Start of Pampas Tour

I woke up very tired and grumpy. It turned out the 4 boys I shared a room with last night were going on the same tour as I was. Also another guy from a different room at the same hostel. So in total, I am spending the next 3 days with Marco from Switzerland, Carlo, Trent, and Nick, all friends from Melbourne and James, a very polite Londoner. All in their 20s. Not unexpected.

A 3 hour bumpy bus ride later (after stopping for lunch at a restaurant en route) and we were at the river where we were to start our pampas tour. We were introduced to our guide James (in Spanish, pronounced Hymay so this is what I will continue to write) Only 5 minutes into the boat ride and Hymay pointed out a HUGE alligator! We got really close and it didn't move a muscle. I thought it was made of plastic!! During the course of the 3 hour journey we saw many more alligators. They were EVERYWHERE! Along with turtles sunbathing on top of each other. We also saw loads of birds including herons and storks, and a weird massive guinea pig type thing called a copiborough. Then we stopped near some trees and saw tiny yellow monkeys. We asked if we could give them a banana and were told only one as we shouldn't really interrupt nature. How cool!....the monkeys actually came onto our boat! They were obviously used to us tourists giving them "only one" banana! One of them even stole another few from out huge box of food we'd brought with us!

Half way through the journey we stopped and were asked if we wanted to swim in the river. Too right I said. Regardless of the alligators. I'm roasting!! I was first in, followed by the boys who were very cautious. After a few seconds I saw a dolphin flip out of the murky water for a breath. You imagine dolphins to swim in clear water so I was surprised to see any living here. We saw a few more but none approached us. We wouldn't have been able to see them even if they had! This time my under water camera was useless!

We meandered down the river some more until we finally reached our lodge. There were no other tourists there and we had it all to ourselves! We only had time to chill for an hour before we were off out again to the sunset bar, where we met up with all the other people on all the other tours, had a beer and played volleyball. It was still SO hot, so I stuck to water. There is no electricity here so any drinks from now on will be luke warm! Yum. We watched the sun set (which wasn't even worth one pic as it was starting to get cloudy), then all headed back to our prospective lodges for dinner. The boys and I ate, showered then went straight to bed before the lights went out at 9. (solar. 7pm till 9pm only). I had my own room while the boys all shared the room next door. Bliss! There was a gap at the top of all the rooms and a bat was flying over them all..making bat noises surprisingly and keeping me awake. It finally found it's way out thankfully.

I was woken at 3am by a noise. Some sort of scurrying. In my room!!! It sounded big! Omg what the hell is it I thought! I grabbed my torch but it only reflected off the mosquito net and I saw nothing! I had to actually lift the net up! Why is it we feel more protected by even a very thin piece of fabric between us and whatever is on the other side? I shone my light out and, nothing there! The walls were made of some kind of thin natural reeds or something so it was probably just on the other side. I will never know what it was!