020119: La Paz to the Rio Ibare

Today was our last day in La Paz.  Our flight was in the mid afternoon but we had to leave the apartment around twelve. Our first trick of the day was losing 6 kg of weight.  Our baggage allowance out here was 23 kg but all the internal flights are 20 kg maximum.

Joan was already awoken at 6 am so we were both packed and twiddling our fingers by 10 am.

We had hired Pamela to drive us up to La Paz airport.  She had arranged the driver to take us to Tiahuanaco a few days earlier.  She drove us once again up the steep hill to El Alto and dropped us off at La Paz airport 40 minutes later.

La Paz claims to be the highest international airport in the world at 4061 metres.  The landing tyres have to be extra strong to land here and the main runway is extra long to aid take off in the rarified air.  Most of the flights are internal or to neighbouring countries like Chile and Peru but there is one flight a day to Miami.

For a "capital" city airport it is small - one single terminal building that was for the main part empty.

We had a two and a half hour wait for check-in and there was nothing much to pass the time.

The flight down to Trinidad was less than an hour with a rushed at seat service of water and nuts.  We could see Lago Titicaca as we set off but the scenery soon changed from rugged greys to deep green. Curling rivers could be seen down below.

The change at Trinidad was remarkable.  Think, humid air that you could almost drink and intense heat.  Our lungs noticed the difference straight away as we walked across the hot concrete to the terminal.  From the baggage hall we could see our bags being unpacked and loaded on to the very small conveyor belt.  Before we left the hall a soldier checked that our bags corresponded to our luggage labels on the boarding cards.

A taxi awaited us and we set off to the banks of the Rio Ibare where our boat is moored.  It was so different - tall green grass, people on motorbikes, houses on stilts, cows in the road - this was a completely different Bolivia.  No bowler hatted Chollitas here.  It had a vaguely Caribbean feel about it.

The port was about 8 km away and the taxista weaved his way round big pot holes. We  passed a statue of two Bufeos - or pink dolphins - this is one of the things we came to see.

At the landing stage we were met by a sombre young man in a back brace who explained that he had a bad back and that another young man, Daniel, would be or guide for the trip.

 Kevin asked how many other passengers were on the boat and we were astounded to hear that for the first two days it would be just us.

We headed off in a launch and soon came across the Reina de Enin moored on a river junction.

The boat has two hulls, three decks and 13 bedrooms.  We were given cabin one at the front of the boat, which was cosy but more spacious than we had hoped.  It even had its own en suite with a toilet, shower and wash basin.  However the water for all was murky brown and came from the river. Not the sort of water we would choose to wash in so three days with nothing more than a stand up wash it would be then.

Mosquitos were everywhere.  The cabin had netted windows and a double door to keep them out.  Even still, a couple had got in and tried to attack Joan as she put up the mosquito net that she had just happened to bring.

 Pretty soon we set off along the river. We could heat monkeys and see elusive birds that did not want to be photographed.  The banks were green and thick.

We were told that tonight we were going to a hill with an important indigenous site. We cruised for about an hour before mooring up for the night, tied to a couple of trees.  A few small fires burned on the bank and there was a makeshift shelter with a few chickens and dogs hanging around.

It  was going dark so we had dinner in the salon for which Daniel joined us.  He wasn't the usual guide and was studying economics at college in Trinidad.  Dinner was omelettes with salads and three types of carbs - rice, potato and yukka.

The boat only has mains electricity when an external generator is running - about  6 hours a day so when the electricity was about to stop we went to bed, in a very hot cabin.