Rurrenabaque and The Pampas

The path to Rurre is long way unsalted. This goes on a side of rivers and lagoons, crossing the savanna and parts of the jungle.

At the bus I start to read hardly the book in English “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, the first volume of the trilogy of Stieg Larsson. I started few weeks ago but I didn’t read more than a chapter.

It’s dark when we arrive at Rurre, we find the accommodation Alojamiento Japón, that for 25B per person we have a room with private bathroom.



Pizza for dinner and then we go for a beer in one karaoke bar.
I go back at the hotel 20 earlier than them... digestive emergency...
At the hotel a woman open the front door. She seems that she has been sleeping. I told her that in 30 minutes my roommates are coming. It’s around 23h.
I clean tooth and I slide in to the bet to read some more. After only 15 minutes I heard the ring of the front door. They have to be back, I think. I listen again the bell some more times and when I was going to go down to see what happen, I listen that the Ana’s are calling me from outside de building.
I go down to the reception and I see nobody. I see if I can open the door from inside, but it’s locked.
I tried to look for the woman or anybody that can open the door, but seems to be an empty place...
I tried to look for a key of the front door at the reception, but I cannot see it from outside properly, I only see the keys for the rooms. the Ana’s keep ringing the bell in case she is sleeping, but no movement...
After half an hour of this, the Ana’s are thinking to go to sleep somewhere else, then I jump in to the reception to look if is any other key than the ones from the rooms.
On the top of the mural that they put the key rooms, are like a 20 keys unlabeled and different. I take them and I start to try them on the front door, at the second try... Bingo!
Now I can read a little bit more... jeje
The first we do when we go out of the room next morning is to complain. They don’t apologize but the make a discount and say that won’t happen again.
Breakfast at the market and we have a look at the Tours to go to the Pampas and the Jungle.
I want to do the Pampas first and then I’ll see if I do the Jungle. I’ve been already in few jungles.

The tours to the Pampas are 3 days and the Jungle from 2 to 10 days normally (there is people that had been in the jungle 3 month on a Tour).
The two of the Ana’s have already seen kind of Pampas in the river from Villaroel to Trinidad and they are going to do Jungle.
The minimum prices of the Tours are recently controlled by the government. 900B with everything included for the 3 day tours at all the agencies. Two months ago was 500B...

We have lunch at the Market and then lie for a bit and internet before decide which company choose each other.
I choose Dolphin Tours to do the Pampas and the Ana’s Flecha Tours to the Jungle.
Dinner and sleep.
Early morning I go to the meeting point to meet with the group we go to the Pampas. We will be only 3. Laurence and Marj (France) and me. Our guide is Carlos. The cooker is already there.
First of all we go to Santa Rosa by car where we enter in a protected area named Pampas del Yacuma (Yacuma is the river name).

From there we take a canoe and we start the real tour.

At The Pampas you can find the fauna more representatives of the lantanas of Bolivia. We see and observe the monkey chichillo, monkey ardilla, crocodiles, caimans, alligators, turtles, pink dolphins...

One of the activities is to look for the Anaconda in the Savanna. We didn’t find her but the savanna was really nice.
We do fish some Piranhas without dead. Scary...
At the lodge where we stay is very practical and is at the side of one bar with great views of the sunset on the savanna. The food is amazing, looks like a gourmet tour!

When it gets dark we all play cards (Yanif) till the light goes off, then is time to read.
We do swim in the river even if we know the kind of the animals are in there… The pink dolphins are around and the water is in perfect temperature.
When we got back at Rurre, I wait at the Ana’s get back from the jungle and we go to stay at Centro Recreativo del Ejército. Yes, an old military barracks next to the river with great views of the river.

We clean clothes and we rest. I finish the book...almost 600 pages in English in less than a week! A record for me...
Sunday morning we take the bus to La Paz. 16 h trip!

Some photos
2011-06-Rurrenabaque (BOL) https://photos.app.goo.gl/wJk2VNJZ5aQkBpNN6

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Versió catalana
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