The Blaus - South America and Europe

13 de Abril - La Paz to Rurrenabaque, Bolivia

Our next stop from La Paz was a trip to the jungle (Northern Lowlands), which is not all that far away, but by land it involved traveling over a very steep mountain pass. The number one tourist activity organized from La Paz is a mountain bike trip down the "world`s most dangerous road," but we decided to forgo the bike trip since we had to make the journey on a bus. The bus ride was harrowing enough. The trip down the steep pass is about 5 hours, but the whole journey from La Paz to Rurre (as the locals have dubbed it...short for Rurrenabaque) took about 16 hours. We left La Paz at 11am and arrived in Rurre in the madruga (before sunrise). It was not a tourist bus, it was a local bus, which meant a lot less leg room, and a lot more stops along the way. The trip began with the usual parade of vendors selling food and drinks in La Paz as people were boarding and loading their belongings. The journey started off with the usual chaos. All of that was nothing compared to making our way down the road by bus.

The ascent by bus is up the back side of a large mountain at the rim of La Paz, and climbs to about 13,000 feet. The air is cold, and the mountain is pure rock with some bits of snow. We were right at the cloud line, so we didn't see very much during the first part of the journey. After we hit the summit, the descent was the scary part, and the scenery turned into a tropical jungle with waterfalls and birds everywhere. It is a one lane dirt road, so when another large bus came from the opposite direction, we would be forced to slam on the brakes and then reverse a bit to find a spot wide enough for both buses to pass. The road is cut into the side of the mountain, and when looking out the window, you can literally see nothing but the drop down into the valley. For hours we just descended on this small road that drops off into the valley. You get used to the high adrenaline levels after awhile, but at first it is quite scary. The road also has parts that are washed out all the time by waterfalls, so men are constantly working to build the road back up. The bus also passes under about 6 waterfalls on the trip, and the water literally falls right on top of the bus, where all our luggage sits. Each time we would scramble to close our windows just in time to avoid getting splashed by the water.

After we survived the most dangerous part, we kept on driving through the valley where we would often have to cross rivers in the bus. There are no bridges, so we would just drive through 4 to 6 inches of rushing water, but the driver clearly knew the best places to cross the river, as it was never a problem. We understood why they told us that the bus ride is anywhere between 15 and 24 hours, and can sometimes take 4 days. If there are heavy rains, you can't pass the rivers. So, just as it turned into night, after we stopped for dinner, in the distance we could see the sky lighting up with lightning. It was a spectacular sight, but we hoped that we wouldn´t get trapped in a thunderstorm. Luckily, the storm was always ahead of us, and we arrived in Rurrenabaque at 4am, ahead of schedule.

We walked into town and found a hostal that was open, and slept for a few hours. Then we went into town to try and arrange a river boat trip into the pampas (neo-tropical savannah) the next day. Just as we woke up, a huge tropical thunderstorm came through town, and for 3 hours completely drenched the town. We took refuge in a small computer shop to get our photos burned to disk, and in the shop there was a juke box for music videos. A group of very impoverished Bolivians crowded around the machine as different people put a 1 Boliviano coin in to watch one video. It was very surreal to see and hear the Michael Jackson Thriller video playing in this setting in Bolivia. We noticed a little girl who was standing at the back of the pack, she was completely dirty from head to toe, with no shoes, long ratty hair, and she carried an old basket full of fruit. She was mesmerized by the videos as were all of the other locals. After a bit, the large group got up and left the machine, and she stayed behind. She slowly approached the machine, then quickly retreated. She got up enough courage to go back to the machine, and very carefully selected the video she wanted to see, and reached deep into her pocket and pulled out a coin and inserted it into the slot after much hesitation. As her video started, she watched it with huge eyes, like she was watching something from another planet. She proudly pulled up a chair and sat down to enjoy this luxury. It was probably the saddest moment we have experienced on the trip. Watching this little girl, who had nothing, put her only money into a video machine to transport her to a world that was completely out of her reach, really got to both of us. Her eyes were transfixed to the screen like nothing we have ever seen. She watched a female vocalist with fake nails, make-up and the latest hairstyle singing about some trivial subject set in a clean, white room with luxurious white couches and furs. This is where the poverty of South America meets the so called glory of North America, in a little shop in a small jungle town in Bolivia. We will both never forget that girl, and she epitomizes a lot of our impressions of Bolivia.

posted by The Blaus @ 2:39 PM