Flying internal in Bolivia is an experience in itself. A small airplane (Sanjay can probably tell what kind) took us through the mountains. Not over, but through the snow covered mountains.

When we landed it was on a strip of dirt cleared in the middle of the jungle and the humid heat hit us like a wet newspaper fresh out of the microwave.

Our first day in Rurrenabaque was very nice. We decided to go swimming because it was so warm. The nice swimmingpool had a great view over the area, but since it was located on the side of a mountain we had to take a taxi to get there. The problem is that there are no taxis, but apparently everybody with a motorcycle is a taxi, so we waved two guys down and took a ride to refreshment. Later that day we went to the Moskito Bar for even more refreshment and we drank a lot of Caipirinhas, Daquiries and other nice alcoholic drinks. We ended up quite drunk, and having spend almost all our bolivianos (At that point it was funny to call them Bavianos) not a good thing when there are no atms in town and nobody takes credit card...

Luckily we where going to the Pampas (Pampers?) so the distractions and need for money would be minimal, or so we thought...

After only three hours in a 4x4 jeep we arrived at the river that would take us into the heart of the wetlands. The wetlands of the Pampas are amazing. We've never seen so many animals and beautiful trees. During our three hour boatride down a winding river we saw caiman, caipibaras, dolfins, turtles, monkeys, all kinds of birds etc.

We stayed at a pretty primitive camp (when I -Miriam- used the toilet, a frog jumped out when I flushed... ieeeee!) We also went on a four hour hunt for anacondas, but we had to abandon the search without any luck.

After a whole day in the sun, nothing would be nicer than an ice cold beer, unfortunately our bolivianos was nearly up, so he had to stick to the lemonade which was free and also a bit refreshing even though it was warm.

We stayed two nights in the camp and each morning we woke up by the noises of the amazonas. Imagine about 1 million crickets, add a hundred screaming birds and a lot of other animals. And most important: the immensly loud noise of what first seem to be alien monsters invading the camp.

Then it turns out they are just howler monkeys. Apparently they howl every time the sun comes up, and it is not something you can ignore. We had to get up anyways, because piranha fishing was on the program for the morning. Miriams first fishing experience ever, and my first at trying to catch piranhas.

We must say, three days in the Amazonas was an amazing experience, but now we are very glad to be back into civilization...