What are we doing today ???... oh great, looking for anacondas

10 Bolivianos...or NO PICTURE!!

And so the hunt begins

(why I´m smiling...knee deep in swamp, looking for snakes..I´ll never know)

Nice scarf...."thanks....it´s snakeskin"

(and the rest of the snake too!!)

Next day....Angelo announced that we were going anaconda hunting. Aren´t they BIG snakes we all thought.....eh....yes. We sailed up river a bit to a swamp (or the Pampas as it is known). We were given wellie boots to wear, which worked for the first hour, but then the swamp got a bit deeper and before we knew it, we were waist deep. No snakes though......just a billion mozzies (and hungry ones at that). Angelo decided we should press on (great !) and after another hour, he found one. Everyone rushed over to take photos. Only a 2 hour trudge, through reeds and swampy water, back to the boat then!! - great!! (and we paid for this). After, we sailed back to camp, emptied the water out our wellies and got washed off. In the afternoon we had swimming with dolphins lined up (in the same river at the alligators, caymen, snakes etc.). Angelo assured us it was safe as the dolphins chased off any alligators. We sailed up river until we saw some and some of us dived in. Debo decided to stay in the boat to "take photos" and this was a good move as the dolphins swam away (we, the ones swimming in the river, remembered that the dolphins chased off the alligators etc.....but they had just swam away - time to get out I think!!). In the evening, we sailed up to a bar, on stilts, to watch the sunset (and had a couple of cervezas). The next day we had a boring day of pirahna fishing!!!! IB caught one (but threw it back becasue it wasn´t very big), Angelo (of course) caught 7.... which were fried up as part of lunch. We´ll tell you this....there is not much eating on a piranha!!. In the afternoon we were taken back to Santa Rosa, then driven back to Rurrenabaque.

The next day we had a nightmare trip trying to get back to La Paz, since it had rained all night and the grass runway, at Rurrenabaque,m was out of commission. After waiting around, from 7am til 4pm we eventually got a military flight from Reyes to La Paz.....this still beats the 22 hour bus journey - which is the other alternative.

We´ve got a couple of days left in La Paz....before heading off to Santiago on Friday