We got up at 7:30 and headed out to the markets in La Paz for breakfast, we found some empanadas ( a bit like cornish pasties ) they were quite nice as we both wanted something hot for breakfast but they were quite sweet and full of juice which sprayed everywhere. To finish breakfast we wanted 3 bananas, there were dozens of stalls all with bananas but NONE of them would sell us 3 - in the end we gave in and bought 3 Bolivianos worth (about 15 of the things) and headed back to the hostel munching bananas as we went.
At the hostel we caught up with some internet tasks until Oscar and Joyce came back a short while later with news on the flights from their friendly travel agent (who spoke english and spanish) The flights were going and on time!
So, we left the hostel and wandered across the busy main square with our packs to the pick up point for minbuses to the airport - all the minbus callers shouting together combined with the traffic noise made it almost impossible to think let alone speak. The buses all weave in and out trying to get in front of the competition to pick up the most people making it quite hard to find the one you want without getting run over! We finally found one and lept in front waving our arms - our bags were thrown on the top and we were off.
On arrival at the airport at about noon we staggered over to the Amaszonas check in desk with our bags and a very nice lady who spoke english (hurrah - no need for my awful spanish!) explained to us that, surprise surprise, our flight was delayed - until 3:30pm ! She assured us however that unlike the previous day they would definitely be going. The four of us wandered over to our table at the cafe and had Tea and Coffee and chatted for a while. We were then informed by someone coming over from amaszonas that the four of us were on two different flights departing at the same time (despite what our bording cards said) but that our bags were all on one flight... Having already experienced the, erm, reliability of the flights we were somewhat concerned - what if only one of the flights made it - that would either leave one couple with four bags in the jungle and the other in La Paz with no stuff or vice versa - neither exactly ideal! We made several contingency plans involving specific hostels etc. before another person came over to tell us that the bags had been seperated on the two flights now - of course whether the right bags were on the right plane was another matter! All great fun!
Anyway, after all this messing about we were hungry, Oscar and Joyce decided to head up for a Burger King but after doing the same the previous day we decide to try a stuffed croissant at the cafe. The bitesize snack arrived a few minutes later and while tasty did nothing to sate our hunger. Soon the two of us were on the prowl around the airport for more food - Milly found a muffin and supplemented it with a couple of bananas from our still huge bunch. Unfortunately by now I was so hungry I once again heard the call of the whopper and much to Millys disgust had yet another BK meal for lunch :-)
We were eventually called in to pre boarding, Millys bag was thouroughly searched (well, she is a dodgy looking character :-) ) before we were let in. From here everything proceeded as expected, Oscar and Joyce got the first plane and 20 mins later we were boarding.
The 12 seater plane was not exactly a thing of grace, it was called the Cessna caravan and you could see why. It was fairly cramped inside but we were one seat back from the pilot so could see all the controls - it reminded me very much of my short spell as a pilot as I learned in a Cessna 152 - although this one had more buttons it was very similar. Mills looked a touch nervous as I excitedly pointed out the similarities.
We taxied up to the runway and stopped at the edge, we were then informed that there would be a 20 min delay while we waited for a jet to come in. At this I mentioned to Mills that if it was a big one we would probably have to wait a bit before taking off as the turbulence left by a jumbo can flip a small plane.. As soon as the jumbo was down we swung on to the runway and started to speed up - Camilla looked at me with īa touch of concernī and I hastily backtracked saying that I thought I had got it muddled and that the problem was when following a jet taking off (well it has been a while!) at which she hardly looked mollified :-).
Presumeably due to the thin air (we were already at 3600m) the plane struggled to get off the ground adding to the fun, one wheel off and then the other hopped several times before īthe caravanī strained into the air with all the grace of a sick duck. Once airborne things improved and we climbed steadily to 7000m to cross the mountains, the mountains steadily climbed until finally we passed between two peaks seemingly just clearing a ridge between them before starting to decend into the jungle covered amazon basin. The scenery was amazing, the ground was concertinered into ridge after ridge all covered in a matt of jungle with the occasional small settlement breaking the green and huge rambling rivers splitting into multiple streams and rejoining again. Totally cool.
As we decended towards Rurrenebaque the air got thicker and hotter and as we swung round to drop onto the grass runway the hunidity and heat became amazing. Once the plane stopped we were straight out onto the grass looking around. The airport itself was just a single building and our bags were soon dumped on the grass next to it. The place looked very picturesque with jungle covered mountains all around.
Oscar and Joyce were there and together we grabbed a 4x4 to town for the price of popping into the owners office (indigena tours) later to look at their offerings. We asked them to take us to the Tuichi hotel first but after a quick look Mills and Joyce reported that it was not up to scratch so we asked our driver to take us to the Tucanes, a new place he had mentioned. After a quick inspection Mills and Joyce gave it the thumbs up and Joyce managed to bargain them down from 60 to 50 bolivianos a night as we got our stuff off the 4x4. It was a great place, nice rooms with a covered area for breakfast, hamocks and a bar, even a fountain trickling away in the middle - far more luxury than we had expected!
We dumped our stuff and headed straight out to book our pampas and jungle tours to start the next day, Oscar and Joyce took Indigena tours while Mills and I headed to fluvial (recommended by Sal and Stu). We were very taken with fluvial. In the pampas their camps were the furthest upriver, they had english speaking guides and the program sounded great, the prices werenīt bad either! We were still there when Oscar and Joyce, finished at Indigena, arrived, they also liked the sound of the Pampas tour and so after a quick discussion outside we booked the 3 day Pampas tour for the next day (although at this point none of us were entirely sure what pampas actually was :-) ). We planned to book the jungle section when we got back if the first tour was as good as expected.
The manager at fluvial told us that we needed a pair of sandals or similar and something that it didnīt matter if it got soaked, mills and I didnīt have the later so he said he had some trainers out the back.. He had a number of deck shoe like things that didnīt look too bad but unfortunately they only went up to about a size seven.. Camilla was fine, I tried but even squishing my toes I couldnīt get into them - however hidden in a dark corner, looking faintly monstrous, were a pair of trainers, these were obviously the last resort, grey velcro numbers at least size 13. I resigned myself to the inevitable clown jokes and tried them on, not suprisingly there was plenty of room! We decided to take them with us to try and get rid of the worst of the mud , they obviously hadnīt been cleaned since the last pamaps trip if ever.
After that we headed for a beer at the riverfront while trying to decide where to eat by looking at the Lonely Planet guide (our bible). We decided on a highly recommended place - the social club. After wandering around for a while and getting confused looks from the locals we asked we finally found it, it had obviously been shut down for some time! Oh well, plan B, we ended up in a resturaunt very close to our hotel that Mills had spotted on the way out. As none of us had eaten much in the way of Bolivian specialities we all decided to order from the rather small bolivian section of the menu.
We sat for an hour with a strange man playing the guitar in an interesting fashion next to us with no sign of our food, having finished our drinks we were getting a little frustrated so asked the waiter (having given up on questioning looks) where our food was. A short while later we received our meal. Camilla and Joyce had both asked for a chicken dish which came with some strange root vegatables which tasted a bit like soap, while my meal seemed to have an entire pot of salt of it. The only one that was half decent was Oscars, but even that wasnīt great. All this confirmed what we had been told and had read, Boliva is not well know for itīs cullinary excellence (although I guess thatīs a bit rich from a brit!)
After the meal we bought some water for the next day and called it a night as we had a reasonably early start and a busy few days ahead!