Pampas

"You must have crossed the river before you tell the crocodile he has bad breath."
~Anonymous

Saturday, November 8th to Monday, November 10th 2008

In the course of my travels, I met several people who told me about the Pampas of Rio Yacuma , a lowland wetland area near Rurrenabaque. Most mentioned the place as the best place to see wildlife in South America, especially in the dry season which, luckily, was the time of year I reached Rurre. Since I didn't want to get stuck in the city, I started looking for partners for the trip on the same day I landed. I was with Oded, Arishi and Tanya who were with me from Peru, but the agency we wanted to set out with, had a hard minimum of 6 people per boat. I spend the day in town trying to get partners but I found too few or too many (there was also a maximum of 8 people for boat). At 20:00 in the evening we were 5: the original 4 and a girl named Rotem who joined us at our hostel. We convinced the agency (Flecha Tours) to agree to take us on on the premise that they may add others if they find them. As soon as we left Flecha, we saw across the street our 3 German friends from the death road: Dennis, Kathy and Peter. Since we didn't want to risk the addition of unwelcome personas to our boat, we "jumped" them and although they were weary from the long ride to town, they agreed to join us setting our final number to 8. So, on Saturday morning, eight of us, along with our guide Rambo and cook, piled into a four-by-four for the three-hour ride to the Rio Yacuma. When the ride ended we disembarked from the land cruiser and help carry the equipment to the river bank where we found that we are getting a new boat - but we have to push into the water first.. We needed the help of almost everyone around to push the heavy canoe into the shallow river and only then we loaded it and climbed in. The canoe was similar to the one we had in the Manu park but narrower and without a roof to protect us from the rain and blazing sun who already stood high in the sky.

We started to slowly float down the river and almost immediately saw a crocodile and after looking for one in the dark in Manu, we were excited to see one in daylight and took some pictures. Short distance after the crocodile we met our first capibara - the largest rodent in the world. We searched for this critter as well in Manu but all we found was footprints so it was a Kodak moment again... we continue down the river and than we started spotting another crocodile and than another and whole families of capibaras.. the river bed was full of animals and birds including eagles, herons, darters and the massive 'Condor of the Pampas' (which is not a condor at all). The large amount of animals was due to the fact that this was the end of the dry season so the river was very low and the rest of the pampas almost dry, forcing all the wildlife to concentrate on river as a source of water and food. Unfortunately the low river also meant that our loaded boat can't pass in many places forcing us to walk beside it or push it in the crocodile infested water. The slow wading through the shallow river brought us very late to our lodge which was not as plush as the one we had in Manu, but it had running water and good food. Before getting to bed we boarded the boat again and went looking again for crocodile eyes, finding them easily. Rambo went off the boat and caught a small croc for a short "show and tell" session (after he verified that the mother is not near...) before returing to the lodge and going to sleep.

The next day we woke up early due to the racket made by the howler monkeys and after breakfast started on foot through the pampas looking for the uncrowned king of the plains - the mighty anaconda. At first we had luck, shortly after reaching the first search spot, a small lake, we found a 3 meter long venomous cobra. Our guide held the snake so we can see it better - not a trivial thing since the snake venom can kill you in 2 hours and we were at least 3 hours by boat from the nearest doctor. But after the cobra our luck changed. We searched for hours in the blazing heat with nothing to show for it other than a pair of giant toads and small cuts on my hands that I got after I fell from a tree trunk that served as bridge over a small swamp. In the last minute before returning to camp, we split up and Arishi found the anaconda sleeping under a tree on the river bank. Our guide pulled the giant snake from its hiding place and after the necessary photo session we started to head back. We got back after exhausting 5 hours and immediately took a shower to cool down. After lunch and rest we were back in the boat and went fishing for piranhas which apparently can be easily found in the river we walked barefoot to push our boat. We didn't have a lot of luck with the fishing, with the exception of Oded who caught two small catfish and one piranha out of the three that we were able to fish. We than took the boat to see the sunset from a place called the Sunset bar where I enjoyed a cold coke on a high wooden platform above the river. Luckily we were also able to see some monkeys along the way.

On our last day we woke up early to see the sunrise. As we returned to our boat, we found a giant black caiman waiting next to it which was of course a great opportunity to feed and pet this dangerous animal. When we were tired of playing with our new friend, we sailed further up the river to look for more animals but after seeing a couple of coatis it started to rain so we returned to the safety of the lodge early and rested until lunch. After lunch we played with a band of squirrel monkeys who literally at out of hands and saw toucans in the trees above us. When the sky cleared a bit, we loaded our bags on the boat going 4 hours to the starting point stopping at one deep point to swim with pink river dolphins. After unloading the boat we took the 3 hours jeep ride back to Rurre, thanking all the people who sent us for this wildlife heaven.