Pampa Tour

After a nice breakfast, we were driven to the park entrance by car for 3 hours on a very bad road. These cars also take people from the Pampa Tour back home, so there was quite a chaos. As I explained during the Jungle Tour, it was important for us to do the tour with an agency that does not feed the animals. What became clear to us right away at the next bush: the tourists had bananas in their hands and the monkeys came to grab them. We were also besieged, but since we didn't have much to take, they quickly left. After that, a feeling set in that accompanied us the whole time: we want to see the animals up close, but maybe not in this way. Our camp, unlike the one in the jungle, was really beautiful and comfortable. Between the program points, we could always rest in the hammocks. In general, it was not as exhausting here as in the jungle, we were actually just sitting on the boat and cruising through the canals.

Because the animals here are used to humans, you naturally see a lot of them: especially monkeys, parrots, turtles, birds, and river dolphins.

After the first day, we went to observe anacondas in the morning. We also thought we would just observe, but as soon as we got sticks, we were skeptical. So the plan was explained to us: put on the rubber boots in case you step on an anaconda and it bites you (?). If you see movement in the water, immediately poke it with the stick, it was very different from what we expected. Alright then, let's stomp through the swamp and poke at anacondas, no problem! That was really against all the safety thinking we had. We actually found one that wasn't very happy that we poked at her, after all, we saw 1/3 of her, what shot out of the water. The good thing is that the first instinct of the snakes is always to flee, which took away some of our fear.

At noon, while fishing for piranhas, we actually caught quite a lot, which we then had for dinner. It was still a bit disappointing, as special as the fish are, they taste like any other fish.

On the last day, my personal highlight was on the plan: swimming with river dolphins. There is a place where there are always river dolphins, and there were even about 5-6 in the water. And into the water, Jonas was the first and was quickly accepted as a playmate: they circled around Jonas and nipped at his foot. When everyone saw that, they also went into the water, which was too much for the dolphins, and they retreated. After everyone spread out better, they came back. In addition, the guides started the boats because the dolphins love the propellers. When I was in the water, everyone shouted 'there is one' as usual, I was too late and didn't see it, but it swam past me so close that it touched my hand, that was nice and scary at the same time.

With the boat and the car, we went back to Rurrenabaque. Connected to the WiFi, we received news from Santa Cruz about our car: it needs another 5 days (welcome to Bolivia). Since we were quite close to La Paz, we decided to make a stop there. We took the flight, even though there is also a bus, which often crashes, so the flight was worth it to us.