Blogs from Rurrenabaque, Beni Department, Bolivia, South America - page 2

We took a hair raising flight in a tiny propeller plane to rurrenebache which is the gate way town into the Bolivian amazon. The heat and humidity hits you like a heavy blanket upon leaving the plane. It was so hot we decided to book into the only hotel with a swimming pool and spent the first afternoon floating in the pool before going to a local restaurant for some delicious amazon fried fish for dinner. We were collected by our tour company, Mashiquipe at 8 the next morning and lifted to the boat which was to carry us up the beni river to the jungle lodge with a 3 hour stop at a local village on the way. The boat ride is spectacular with views of thick forest on either side and as far as ... read more

25/7/2013: Slept almost all busride, the bus was better than expected but the roads were really bad and I woke up once in a while jumping up from the seat. We arrived at 7 in la paz. We found a hostel for 50 bolivianos and got a well deserved shower. Then we went for a walk around the city, found lunch at a small restaurant for 25 bolivianos (4 courses) and Iia and I walked to a mirador with a beautiful view over the city. We booked a tour into the amazonas leaving the next day, a little expensive but it will be worth it (2000 bolivianos). Then we went for a cheap burger for dinner and walked through a small local market. Then early home and pack and go to bed. 26/7/2013: Got up at ... read more

An early rise of 5am to head to the airport, checking in was surprisingly uneventful and there I was thinking everything was running far too smoothly for Bolivian standards. And then of course they didn't fail to disappoint, after an hour delay boarding we sat on the runway for 20 minutes before being told that there was something up with this plane so we all trudged back into the freezing cold airport, waited another 30 minutes and finally boarded an operational plane and took off. The plane leaving almost 2 hours late I was worrying that I would miss the tour completely for that day and with my trusty translator and travel buddy busy climbing a mountain I was busy freaking out about refunds and wasting a day in Rurrebenaque. All for nothing, I arrived at ... read more

A very dry day in La Paz doing no more than looking around the city and booking a bus to Rurrenabaque later we were on that bus, the one that would take us into the heart of the Amazon Rainforest. We had heard many stories about the bus ride from the capital into the jungle being a nightmare but we were both, surprisingly, looking forward to it. It was due to set off at 11.30am and we didn't leave until 2pm, it took the guys ages to load all the goods onto the top and underneath of the bus. Its a good sign of things to come! The bus itself was no more than a public one with semi reclining seats and costing £8 for a 24 hour ride, safe to say we were sceptical now. ... read more

Flying is the best way to get the Rurrenabaque from La Paz.. but many tourists will opt to take the cheaper option of the long and tedious bus ride - Lonley Planet What they did however forget to mention, is that it will be the longest, scariest journey of your life. They should say: Do not take the bus, who cares if its $11.00 - take the $80.00 flight and save yourselfs. Whislt reading this, keep in mind the bus ride was quoted at 18 hours long, turned into 32 hours - and the distance we covered was only 421Km's. So if we where at home it would have taken 4.30hours. The Journey 11am Tuesday morning, good start - the tour company we booked through had written the wrong bus terminal on the ticket. A short ... read more