From La Paz to Rurrenabaque in the Amazon via the World´s Most Dangerous Road.

Having had two flights cancelled me along with Jh, Declan and Kate decided to be really extravagant and get our own private 4x4 which meant not only would we beat the bus we would get to experience death road.

I´d like to say death road was everything I imagined but in all honesty it was not as scary as I thought it would be, the road is a maximum of 3.5m and it´s not the road that is the problem but the people driving on it. We saw a few alteracations between drivers wanting to go on the inside of the cliff edge, the rule is those driving up go on the outside as they have a better view of the cliff edge, some people don´t like to follow this rule. We witnessed a few face offs between lorrys and buses, dangerousa times, that might be why and average of 26 vehicles fall off every year.

Having survived death road (on the cliff edge) we continued on the bumpy road to Rurrenabaque and 12 hours after leaving La Paz we arrived at Hostal Toucan, an overpriced hostel, but we had no choice it being close to 2am.

We all headed to the Fluvial Tours office for 8.30am to fill in the necessary paper work and then we headed off in the jeep to the Jungle, picking up Sam, another addition to the group and a welcomed one at that!

3 hours on bumpy roads trying to avoid the herds of cattle and a bad lunch later we arrived at River Yacuma (we think). From here the real adventure began, we put all the supplies in the boat and set sail in the little motor boat up the river.

We did not expect to see an alligator so quickly, we´d literally been on the boat for a matter of minutes and there one was, still as a statue mouth open ready to catch any animal foulish enough to mistake this beast for a log, which we did many a time.We saw so many alligators and caimans I can´t even begin to guewss the number, there was one at least every twenty feet (John Henry´s estimation). Along with the gators we saw many turtles all perched on top of one another on tree roots, it was so funny, they would randomly fall off in to the water, I suppose you had to be there.

Three hours later and witnessing some of the most beautiful birds, pink river dolphins and capybara we arrived at the jungle camp (alligators just sunbathing outside). We got shown to our little hut and then headed to the dining room for a chat about what we would be doing with the welcomed snack of popcorn and biscuits.

That night we went looking for the caimans and alligators to spot their red eyes, tirch at the ready we began the search, there were hundreds (it had to be hundreds) of red eyes in the water and was actually quite frightening, I had to keep getting jh to shine the torch my way to check non were near me. Our guide then took is to where the baby gators come out on to the land over night, amazing sight, tiny gators with sparkling red eyes that covered the hill completely.

The next morning it was time to go Anaconda searching. We set sail all set in our wellingtons to find an anaconda, we headed through reeds as tall as us until we reached the swamp, this is when I discovered my wellies had a hole in... DAMN! We´d been searching for a matter of minutes and my feet were soaking and wellies were filling up, not pleasant. We continued looking for 3 hours and in that time we saw three, two big anacondas and one baby that snake eyes John Henry spotted. He also spotted another but non of us were quick or enthusiastic enough, Jh kept looking with the guide the whole time but, he did have dry feet! :)

We had a break from searching before heading abck to the boat where we all offered coca leaves to chew, sandwiched in baking soda. Jh got right in there with Alfie and chewed a whole load making his mouth numb but supposedly it suppresses hunger and thirst, it is chew alot amongst locals and especially by those who work in the mines.

We had a relaxing afternoon and time to have a shower after the swampy water.

FISHING TIME! We were all given a fishing line with a hook on the end and piece of wood to wind it round (not a great description) and we patiently waited to catch a piranha, well some of us waited patiently. John Henry was not happy that he hadn´t caught one and the guide had caught about 5. Then I caught a catfish :) wooo! It was actually quite sad because it cried :( I felt bad, but I carried on fishing and caught another to the annoyance of Jh who had yet to catch anything.FINALLY JH CAUGHT A PIRANHA!! We had our catch for dinner that night, I can´t say I was overly impressed.

The last morning we went to spot pink river dolphins and hopefully swim with them. As we turned the corner we saw a huge gator head into the water and the guide stopped and said ´nadar aqui´swim here. You have got to be kidding, I asked whether it was safe and just as I did the other guide (we were another boat) jumped in followed by Jh!! First one in! The guide told me that because the dolphins are here the gators and caimans wont bother and that it is safe. It took me a good ten minutes and a few other people in there to get in and I only lasted about 5 minutes, I was too paranoid. Jh stayed in the whole time and got quite close to the dolphins :). It was one of the best bits, swimming with gators and pink river dolphins!

The rest of the day was spent making our way back to Rurrenabaque by boat and 4x4.

An amazing Amazon adventure.