Thursday 10th March

We slept ok, I got woken up by a bat in the room and the nights were so hot, and there was no circulation of air with the mossie nets on. 

We were woken up at 5.45 by our guide Jamie saying 'wakey wakey guys!' so we all got up half asleep and got into the boat (in our pj's!) we cruised along the river listening to all the animal noises watching the sunrise it was lovely! Then cruised back to the lodge for breakfast. The alligator was out so while waiting for breakfast we were watching her, she did some sort of mating call where her head and tail were out of the water and her body was vibrating (we could feel it from the pontoon and it sent ripples across the river!)

We had breakfast (pancakes, fruit, donuts and fritters) and then set off in search of sloths much further down river. Our guide said he saw one but we couldn't make it out!

We then pulled up in a swamp to do some piranha fishing! Our fishing rods were small pieces of wood with fishing line attached, we used cow as bait. I got a bite  straight away but the piranha were too small to latch onto the hook they just nibbled the bait! Jamie took us to another swampy area but the same thing happened, bites but no catch! (the river was so warm it actually cooked the bait!) 

We gave up and headed back for lunch (rice, beef and salad) then got our stuff together to head back to Rurrenabaque. The journey back to land was shorter which was just as well as it was so hot and the sun was burning us! It was really intense heat! On the journey back we saw loads of turtles chilling on logs, monkeys, a snake and an animal from the rodent family swimming which is the biggest rodent in the world, Jamie said it was a baby. It looked like a cross between a rat, otter and beaver and was actually quite cute! (we later found out it's unusual to spot them actually swimming!) 

We finally arrived at dry land; hot, sweaty and sunburnt! We unloaded the boat and waited for the 4x4 to collect us for our 3 hour journey back to Rurrenabaque! 

We set off and saw another group (different company) had been picked up in a people carrier! Worst thing is they had to drive through the rivers and in the first river they got stuck! One American couple were not at all happy and got out to walk (wade) through the rivers! The car eventually made it through and we were able to overtake. About an hour into the drive back we had a flat tyre so we stopped to change it! The 3 hour journey back seemed to take forever and it was so hot and sticky in the 4x4!

We finally made it to Rurrenabaque about 6pm, found a hostel for the night got showered and changed and headed out for dinner. Rurrenabaque town was pretty cool; it was quite vibrant for a town in the middle of the jungle! Everyone uses motorbikes and we saw families (2 adults and 2 kids) on one motorbike! Even the taxis were motorbikes!

We went to a little bar/restaurant called monkeys with our group from the boat and had pizza and a few drinks. We were all absolutely shattered but it was lashing down outside so we waited for it to ease off but it didn't! We gave up and ran back to the hostel in the rain and went to bed!