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So, caught the flight to Rurrenbaque (altitude a tiny 105m) and met english Joe and a group of others on the way. The plane was a tiny 16 seater and we were thrown all over the place! Landed 40 minutes later feeling pretty green! Went out in the evening with the group - Jared, Duncan & Nick from Oz, Shira from Israel and Mike and Katie from the US. It was darn hot and a massive difference from La Paz! Rurrenbaque is a tiny town on the River Beni from where everyone goes to either the Pampas one way, or the Jungle the other. Having done the Panatanal, I thought i´d skip the Pamapas and do a 2 day jungle tour. I was told there would be 5 people in my group, always pot luck though!
The night was very sticky indeed and it rained. Headed off to the tour office to meet (or not, they didn´t even say hello!) 2 of my group, 2 chilian men in their 40´s. Not the best start to the tour eh! Anyway, the girl in the tour office reassured me that the 2 others were already at the camp. We set off on our 3 hour boat trip up the Beni. We reached the camp, which was deserted and went for a walk through the jungle. Back in time for lunch and to meet the other 2 happy campers, a couple, Megan from Oz and Vincent from Holland. Very nice couple luckily. Spent the afternoon making (or watching the guide make!) beautiful jewellry from seeds etc from the jungle. A swim in the river after that to cool off, then dinner and a walk through the jungle at night. A bit scary when everyone has to turn their torches off and listen for animals. Its damn dark!! We saw a skunk like animal but that was it. A night swim after that and then my hard bed with mozzie net. Woke to pouring rain which meant we could do nothing. It rained pretty much all day which meant we did nothing at all! On the way back to Rurrenbaque in the boat, we stopped off to see the Macaws which was probably the best bit of the trip!! No photos i´m afraid since they were too far away to make it worth it. They are beautiful and very noisy birds!!
And back to Rurrenbaque to find that because it had rained all day, there had been no flights in or out of the town. Everything was put back so wasn´t sure if i´d be able to fly out the next day or not. The next day it turned out not! Stuck in a tiny town with very little to do, I read my book and bumped into the group who had come back from their 3 day tour in the Pampas. Went out for dinner and cocktails with them but had an early night as I had been promised a place on the 10am flight!!
Hooray, my name was on the list! So after having spent an extra night in Rurrenbaque, I turned green again coming back to La Paz. Shira was also on my flight and the others were due to fly back at lunchtime. We´re all now in the same hostel so i´m sure we´ll all go out tonight for some drinks. Did a whole lot of shopping today - so many gorgeous things I couldn´t carry so they´re in the post instead!
I leave for Copacabana tomorrow morning and then onto Puno on Friday - only 4 weeks left!!! xxxx
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