Jungle Time

We spent one day in La Paz before booking our 20 hour dodgy bus ride Rurrenabaque, the town nearest to the jungle tours. We had heard some pretty bad things about the bus before hand but the only other option was to fly for 50quid so we decided to risk the bus as it only cost us 6. The bus set off 3 hours late, Bolivian timing is not up to Western standards, however, when the bus actually turned up it looked as if it had been dragged out of a lake and shoved on the road. They opened the door and water spilled out, the whole bus was dripping wet including our seats which had been double booked as it was so we ended up having to argue our way into different seats that they were reluctant to give us. Anyway we eventually set off up the mountain only to find that we were in fact at the top of Death road and were going to head down it in this soaking wet bus. At least the views were amazing! Our driver also seemed to have a death wish, instead of driving on the right away from the 1000m drop he decided to be gentalmanly and try to kill us by letting cars pass on the inside. 10 hours in and our bus broke down on the sketchy road and we spent a good two hours changing a few tyres and getting the engine to work again. We eventually arrived in Rurrenabaque and got mobbed by touts trying to sell us their pampas tour deals, we had met a group of 6 Irish guys on the coach and they gave us a pretty good deal for our group of 8. We set of an hour later after no sleep and covered in dust on the way to the river to begin our tour. The river was about 3 hours drive away and 10 of us crammed into a tiny jeep in the boiling heat (actually quite a nice change from the bitter cold of La Paz). About an hour into that and we broke down again and sat on the dusty road in the heat for another half an hour while our driver come mecanic fixed the jeep. We eventually arrived at the river and all piled into our little boat to go down the river to our accomodation, we got an animal tour on the way which was amazing within minutes we had seen at least 5 aligators and so many birds. On the way we went passed dolphins and turtles, fed some monkeys, and watched capybaras eat green leaves (yes dad its actually true). Our accomodation was little jungles huts set by the river with a watchtower to see the sunset, we also had a resident aligator called Fred who was semi friendly and Drew kind of stroked him. The next morning was possibly one of the worst of my life, a 3 hour anaconda search through knee high stinking sludge. After 2 and a half hours of no snakes our guide eventually dragged one out of the bushes and proceeded to wave it in our faces, a few people got to hold it, including Drew, until one guy let go of its head and it bit two people and was dropped on the ground way too close to me, the guy then picked it up again came towards me and put it right next to my feet, I don´t think I have ever been so scared in my life!!! Anyway, we eventually made it back to the boat through the disgusting mud and went back to the hut for lunch. The afternoon was amazing and definately made up for the morning, we went a bit down the river and swam with pink dolphins, they brushed passed our feet and were so close to us. It was a little bit disturbing as 100m away were aligators and crocodiles. The next morning we got up at 5 to see the sunrise and listen to all of the animals waking up. After breakfast we went pirranah fishing, our group caught 6 (4 caught by the guide) but neither me or Drew caught anything. It was quite cool though because they then cooked up our fish for lunch. After that we headed back down the river, into the jeep for a 4 hour journey back this time (flat tyre, again). We stayed in Rurrenabaque for a night before the 20 hour bus journey the next day back to La Paz. The town was quite cool, built pretty much just for tourists and they served some good and very strong cocktails. We are back in La Paz now, back to the cold and trying to get ourselves a room in Loki hostel, pretty much backpackers central with cheap alcohol and nice dorms. Was a bit strange as yesterday morning after getting off the bus staying at our hostel was this girl Jess who was at Toggs with us, small world, who new Bolivia was the place to be this summer? Think we are going to try and book to do Death Road for tomorow, this time on bikes, apparently on average there is only(lol) one death a year, they didn´t mention who many injuries though....