We made a special effort to be up super early on the morning of day 55, in order to bid farewell to Sucre and fly onwards to Rurrenabaque in the Bolivian Amazon via La Paz. Our efforts were all for naught, as Bolivia’s legendary flight delays did not disappoint, and we were left sitting around the airport for a good couple of hours. Luckily, we had the foresight to leave heaps of time between our two flights, and we landed in La Paz just in time to get our next flight. Which was terrifying. About 10 of us were ushered into a plane so tiny that even the tiny old Bolivian ladies had to hunch in order to make their way down the aircraft. This was possibly the coolest flight I’ve ever been on, as we briefly broke through the thick mantle of clouds about 10 minutes out of La Paz and realised that we were flying only slightly higher than the jagged mountain peaks around us. Crazy stuff. After about 40 minutes, we began our descent into endless green punctuated only by winding brown rivers snaking through the thick jungle to eventually join the main branch of the Amazon River thousands of kilometres later.
Here I was, being terrified by how small our first plane was. Little did I know.
Interior of the second tiny plane (single seat on each side of the aisle)
Suddenly, a snowy mountain peak breaks through the clouds practically right next to us
Yay trees! Haven't seen many of you in a while...
Touchdown in the jungle in our even tinier plane
Stepping onto the tarmac at the tiniest airport, we immediately began stripping off our high-altitude layers as the heat and humidity of the jungle smacked us soundly in the face. Yep, this was the jungle, alright. We were met at the airport by a guy from the company we’d booked our tour with, and it turned out that 2 of the girls on our flight were also doing the exact same tour, with the same company, as we were. We were all doing the 5 day/4 night jungle and pampas combined tour with Mashaquipe, a company which I chose because they were eco-certified by the local Green Action Alliance. Although not the cheapest option (but by no means the most pricey!), we’d read really bad reports about dodgy guides from the more budget companies doing terrible things ranging from letting tourists feed the wild animals to keeping animals in captivity just so tourists can have a look at them. None of that shit for us, thanks. After sorting out logistics for departure to the jungle come morning, we had a brief wander around the town, prepared our bags, and went to bed nice and early after a delicious dinner of Amazonian catfish (the local specialty).
Plantain salespeople on the riverbank. Plantains are the best!
Cute tree! It was nice seeing lush colourful vegetation again after so long in barren-ish highland areas
This slice of fish was about 70% as thick as my waist!
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