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Published: January 20th 2009
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Hello all,
Our introduction to Bolivia was very fitting - at the border John was stopped and forced to pay a $135 (American) fee for a visa required as of January 1st for all US citizens... however, this was very poorly explained and caused a lot of stress and confusion in and amongst unmarked lines and confused bustling officials and civilians alike. The office was a mess and we had no idea where to stand or what to do - passports and documents kept being passed back and forth between two desks with irritated remarks and we were all but wondering out our plan to ease into Bolivia for some pocket book relief and travel... Then we resigned ourselves to the fact that air-conditioning was a thing of the past, and started on the unending bus journeys to the Amazon....
After a long and rather frustrating trip, we managed to make our way to Puerto Viellero, the small village that was the gateway to our Amazon trip. A taxi dropped us in front of a small cluster of houses and immediately u-turned down the one road out of town. We bought some local juice (made from the seed of
a very sweet fruit and water... a bad choice as we watched the vender dip into the dark questionable cooler for water...) and started asking around about boats to Trinidad. We were immediately ushered to the port by a friendly older man, and told to wait till Saturday to board the ship he brought us to and he would help us with a hotel in the meantime. We thanked him kindly, and made our way to the official office to find out if there were any boats leaving earlier. We were told there was one and we were sent back to the port to walk along and find number 07 (did I mention there are no numbers visible...) and ask the captain if there was room for us. After some mud-trench hiking, loads of "Do you know where boat 07 is?) - Always eliciting a blank stare from the local and a short shrug, we did manage to locate the boat and the captain. He abruptly walked over, looked us over, said he didn´t know, but to come back with our bags at noon. We asked about prices, but he simply repeated come back at noon. This coupled with the
Chilleena....
such a cutie! fact that the ship was clearly a tanker with what seemed like no covered areas or welcoming nooks for us to nest in, spurred us to start asking locals if there were any boats leaving the following day. We had a lead, and went back to the mud trenches to find our next captain and ship. This captain, Captain Alberto, was much more approachable and his ship - a beauty. It was his house and his wife and he had a small crew of 6 men. We set a price of 250 Bolivians for a four day journey with meals and agreed to meet him the following morning at 8:00am. We found our way back to town for some local fish and a little hotel for the night and bough more provisions. Unfortunately the night brought about a massive storm, and we woke up to water forcing its way under our door, soaking into our bags and in the window and soaking our beds. We listened to the downpour all morning and repacked again, with full waterproof reinforcements before we set off to find the captain. Of course, our departure was delayed due to the rain, but we were reassured
a maccaw...
nice & colourful! that we would be leaving that day and told to return in an hour with our bags. It is still a mystery how we wadded our way through the streets barefoot and down through the cascading mud to the ship, but we did make it, and were off in the afternoon. Before long we were testing out our Spanish with the locals and marveling over the cargo of 100,000 gallons of gasoline, a cat, a pig, a dog, loads of plantains, and two motorcycles.
On the boat, we slung up our hammock and passed the hours reading, card playing, and staring out into the Amazon to see the hoards of birdlife and jumping fish as we plodded along. Of course, before we knew it, we were feeling a little bottled up, and the length of the boat just wasn’t enough to ease our growing boredom... especially when we had to bunker down at sunset for fear of the zillions of mosquitoes. Repellent, and even deet were not match for the Amazon - and nightly bathroom trips became the basis of all my nightmares. It really was a mood killer - until the engine would start and the wind of
Capabara...
I think... first one of em I´ve ever seen! the ship would send them on their way, back to the Amazon River where we were constantly amazed at the chill with the wind, rain, and cloud cover.
Day after day, we woke up with the engine of the boat, tidied our little deck space and watched the crew as they preformed their morning chores, we had plantain mush for breakfast, and retreated to our hammocks until lunch, then again until dinner, and tried to lurk around the netted kitchen in the evening until we retreated to the netted hammocks for the night... and so it went for four days until we reached Trinidad. Sadly, after all the effort of getting there, there was nothing to see in Trinidad! So, we made our way to the bus station and prepped ourselves for the 26 hour bus trip to our next destination... Sucre!
More to come...
Trish xx
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