Friday, February 24, 2012

Bolivian Amazon - Piranah Fishing

I woke up today and my legs and feet were a disaster. I scratched all night long and as I went to breakfast discovered that everyone else did as well. Freaking Jungle, who would have thought there were bugs that bite. All I have for relief is sun screen and it did help in the short term, but not good enough.

Well today is our last day before we head back to Rurrembarque but there was one last little adventure. We were going fishing for blue piranah. Sure, these little buggers could take off a finger but they are not the nasty large Red Belly Boys that can strip a human in about 5 minutes. Plus, this was the wet season and there was plenty of food to be had. To prove it, when we got to the fishing hole Victor our guide jumped in for a swim and with a big grin asked if anyone else wanted to swim with Piranah. Nobody moved.

We hung out in a calm shallow reedy inlet trying out luck and about 15 metres away in the river 3 Pink Dolphins just swam and did thier thing. A pretty good way to spend a couple of hours. We were not using fishing rods as you would think. We had fishing line wrapped around a piece of wood and tossed the line over board. The water might have been 5 feet deep. Well with a bit of excitement Victor of course brought in the first and only piranah and I must say it was pretty exciting and intimidating. He was no bigger then the palm of your hand but he had those teeth and was not happy about being on board, so over he went to get bigger and angrier.

Our Amazon trip was coming to and end. We went back to camp, said good bye to the caimen, packed up and took a nice leisurely 90 minute boat ride through the jungle back to the launch point. It was sunny and warm and a great way to unwind, not that there was any stress in the last 4 days. Now all that was left was the 3 hour nasty bus ride back to Rerrembarque but this time our driver decided he was an Indy racer. Remember, this is just a dirt track with ruts, bumps and shit all over the road. Freaking driver made it back in just under 2 hours.

Now the horror of horrors. We get out of the van at the Tour shop and are greeted by a worker with a big smile, did you have a good time, here have a coke! NO NO NO. I can not escape the devils liquid and when I said no thanks the girl offering and she just stood there kind of dumbfounded.

I had what I thought was a 6 00 flight back to La Paz but in my stupidity I had booked it for the next day. I changed it to a 2 00 flight and now found myself with a free night in Rerrembarque. Not much to do so off to Luna Cafe for some post jungle beers and the farmacy for anti itch cream...that just sounds weird.

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