Never smile at a Cayman

In need of some much deserved R&R, we hopped on a plane and within an hour arrived at a normal altitude where being eaten by a cayman or a pirhana seemed preferable to the biking the day before. (maybe that opinion should have an "I" rather than a "we" before it!)
After 3 hours in a stuffy jeep on a bumpy road (the road of life I might add) we boarded our boat. Canoe. A wooden vehicle that would transport us 3 hours upstream to the cabin that would become our home for the coming days. The breeze was welcomed by us all and it was by no means a boring ride. We saw plenty of cayman (Amazonian crocodiles), aligators, turtles, huge birds, capibarra (they look like huge guinea pigs!) and a couple of pink dophins. After watching the sun set over the pampa fields we went on a night cruise in search of crocodile eyes which was pretty good although they only glow red when you shine a torch in their face which I can´t imagine pleases them greatly but they were very obliging. As we slept in our well mosquito netted beds, there was a huuuuge storm. One of those apocolyptic kinds that you are never sure will end. When we woke up the surrounding ground had turned to swamp so our morning activities were put on hold and we had to amuse ourselves with a solitary crocodile who chose to navigate our part of the river and some newly learnt Dutch card games.

It finally stopped raining long enough for us to go out on our little pampas tour-3 hours squelching though the erm pampas. Big huge plants sometimes up to your shoulders and mud and water reaching the top of the boots. The aim of the tour was supposedly to find an anaconda but sadly it was not to be. In the afternoon we got back in the boat and went off to see the pink dophins. We actually saw quite a few although you have to watch carefully as they dont jump as frequently as the usual dophins. There was an option to swim with them but in a river inhabited my crocodiles and in which we were to be going pirhana fishing the next day, needless to say everyone declined. As we were having tea and cake later on the guide explained that it is actually safe to swim because the pink dolphins travel in groups so they are more than capable of warding off intruders. Something like how Flipper always wins against the shark. Too little, too late.

On the final day we got up at 5am to go and listen to the sounds of the animals waking up. Or namely the howler monkeys who drowned out all other forms of life that may have been trying to make themselves heard. A quick breakfast and back in the water for pirhana fishing.
Fun but frustrating as the stupid fish consistently bite off the chicken and escape. I blame the fish. And back on the boat for 3 hours and then the jeep...all the way to the airport making it just in time for our flight back to La Paz. Or not. Apparently because the previous few flights had been cancelled there was a backlog of passengers and so to cut a long story short we would not be able to fly until the next morning. We got angry, we argued, they told us there was nothing they could do and I wondered if we were back in Japan for a second. We spent a night in Rurre which wasn´t so bad and then back to the heights of La Paz for a shower....