Author Archives: Dan Perry

About Dan Perry

Dan created this blog to document his South America trip, which covered every country on the continent and lasted over two years. He currently lives in Madison, WI.

Pampa Tour Day 1

June 13, 2006
Day 258

An alligator awaits his next victim.

This morning, Craig took a bus to La Paz. He is going to meet some of his friends who are flying in from Europe. We will all meet up in Trinidad in a week or so for our next canoe adventure. That gave me some spare time to do another tour, this time of the animal-laden pampa.

I was joined on the tour by Mano and Luz, whom I had met yesterday, Chris and Max, from England, Anna and Katie, from Denmark, and our guide Joaquin. We started the tour by driving about three hours down a bumpy road in a Toyota Land Cruiser. On the way, Joaquin spotted a three-toed sloth, one of the slowest animals in the world, hanging from a tree. I was surprised he was able to spot it from the moving vehicle because it blended in with its environment so well.

When we got to the river, we threw all of our gear into a large, sturdy dugout with a 15 HP motor and took off upstream. As soon as we left, we started seeing alligators on the shore. They seemed to be very vicious the way they sat with their mouths cocked open, but when we neared them with the boat, they proved to be quite docile. We were warned, though: They would attack if we invaded their territory. I think we were safe in the boat, though. I think.

For the rest of the ride to our camp, we almost constantly saw animals. Turtles were everywhere, usually in groups of two or more. There were also several species of birds, including the biggest bird of flight in the Amazon. Many of the birds beautifully spread their wings as we passed them. We also saw a few capybaras, the largest rodent in the world, and some pink river dolphins. Toward the end of our journey, we saw a group of golden monkeys swinging in the trees. A group of Israelis pulled up next to us with bananas and started feeding them. I'm not sure which group was of the higher-ordered primates. I think I saw more wildlife in that two-hour ride than I had seen in the entire last month in the jungle.

When we got to our camp, we unpacked our stuff and checked out the end of a soccer game (I know, it's not really roughing it if they have a TV). Later, we had a large dinner. A cook came along with us, so there was no work involved on our part. It's a lot easier than going without a guide. I felt like royalty, but everyone else acted like it was just part of their normal lifestyle.

After it got dark, we got in the boat again and looked for alligators. Their freaky amber-colored eyes were watching us from all over. The loud sounds of the frogs and birds were incredible. We may not have been able to see much, but the pampa was still very much alive at night.

The photo album for this entry is here.

A Quick Jungle Walk

June 12, 2006
Day 257

Julio shows us a chocolate fruit.

I wanted to go on a tour of the pampa today, but it wasn't possible. All of the flights into town were canceled due to poor weather conditions, and so many tourists opt to fly rather than take the 18-hour bus ride from La Paz that every tour company in town was forced to delay their tours until tomorrow. However, I was able to get into a tour of the jungle for today. I went more for something to do than anything else.

I was joined on my tour by Mano and Luz from Holland and Julio, our guide. We were driven to the nearby jungle, but not in the national park. Julio mainly taught us about plants that were useful in the jungle. There are plants that supposedly can cure everything from snakebites to impotence. Probably the most interesting example was eating termites to cure indigestion. Julio tapped a termite nest to get them riled up, and when they started running around, he licked them. My turn was next. They tasted very minty for some reason.

For the next several hours, Julio led us through the jungle, cutting his own path with his machete the entire way. He constantly joked about being lost, and at times I wasn't sure how much he was actually joking. There didn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to the direction he took us in other than to keep us occupied for awhile.

At one point, Julio saw some vines and started cutting around them. I wasn't sure what he was up to when he asked us how much we weighed. Then I saw that he was clearing the area around a vine we could swing on. I guess it was kind of cool to act like Tarzan for a few seconds, but it took half an hour and countless wasted vegetation just to create a glorified swing. It seemed like a big waste, but the girls enjoyed it at least.

Later, we walked out of the jungle to the main road where we met our ride back into town. I didn't see many animals, but the tour was still interesting to learn about living in the jungle. Tomorrow's pampa trip guarantees lots of great wildlife viewing.

The photo album for this entry is here.

Back In Backpackerville

June 8-11, 2006
Day 253-256

After a long travel day, it took a whole day to get caught back up on sleep. Craig and I decided to hang out in town for a few days before moving on. The next canoe trip doesn't start for over a week, and Rurrenabaque is the perfect place to relax. It's at the edge of the jungle and Madidi National Park, the most biodiverse national park on Earth. The surrounding scenery is amazing, and it's back on the Gringo Trail. I was really surprised to see all the tourists, especially Israelis walking around town. I had only seen three other tourists in the entire last month.

In my four days in Rurrenabaque, I watched a bunch of World Cup games, played a lot of chess against Craig on a new board he made, and met a lot of interesting people. Among them were an American ex-patriot who sells banana bread and cinnamon rolls from his homemade car with a 10hp tractor motor. He has a sign on his car declaring that "The Da Vinci Code is Ridiculous," and will discuss Armageddon with you for hours if you're up for it. Another person I met in town was Katrina, a Brit who has lived here for a few years. She has a cafe complete with DVD viewing rooms and a book exchange, which I desperately needed to use. Finally, I met a guy named Paul. He left his native Australia several years ago to travel around South America. Someone suggested that he check out Rurrenabaque, so he did. He met a girl there, got married, and had a kid. He's going to make one last trip back to Australia to save some money and go back to Rurrenabaque for good. Honestly, I can hardly blame him, it's such a nice place.

I tried using the Internet, but it's far too slow and expensive here because it has to be brought in via satellite. It's probably the only bad thing about Rurrenabaque. Also, for the eighth time, I had a power of two day. I'm clearly slowing down, though. It took twice as long to reach this one as the last one.

Boats, Motorcycles, Cities, and Siphons

June 7, 2006
Day 252

Our choices of where to go next.

This was a very long day of traveling. As soon as we left the big ship, we found a boat taxi to take us to the other side of the river. The bus station was far away so we all fit into a motorcycle taxi that had a back seat like a car. It was a sight to behold. We immediately got a bus ticket to Riberalta, labeled as a "charming city" on Mathias' map.

On the way to Riberalta, we approached the Yata river, but the bridge was still under construction. It was amazing to see the Bolivians building a bridge with no equipment bigger than a circular grinding tool hooked up to a diesel engine pulled straight off an old truck. We had to wait for an old leaky ferry to take us across the foggy river.

When we got to Riberalta, we learned that we could get on another bus to Rurrenabaque in a couple hours. Rurrenabaque was where Craig and I wanted to end up, so we decided not to waste any time and bought the ticket. We said goodbye to Gabriel, who wanted to cross into Peru via the Pando department of Bolivia, which is probably even more remote than the area we were just in.

With a little time to spare, I took a quick walk around town and discovered an Internet cafe. I was surprised to learn that everyone back home thought I was dead. No, far from it, actually. I asked Craig if anyone ever thought he was dead, and he said "No, I've got a pretty good record [of not dying] so far." Too bad I only had a short time to read a few emails before my bus left.

We were told that the bus ride to Rurrenabaque could take anywhere from 12-18 hours, depending on road conditions. It would be a long ride, but a necessary one. On the way, we stopped for gas, but there was no pump at the station. Instead, they had to siphon fuel into the 200-liter tank, 10 liters at a time. Pavement is something that rarely exists in Bolivia outside the big cities, and this was no exception. The dirt road was in horrible condition the entire way. Looking at the deep marks in the dried mud, it was obvious that several buses had gotten stuck recently. We were lucky to be able to travel on a dry road at least. The bus had no TV or radio, and it was far too bumpy to write in my journal. I tried reading, but the only book I had was in Spanish, which is a difficult task even in a comfortable hotel room, so I abandoned the idea after a few minutes. The only thing left to do was watch the scenery, but I couldn't even do that after it got dark at 6:00. Sleeping was impossible while getting thrashed around, so I'm not sure how I even made it without going crazy.

We finally got to Rurrenabaque at 3:00 AM. I learned that electricity got cut off in the entire town at 2:00 AM, so it was completely dark. Luckily, Craig was there about six months ago, so he knew of a place to stay. We walked near the hotel and sat on a sidewalk until dawn. Sitting in the dark in an unknown place for three hours was a little scary, but I don't think too many people would attack two 6'3" gringos who were carrying canoe paddles and machetes. At least I wasn't on the bus anymore.

Free Boat To Guayara

June 5-6, 2006
Day 250-251

The next Bolivian town after Remanso that had road access was Guayaramerin, and our canoing only got us about one-third of the way there. Rather than paddle another three weeks, we decided to take the free boat there. The two-day trip was a great time to play chess and poker with Craig and the Frenchman, catch up on my blog, and reflect on our adventure.

Along the way, we stopped at several small Brazilian towns, all of which were very nice. It made me exited to see Brazil for real in the future. I'm going to have to learn some Portuguese, though.

We got to Guayara (on the Brazilian side) on the night of the 6th, but we opted to stay one more night on the boat since we weren't going to get much further and none of us had any reais anyway. Tomorrow we'll go to Riberalta, the first city I will have seen since Santa Cruz over a month ago.

Chess, Anyone?

June 4, 2006
Day 249
Remanso to Versalles Canoe Trip Day 16

Our makeshift chess board.

The religious proceedings went on all last night again. It's tough to sleep with so much singing and fireworks, but the nights are long here, so I usually get enough sleep, even though I get woken up a lot. I'm not sure when the people participating in the singing rituals sleep, though.

After breakfast, Craig and I walked to the lake. Not surprisingly, we got some extremely conflicting information on the lake's distance from town. Yesterday, it was twenty minutes away, then thirty minutes, then an hour. Today, someone who had just been there yesterday told us that it would take two hours. It didn't really matter, though, because we had all day. We ended up getting there after one hour, but there wasn't much to look at. The lake was flooded into the surrounding jungle, so it wasn't possible to walk all the way to it. We returned glad to get a little walking done under the cool cover of the jungle canopy.

We decided to leave our canoe with the village instead of trying to take it any further. It only ended up costing us $33 each, and we all felt pretty generous after not having spent any money for the last two weeks. Hopefully the villagers will make good use of it.

With the boat to Guayara leaving tomorrow morning, we packed up camp and climbed aboard. We found a chess board in the bridge that should be fit for some entertainment during our three-day journey that lies ahead. The board only came with about half the pawns, so Craig and Gabriel constructed some new pieces out of wires and paper.

Five days was a very long time to stay in Versalles, but it allowed me to get a good feel for the small town Amazon life. The river creates an interesting mix of cultures and languages, but everyone still appears to get along quite well. Going to the party has been an all-around amazing adventure.

Life In Versalles

June 3, 2006
Day 248
Remanso to Versalles Canoe Trip Day 15

Today was ridiculously hot again, so not much was happening around town. Boredom officially set in around midday. Craig and I talked about going to a lake nearby, but we decided to wait until tomorrow because we didn't want to miss out on any free meals. I'm ready to get out of here now, but sometimes when you're traveling a little boredom is good after going full-steam for weeks on end. It shows you that life isn't all skittles and beer.

Watching the usual soccer game just before sunset, I realized how nice this place is. Only 100 or so people live in Versalles, and it has a long airstrip in the center of town, part of which also serves as the soccer field. The river is at one edge of town, and the Amazon jungle is at the other one, so the place is very isolated. No road access means no cars or the pollution they bring. Living here would be a simple life, but not a bad one. There's plenty of hunting, fishing, farming, swimming, and soccer to keep the people busy, and the town is located in a beautiful, clean place.

Whenever we eat a meal, or do anything for that matter, everyone stares at us. They ask where we're from, how we got here, how long we're staying, and other simple questions. Tonight, however, we met a guy who claimed to be international because he spoke two languages: Spanish and Portuguese. I thought that was amusing because all it meant was that he could talk to people on both sides of the river. It's a nice skill to have, though, and one not many people here possess.

Annoying observation of the day: The volume on Bolivian radios and TVs is binary.

Too Much Cumbia

June 2, 2006
Day 247
Remanso to Versalles Canoe Trip Day 14

One of the many house boats that showed up in Versalles.

The religious chanting went on all night, with people singing songs that sounded more like an ancient animalistic religion than Catholicism. Just in case anyone was sleeping, they shot off more loud fireworks every half hour or so. The madness didn't stop till dawn.

When we ran into the French trio, they gave us the good news. Not only were we on the ship, but we got our own room with two beds, enough space for a hammock, and a private bathroom and shower, all for the low price of nothing! I can't believe the generosity of the local people lately. We had great places to camp for free all along the river, now we are at a free party, and later, we will leave town for free, too. We weren't sure what to expect going into this adventure, but it has worked out in fairy tail fashion so far.

Besides the generosity towards us, this party is a great thing for the area. People from all the little communities near Versalles get to take the free boat away and back, and get to enjoy four days of fun without spending any money. It's really a great way for people in the area to get to know each other.

It was another repressively hot afternoon. There isn't much one can do in this kind of heat other than sit around and pant to try to keep cool. Once the sting went out of the sun a bit, a soccer game started. Play was competitive, and I'm not sure how the locals can run around when I'm sweating just looking at them. A funny moment happened when they were in the middle of a serious game and had to stop play so the cows could cross the field.

There were more religious processions all day again, but dancing was on tonight. The problem was that cumbia was the only music available. Cumbia is probably the most popular music in Bolivia, but it is horrible on the ears. It sounds like one of those guys in big cities who cranks a music box and has a monkey who dances to it for money. The same song lasts for hours and never changes chords. The sad thing is that Brazilian music is really good, and even though most of the people at the party were Brazilian, their music never got played. I just couldn't take it anymore after the first ten minutes, so I went to bed early.

The Party Begins

June 1, 2006
Day 246
Remanso to Versalles Canoe Trip Day 13

The festival's ceremonial boat moves up and down the river.

Last night most of the town got sloppy drunk. People walked around the tent and shook the floorboards all night. On top of that, a very loud generator kicked in right next to Ricardo's house, making sleep impossible. The music stopped when the sun came up, and Ricardo, the mayor, and some of their friends were drunkily chatting away on the patio. It was time to find a new place to camp.

We moved to the other side of town, about 100 meters away, to a guy's backyard. We set the tent up under a shady tree, put up a hammock for relaxation, and used the planks from the canoe as benches. Our neighbors are a family of friendly Brazilians who will probably keep an eye on our stuff when we are out and about. It should be a nice place to camp.

At lunch we met three French people. Seeing other gringos kind of took away from the experience of being so far in the middle of nowhere, but we decided to talk to them anyway. They were a couple volunteering in the area and their friend who was visiting for a few months. They told us that the big boat to Guayara might be full, but they knew the captain, so maybe they could hook us up.

The festivities officially started this afternoon. A boat paddled by twelve people went up and down the river past the town three times. A band sang a song to the patron saint of Versalles, which was represented as a pigeon. When the boat stopped, the participants got off and people could bow to the saint to be healed. The entire time, loud fireworks were launched all around us.

Church continued all night long. The people involved in the procession constantly walked around town singing the same song. There was no fun or dancing, but apparently there will be more tomorrow. Nobody told us that this would be a religious festival, but I guess we should have expected that.

The photo album for this entry is here.

Versalles, Here We Come!

May 31, 2006
Day 245
Remanso to Versalles Canoe Trip Day 12

We finally made it to Versalles.

We got up a little later than normal today because we believed that we were rather close to Versalles. We had breakfast with the fishermen and met an American named Jim who was with them. He wasn't around last night because he was in a tree stand hunting Southeast Asian water buffalo with a bow and arrow. The area around the camp is a Brazilian biological reserve, which is home to thousands of water buffalo, a non-native species. The government isn't quite sure what to do with them, so for now it just occasionally allows people to hunt them. Five of them are supposedly being hunted for the party, and Jim wanted in on the action. He told us he was a missionary. What a strange combo.

Our paddle today was rather insignificant. The river was almost completely straight with almost no islands to throw us off course. It would have been nearly impossible to get lost.

After about four hours of paddling, we spotted Versalles in the distance. Soon, we were pulling in next to several large houseboats. The party wasn't set to start until tomorrow, but a lot of people showed up early.

Soon after we set foot on shore, we were greeted by several people, including the mayor himself. They all had gotten word that we were coming from the various people we had met along the way. We were given space to camp in an open area of a man named Ricardo's house, free of charge.

Versalles is yet another small, charming river community. The economy is almost entirely based on agriculture, although a few small shops mainly selling alcohol had been set up just for the party by the Brazilians. This led to some trouble early on because I didn't have any reais, the currency of Brazil, and none of the vendors would take my bolivianos. Finally, I somehow convinced someone to exchange bolivianos for reais, so now I can buy beer for the party. It was my first experience in another country where I couldn't even pay for things with that country's currency.

Early this afternoon, a few men who appeared to be with the military took off in a motor boat. Tonight, they returned with a great prize: a gigantic water buffalo. The task of removing it from the boat was very difficult because the beast was so massive. It took several men to drag the body up the hill to a house, where the butchering will begin. We also learned that the rumors were true: free food for everyone. With today's catch and the food contributed by the neighboring communities, there should be plenty for all to enjoy for the next four days.

The photo album for this entry is here.