Friday, March 18th - Santa Cruz to Rurrenebaque, Bolivia

The morning was taken up with last-minute packing and a breakfast of whatever was left over and had to be eaten before we left the condo: bread and butter, cookies, pineapple soy juice, pop, coffee, crackers, etc.  At 10:45 we checked out and left for the airport where we had an easy and quick check-in and security clearance.  

We had a great  flight and almost on time.  It was neat to fly right past the high snow-covered peaks as we came into La Paz.  They seemed much closer than we would ever get in Canada so it was also a bit scary at the time.  Once over the peaks we made a big circle and came down to the airport in La Paz.  The peaks are over 6,000 metres.  La Paz airport is just over 4,000 metres and there isn't much space after you cross the mountain range to get down to the airport but the pilots did it quickly and efficiently.  And maybe because the airport is still so high, your ears don't seem to pop.  

We had about a three-hour wait at the airport before our next flight.  The Internet was good so I got my banking done and cleared some e-mails, but had no time for Facebook.  I also got something to eat at Subway, which was a nice treat.

The flight to Rurrenebaque was a surprise to all of us.  We waited for quite a while and thought at one time that we had missed the flight as there was no one left in the waiting area.  But then a few other concerned people appeared and before long there were 10 or 12 of us and the girl came to the gate to check our boarding passes.  We then walked out on the tarmac for a few minutes to get to our plane which was a really small one.  The interior had one aisle down the middle and one seat on each side.  There were four of us at the front and four or five at the back, probably with a maximum seating capacity of 20.  The cockpit was open - something I haven't seen in about 15 years - so you could watch the pilots as they flew.  There was no flight attendant but the flight was only about 40 minutes so you really didn't need anything.  There wasn't even a toilet.

We started at over 4,000 metres, went back up over the 6,000 metre peaks and then back down to only about 400 metres.   The runway was tiny and not exactly smooth but our landing was very smooth anyway.  The airport is very small and we walked in through the departures lounge as there was no arrivals area.  They had our bags off quickly and the next bags and people loaded so the plane took off on its return trip within 20 minutes.  By then we were ready to head into the town to find a hotel.   

We met someone at the airport who said they had a great hotel so we went with them.  However, we weren't really impressed as the hotel was too crowded and compact.  There was a pool in the centre but no breeze could get in as it was surrounded on four very close walls.  The rooms were also very small and not very nice.  Besides the crowd was very young and we weren't sure our schedule would match there's so we passed.  We then visited several other hotels and finally found one that we thought was perfect.  It had a large pool and a large open area around it and a beautiful breeze.  The rooms were a bit larger and seemed nicer, and they had ensuite bathrooms which was really nice in my opinion.  

The weather in this area is really, really hot with almost 100% humidity.  I was soaking wet from the moment we arrived and I stayed that way for the next several days until we left the area.  The first thing we did when we checked in was jump in the pool.  It was very refreshing!  Around 7:00 we decided it was time to get out of the pool and get ready for dinner.  We walked down to an Italian French restaurant and had a great meal, then we continued driving around town for a while.   Most of the action was down along the river where there were lots of people around and lots of little food stalls.  I'm sure our sit-down meal at the restaurant was better but the food at some of these stalls smelled pretty good.

The main means of transport in Rurrenebaque is obviously a motorcycle.  There are lots of tourist jeeps and vehicles around, but other than those it is all motorcycles.  And whole families ride on them, young and old, and only a small percentage of them wear helmets.  There is not a lot of traffic and traffic seems to move at a reasonable speed so it seemed like very safe transportation.  Walking seems to be popular and the town is not very large so it's easy to walk around. 

We walked back to the hotel and were going to have another swim but, alas, they had just put chlorine in the pool so we couldn't go in.  We had showers outside instead, just to cool down since it was still hot and humid, and sat around talking for a while.  Then eventually we went to bed with the fans on high in our rooms.  It wasn't exactly cool but at least it was bearable and we did get some sleep before the start of our jungle/pampas tour tomorrow.