Rurrenabaque & La Paz

Monday 28th March

Checked out of Wild Rover hostel in La Paz .... I knew we shouldn´t have went out last night but the craic was so good in the Wild Rover bar it was impossible not to! We made our way to the airport and caught a 40 minute flight to Rurrenabaque (1,170Bs return) which arrived in at 12:45. Met a few other backpackers on the flight who were also doing the Pampas tour.

After getting into downtown Rurrenebaque we checked into a hotel with a big swimming pool (125Bs) so needless to say we didn´t do much only relax for the rest of the day ... although we did have some problems with large insects and (very large) spiders in our hotel room later that night!

Some photos of the streets in Rurrenabaque:

Tuesday 29th - Thursday 31st March

Checked out of the hotel on Tuesday morning and met up with loads of other backpackers at the Indigena Tour agency to start our 3 day tour of the Pampas. Me and Neil were in a group with 5 Swedish guys and 1 guy from England. Was happy to be doing the 3 day tour with them as we had great craic over the 3 days.

Tuesday was mainly spent travelling by jeep and motor-canoe to reach our lodge on the river.

After dinner that evening we all took a night trip down the river in the canoe to experience the pampas at night.

The accommodation in the lodge was in a large dorm and was pretty basic and after 22:00 there was no electricity so we were literally in the dark in the middle of nowhere on the pampas ... I have never been bitten by so many mosquitos!

Next day, we had an early start ... after breakfast we headed out into the pampas which meant wading out in the water looking for snakes and caymans.

Nice experience but walking around in water up to your waist for 3 hours is a bit much! We returned to the lodge for lunch and later went back out on the motor-canoe to see dolphins and fish for piranha.

On Thursday, we spent the morning back out on the motor-canoe looking for monkeys, sloths, caymans and birds and to do some more piranha fishing before getting lunch in the lodge and making our way back to Rurrenebaque by motor-canoe and jeep.

We arrived back into Rurrenebaque that evening about 18:00 ... was so happy to get back to the hotel that evening ... badly needed to shower after the last 3 days and get some laundry done.

Some of the ´Pampas´ crowd in the Mosquito bar on Thursday night in Rurrenabaque:

Friday 1st April - Monday 4th April

Friday was a relaxing day spent mostly by the pool in the hotel. Me and Neil decided to change our flights back to La Paz from Monday morning to Tuesday morning so we could spend an extra day in Rurrenabaque on Monday after the Jungle tour.

On Saturday morning we got up early and headed back down to the Indigena Tour agency to start our Jungle tour. There were only 4 in our group for the tour .. .myself and Neil, and Kyla from Australia and Zach from England.

We left Rurrenabaque by motor boat and travelled up the River Beni for 3 hours to our lodge in the jungle.

First we stopped off at an indigenous village on the way, where they chopped and crushed sugar cane and made us sugar cane juice with freshly picked limes and oranges ... really tasty!

We checked into the Jungle lodge at lunchtime .. definitely alot nicer accommodation than the Pampas lodge ... and less mosquitos which was great!

In the afternoon, we went on a jungle trek for about 3 hours and saw loads of weird insects and poisonous spiders.

We returned to the lodge for dinner before heading out again on a jungle night walk which was brilliant but would definitely not like to be stuck out in the jungle at night without a torch ... complete darkness and all you can hear is movement all around you in the jungle.

On Sunday morning, we set off at 06:00 to watch the sunrise over the River Beni and then returned for breakfast.

We then set off on a 5 hour jungle trek to a look out point over the river. The morning started off nice but then it poured down rain and we were all soaked to our skin heading back to the lodge.

We had some lunch before getting the motor boat back to Rurrenabaque for 16:30. Really enjoyed the jungle trip and wish it was a bit longer. If I were to go back to Rurrenabaque I would prefer a shorter Pampas tour and spend more time in the jungle.

After getting back to Rurrenebaque, me and Neil realised we were short of money and there was no ATM machines in the town so we figured we better head back to La Paz as originally planned on Monday rather than Tuesday so we called into the airline office to reschedule.

Later that night we met up with Kyla and Zach for dinner and then headed down to ´Monkey Bar´ for a few drinks and then onto ´Mosquito Bar´. There didnt seem to be many places to go out in Rurrenabaque so we ended up in a bar on a river boat until the early hours of the morning.


Monday morning ... we checked out off the hotel and made our way to the airline office to get our flight, but it was packed full of backpackers. Bad storms and rain meant that all flights were delayed, so we had to hang around the town for a while but we eventually got a flight out about 15:00 and were back in La Paz for 15:30.  Very happy to be back in La Paz as both myself and Neil were down to our last few Bolivianos .. we badly needed cash! We checked back into the Wild Rover Hostel.

Had a bit of a crisis later that evening when we realised the bank in Ireland suddenly cancelled the use of all Masetro ATM cards in Bolivia. Myself and Neil were both stuck as none of our Maestro cards worked. Later that day, we met many more Irish people in the hostel who were all stuck in La Paz and had no access to money, unless they had a Visa card. Major panic and worry!

Went for a bite to eat in a local restaurant before heading back to the hostel and taking it easy for the evening. 

Tuesday 5th April

Lovely warm day in La Paz .. spent the morning sunbathing in the courtyard of the hostel. Later in the afternoon, myself and Neil took a walk around town and had lunch.

Later that evening, we hit the Wild Rover bar and met loads of other backpackers .. played pool and drank beers into the early hours of the morning and then went onto a club. Another late night out in La Paz!

Wednesday 6th April

Very bad hangover today and didnt get up till after 12:00. Spent the afternoon with Neil down in the La Paz markets as Neil had to buy a new camera (as his other camera fell into the River Beni on the jungle trip at the weekend!). We spent the rest of the day walking around the stalls and markets and later that evening went out for an Indian meal followed by the movies ... could not face another night drinking in the bar in the Wild Rover hostel!

Thursday 7th April

Checked out of the Wild Rover Hostel and took an 08:00 bus to Copacabana. (45Bs, 155km, 3 hours)