For the first part of the post about the jungles, click here.
Since the Pampas tour was much more popular than the jungles, we had to join a group. We went to a company that looked more or less professional and was quite recommended by others. Apparently this company worked a lot with Israeli travelers and their representative was very happy to inform us that he had a group of 6 very nice Israeli girls we could join. He was very surprised to hear that we preferred a more mixed group rather than all Israeli group. We had to wait for that mixed group for one more day, which most of it we spent in Oscar's pool, another Israeli colonial postal. It was located on a hill above Rurrenabaque and had a great view over the town and the river and also an Israeli music and Hebrew speaking owner. The regular way to get there, or anywhere in town, is by motortaxies, which can be quite extreme on the unpaved roads. There are almost no cars there. Only later we discovered that this wasn't the only pool in town, but that was the most popular among Israelis.
The next morning, after another sleepless night (see Tip 6 in the first part of this post), we met our new group. There was one Colombian\American girl, Becky, with whom we shared our cabin later on, a German couple Julia and Nicolay and 4 Czech guys, Lenka, Margarita, Michael and Michaela (I hope I got it right) that we got to know only on the last day. Big groups tend to be more closed to people from outside. It took us three hours drive in a jeep on a very bumpy road to get, all covered with a thick dust layer, to the river where we waited for our boat and more important for our guide. Negro, that was his nickname, was much older and more experienced than the other guides. He was a guide there for the last 20 years. The fact that on his first years only Israelis came to the Pampas caused him to learn Hebrew and, at least that what he said, to grow a lot of grey hair. After he found out that we are Israelis, he started shouting in Hebrew instead of talking, since he was sure that this was the only way we communicate. Taking into account most of the Israelis we met in South America, you can't really blame him for that.
Our boat was a 20 meter canoe with pairs of chairs along it, when Negro is driving it from the back. That way everyone gets to see an angle wide enough.
In the Pampas all you do is seat inside the boat and take pictures of all the animals seating on the riverbank, and there is so much to see! There are hundreds of alligators lying by the river, some with their mouth open, as if they are waiting for the prey to enter it. There are many turtles seating on brunches inside the water, leaning one on the back of the other, as if they are dancing. There are lots of different types of water birds seating on trees close to the river. Cormorants seating with their wings spread in order to dry them after another dive session. Curious and very cute Capibaras (the largest rodent in the world) watching us as we pass. The whole experience looks a bit like a "drive-through". There are few boats just like ours going up/down the river, one after the other, stopping next to another animal, waiting that all the tourists picture it from every possible angle.
Our campground was very different from the one we had in the jungles. Maybe it's because it was meant for 10 times more people. The food wasn't great either. But there were monkeys... Behind the cabins there was an area were the cooks threw away the leftovers. Naturally, all the monkeys from the area came to eat there 3 times a day... Not very eco-friendly, but that gave Oren a great opportunity to take lots of pictures from really close, and it allowed the monkeys to get to know SEMPA.
On the second morning we went searching for Anacondas. Usually they hide inside swamps. The deeper the swamp, the bigger the Anaconda. We went to a very shallow swamp. In order to walk inside the swamp, we had to wear rubber boots. The swamp was so dense that my boot got stuck inside, while my foot continued on, what made my sock change from white to black. After about 40 exhausting minutes in the swamp, and after almost stepping on a medium size alligator, Negro found a small Anaconda, just 3 meters long. He grabbed it by its tail and brought it to a place where everyone could see. Then the poor snake wasn't left alone until every tourist took a picture of himself holding its tail. At some point I was sorry we found it in the first place. The only thing that was asked by the guides was to touch the snake only after "washing" the hands in the swamp, so our smell wouldn't stick to their skin.
Since we found the Anaconda so quickly, we had some spare time so we went swimming in the river, not far from the alligators, that showed no interest in us. The water was quite brownish, so we came out dirtier than we came in.
After lunch we went fishing for piranhas, in order to do that we sailed on a smaller river. On the way there we stopped few times to watch the strange pink dolphins that swum next to us. Not like regular dolphins these showed very little interest in us.
During all our stay there, our heads were high in the trees, looking for sloths, but our eyes didn't stand a chance when compared to Negro's hawk-eyes. In the middle of the sailing he stopped the boat and shouted "Atslan!" (A sloth in Hebrew). The sloth was on the top of the 40 meter tree that was far from the riverbank. It was so small that we had to take a full zoom picture in order to see if it was actually a sloth. I wasn't that excited since Chelsea took the championship. After few minutes Oren spotted another sloth on the same tree. According to Negro, it is really rear to see two sloths on the same tree, it must have been the mating season. Few hundreds meters after that we saw another sloth, much closer this time. Three different sloths in less than half an hour! From that point on everything looked pinker to me. The grey skies became sunny, the alligators smiled at us from the riverbanks and the Capibaras waved with their ears and tails. When we finally got to the fishing part I was already walking on clouds. Actually it should be called Piranhas feeding and not fishing. We used fresh meat as a bait/food for the fish. Since the fish saw that we are inexperienced gringos (foreigners), they ate most of the meat without getting caught. I managed to catch two very small fish, so small I had to release them back. All together, the weight of the meat that was spent as a bait was greater than the weight of the fish that was caught. In the evening we had the fish for dinner, good thing we had other dishes as well.
The next morning we woke up early to see the sunrise and after breakfast went to take pictures of the same animals over and over again. In addition to all the "regular" animals, we also saw a monkey hunting and then trying to eat a big snake. Unfortunately, because of all the audience, the monkey accidentally dropped the snake back to the water, and was left without lunch. Then we said goodbye to Negro and had another "joyful" ride back to Rurrenabaque, where we spent another sleepless night, and then flew back to La Paz.
At the beginning of the first part of the post, I mentioned that I wanted to see wild Aras flying free over the jungle. I didn't write about that, but don't worry, we saw plenty of them. Aras, or Macaus as they called in South America, mate for life, that is why they always fly in pairs. We never saw a Macau flying alone. That makes seeing them alone in captivity even sadder. At some point I even saw 10 couples of Macaus flying over the Tuichi River. So as you can see I have accomplished all I planned just on time.
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