Two Jungles
I spent the morning busy in La Paz with the main activity being a trip to the post office. Another adventure in postal world. Bolivia might be a bit crazy and haphazard, but I think the Bolivians are amazingly efficient in many ways. I went downstairs and found a room where you dump your belongings and a couple of employees build a box to contain them. They then put them into a plastic burlap-like bag and sew it with string. Very similar to what was done in Lima, but certainly not as artistic as the work done in Peru. I filled out the paperwork and shipped it. I had forgotten my passport and needed two copies so I had to run back to the hotel, but I was still out of there in an hour which was quite quick. I have now mailed from nine countries and Bolivia was a very decent experience. Once again postal workers were very helpful and fun to deal with. I like to think that US Postal Service employees are just as helpful for foreigners mailing boxes home in our country. I hope my thoughts are right…
Well, La Paz had another protest. It looked like teachers again, but I was on a mission after the post office to collect some needed supplies before catching the plane to Rurrenabaque so I did not hang out and watch. When I caught a taxi going the wrong way to the airport, the driver tried to get us going to the highway, but the damn protest was returning and we could not go that way. This was great luck because he instead took us up the wall of the city to El Alto where the airport is located above the city proper. It was a crazy drive on streets that only went straight for a few meters before another turn. Many hairpins and strange turns and we were well above the area in which I had been staying. I could not believe the views over the whole city as well as Valle de la Luna (another moon valley with weird rock formations which is literally attached to the city) and a couple of huge mountains (6500 meters high) that loom over La Paz. Spectacular! If you think San Francisco has some steep streets, try La Paz where it is much steeper and there are a lot more of them considering the bulk of the city lies on the walls of the canyon. When I get back to La Paz, I will investigate the high areas more.
The flight on Amazonas Air was a small plane with about twenty-four seats which was sold out with only half of them filled. I met Becky from near Leeds, England and Matt from Boston before the flight and we surmised that the altitude of La Paz airport prevents them from filling the plane. We took and soon found ourselves flying between snow-clad mountain peaks… not above them! Once again I saw beautiful glacier-fed, green and blue lakes clinging to the sides of these peaks. If a passenger had a fear of flying and took this flight, they would probably lose it completely. For those of us completely brain-washed to have faith in the pilots and plane, we loved it! Right after we got through the wall of Andes peaks, the earth fell away into the clouds. Underlying these clouds lies the Amazon basin´s forests.
The plane dropped down to the forest before we arrived in Rurrenabaque and we soon found ourselves flying around smaller, rainforest mountains. They made a few hairy turns and then we were just above the treetops hoping a runway was coming soon. The landing was smooth, but the taxi to the “terminal” was quite rough because we landed on a grass runway! At least it is a proper airport with something keeping the animals out so we did not have to make a pass to buzz the strip before actually landing. Getting off the plane, regardless of well prepared I was knowing I was going into near 30 degree heat and tropical humidity, was quite a pleasant blast after being in the highlands for so long. It feels wonderful to be in the jungle once again. Tomorrow and over the next six days I will be with a group of six people and a guide looking for snakes, birds, spiders, plants, mammals and, most importantly, JAGUAR. We will also fish for piranah (not spelled right, but I am out of time) and we will swim an afternoon with pink dolphins!!!!!!! They apparently love to hang with the two-legged, land-dwellers. The concrete jungle may be interesting, but the real jungle is going to be way better…
Tags: bolivia, south america, Travel
vagabondrick
Look forward to hearing about the amazon especially the “pink” dolphins and of course all the jaguar you are seeing!
Rick: Your experiences with the jungles are simply amazing. I am so glad that you are doing these blogs. KathyE