Pampas Tour

There are two ways to get to Rurrenabarque from La Paz. Option one is to buy a plane ticket and enjoy a half hour flight. Option two is to buy a bus ticket and endure a twenty-hour bus ride. Although the bus ride is forty times as long as the flight, it is nearly a tenth of the price, so naturally we chose to rough it out on the bus.

We simply made our decision based on the price, and didn’t research any safety aspects of either the flight or the bus ride. Come to find out, the route the bus takes to get from La Paz to Rurrenabarque is partially on the new death road, and partially on a road that seems worse than the death road, especially after it raining! We slept for as much as we could, which was not much, and prayed when we were awake that the bus wouldn’t go off the cliff. In the end, it was not terribly bad, but we were strongly considering taking a flight back to La Paz after our pampas tour (river tour).

{Traveler’s Tip.. the bus ride is on quite a sketchy road, and we wouldn’t suggest going on it during the rainy season, or if you have a bad feeling about taking the bus. It is quite the experience though! From what we heard about the flight.. people didn’t feel too safe on the flight either, but it was a beautiful view and you got to and from Rurrenabarque really quickly.}

Upon arrival to Rurrenabarque we were completely taken by surprise. We had talked with a lot of people about doing the pampas tour there, but none had mentioned how remote of a town this place was. It was in the middle of nowhere, with only dirt roads, and the only taxis around were motorcycles. We decided to walk to the “city center” because we didn’t feel too safe traveling on the back of motorcycles with our big bags. Clearly this was the wrong idea.. we went the wrong way and had at least a 40 minute walk ahead of us. Luckily we ran into a guy with a cart attached to his motorcycle, so we snagged a ride from him into town.

We got into town early in the morning and decided that we wanted to try and get the pampas tour the same day. We walked around trying to find agencies that were open, but it being 7:30 am, most were closed. Around 8:00, a tour agent approached us on the street and told us we could get on the tour with his group. We were a bit hesitant about booking with him, but with a good price, and other people booked to go on the tour, we decided it would be perfect for us.

The tour ended up being fantastic. The first day we drove three hours to get to the river where we waited for our guide to be ready to take us out. Our guide was so great! We saw multiple caiman (South America’s crocodiles), monkeys, pink river dolphins, turtles, capybara (the world’s largest rodent), and lots of different kinds of birds all within the ride to our camp. Once getting to camp, we all showered, changed into clothes that would keep the mosquitoes away, then got back into the boat to head up river to enjoy the sunset for the evening. We searched for caiman in the dark then scarved up a delicious dinner before reading and heading to bed.

In the morning we were up and eating breakfast by 8:00. Again the food was amazing, and after breakfast we took our leftover food and fed the monkeys. It was quite the experience. The little guys are so cute, and we were even able to see baby monkeys as well. Our time feeding the monkeys ended when our guide started hollering “Listo, listo!! Vamos!!” We grabbed our things for the morning trip, and hit the river. Our goal for the morning was to find anacondas!! We all pulled on boots, grabbed water, and were searching for an hour in chest high grass, when we decided we would head back to the hammocks to relax for a bit. It was then that the kids started yelling, “Anaconda!! Anaconda!!!” Could this be real?! We were just out searching for them for an hour in chest high grass trampling through knee high water at points, all while the sun was beating down on us and we were unable to find any! But sure enough it was an anaconda. Heather, being a bit scared of snakes, kept her distance by staying on the deck, while everyone else ran to see the snake. It was awesome seeing a real live one.

After everyone got all the pictures they wanted of the anaconda, we made our way back to our camp, had some lunch, took a nap, and then headed out to fish for piranhas. We fished and fished and fished with tiny little “fishing poles”. The group as a whole caught about 12 fish. Jason caught 3 of the 12 and Heather caught none, but we both had a blast! After catching our dinner we enjoyed the sunset again, then went back to camp and had pasta and fish! The piranha was actually quite good. Jason even ate the eye balls and the brain of one of them!! GROSS!!! After dinner we made a fire and enjoyed some wine while chatting with people from other tours.

The next morning we were on the river at 5:30 am to watch the sunrise. After sunrise we enjoyed breakfast and feeding the monkeys again before going out to swim with the pink river dolphins. This was a huge highlight of our trip. We got to touch and pet the dolphins, and one even lifted Jason up from underneath him. Swimming with the dolphins concluded our pampas tour. After swimming for nearly two hours, we showered off in our clothes, packed our bags, ate lunch, and made the journey back to where we would endure another three-hour crazy drive back to Rurrenabarque.

Upon arrival to Rurrenabarque we took a nice long shower, without our clothes this time, and actually felt clean after, instead of feeling super humid, or like we were just getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. We grabbed a sandwich to go from a restaurant down the street of the tour agency, and took individual motorcycles to the bus station to catch the 6:30 pm bus back to La Paz.

Yes, you read it right! We were going to take the bus back on the sketchy roads.. when you’re traveling with a limited budget you have to compromise some things. This ride back was so much worse than the ride there! Our driver was absolutely crazy. And a trip that should have taken close to 22 hours to get back to La Paz only took our driver 15 hours! He was hauling, uphill, around corners, and through potholes with no fear! His crazy driving even made the under compartment open and with our little Spanish we had to explain that the driver needed to stop and close it so all the luggage wouldn’t fall out!! We got back to La Paz safely, and were quite glad the trip was only 15 hours instead of 22 because the guy that got on the bus around 6:00 am was extremely drunk and we had to listen to him talking to himself for seven hours!! Literally he talked to himself the whole time, except for the five minutes that he was passed out.

All in all, our trip to Rurrenabarque was amazing! We were a bit nervous about getting mosquito bites, seeing how neither of us were talking Maleria meds, and Jason didn’t have his Yellow Fever shot, but neither of us got sick. We literally wore the same clothes every day, and even showered/rinsed off with our clothes on, so mosquitoes wouldn’t attack us while being naked in the shower. We both got bit, but not nearly as bad as people that showered without their clothes on, or people that wore shorts and t-shirts instead of pants and long-sleeves the whole time.

Like this post? Share it with others!