more than adequate to enjoy.

Our 3rd day saw us get up early for a sunrise and then breakfast was followed by Pirhana fishing. Our guide, having decided as El was an eco-warrior that she would not want to fish and made her make a necklace out of beads made from seeds. She was a bit annoyed but in the end no-one caught any fish anyway so at least she got to take something home!

Kieran had a very bad belly ache and on the last day the guide gave him a jungle medician made from lemon, coco leaves and the bark of a tree called Diablo, it tasked rank but got me through the 6 hour back to town trip with out any "accidents"

Chilling in the Jungle


After a few relaxing hours chilling out in the hammocks we boarded the boat and jeep for the torturous journey back home. Tired, dusty, dirty and hot, but having seen some amazing animals in their natural habitat and hopefully given the guides some food for thought about their responsibility.

Rurranabaque - the jungle leaflet

After a hair-raising flight from Sucre in a really old-school plane where you entered through its bum rather than the side, and a mad dash around La Paz for 3 hours to do a bit of shopping and posting, we took an even more hair-raising flight to Rurranabaque, a town north of La Paz perched between the jungle and the lowland grasslands. I say hair-raising as it was a tiny plane with only one person either side of the aisle and no door to the cockpit so we could see everything the captain and his co-pilot were doing: even El got a tiny bit scared when we touched down on the grass runway...gulp.

We found a nice hotel though and were delighted at the change in temperature: going back to sandals and shorts weather was wonderful! Next day we headed into the jungle for a 1-day trip. The boat ride was fabulous through pretty lush trees, the odd one covered with bright red or bright yellow flowers. It was a long 3-hour trip but as we had the boat to ourselves we didn't mind.

We got to the jungle and went on a short (1-hour) trip into the jungle. Sadly our guide spoke no English and we could hear all the birds announce our arrival with their unusual calls so we were not surprised that all we saw were a few freaky spiders, a couple of birds and a termite nest. Oh and a nest of wasps which we made a hasty exit from!



It was a nice walk but a somewhat dumbed down walk as the path was extremely well-worn and we really didn't go too far. Nevertheless it was the jungle so that was cool. After a swift lunch with some others who'd been there for 2 days, we headed back to town in the boat. On the way back we stopped for a short walk to a nearby cliff filled with large holes where a number of parrot species live - namely the famous red and green ones you imagine when you think of the jungle. OK they were a way away from the viewing platform but it was pretty special to see these incredible birds screeching above us and flying around in their natural environment. El feels strongly that birds should not be caged so we really enjoyed seeing them - a real highlight.



Back to town for cocktails and readying for our 3-day tour into the Pampas Grasslands.

Congratulations the Baldwins!!!!!

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!

Kieran is delighted that he has become a new uncle for the second time. Donna, his sis, gave birth to little Florence Amelie on Saturday 15 September and all the family are doing well. She came a little earlier than expected but is welcome nonetheless, and Jacob is rapidly getting used to being a big brother.

Rest assured that we had a strong drink to celebrate!

Welcome to the world little Flo and all our thoughts are with you and your newly expanded family, and we hope Donna´s stay in hospital is short and comfy!

Sucre

Sucre was one of the most beautiful towns in Bolivia maybe down to the fact that it was once the Capital of the country, lots of plazas and white old colonial buildings giving the town a lovely feel.

We booked into one of the best hotel rooms on our trip, one that made you feel like you were some big head honcho. Well it made me feel like it, not sure about El; a big space with shutters on the windows and big old doors to the room, it was a fantastic room.

We hung around on Sunday and for once it really felt like a Sunday and we had no choice but to hang around. Remember in England when nothing, and I mean nothing, is open: it was just like that. We walked around and tried to get some purchasing opportunities in but were stopped at every stage. It the end we had to kick back and watch the main plaza from a restaurant balcony and watch the slow Sunday life go by, quite nice as it turns out.

At a height of 2800 metres we felt a bit better than at other places that are over 4000 metres, maybe that is why after a lot of talk of having a few "rest" days we decided to book ourselves on a paragliding jump in the morning and a 4 hour dirtbike tour in the afternoon, or maybe the altitude really was affecting us.

The Paragliding was amazing and with the top standards of Bolivia's heath and safety were made even more "exciting". Mum you may not want to read this, I've always wanted to write that.

Why am I going first...hey


We started with an "exciting" trip to the launch pad, and hour along a mountain range, that was made really cool as the guide spoke really good English and kept pointing out local plants and trees and hamster-like creatures that the locals eat, plus I could have a good chat about Bolivia and its people and politics.

El and I flipped a coin and she won, so she went first. She looked a bit nervous, so I gave her all the encouragement that I could, "Don't worry it does not look that far down" and "its not too high a cliff you are running off, you will only break a leg" etc., etc.

She ran when the instructor told her too, but at the last minute the wind changed and she was dropped down to the ground from about a metre up and slid along the earth for a few seconds before taking off proper. After reviewing the video she came within half a metre of some nasty sharp rocks...the force is still stong with this one, but she still managed to rip her jeans and get a graze on her knee.

After a nasty take off she had a fantastic flight and said that it was very relaxing flight and was quite funny to land in a field next to a few pigs.

My take-off was a little different, video to follow. I did not even get a chance to run at the cliff face, mmmm shame. The wind changed again and the bloody thing just took off vertically. Elenaor was joking with the instructor that after her take off he said "Oops" and I told him that I wanted no such oops on my take off.

Well as soon as we took off I was thinking to myself "this is cool we can just glide from here", but as soon as I thought that the bloody guide says "Oops" but with a note of panic in his voice, uh oh, I thought.

We managed to clear the edge of the mountain after a lot of shouts of "move to the right" "move to the left" and I though that it was going to be all cool from now on when I realised that we were not going down, quite the opposite we were going up. The instructor had me take control of the parachute while he did something that reduces the surface area of the canopy, so that finally we started to come down, I did start to enjoy the flight then, with the occasional shout of Thank God!

When we finally landed, the guide and I had a manly hug and he kept on saying that flight was "Rock and Roll". He explained in half-English and Spanish that if we went over the other side of the mountain it would have been dangerous and the canopy would have collapsed, so I'm glad that did not happen. The bonus of all this is that as the Instructor said the next flight I take I will be saying is this all !! Where is the rock and roll baby!!!

The afternoon was quite cool, El took the back of the guide's bike and I had my own and we rode into the countryside around Sucre where El took a few hours lessons and I took off down a nice road for an hour or so. It started to look a bit grim so we headed back to town and it started to rain, its was at this point that El's guide - a Sucre motocross champion - while not looking where he was going, nearly ran into a pile of gravel that is there for the bikes to do stunts on and FELL OVER, what a berk.. I had a massive heart attack when I could no longer see them in my mirrors.

Both were OK and suffered mirror cuts, but El got an identical cut to her right knee to go with her left one that she got paragliding, and quite a few bruises, I think that after the shock wore off that she was quite proud of herself for being so hard core and freestyle, I certainly was! But she doesn't really want to go on the back of a motorbike anymore after 2 falls from them as a pillion.

Potosi and the big bang

We had a lightning fast trip to a town called Potosi, a famous mining city that made much of Spain's fortune in the 16th century, and also boasts to be the highest city in the world (4060m). The streets are again steep but with a colonial charm that was lacking in La Paz: lots of cobbles and pretty buildings.

Our main aim was to visit the mine and we were collected at 9am sharp by our tour guide. He took us around the streets of Potosi explaining some of the culture of the city, including details of how the miners were exploited terribly by the Spanish and how the miners revolted and now most have formed co-operatives. The next stop was the miner's market where we bought gifts for the miners, including coca leaves, 96% alcohol (for offerings), cigarettes and dynamite. Yes, dynamite, you know, like you do when you go to the market!

On to the mines where we donned helmets and waterproofs and headed into one of the shafts. Silver was what made Spain's fortune but now the mine produces zinc and other minerals. The people who work there earn about 25 Bolivianos per day, just under 2 quid, and most die of nasty diseases within 5 years because of the toxic chemicals they are exposed to.



After offering some coca leaves, a fag and some 96% alcohol (of course having a wee nip is obligatory), and El kissed the idol's knob (for fertility, of course), we ventured into the mines. Every now and then we let 3 men pass with the old style mine carts reminiscent of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Health and safety in this place is a token for the tourists as we wandered past open holes and cables draped all over the place.

Still, it was a fascinating insight into these guys' lives and they appreciated the little extras we gave them as a beer and a fag don't half help the day go by. Finally, we returned to the outside for the piece de resistance: a dynamite demo. Actually, this is REALLY what Kieran wanted to see and once the fuse had been lit we all held the stick of dynamite for photo opportunities before our guide legged it over the way and back while we waited for the big bang.



It was big. And it banged!!! Cool!



That over, nothing else in Potosi really floated our boat. The museum seemed boring and after a slap up meal we hopped in a taxi to take us to Sucre, a city supposed to be somewhere to chill and take it easy for a few days...

Uyuni: Salt, flingos, geezers and drunk Brazilians

After a suitably horrendous overnight bus journey (how many times have I said 'never again?'), we arrived at Uyuni, a small town on the edge of one of Bolivia's craziest features: salt flats.

We started the tour at a cemetery for trains where great rusting hulks of steam trains are left to rot to nothing. A beautiful yet sad place, it made for a great number of photo opportunities and a curious start to our trip.



At a similar altitude to La Paz, there is a vast area which was once an ocean but has long since dried up, leaving this strange landscape of dead flat, dead white, well, salt plains. Rather than being small crystals, as you'd expect from your salt pot, it has crystalized into crazy geometric crystals - not unlike quarz crystals - that form a hard and seemingly impenetrable crust covering a mammoth 12, 000 sq km. It is white almost as far as the eye can see and unlike anything you can ever expect to see: bonkers.

Because of the uniformity of the landscape there are numerous opportunities for humorous 'perspective' photos and our group for the next 3 days had lots of fun with this. Our group consisted of 3 lovely Israeli lads (forgive me lads but I can't spell your names), and a nice, but alcoholic, Brazilian, Louis, plus our driver, his wife and little girl (2 years) who was a great source of entertainment.


Kieran sits on El's tongue

In the middle of the flats is a crazy island, covered in strange rocks and huge cacti - the largest being over 12m tall. It is such a random thing to find in the midst of this salt flat and climbing the hill gives you amazing views of the area.

The first night we stayed in a hotel (almost) made entirely of salt: walls, tables, chairs, and floor (crushed to resembled gravel). We felt slightly guilty as the Lonely Planet does say it is an illegal structure but we weren't about to sleep outside in protest: the days are quite warm in the sun but the nights are BBbbrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Our second day took us into the mountains beyond the salt flats and we visited a few huge lakes of various colours (made so by the minerals and algae within) and the magnificent sight of flocks of Flingos (Flamingos to non-Hayeses). They are such beautiful and elegant creatures but they are pink. I mean...pink...?????!!!???? We also came across some strange rocks sculpted into odd shapes by the wind and the sand...a bit like being on another planet.



We arrived at our second hostel at 3pm just as the sky turned white and the snow started falling. We were really glad that we purchased some long johns, Alpaca socks and extra vests in La Paz as the temperature dropped considerably. Luckily the Israeli's had some spirits and they taught us a great new card game that rapidly turned into a drinking game. Unfortunately for us, the Israelis were dab hands at it and both Kieran and I lost the first 2 rounds, resulting in having to down some dodgy black herbal liqueur. By this point the forfeit had turned into running outside in the snow naked. Kieran and I both lost this round but he gallantly stripped off to his pants and legged it outside. El Stupido!


Drunken Bet


Our last day took us to geysers, hot springs (only one of the Israelis made it into the pool but dipping our feet in felt delicious), more coloured lakes and flingos and then to a huge volcano (not live though). At this point we were at about 4900m and the volcano was about 6000m and the air was thin and really cold. We dropped off the pissed Brazilian at the Chilean border and headed back to Uyuni. It was a long trip but much fun, seeing awesome landscape and wildlife, and having great fun with our amigos (who we will be visiting in Israel, whether they like it or not).


So far Bolivia has proved itself to be a fascinating and beautiful place. Barren, yes, and yet everywhere there are plants and animals. Cold, yes, but clear blue skies and lovely warm jumpers. We are excited about the rest of our time here as we are loving it!

La Paz, Bolivia - getting high (it´s at high altitude)

After a smooth flight over some stunning reddish-brown landscape, we landed in La Paz in Bolivia, at 3660m, the highest place we've ever been to. You can be affected by altitudes of more than 2500m so we were wary of feeling unwell. Luckily apart from a low headache and being out of breath if you go anywhere too fast we have been lucky enough to be fine (phew)!

La Paz is an incredibly steep city - there is no such thing as a flat road - and it is immediately a completely different place to anywhere we have ever been. The streets are thronging with indigenous people: short, plump ladies wearing full skirts, coloured shawls carrying goods or babies on their backs, and topped by the oddest bowler hats ever seen since Mary Poppins!

Most of the buildings look run down and unfinished but step inside and you are met with pretty courtyards, cute olde worlde style rooms, and very low ceilings. We are giants here compared to the locals (yes, even Kieran) and although we stand out a mile as gringos, the locals don´t really seem that interested.

We stayed in La Paz for just a day or two and managed to do nothing more than take advantage of purchasing opportunities, book various transport and tours for the next 2 weeks, and go to the obligatory coca museum complete with cafe where you can sample the subject of the museum. We spoke with a lovely girl over our coca tea (don´t worry mum, it had no effect) and she gave us the lowdown on South America and showed us how to properly chew coca leaves (um, ok mum, this one does have an effect). To be honest it tastes like you're eating raw teabags and quite frankly I (Eleanor) didn´t feel anything, although Kieran did profess to have a numb mouth and feel a bit more lively. Give me a G&T any day!


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