Flying on a Bolivian Airline

Monday April 28th

Today we were flying to Rurrenbache. This is a small town about 400 km from LaPaz, but it is a different world entirely. LaPaz is a high altitude town, while Rurrenbache is a low altitude jungle town. You can drive, but it takes 18 hours (on a good day) so all us gringos fly down. The flight involves taking off at one of the highest airports in the world, and landing on a grass strip runway, that is only open if it hasn't been raining.

The group flew in two lots, for some reason all the couples got put on the first flight, and all the rest of us got on a second flight. Which meant I got a lie in, only having to be up by 7 (the first group had to be up at 5am). When we got to the airport we did discover there was a delay, although we did eventually get on the plane only an hour late. The airline was a relatively casual affair, but our pilot was Austrian and one fo the airlines founders, so it did feel safe enough. The plane was a small 19 seater, so our half of the group, all 10 of us, took up most of it. One of the lads who does a bit of flying was even able to go up front for take off and landing.

The plane did have some funny instructions for the oxygen masks, they have to be manually applied, but as I pointed out to some concerned colleagues, it doesn't really matter, we had just taken off from an airport that is higher than the level most planes are pressurised to. We were breathing fine there without masks.

Anyway the flight itself was pretty cool, we flew past the 6000 metre peaks at about the same level before starting the descent to the jungle floor. As I said we landed on a grass runway, which was a first for most people, and the airport was little more than a single waiting room. However it was not our airport. Due to the rain, we actually landed at Reyes airport, about 30 km away. So the airline had to get taxis to bring us to our destination. This was over a very bumpy road that took about 45 minutes to travel down, or it would have if we hadn´t got a puncture.

When we got to Rurrenbache it was pretty much what you would expect from a jungle town, a few dusty streets, a river (which eventually joins up with the Amazon) and a few hundred israeli tourists. Yep, for some reason it seems more than half the tourists in the joint were israeli. They were everywhere. I think its a plot to create a new state far away from the arabs. Anyway all we did for the rest of the day was stay lazing around in hammocks, internetting, eating, drinking and playing pool.