Up bright and early to catch our toy plane to the Amazon basin. The plane was literally so small you had to crouch to walk, with only 20 seats, 10 each side. 45 minutes later we touched down in Rurrenabaque, and was hit by the humidity….especially Jode's hair. We had booked a 3 day/2night pampas tour of the wetland savannas. While waiting for the trucks we followed the smell to the delicious French bakery down the road. AMAZING!!!! After devouring 2 pizzas and an apple Danish we met our group and bundled into the truck for the bumpy/dusty ride to the amazon. The next 3 days we spent drifting down the river. The moment we stepped on the boat there were alligators, pink dolphins, overgrown guinea pigs (can't remember the real name), monkeys, birds etc. Literally thousands of them. We stopped along the river to swim with the dolphins. There were clearly still loads of alligators around but allegedly the dolphins rule the water so it makes all other predators steer clear. The alligators are quite docile…except for the caimans; you can see they are far more aggressive. That night we headed out on the boat to go alligator spotting by shining the torch over the river to see their reflective eyes. The next day we were up bright and early to watch the sun rise, shortly followed by plodding around in the swamps trying to find anacondas, as you do! We were told the willies were not given to us to protect from the swamp water, but to protect our ankles from alligator and anaconda bites. After 3 hours of trudging around, unfortunately no anacondas were spotted…except a dead one! After lunch we were back out on the boat, but this time we were fishing for our dinner….Piranhas. So, also in this river that we have been swimming in, are thousands of piranhas, who clearly are hungry as the moment we threw out bait in, they would bite. The Piranhas are actually quite tasty, but not a lot of meat on them.

After a hot and humid 3 days in the jungle, we headed back to La Paz for our connecting bus to Copacabana on the shore of Lake Titicaca, the largest high-altitude lake in the world.

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