On Piranhas and Pink Dolphins

It was only natural whilst in South America to hurl ourselves into the Amazon basin to see some interesting animals. Or not, as the case may be.

One of the big selling points of the Pampas tours (which go into the wet, swampy bits of the jungle, described as “the most biodiversity in the world”) is that you get to swim with pink dolphins. Yep, freshwater dolphins! Here’s a picture of us swimming with the pink dolphins:

What do you mean, you can’t see any dolphins? Of course there are dolphins! They’re just hidden in the brown, murky water. They’re pink, gov’nor, honest, and they’re there. Probably. It turns out that “swimming in a body of water recently occupied by dolphins, and now full of piranhas which have a playful nip every now and then” is a much better explanation. The dolphins are fscking hard to photograph, even out of the water. I have a lot of pictures like this:

And only one which actually shows a dolphin:

Of course, once the dolphins are gone the caiman (black, evil alligators) come to eat the tourists, so whilst paddling about in the water you may suddenly hear the guide shouting at you to get back in the boat now. Obey him.

Much more productive was piranha fishing (or, in our case, “feeding very slowly”). I only caught three sardines, and spent most of my time trying to hit them over the head with a stick to finish them off. Greg got the best haul by far, though!

Saf - Rurrenabaque, Bolivia

P.S. Don’t feel sad about the pink dolphins. Google for a proper image of them, and you’ll see that they’re bleeding ugly animals. Not fairy-tale stuff after all.