Amaszonas is the small airline that flies every day to Rurrenabaque, in the Bolivian Amazon. They have a fleet of about three fairchild metros. Rurre is only a 40 minute flight from La Paz, or a 20 hour valium-necessary bus trip, b.y.o. shovel for landslide removal.
We flew with Amaszonas. We got there some 27 hours after we first went to the airport for our flight. So the bus would have been quicker, but less reliable (!)
We were booked for 4pm on Sunday, and at 11 am, we were both sitting down on the internet at the guest house when the travel agent rang and said ´can you make it to the airport by 12´as it is a half hour trip to the airport, we could, so we did. So we were on the plane at 1pm, they were trying to beat the bad weather into Rurre. It was funny, as all the people in the plane were taking photos of each other, and thought the plane was hilarious - it was a metro, so not something new to us in the slightest!
So we accelerated down the runway in la paz, and boy, you have to go really fast to take off at altitude, something that I am sure Richard the Plane Buff will have explained in full on his blog (www.richard666.blogspot.com) so I won´t bother. Off we go, and circle around La Paz, with spectacular views of the nearby mountains, one of which I know is called Illimani, and another I think is Huayna Potosi. 8 minutes up, and the pilot makes the announcement that we have to go back to la paz because the weather in Rurre is too bad to land. Like, they did not know that ten minutes ago? So we went back, and all the flights for the rest of the afternoon were cancelled. Travel agent said they would update us at 6pm. Went back to the hostel we were at - full. Went back to another hostel we had been at - also full, oh no, wait, he said he had a room with one bed in it downstairs. The bed seemed generous enough for both of us (decieving) so we took it. It was easter sunday, which is the end of one of the biggest festivals of the year, so pretty much everywhere in la paz was full. Travel agent at 6 said we were on the 2pm plane the next day, but she would confirm again at 10 am. 10:30 rolls by, and we hadn´t heard from them, so we called, and she told me, like she said yesterday, we were confirmed for 2pm, but that wasn´t what she said yesterday at all. Never mind, we were on the plane!!
Back to the airport. Another 40 boliviano taxi fare. Now that is pretty cheap by Australian standards (about $6) but when you are only spending 250 to 300 Bovs a day its a lot! So we wait, wait to check in, they tell us come back at 2.30 for more info, so we wait, and come back, and we are scheduled for 3.45 from gate 7. So we are all waiting at gate 7, and at 3.42 a man comes and gets us and says no, no, its gate 2, which is back out through security and go to the international departure area and wait there. Finally we go to the plane, walk out at the international end of the airport, and all the way alomg the tarmac to right next to the gate we were originally waiting at. Never mind, we are getting on the plane. All aboard, oh hang on, we have one too many people, so the hostess called our names and made one israeli guy get off, he was supposed to be on the next flight. Taxi down the runway, accelerate for AGES again, and then, wham, they whack on the skids and we come to a halt just before we run out of runway. Apologies everyone but there is an instrument malfunction, we have to go back to the terminal. So we do. Richard the Plane Buff informs me what it is, something to do with the torque on the props, they have a gauge for each one to measure it, and one of the gauges wasn´t working. SO we go back into the terminal (at gate 7) and the Amaszonas Lady comes and tells us we need to wait for 10 minutes, while they fix the plane. About 40 minutes later, she comes back and tells us that we have to wait another half an hour. RIchard the Plane Buff spotted a box going out to the plane, that looked like a part, this is good news. Meanwhile, the Israeli that was meant to be on the later flight has well and truily overtaken us and is probably in Rurre by now. Anyhow, to cut a long story short, they fixed it, we took off, and this time we landed in Rurre, 40 minutes away, on basically a grass and mud runway (now it is obvious that with half a dozen drops of rain, nothing could take off here). It was absolutely lovely to walk off the plane into the soggy humidity and warmth. La Paz is cold. Rurre is positively tropical. So nice.
(view from the plane) 
(At rurrenabaque airport)
The guide from Chalalan met us at the airport, and took us to the Chalalan office to give us a run down on everything, then took us to our hotel, the Oriental. Sounds flash. It was ok, we had four beds in our room, and a lightswitch that gave me a hell of an electric shock. I used a rubber tipped pencil to turn the light on and off after that.
Chalalan in a community run ecolodge built in the Madidi Conservation area. The lodge was originally the concept of an Israeli guy that was rafting down the river and sank, and was then found by the community some 18 days later. He wanted to build it, 50/50 with the community. So they approached big american banks, and on the 5th attempt they said we will give you the money, but only to the community, not to this Israeli guy. So that happened, and then the CI (some american organisation) got involved with it all, and five years later they had built a few huts and spent 75% of the money on consultants. The community was naturally not too impressed wit this, and kicked the CI out, and built the whole of Chalalan themselves in five months. Each family of the 74 in the community had to send one member to work there for free for one month, and in return, got a share of ownership of the lodge. So that is how it is now, the church owns 1%, the community as a whole 50%, and individual families from the community the other 49%. I may have got some of the details imperfect, but that is pretty much the story of how Chalalan happened.
So after the night at the oriental, we jumped in a small, but long, wooden boat, for the 5 hour trip up river, first on the Beni and then we chucked a right up the tuichi. The rivers were fairly moving, and the baotmen were no doubt quite skilled in their craft. One sat up the front with a stick, dipping it quickly in the water to see if it was deep or shallow, and guiding the one at the back on the outboard. If the stick bounced off the bottom, the motor was cut, and they tried to find deeper water. Once or twice the bottom of the boat scraped on the bottom of the river.
(the boat trip)
We stopped for lunch, (yummy) and then kept on going, saw birds along the way, and butterflies, but no animals. Arrived at Chalalan and walked the 1.8kms from the river to the lodge.
(Peaceful lagoon full of sleeping caiman)
(big caiman by night)
(Jungle trail)
(Yellow squirrel monkey in action)
We flew with Amaszonas. We got there some 27 hours after we first went to the airport for our flight. So the bus would have been quicker, but less reliable (!)
We were booked for 4pm on Sunday, and at 11 am, we were both sitting down on the internet at the guest house when the travel agent rang and said ´can you make it to the airport by 12´as it is a half hour trip to the airport, we could, so we did. So we were on the plane at 1pm, they were trying to beat the bad weather into Rurre. It was funny, as all the people in the plane were taking photos of each other, and thought the plane was hilarious - it was a metro, so not something new to us in the slightest!
So we accelerated down the runway in la paz, and boy, you have to go really fast to take off at altitude, something that I am sure Richard the Plane Buff will have explained in full on his blog (www.richard666.blogspot.com) so I won´t bother. Off we go, and circle around La Paz, with spectacular views of the nearby mountains, one of which I know is called Illimani, and another I think is Huayna Potosi. 8 minutes up, and the pilot makes the announcement that we have to go back to la paz because the weather in Rurre is too bad to land. Like, they did not know that ten minutes ago? So we went back, and all the flights for the rest of the afternoon were cancelled. Travel agent said they would update us at 6pm. Went back to the hostel we were at - full. Went back to another hostel we had been at - also full, oh no, wait, he said he had a room with one bed in it downstairs. The bed seemed generous enough for both of us (decieving) so we took it. It was easter sunday, which is the end of one of the biggest festivals of the year, so pretty much everywhere in la paz was full. Travel agent at 6 said we were on the 2pm plane the next day, but she would confirm again at 10 am. 10:30 rolls by, and we hadn´t heard from them, so we called, and she told me, like she said yesterday, we were confirmed for 2pm, but that wasn´t what she said yesterday at all. Never mind, we were on the plane!!
Back to the airport. Another 40 boliviano taxi fare. Now that is pretty cheap by Australian standards (about $6) but when you are only spending 250 to 300 Bovs a day its a lot! So we wait, wait to check in, they tell us come back at 2.30 for more info, so we wait, and come back, and we are scheduled for 3.45 from gate 7. So we are all waiting at gate 7, and at 3.42 a man comes and gets us and says no, no, its gate 2, which is back out through security and go to the international departure area and wait there. Finally we go to the plane, walk out at the international end of the airport, and all the way alomg the tarmac to right next to the gate we were originally waiting at. Never mind, we are getting on the plane. All aboard, oh hang on, we have one too many people, so the hostess called our names and made one israeli guy get off, he was supposed to be on the next flight. Taxi down the runway, accelerate for AGES again, and then, wham, they whack on the skids and we come to a halt just before we run out of runway. Apologies everyone but there is an instrument malfunction, we have to go back to the terminal. So we do. Richard the Plane Buff informs me what it is, something to do with the torque on the props, they have a gauge for each one to measure it, and one of the gauges wasn´t working. SO we go back into the terminal (at gate 7) and the Amaszonas Lady comes and tells us we need to wait for 10 minutes, while they fix the plane. About 40 minutes later, she comes back and tells us that we have to wait another half an hour. RIchard the Plane Buff spotted a box going out to the plane, that looked like a part, this is good news. Meanwhile, the Israeli that was meant to be on the later flight has well and truily overtaken us and is probably in Rurre by now. Anyhow, to cut a long story short, they fixed it, we took off, and this time we landed in Rurre, 40 minutes away, on basically a grass and mud runway (now it is obvious that with half a dozen drops of rain, nothing could take off here). It was absolutely lovely to walk off the plane into the soggy humidity and warmth. La Paz is cold. Rurre is positively tropical. So nice.
(view from the plane) (At rurrenabaque airport)The guide from Chalalan met us at the airport, and took us to the Chalalan office to give us a run down on everything, then took us to our hotel, the Oriental. Sounds flash. It was ok, we had four beds in our room, and a lightswitch that gave me a hell of an electric shock. I used a rubber tipped pencil to turn the light on and off after that.
Chalalan in a community run ecolodge built in the Madidi Conservation area. The lodge was originally the concept of an Israeli guy that was rafting down the river and sank, and was then found by the community some 18 days later. He wanted to build it, 50/50 with the community. So they approached big american banks, and on the 5th attempt they said we will give you the money, but only to the community, not to this Israeli guy. So that happened, and then the CI (some american organisation) got involved with it all, and five years later they had built a few huts and spent 75% of the money on consultants. The community was naturally not too impressed wit this, and kicked the CI out, and built the whole of Chalalan themselves in five months. Each family of the 74 in the community had to send one member to work there for free for one month, and in return, got a share of ownership of the lodge. So that is how it is now, the church owns 1%, the community as a whole 50%, and individual families from the community the other 49%. I may have got some of the details imperfect, but that is pretty much the story of how Chalalan happened.
So after the night at the oriental, we jumped in a small, but long, wooden boat, for the 5 hour trip up river, first on the Beni and then we chucked a right up the tuichi. The rivers were fairly moving, and the baotmen were no doubt quite skilled in their craft. One sat up the front with a stick, dipping it quickly in the water to see if it was deep or shallow, and guiding the one at the back on the outboard. If the stick bounced off the bottom, the motor was cut, and they tried to find deeper water. Once or twice the bottom of the boat scraped on the bottom of the river.
(the boat trip)We stopped for lunch, (yummy) and then kept on going, saw birds along the way, and butterflies, but no animals. Arrived at Chalalan and walked the 1.8kms from the river to the lodge.
The lodge is set on a natural lagoon a 25 minute walk from the Tuichi River. The Lagoon is spring fed, and the excess flows down to the river. The lodge consists of a bunch of natural huts, all decked out very nicely and harmoniously, with very effective mosquito nets. Very much a necessity. At the moment they can accomodate 28 guests in the huts, and up to 40 camping in the high season. Our group, myself and Richard the Plane Buff, Andrea and Lisa from Sydney, and Susan from California, were the only guests there, it was very peaceful.
(Peaceful lagoon full of sleeping caiman)We had lunch (again) and then went off for a walk in the jungle with the guide, and about 77 species of flying biting insects, and a whole lot more that crawl up your legs and get you. I guess it was nearly dusk, so it was a bad time. But I was sure I could feel my blood pressure dropping as the little buggers helped themselves to me. They even bit me in the part in my hair.
About 45minutes along the trail we appeared at a little jetty on the lake where there was a canoe waiting for us, the mossies had eased abit by then, and we pleasantly paddled around in the canoe, observing two of the species of monkey that live on the lake, Yellow squirrel monkeys and brown Capuchins.
(canoeing on the lake.)
Then back to the lodge for dinner.
After dinner we went for a night canoe trip in the lake, to see all the baby caimans. Caimans are long skinny crocodiles. 
(baby Caiman)
There were literally thousands of them, you hold your torch up to eye level and look around, and all the little red caiman eyes glow back at you. We stopped by these reeds, and they guides made us turn off our torches while they made baby caiman noises, which is something like swallowing or gulping in the back of your throat. So there we were in the dark, in a small wooden canoe, and as soon as they made the noise we heard this great SPLASH, and of course, that was a BIG MUMMY caiman, thinking the babies were calling her. I swore, loudly. We paddled over a couple of metres to observe the big caiman, and she ws big, perhaps 5 metres. We pbserved her for much to long and much to closely for my liking. Then paddled back to the lodge to contemplate how close we were to being caiman food.
(big caiman by night)the next day Richard, I, and our guide Sergio embarked on a very long walk that involved crossing a river (twice). After we had crossed it the first time (on foot) he asked us if we would like to go Piranha fishing. Where? Yes, right there in the river we had just walked across. We went Piranha fishing later when we crossed the river again, and didn´t catch any.
(Jungle trail)We were on the lookout for a group of Black spider monkeys, these are much bigger than the yellow ones. We did find them, and alrge group passed over head in the top of the canopy, all stopping to look at us and call to each other, it was pretty cool.
Then we headed back to the lodge for another late lunch. Lunch this time was not brilliant, kind of mashed plantain (bananas) and rice. The rice was nice.
After lunch was siesta, then anther canoe on the lake to see the monkeys again (after such a big walk in the morning, I opted out of a walk and went for the canoe option again) and we got to see the monkeys again, much closer up, as the yellow spider monkeys were all coming down to the lake to drink. So that was cool.
(Yellow squirrel monkey in action)Dinner, of catfish baked with herbs, and heaps of different salads, and all the other guests who had arrived that day, about 6 geologists, spanish speaking.
We then went for a night walk, which I was not keen on at all, because basically all that comes out at night is spiders, caiman,s and frogs, and you can´t really see the frogs. We did however see a nest of juvenile tarantulas, which was positively disgusting. We also saw another big caiman in the inlet, and we happened to be standing right near the nest, which is not a Good Thing. No dramas though.
(big ass nasty spider, in a tree next to the dining room)
Back to the lodge, for a party, where they rolled us up coca leaves with the ash from the oil palm, and a bit of vine, which we were meant to chew. Now I don´t like the taste of coca tea at all, and a big wad of the stuff sitting in my cheek made me feel like I was at the dentist. also because it made my cheek go numb. Now we also had a rather lethal concotion to wash it down, they called it ´Puma milk´ and it was some kind of alcohol and milk, served warm. It tasted a bit better than the coca. So they played music, and we dnaced, rather uncomfortably, drank puma milk, chewed coca, then had enough and went to bed (after sitting outside playing with the two half grown kittens).
The next morning we left about 9 to walk to the river, get the boat back, only three hours down river. We were lucky enough to spot some capybaras on the return trip.
Chalalan was lovely, and it was good to go and see the jungle while supporting a community initiative, and ecologically sensitive operation. Another day or two would have been nice there.
And we flew safely back to La Paz, landed in the freezing cold. This time the altitude hit me almost immediately, my head was swimming, and felt dizzy, nauseous and horrid. We got a taxi back to Loki hostel, as we were booked in this time. Felt terrible, and went to bed at 5pm, didn´t get up til 7 am the next day!!
So yesterday we ran around and organised our trip out of here - the bus to Oruro on Monday, and then the train from there to Tupiza, where we will spend a couple of days before heading to Salta, Argentina. We are looking forward to getting out of the cold, and to the Argentine steaks!
1 comment:
Sounds like a great little adventure!
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