I write this sitting on my bed, shrouded by soft folds of mosquito net, listening to crickets, bats, geckos - the sounds of the jungle, wearing a t-shirt. Yes I can even blog in the jungle! This morning we left La Paz and headed down several thousand meters to Rurrenbaque – the gateway to the Pampas region, one of the most accessible parts of the Amazon.Just getting here was a bit of an ordeal however. Last night we got word that due to rain yesterday in Rurrenbaque, flights had been delayed, so our 8.40am flight was now at 9.40am. This caused a bit of concern as it would delay the tour and we knew we were on a public tour, so were concerned about holding others up. But the tour company said it was fine.
We decided to get to the airport reasonably early, just in case the flight changed back again, only to see on the board that our flight was only due to leave at 2.30pm!!! Luckily this was a remnant from the previous day’s delays, but our flight had been delayed again anyway. Over the next few hours we ate breakfast and waited, occasionally visiting the counter to find our flight had been pushed back even further. We also rang the tour operator who seemed ok with our delays but we were a bit concerned about the message getting through due to phones cutting out and language issues. The final concern was that we may end up not landing at Rurrenabaque, but a town nearby, it was all a bit of a stress.
Finally, however, at 11.40am, we boarded a tiny, 20 seater aircraft and headed off. It really was small, we could watch the pilots! There wer no seat numbers, you just cramed into one of the seats down the side of the plane and hoped for the best. We took off over La Paz, heading through the mountains – not over them, we flew between the snow covered peaks. I have to say, memories of the film “Alive” did spring to mind. Around 30 minutes later we descended through cloud, around now tree covered mountains and landed on the tiny grass runway of Rurrenabaque. It really did feel rather James Bond-esqe in the setting.It reminded both Anna and me of Cairns, with the lush tropical forest, the mountains rising
steeply behind the town and the humidity. The temperature is wonderful, mid to high 20’s, such a relief after the last few weeks of freezing cold. We were met by our tour guide Ivan (not even slightly Russian despite the name - he is actually from the indigenous tribe which traditionally live in that area) and got into a Pajero for the 4 hour trip to the lodge. Luckily we were the only people starting a tour today so we didn’t disadvantage any other travelers by being so late. Compared to some of the roads we have used recently it was a fine ride, although in keeping with recent experience we did blow a tire at one point.We finally stopped by a river and headed down the very steep bank into a long canoe. It was a
short ride up the river to our lodge but in that time we spotted numerous caiman and lots of birds. Despite the fact that it was 4pm, they served us a wonderful cooked lunch of a kind of beef stew with rice, then Ivan took us out on the river for some wildlife spotting before it got dark. With only about an hour available to us we saw caiman, many types of birds, turtles, capybara (world’s 
largest rodent, looks like a dog sized guinea pig) and pink river dolphins. It was incredibly exciting. It was getting dark as we headed home and we even managed to see a firefly or two which I loved.Just after we returned we had a brief tropical downpour. The air smells amazing, so fresh and clean and scented with wonderful jungle flowers. After a great dinner (I can tell the food is going to be amazing for the next few days) we had showers which we shared with the local frogs. It is just river water, but cold showers when it is in the mid 20's and high humidity are fine.
I think we are all utterly enchanted by this place (and are so very happy to be warm again) it is going to be an amazing few days.
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