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A last minute decision to venture out to the jungle area of Rurrenabaque and do a tour of the Pampas was one of our best yet. We hadn't even started the tour but Tim managed to do his best pot holing impression and fell down a large sewer drain. He hit his knee quite hard which you can see in the picture, this didn't stop Bee chuckling at his mistake (apparently only his head was poking out) much to the annoyance of Tim who was effing and jeffing with the pain.
The Pampas are not strictly classed as the Amazon but its damn close. The whole area consists of a maze of waterways and swamp land. The only way of getting around are in small 7 person motor boats, our excellent guide Norman ferried us around all the various sights. If the previous couple of days had felt like a James Bond movie this was definitely more an American Deep South movie.
We chose the Pampas tour over the classic jungle because of the wider array of wildlife on offer and we weren't disappointed. We had squirrel monkeys running round outside our hut, saw and heard the noisy howler monkeys, so many gorgeous birds even one eating a parrot snake, we tracked down an anaconda in the most fiercely mosquito infested place we have ever been (Tim was absolutely savaged by them!), saw capybara the worlds largest rodents on the river bank, a toucan, some lazy three toed sloths. basically every animal listed in the brochure was spotted by our beady eyed guide and we thanked him greatly.
We spent the two nights sleeping in huts on stilts over caiman infested waters. You could hear them bobbing in the water as we brushed our teeth at night. We were woken in the mornings by the varied and somewhat sinister shrieks of various monkeys. A highlight from the trip was the opportunity to swim with pink dolphins everyday. This sounds idyllic until they come up and nibble your toes, something which can even cause a yelp from a grown man!
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Mum I am ashamed to say that I would probably had a chuckle too. But then been terribly solicitous and caring afterwards, which I am quite sure was the case here too X Mum