Pampas

The Pampas tour starts of with a 3hr mission in the boot of yet another Toyota Land Cruiser to Santa Maria where you join the canoe and start heading up stream on the Yacuma river. On route to the canoe the driver suddenly hit the brakes and we all jumped out of the truck as somehow the guide had spotted a sloth chilling out in a tree.
Along the river bank were hundreds of alligators, turtles and even a few capybaras enjoying the sun. Further along the guide stopped the boat in the base of a large tree and started making animal noises when 3 monkeys appeared wanting bananas, and with enough courage to eat them out of your hands. Slightly further upstream was our camp on the riverside.After an epic dinner we headed back into the river for a night time alligator hunt as there eyes glow there pretty easy to spot!
Day 2 we went on a hunt for anacondas. The first one was dead but the 2nd was very much alive and about 3m long. Cayman and alligators where just chillin everywhere on the river banks, whilst Pampas condors, Stalks and eagles sat in the trees.
This was followed by Piranha fishing. However i spent most of the time just feeding them as they kept getting away. However the others caught a Catfish, 2 piranhas and a sardine.
Day 3 It was an early start to see the sun rise at 5.30, however only 1 other israeli got up to see it! This was followed by a Pink dolphin hunt though we only caught a brief glimpse as they broke the surface. To cool off we all went for a swim in the river RIGHT next to Pedro the alligator. But apparently its ok cos "Pedros all talk".

Pedro!

We then had to mission back 2 rurre to try and get a ticket out. As the run way is grass they shut the airport if it rains. Only a minor problem in the rain forest.

Jungle Time

A 3 hr boat ride out of Rurre we headed up stream into the Madidi National park rain forest to our camp. Unfortunately the rain forest was living up to its name and we arrived in the camp soaked to be greated by a lot of mud.
An afternoon walk into the jungle to find some wildlife, successful finds included wild pigs, a family of monkeys and a lot of spiders.

A night expedition revealed a lot of big spiders and other

bugs, including a very poisonous jumping spider that I was taking a picture of until our guide rugby tackled me out of its firing line, turns out they can kill you pretty quick!

We headed back into the jungle the following day and managed to track down a pair of forest chickens?! some Parrots and the largest snail EVER!

Another night hike revealed yet more supersized reptiles as we found a toad the size of your head!!

The final morning we went for one last hike into the jungle and managed to track down another family of wild pigs that walked straight past us, before we all jumped back in the boat and headed back down stream to Rurrenebaque.

Rurrenebaque

Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz to Rurrenebaque

A few much needed chill out days were required and Santa Cruz in the sun was a perfect place to accomplish this. Hostel Jodanga with swimming pool and jacuzzi was a good base for the evenings antics aswell.

Realising I was at the wrong end of the country I had to fly back to La Paz and then onto Rurrenebaque a jungle town in the north of Bolivia.

To get to Rurre you must first however brave the 9 seater plane which isn’t to bad until you come to landing at the airfield. Which is little more than a field, with a bit mowed grass in the

middle of it.

Sucre

Potosi

Potosi to Sucre
A town based around the silver mines in the surrounding mountains. Once a thriving place has quitend down a lot. However it is still active enough to buy sticks of dynamite at every corner.

A 6 hr bus ride to Sucre was broken up with a brief bit of entertainment when a nappy wearing baby goat decided to jump on my lap.

Salt Flats Tour

Tupiza


Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Huayana Potosi 6088m

Situated just out side of La Paz the base of Huayana Potosi was only a couple of hours truck ride away so we started the afternoon off with a small acclimatisation hike from 4700m to the glacier, where the world’s poorest excuse for a mountain guide introduced the group to crampons and ice axes before trying to kill me with what turned out the be the most dangerous top rope set up possible.

Day 2 got off to a better start with a two hour hike to the 2nd camp of 5130m which marks the start of the glacier to the summit. On route however we had to stop off at the ¨office¨ to pay our 10 bolivianos, 90p, entrance fee.

The final day started at midnight and had us roped up into two groups to head up the remaining 958m to the summit. After an hour we had acquired a substantial lead over the other group so had to wait for them to catch up whilst getting colder and colder. Eventual they arrived and we had a third member of our group. Though 2 hours later he was starting to suffer and eventually gave up. So it was back to two of us to climb the final ridge to the top arriving at just after 6am.

A huge sense of relief was felt on finally making it to the top until we remember that “what goes up, must come down” and the worst part of it was we were walking it as there wasn’t a pair of skis in sight!!

So we set of back down the mountain picking up the rest of our group on route and finally arriving at base camp shortly after 3.30 for a well deserved beer.

Death Road

El Camino de la Muerte is a 43 mile long road North of La Paz leading to Coroico. It acquired its name as one side of the narrow dirt road is a sheer cliff in some places over 500m deep ending up in the rain forest below. So the 5 of us headed to the top of it by bus complete with downhill bikes!

At the top we donned are gear and grabbed a traditional Bolivian donut breakfast before setting off down the newer section of road. After passing through the Americans cocaine check point we joined the death road for our descent.

Starting slowly we quickly built up confidence cruising down the road, with occasional stops at crosses to see where previous riders had made the odd mistake!!

The road continued down crossing a river here and passing under a waterfall there until we arrived at the bottom of the road. 4 out of the 5 made it down intact, unfortunately Ian wasn’t as lucky and sustained ‘minor’ injuries.