Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2003 - 2:06 a.m.
In the morning it was raining off and on. Soon I found myself in the back of a jeep with a bunch of other travelers, heading into the unknown. I was reminded about a similar experience in Darwin, Australia where I was going on a several day excurious to the outback, wondering what crazy experienced lay ahead. I'd had such an incredible experience, it was the highlight of my time down under.
I sat in the back of this jeep, two bench seats facing each other, with 7 peope and myself sitting in back, all of them speaking Hebrew. I thought I'd found myself on a tour with everyone else from Israel. They joked to me that I would have to learn Hebrew! Then the guy across fro me pulled out his acoustic guitar and next thing I kenw he was playing and everyone was singing and our jeep bouded down an unpaved dirt road. We were headed for the Pampas, a sort of swamp/marshland full of animals. It started to rain pretty hard, pelint the dusty little Toyota filled with 9 other tourists, but spirits ran high. Amir, the guy with the guitar, played for hours, playing everything from Israli rock songs to Oasis, Alanis Morrisette, Bacilos to Elvis Presley. It was really fun to sing along and be a part of it all. I felt rejuvinated from my stagnant travels, stuck in La Paz for 5 days. I had been feeling homesick and toying with the idea of cutting my travels short, wanting to return to more familiar territory.
Our mochillas (bags) were on top of the jeep, covered with a tarp, we were inside like sardines for several hours. We stopped a few times, first to see an alligator on the other side of the small river, then to pay the park enterance fee. Then after about 3.5 hours (tush and leg muscles cramped) we stopped in a small town where there was a small shack next to the Pampas river. We unloaded the jeep then had lunch. When we stopped to see the alligator, I heard the two girls sitting up front talking and realized they were from Australia, so I wasn't the only native English speaker after all.
After lunch we walked down to the river to motorized canoes. We met our guide, Louis, a young Latino guy who was almost always smiling (speaks English too). We put all our stuff in the long skinny wooden canoe, our bags piled up in back. We were also given long sleeve white shirts, good to have especially at dusk and in the eve when the bugs bite. Louis was at the back, controlling the outboard motor and people sat two each on the wooden board seats. Then I learned the other people's names on the tour, the Israeli names are harder to pronounce...Itai, Leat, Osrah, Inbar, Loir, & Yaniv. The two ozzie girls were Emma and Imke (pronounced Im-kah).
Louis explained we'd go slowly in the boat for the first hour and half to see wildlife, then 4 hours quickly to get to our camp. So off we went, cruising along the narrow, muddy Pampas river.
First we saw little turtles sunbathing on exposed logs sticking out the muddy river water. Oftentimes they were lined up in a row. Then we saw a few alligators. A little later we slowed down to see an adult capybarra that was wallowing in the mud banks of the river. It was cool to see. It stood up, hesitated (posed for photos) and then quicky walked away, a little spooked by our appearance. The others didn't know what it was (of course, smart little me knew). Louis said it was like a rat. But in reality it is only related to the rat. It is the world's largest rodent. Then we continued, Louis promised we'd see more. And we did.
We saw lots of birds (blue herons, a solitary falcon, a couple parrots), alligators, caymans in and out of the water, more capybarras and then some squirrel monkeys. They were so cute. Louis stopped the boat and we came to shore. The little yellow and grey monkeys slowly approached us. Louis said we could feed them bananas. He handed them out, showed us how to hold the fruit so the little buggers wouldn't steal the whole thing. Then one by one we started to feed the critters. Soon little squirrel monkeys with prehensile tails were everywhere. Some of them even ran up people's arms or thighs if they possessed the golden fruit. A few people went on the muddy shore. Most people stayed in the boat and some of the braver monkeys even came on board. I took a load of photos and then took a piece of fruit myself. I remember tiny little fingers grasping the fruit and my fingers clutching it, the little guy was attempting to pull the fruit from my hand while quickly devouring the banana.
Later we saw another colony of monkeys. Yaniv had an orange he held out to the monkeys hanging from the branches just out of reach. Louis broughrt the boat a little closer and next thing there was a conglomerate of monkeys swarming around this orange held in Yaniv's outstretched hand. Suddenly with a lot of squawking, one rash monkey stole the entire piece of fruit and the others cried in protest.
We continued on, I marveled at the beautiful sites. Sometimes we'd see a bird like a heron sitting on the riverside. As we approached the bird would take off in flight, down the river ahead of us as if it were ushering us further into the Pampas. I'd watch it fly gracefully, it would fly just above the water, it's wingtips would just kiss the waters surface before it would swoop up into the top layers of a nearby tree.
We sat for so long, as the sun neared the earth, shadows became long. It felt like we'd never get there. We finally arrived at our riverside camp soon before sunset. A large wooden building with several rooms was the most prominent structure. Next to it was an outdoor shack, the kitchen. And around the side were the bathroom/showers. The camp was high up from the riverbanks, probably because the water level raises quite a bit in the rainy season and maybe the steep slopes prevent or discourage the alligators from joining camp. Also the buildings are built about 2.5 feet up above the ground.
We soon settled into camp. One large room had 10 bunks, each with a mosquito net. Everyone grabbed one. Next to the large rooms with bunks was one last room that was the dining area with two large picnic tables. We also saw a little bit of the sunset, the sky was pink with little bits of blue cottonball clouds. After it got dark the generator was turned on and we had electricity.
Whenever there was down time someone (usually Amir) would be playing the guitar, so there was always music.
After dinner Louis took us out on the canoe to find alligators and caymans. We all brought our flashlights and wore our long sleeve white shirts, drenched in insect repellent. Louis told us to look for the "red eyes" of the alligators. We puttered along, everyone shining their flashlights at the rivers edge. After awhile, we saw a few, just the red eyes, eerie, spooky and silent. I also couldn't help but notice the bright stars in the skuy and flashing of firefires in the trees.
Soon after, as promised, Louis caught a young alligator. It was maybe 1 meter long, about 2 or 3 years old. He grabbed it from the riverside without leaving the canoe. He held it out and then let us take turns holding it, one hand carefully placed on the head and clamped mouth. It was interesting, it never thrashed about, Louis had us keep our thumb at one pressure point on his head, must've kept in paralyzed. ouis said it was in shock from the light, but I think it had to do with the pressure point on it's head.
As we took the canoe back to camp I looked at the starts. I saw Saggitarius, tried to find Scorpion and the Southern Cross without success. There were also small fish jumping out of the water. Some of them accidently landed into the boat. I scooped them up under the feet of the squirmish Israeli girls and threw them back in the river. That evening Amir played guitar and people were singing late into the night.
