I made it, but only just. The problem didn’t seem to be getting out of the Amazon. It wasn’t the pirañas, jaguars, caimans or any other animal. The problem was arriving to my starting point in Rurrenabaque. Everything was planned. I would fly in on Monday morning and join a tour to the pampas and the jungle, to return by plane on Friday. The weather had other plans. Maybe I hadn’t shared my drinks enough with Pachamama. In any case, mother nature put a low cloud deck on top of Rurrenabaque airport that day. I was one of the unlucky people to fly over and then turn back around.
In la Paz nobody knew what was going on. I stood at the luggage caroussel and wondered where the other people from the plane were. A few of us were downstairs, the others upstairs. After going back up, we all waited. The plane was going to try again, but nobody knew when. 10 minutes later the flight was completely canceled. We were let into the luggage caroussel room again and were expected to leave the airport. No information was given, so a bunch of us headed to the check in desk. One by one we got the info that we could use the flight 2 days later. We didn’t want to do that, but we couldn’t cancel at the airport either. So I teamed up with two Brits and an American and we shared a taxi into the city. After writing a letter and signing a form, the refunds were requested. Next we searched for a night bus. After being in the wrong place first, we found the office of the bus company and got tickets for later that day. We had trouble finding a restaurant for lunch, but ended up in an inn with the kindest people. They headed to the market to buy fresh trout and let us stay until it was time to catch the bus.
We weren’t too excited when we saw the old vehicle. They were loading stuff onto the roof and the lower level was only for shipments. They even filled the toilet with goods! At least we found some comfortable seats upstairs. Slightly late we started our long journey. We had to go through the Andes mountains and descend into the jungle. The roads are infamous and seemed to be slightly wet. So we drove slowly. We passed a bunch of trucks, but slowly. Around 6am it seemed like we were only halfway. We were meant to arrive at 7.30am. I knew that again I wouldn’t make the tour and got frustrated. But there was nothing I could do. Meanwhile my immediate problem was waiting for a toilet. Stops were very random and you were never told you could get off. I saw some women running to the side of a house and just squatting there.
Around 10am we finally stopped and I saw a baño sign. I ran out and hurried to the bathroom. Back on the bus we heard it was a 10 minute break, but it lasted for about 45. Even when we left again, we stopped for bits. At a petrol station we cut in front of a huge line. From the bus I could see the unhappy faces of all the people with petrol cans in their hands, who’d been waiting for hours, or maybe days. After that we finally had one long straight road to go. Around 1pm I was in Rurrenabaque, 28 hours after I’d planned. A tuktuk got me to a hostel, where I booked a much needed private room. Then I walked to the travel agency and reserved a tour for the next day. I needed to relax and recharge, and would start with renewed energy the next day.
I sat down at a café off the main road. I hadn’t eaten anything normal since the late lunch the day before. I sighed away my bad luck. After a swim in the hostel pool I felt more relaxed. This wasn’t how I’d planned it, but it was how it would be. Next time, I’d give a little more of my drink to Pachamama.
