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email from Feb 26th.......

Accidentally caught a dodgy bus down the death road.....aka the most dangerous road in the world, it was packed full of people, dodged the occasional rocky landslide and the highlight of the 24 hours on the bus has to be the 2am almost tipping over piece of fun. Survived. Was a very unpleasant wake up call, after which we realised the door was trapped shut and we all had to climb out through the drivers window which was a little higher up than usual.....and stand knee deep in mud till we got towed / dug out. Rurrenabaque is pretty but sweltering....I am not exactly surprised as currently in the Amazon Basin, but my skin can't handle it. Got munched on by mozzies in the jungle, evidently Manx blood is a delicacy round these parts, I look truly diseased. Am puzzled as to why they go for elbows, knuckles, ankles...all the places guaranteed to make you itch like crazy! Trip up river to the jungle was spectacular! The river is massive & we were on a motorised wooden canoe. Encountered a variety of poisonous insects, yum, tracked a small group of wild pigs....amazingly cute, very hairy, don't much resemble pigs.....saw pairs of macaws flying over the rainforest and ate some interesting bits of plants that cure malaria (possibly necessary, but think while I was eating it was getting bitten) cure impotence (?) and make your tongue go numb. That one was very tasty. Ate all mine and had paralysed mouth for ages. Spent three days in the Pampas, living pretty damn close to a 2 metre alligator....I had strangely vivid images of the camp cat getting munched one night. Swam with pink dolphins...I find it absolutely mad that there are dolphins living in the river. And that they are pink obviously. Saw loads of monkeys, turtles, condors, storks, eagles, lizards. Odd to see a very large stork sitting in a nest in a small weak looking tree. And encountered the largest spider I have ever seen in my life at 2am when I unfortuntely had to extract myself from my mozzie net and go for a much unwanted wee. It was so large and hairy it looked more like a rodent with too many legs than an arachnid. Was petrified and screamed silently the whole time. See, I am considerate to other's sleep patterns even when scared half to death. Or maybe just didn't want to look like a big wimp! Anyway, after three days without washing it seems perfecly acceptable to go for a swim in alligator / piranha infested waters! Don't think I came out cleaner though. Went looking for anacondas in a great marshy field...if hell exists that was it! Large field, knee deep in water, head height grass, wet wellies, no shade whatsoever and a herd of cows stampeding towards me. And went piranha fishing....couple of people caught one, but I think I was just feeding them their lunch, they're very Quick and I have never been fishing before. My other first was jumping on the back of a motorbike taxi today...only to go about 200m down the road but was so hot I couldn't resist. Had some drinks last night for the first time since Cusco....and ended up kareokeing. Why? I know I can't sing, but was great fun. Spoken huge amounts of French...I think it's the new universal language, was talking to Chilean circus man who now lives in Paris, and when arrived back at the hotel at 2am after quite a lot of drinks shall we say, ended up being questioned on my views of the Royal family by a Swiss man who was most surprised by my language capabilities. I don't have views on the Royal family. It makes me feel less dumb that I have minimal Spanish, as I can always try the "parle francais" approach, and am amazed how many people recently have French as a second language. Have spent today in a swimming pool with macaws and a tucan sitting in the palm trees around. Luckily cooling down a bit now.....back to La Paz tomorrow in IOM sized plane.....possibly smaller to buy some new clothes, can't wait, practically all my clothes need binning and I look like a right scruff. I didn't mind till I met people who have been travelling the same amount of time, who still look clean and well dressed. So new clothes it is!

posted by Katie @ 2/29/2004 11:47:00 am