Bolivia 2: Pampas tour, or close encounters with the buaya

The next morning we turn up dutifully at 8.30am at the tour agency, for our scheduled 9am departure. *sigh*... we would soon learn that in Bolivia, Time is a flexible and moving target. At about 9am, more people show up, including this guy on an ATV, who commences a loud and vociferous argument with the nice ladies who run the agency. We don't really know what went on, but some sort of agreement was made, and the israeli guys he brought along stayed while he left on his ATV.So. Our group consisted of Char and I, 3 constantly smoking israeli guys, and 1 israeli guy with his peruvian girlfriend. 

After an extremely bumpy and muddy 3hr jeep ride, including one memorable OH SHEEEET moment as the jeep lurched into a mudhole, we arrived at the Rio Yacuma. We piled happily into our motorized canoe, and set off, on our great Amazon adventure!

The river was awesome! It was fairly wide and muddy, and its banks housed a large amount of flora and fauna. The most common sights were: alligators and caymens (mostly small), capybara (largest rodent in the world), turtles (sunbathing on logs), herons, and this fat brown bird which our guide said was a bird of paradise. (Or he could have said 'bird parasite'... my spanish and his english both leave much to be desired)

There were 3 main types of fish in the river: pirahna, catfish and dogfish. The fish were constantly jumping out of the water, and sometimes into our canoe, triggering frantic attempts to throw them back into the water. The guide said that the fish weren't jumping around for fun nor fitness, but to avoid the murderous attempts of underwater alligators.

About the alligators: we saw mostly small ones, and the occasional huge one. When he saw an esp. big gator, the guide would motor our canoe right up to the monster. This caused extreme consternation to Char and I, and extreme excitement and joy to the very very insane Israeli guys. They all wanted to touch the gator and collect trophy photos and videos. This made the alligator very upset. Obviously un-interested in being a contestant in 'Israel's Most Macho Home Videos', it would trash violently in a desperate bid to escape into the river. Warning to all would-be intrepid bolivian travelers: If your tour grp consists of guys with Indiana-Jones complexes, go at your own risk.

We also saw the cutest little monkeys. A brief google for 'cute monkey amazon' revealed them to be squirrel monkeys. A whole troupe was at a low-hanging tree, and our guide immediately produced a bunch of bananas. The monkeys went um... nuts. Soon, we had the whole troupe's undivided attention. According to the guide, there are 3 main types of monkeys: squirrel monkeys (smallest), spider monkeys and howler monkeys. According to wikipedia, sq-monkeys have a brain:body mass of 1:17, the largest ratio for any primate. (humans have 1:35) When we ran out of bananas, the Israelis tried to tempt the monkeys with their cigarettes, but they wisely demurred (must be the immense brain: body ratio).

Char and I chatted with our guide. He has 8yrs of experience as a guide, and grew up in a small (jungle?) pueblo. He went to guide-school, but learnt everything as a kid by taking walks with his father. Charmaine expressed a desire to grow up in the jungle so that she too would learn stuff and become absolutely fearless around immensely large alligators. I'm not sure I share her desires. Sounds cool though.

After 2-3hr of canoeing, we arrive at the campsite/cabins, where we got settled into bunk beds in raised wooden cabins. Fairly nice campsite, equipped with mosquito netting, hammocks, toilets with plumbing, and more than a few toads.