Over Thanksgiving break, 8 other teachers and I went on a
crazy, awesome, dream-like, then nightmare-esque trip to Rurrenebaque and
back. (Rurrenebaque is in the jungle
part of Bolivia, and we rode a boat on the Amazon River for most of the time we
were there.)
After a flight cancellation the day we were supposed to
leave, and then a slight scare the next day when someone working for the
airline told us we couldn’t fly, we did end up flying that day…(that guy must’ve
had his facts wrong.) So we set off on a tiny 16 passenger plane.
I had stupidly had coffee that morning, thinking it wouldn’t
hurt my stomach when it always does…and then I decided to read during the 45
minute plane ride. But because the plane was so tiny, it was very bumpy. Then
it felt like we were going to crash as we landed—scaring us even more since we
knew it was a dirt runway. So between the coffee, reading on a very bumpy
plane, and the scary turbulent landing, I thought I was going to throw up. I
literally had my barf bag in hand. Thankfully I didn’t get sick and felt better
once I was walking around on land a bit!
The 9 of us split into 2 groups for our tour. I was a part
of the group of 5, so the 5 of us along with 3 guys—2 from Switzerland and 1
from Israel—left in a Land Rover to get to the Amazon River. We then took a boat
ride to the place we were staying—I think the name of the area we were in was
Santa Rosa. The boat ride was wonderful, despite a bit of rain. Our guide went
pretty slowly and stopped once in awhile so we could take pictures.
We saw TONS
of alligators—probably over 200 during the trip—and lots of turtles, capybaras,
squirrel monkeys, herons, eagles, a toucan, a howler monkey, and pink
dolphins!!
It was crazy how close all of these animals were to us and
it was so strange seeing them outside of a zoo! It didn’t feel real! I loved
whenever we went in the boat—the open air and warmth and humidity and breeze
and cool sights everywhere you looked was both peaceful and exciting to me.
I don’t want to write pages and pages, so I’ll try to keep
it to the highlights:
-We went on a night boat ride to see the alligator’s eyes
light up! When you shine a flashlight on them, their eyes glow!
-The 3 guys, Paola, and I were brave enough to jump in the
Amazon River and swim alongside some pink dolphins! They didn’t come close
enough for us to touch them, but it was still pretty cool!
-We went piranha fishing and I caught a piranha! The Israeli
guy, our guide, and I were the only ones to catch them. But our guide got a
bunch so we had piranha for dinner! I ate 2! Yum! I love fish!
-We went on a hunt to find anacondas in the swamp with tall
boots. I didn’t see any, but part of the group that chose to do some more
hunting around for them saw one but it quickly disappeared. Then we started to
walk back and Laura and I weren’t feeling that great. We stopped to rest for a minute, and then lost our group!! We waited around at a 4-way intersection not
sure which way they went for about 15 minutes until another group’s guide came
and found us. It was a little nerve-wracking being lost in the jungle!!
-We had mosquito nets around our beds in our cabins, which I
was happy about, but I still somehow managed to come back with approximately 50
bug bites. Blegh.
-We played some Dutch Blitz in our free time…fun game but I
don’t feel like I’m getting any better….I need to stop playing with Kelly. :P
And now, for the craziest story which didn’t actually happen
while we were in Santa Rosa on the tour…
We got back to Rurrenebaque for a Sunday night flight, only
to find out the flight was cancelled due to rain the previous night…and as I
mentioned before, the runway is made of dirt…so, you’re basically stuck there
if there’s any rain probably 12 hours previous to departure…which is stupid.
(They had a cement runway and apparently that’s in repair…and has been for
almost a year….Bolivia for you.)
And they predicted rain all week.
So, there was no guarantee we’d get back all week…9 teachers
out of I think 24? That’s not so good for our school…. :P
So we decided to take the treacherous journey back by bus…..20
hours…..which actually turned into way more than 20 hours and lots and lots of
tears and suffering and roughing it and thinking we were going to die going
over cliffs.
We were riding back mostly in the dark on the most dangerous
road in the world. I was in the very back, window seat, and watching us near
the edge of cliffs, and praying for my life. Seriously, I along with many of
the other girls who could see what was going on were praying—silently and out
loud—for our safety and for our lives to be spared. Joy and I were also singing
worship songs. This happened the most when we were on the edge of cliffs, in
the dark, and it was raining. Oh. My. Word. Not to mention this bus driver guy was
INSANE. He was going fast and never stopping for passengers to go to the
bathroom. And there was no bathroom on the bus!!!
Since there were 5 of the 9 of us in the very back and it
was dark, 3 of the girls literally peed out the window of the bus as it was
moving. I’m not even kidding you!!
We stopped once to drop off passengers/take in more and we
thought he’d stop for long enough to use the bathroom, but no. Joy and I went
to go find a bathroom when I heard the bus LEAVING us and we ran after it
shouting and it finally stopped to let us back on.
OH, let me back up! When we were first leaving on the bus, 3
GIRLS THAT WERE WITH US GOT LEFT BEHIND. The bus driver would not wait for
them. They hadn’t made it to the bus yet because the bus company guy was taking
us on a go-cart in groups of 3 to the bus. SO THE 3 GIRLS HOPPED ON MOTORCYCLES
(which turned out to be taxi drivers, but they weren't sure) TO CATCH UP WITH THE BUS. And then literally jumped on as fast as they could.
IT WAS CRAZY.
So, we finally found out why this crazy driver was not
stopping for anyone or for bathroom breaks and driving dangerously fast on the
Death Road (it’s literally called that). HE WAS TRYING TO BEAT CONSTRUCTION ON
THIS ROAD THAT STARTED AT 6 AM. Yeah, and that didn’t happen. We got there
around 6:30 or 7 I think (I was sleeping at that point after being up all night
scared). And we were stranded for about 9-10 hours while we waited for
construction to be done!! Thankfully there was a river nearby where we stopped
so we could cool off there and find some shade, because it was a blazing hot
sunny day and we were stranded with nowhere to go!
We did a lot of complaining and reading and talking about
how we thought were going to die, and crying, and peeing outside, and eating
sketchy food at the only restaurant in town.
It was pretty miserable.
So, at 4 PM when construction was over, we left this very
small town and river and the bus got us back to La Paz around 9 PM Monday
night. And then the 9 of us, all exhausted, had to teach the next morning. It
was CRAZY.
I hope that you’re able to take in the amount of dream-like
and nightmare-esque qualities of this story. It seriously did seem like a good
dream followed by a nightmare. And the whole thing seems so bizarre.
At least I will have some pretty awesome stories for my kids
and grandkids someday! :P
