La Paz to Rurrenabaque

It took me four hours to book an airline ticket this morning. First the hotel travel agency decided that it was a holiday and that they wouldn´t open until 10. Then they failed to open at 10. The kind people at my hotel found another agency. It took the women one hour to buy a one way ticket.

I boarded plane but had no seat indicator on my boarding pass. The copilot told me I could sit anywhere I wanted to so I assumed the bulkseat on the port side. A couple of minutes later a passenger with a boarding pass that indicated the seat I was in. I moved and this was repeated three more tgime.

This 45 minute flight is far preferable than a 20 hour bus ride. We boarded the 18 seater plane on time and 35 minutes later we were skimming the tree tops in the Amazon and touched down a grass field. Apparently the runway at my destination airport a grass strip outside of town is being repaired. 45 minutes later we boarded a bus that was to take us to our destination. A bus employee came down the aisle and charged everybody. When he got to me I showed him my ticket, said it was to Rurrembaque, not the military airstrip and that I would discuss this extortion in the company office when we arrived, the extortionist indicated that that was not necessary. The other passengers applauded me and the guy next to me said ¨Welcome to Bolivia.¨ Half an hour later the bus broke down on the hot dusty road and we all got out and wished we had water. With the most savage of tools the driver reconnected the throttle cable linkage, a process that took most of an hour.

I´ve just come down from the cold high altitudes of La Paz to the sweltering humid Bolivian Amazon. The entire town is hotels, tour companies and bars.

I sought out a hotel with a pool paid my 200 Bolivars about 28 bucks for my room but left when I found I didn´t have wireless internet. The man who ran the place apologized, refunded 300 B I through the extra hundred back on the counter. A couple blocks later I found another hotel. They were right next to an Intenet cafe. The rate? Vente. Twenty frigging B. Less than $3. Wow.

I started hitting up the tour companies just shopping rates. All of the tour guides and cooks are free lance and they stay in the same places. Hotter than hell and hungry, I am waiting for the typico restaurant to open up so I get some grub.