Monday's With Mike - Bolivia Part One
Michael Visintainer - 06/19/17
Tsimane, Pluma Lodge - Bolivia
Twenty-four hours and 5,500 miles later I woke up in the city of La Paz, Boliva at an elevation of 12,000 feet. My group of six stayed on the plane to watch the sunrise over the Andes Mountains. Soon we were taking back off to our final destination of Santa Cruz, Bolivia. There we were greeted by our host of Untamed Angling, Zoltan, who helped us get checked in our hotel. We spent the remainder of the day exploring the city and even watched a protest in the city center. The following morning we traveled across town to a small domestic airport and boarded small single-engine planes.
The next two hours we flew over the dense amazon jungle to a grass landing in Oromomo, a small indigenous community at the foothills of the Andes. Oromomo lies in the Isiboro Secure National Park a protected area and Native Community land of 55 villages. After our brief stay in the village we traveled in handmade wood dugout boats for an hour and half travel up river to our lodge. Each boat was operated by two indigenous guides and as we motored upriver we saw a few cayman and other jungle wildlife.
The lodge was amazing, made out of the local hardwood giving you a rustic feel. River levels during the rainy season can rise thirty feet which washed out the former Pluma lodge. Plumas staff was incredible, especially the manager Chucky, Bandilnia and the food of the Argentinean cook. After settling in and a quick meal the guys were eager to head to the river in front of the lodge at a chance to hook in to a Golden Dorado. Fishing that afternoon was suppose to be our our own, but the guides were more than happy to come help everyone on their day off. The group took their 8 or 9 weight rods down to the Pluma River which lied below the banks of the lodge. Not more than twenty minutes went by and Spencer hooked into and landed the first dorado using a large top water streamer on his Sage X. Adrenaline was high in the group as we watched Spencer real in the large, powerful fish.
The dorado attacks a fly like a bass, leverages like a steelhead and jumps like a tarpon. Pictures cannot describe the explosive fight, but check out the some of the photos from the beginning of our trip and stay tuned for part two next week.
Photos from Michael Visintainer