The next day we were up early as we were due at the Amazonas office at 8am and
wanted to get brekkie in first at Camila´s restaurant. Brekkie was top notch
again and with full bellies we made our way across the street to sit outside
the Amazonas office waiting for the minibus to the airport. I had begun to feel
groggy with a cold, ironic given the temperatures in the jungle !! We were told
that the plane was delayed for 20 mins and we both feared that this was the
first of many excuses. However, eventually the standard cry \"vamos\" was uttered
and our stuff was chucked on the roof of the bus. Off to the airport it was, it
felt strange leaving as we had both liked Rurrenabaque a lot.
On arrival at the airport, our luggage was taken around the side and dumped on
the grass, while we were herded to the \"airport tax booth\". 12 bolivianos of
our rapidly dwindling supply were taken. As we turned to go out of the building
to the side of the runway we were stopped by another grinning Bolivian at a
desk asking for money. This turned out to be for the centre of tourism in
Rurrenabaque. We just about scraped together the required amount with about one
Boliviano to spare, so we hoped there wasn´t another random payment to make !
Trev was feeling a little uncomfortable and looking around for a Bano - toilet,
as his stomach had gone again after the first day in the jungle. He just
spotted one when we heard the plane approaching, Trev dashed out with the
camera to try to catch it as it approached, before he dashed off to the loo.
The pilot got out of the plane and seemed to be doing some paperwork over a
cuppa. That was until another chap strolled out and told the people already on
the plane from a previous stop to get off as there was a delay due to the
weather ! Super, deja vue perhaps ! Out came our books and we were just
settling down to a good read when the cry \"vamos\" came again. We all piled into
the plane, Trev and I at the back this time as the rest had been on the plane
since Trinidad. The take off was good though and we had awesome views of
Rurrenabaque as we banked and flew directly over it. The river we had been on
the previous day looked very wide and the tree debris could be seen in the
water.
I was feeling lousy after a poor nights sleep and with my cold so I promptly
dozed off on the plane. I awoke to see virtually everyone except Trev and I
with oxygen masks on ! I went into instant panic mode thinking we were going to
crash. It transpires that it is just a precaution as we were flying from
virtually sea level back up to La Paz over the mountains at a height ofover 7000
metres again. I was relieved
that the pilot had a mask but was perturbed that Trev and I hadn´t been offered
one, clearly gringos weren´t worth saving ! On landing we felt a bit weird
again due to the altitude, nothing like the effects we had had in San Pedro but
our ears hurt and we were slightly light headed. We didn´t have long to wait
for our luggage and headed out to get a minivan to the bus terminal, to get our
tickets to Copacabana in Bolivia this time, not in Rio !
After bargaining for a good fare for the bus we pottered off to get some lunch
before transferring to the cemetery in La Paz where all the buses to Copacabana
leave from - most odd ! We found ourselves once again on a bus with a lot more
locals than travellers on it. All the women were in traditional dress and had
large bundles of goods, clearly heading to the markets in Copacabana. The
scenery on the journey was stunning, the views of Lake Titicaca set against the
backdrop of rugged terraced hills was beautiful. After a while we came to a
river crossing. We had to get off of the bus and catch a passenger boat to the
other side. Meanwhile the bus sat perilously on a flat bed barge and was taken
across at a rather worrying angle. If there had been a slight chop on the water
I think that would have been it for the bus and our belongings.
All back on board we set off on the last hour to Copacabana. We arrived in the
main square opposite a rather glorious and ornate cathedral. It was late in the
afternoon by now though so we donned our backpacks and headed up the hill to a
hostel called La Cupula which was supposed to have great views over the lake.
The description was spot on and the hostel was lovely. We set our bags down and
headed back down into town to sort out our trip to Isla Del Sol for the next
day. After some email catch up we headed back to our hostel to put some laundry
in, I felt for them as this was the stuff from the jungle so had a certain hum
to it (Trev: understatement of the year, this stuff was a biological hazard!).
We then headed upstairs to our hostels restaurant. The food was great,
we both tried the local trout with different sauces. However, the waiter was
hopelessly slow and the musician was awful and loud ! We did however spot that
the restaurant had a good book swap which we would come back to tomorrow. We
were both shattered from the days travelling so headed to bed when we
eventually were given the bill !