Rurenabache. . . Amazonia

After leaving La Paz, I spent a total of eight days in and around Rurenabache, a small town in the Amazon Basin. So I went from cold to hot quite quickly. Rurenabache would have been 17 hours down dirt roads on a cramped bus with no bathroom, but thankfully, the Bolivian Air force flies people around the country on the super cheap. . . to bad we don't have anything like that at home. Its a good thing because the roads down here are the worst I've ever seen anywhere. The Amazon basin consists of two separate habitats, the pampas, a wetland savanna type area, and the rain forest. I spent three days in each and enjoyed them both thoroughly. I think I saw more animals in the pampas, but the rain forest was nicer to look at. Both were awesome. The day I set out for the rain forest, I saw the first rain I'd seen since Ecuador. It rained hard, all day long and was actually a bit chilly. I spent several hours going up-river in a boat with very little protection in the pouring rain. By the time we got to the jungle lodge I was thoroughly soaked. The sun was back the next day, but the jungle was quite muddy. I especially liked the jungle lodge. The people who ran the lodge had purchased a monkey who apparently wasn't being treated well and took it to the lodge. The hope was that it would join other monkeys in the jungle and go off on its own, but instead, it just hangs around the lodge. It was quite friendly, and loved to take peoples things because, according to the staff, it enjoyed being chased. I thoroughly enjoyed having it around.





The airport consisted of nothing more than a grass field: Rurenabache:

The Pampas:

This is a Capabare. . . the largest member of the rodent family:


Spider Monkey: Our lodge. . . a cool place with on some guys farm:

Anaconda. . . they aren't poisonous:





Swimming with alligators. . . I was assured it was safe:





Our guide Antonio with a Cobra. . . this guy was nuts!
The Rainforest:

Right before he stole a suger bowl off the table. . . I loved this guy. He was fun.


Trransport t the lodge:




Wilds pig:
Wild Pineapple. . . these were all over the place. . . not ready to eat quite yet: