Into the jungle we go...

 

We set off from our hotel and jumped in a cab to take us to the part of La Paz where the buses to Rurrenabaque leave from. As soon as we got in though, we hit a massive queue of traffic. Turns out the main road was closed for a kulak demonstration (very common in Bolivia apparently). The driver had to take a very convoluted route to get us to the bus station, and we made the bus with seconds to spare. Or so we thought. As usual, kulaks were being very lazy and the bus was half an hour late in leaving, so we had needlessly worried about missing the bus.

  

Our bus looked very nice and big, suitable for the 20 hour journey we were about to endure. Shame we had been looking at the wrong bus. We were then shown the bus we would actually be travelling in, which was half the size and twice as crispy. All our bags got thrown on the roof, much to Lisa's dismay, and we crowded on the bus with all the other kulaks ? there was only one other white person with us, who later joined us for the whole Pampas trip.

  

While we were waiting to leave, a bus drove past us, piled high with luggage. Kulaks aren't generally known for their foresight, and before the bus had reached the end of the road, the luggage had become entangled with overhead electricity cables. He he he. Lots of street kulaks shouted as a rat kulak climbed out of the bus, and hopped along the side of it, easing the cables off the luggage. See picture for full kulak behaviour.

  

Eventually the bus set off down very very bad roads, and was often observed teetering on the edge of narrow mountain roads or rolling dangerously from side to side as it sloshed around in pot holes and ditches. Later on we stopped for a toilet break, and all the men got off to wee at the side of the road. Much to our horror, so did all the kulak women, who just squatted next to the men under their giant skirts.

  

At one point, a bus kulak got off and walked in front of the bus to check that the road was safe to pass. The mud came up to his waist! Luckily Charlie slept through all this, and had to be violently awakened when we reached our destination at 6.30am the next day, 18 hours later.

  

We got a cab with the girl we met on the bus (Emily) to a hostel and checked in. We were all overcome by the intense heat and humidity, especially since we had come from La Paz, where it is very cold! Rurrenabaque had the feel of a Caribbean island and was a lovely cobbled little town to wander around (much better than we had expected). We spent the day checking out various tour agencies with whom to do the Pampas trip with, and eventually chose one and booked our tour. We all went out for dinner (Pizza!) and then went home to pack for our 3 day nightmare.   

Final thoughts: Nice enough little town, but nothing to do apart from book jungle and pampas tours.

Mark out of 10 = 7

Next time... Pampas