Unfortunately the next few days weren´t much better in Rurrenabaque, weatherwise that is. It kept on pooring down on us and flights were being canceled every single day. The people at the office of the flightcompany kept on promising us the flights would go the next day. But every day it happened to be the same old thing – no flights. After 3 days of sitting around I was more than done. Eventhough I didn´t have a really bad time in Rurrenabaque, watching the footbal and laying in hammocks, I figured I could spend my time much more constructive. I met two Irish girls who were waiting for the same flight as I did, they were fed up with waiting too. I told them we should go and look for an alternative. We went to some tour companies that offered 4×4 trucks back to La Paz. They turned out to be about the same price as catching a flight, but at least we would get out of there. The tour companies told us we needed at least about 3 other persons to fill up the jeep, so we walked around town looking for people who perhaps needed to get to La Paz as well. While I was having breakfast the girls went to look for other people, and thankfully they found 3 people who really needed to get to La Paz too. The girls booked the truck and an hour later we were off back to La Paz. It took a mere 14 hours to drive back to La Paz, over the feared ¨death road¨. Along the way we found a truck that had fallen off the cliff, perhaps half an hour before. A lot of people were watching the vehicle hanging over the cliff, but we drove quickly past it. Around 3 in the morning we finally arrived back in La Paz. The tour company had booked us a hotel, so we were dropped off there. We immediately went to bed, as we were incredible tired. Still it was good to be back in La Paz after being stuck for so many days in this small jungle town.
The next morning I had a lot of admin stuff to do. Call home, get my money back for the flight, send postcards and more importantly, watch the footbal match holland vs france. I went to see the game in the dutch cafe I had been before. To my amazement the whole cafe was PACKED with dutch people all wearing their orange shirts and heads. It felt like being at home again. I went to watch the match and then happily bumped into Jannik and Kevin, who I hadn´t seen for at least 6 weeks. They happened to be in La Paz as well and just by chance watching the match in the very same cafe. We were all watching the match, I ordered a beer and a portion of bitterballen to make it as dutch as possible. After the match Jannik and Kevin went back to the hostel. I stayed having a few more beers with some other dutch people to talk about the match. Afterwards we went to have some food in the cafe as well, a broodje shoarma, which was brilliant too. Later on I had to get back to my hotel to tell them I wanted to stay another night. I then went back to the Loki hostelbar, as that´´s where most of the other dutch people had gone to for some more drinks. The night became quite crazy, as we all started drinking around 3PM, so by the time it was 23:00, everyone was quite drunk. Around 1 the hostelbar closed and I went back to my hotel for some sleep.
The next day, after a good night sleep I went into town to buy me some souvenirs. It was a nice and chilled out day. That night I decided to keep things easy for a change and have a good nights sleep.
The next day I went back in town to meet up with Jannik and Kevin. I went to see them in their hostel. Jannik wasn´t around, but Kevin was, so I invited him to come and have some lunch with me and Cath and Eve, two english girls I had last seen in Sucre. We had some lunch at the dutch cafe. Kevin asked me whether I liked to come and see a footbalmatch with him and Jannik that night. I obviously thought that was a great idea. I met up with them in their hostel around 18:00. The stadium was only 4 blocks away, so we walked to the stadium. I didn´t have a ticket yet, so I had to find one. This was even easier than expected. A lot of people were trying to sell tickets on the street. So I ended up buying one from them for 20 bolivianos (2 euro´s) more than the original price. We then went to the stadium and went to our seats The stadium was packed with bolivians who were all ready to support their national team against Chile, a far stronger team. The match ended up to be quite shit, Bolivia was playing horrible and in the end Chile won with 2 to 0. After the match we all went for some dinner at a thai restaurant, which was pretty good. Afterwards everyone was fairly tired, so we all went back to bed.
The next day I decided it was time for me to go and start moving again. I checked out of my hostel and went to say bye to Jannik and Kevin. I went for some lunch with Jannik and then made my way to the area where the local busses depart to Copacabana. I was meant to go with two girls, one from Italy and one from Spain, but they didn´t show up at the time and place. After waiting for more than half an hour I grabbed a taxi and grabbed the minibus to Copacabana. The minibus took about 3,5 hours. Cramped between about 15 bolivians, was quite an experience too. At moments like those you realise how far away from home you really are. But it´s far more fun than sitting on a tourist bus full of foreigners. Around 21:00 I arrived in Copacabana. There I checked into a hostel and then went for some food in a cafe. Afterwards I didn´t feel like going to sleep straight away. So I walked to a nearby bar and had a beer. There I met 2 Norwegian guys and 2 Canadian girls. They invited me to come and check out the sacred nearby Island with them, Isla del Sol. Afterwards I went to bed to get up early the next morning to go and see the island.
The next morning I woke up quite early to catch the boat at 8:30. While walking to the hotel where the 2 Norwegian guys were staying I met up with Faaez, the english guy I had been traveling with for the last few weeks. Once on the boat I found out a bunch of people I have been seeing for the past few months were on the boat. Including an Austrian couple I met back in Patagonia when climbing the Fitzroy mountain. It was fun to be around such a lot of people I actually knew. The boatride took about 2 hours. We then arrived to the holy Inca island of the sun. We went to see some musuem with stuff they had found around the island. Then a guy showed us around the area, including the holy stone representing the sun to the Inca´s and the place where the Inca´s believed mankind was born. After the tour we hiked for about 3 hours across the island. The scenery was quite nice, but as stunning as expected. Around 15:30 we arrived back at the other side of the island where we grabbed the boat back to Copacabana. Around 17:30 we were back in Copacabana. I then went to buy a busticket to make my way to Peru and afterwards to try and phone home. Later on I went to have some dinner with the people I had been on the boat with that afternoon. Later on we went for some drinks in a nearby bar with some typical south american live music, which was quite nice. Afterwards I went to bed as the next day I had to catch my bus to Cusco, Peru.
More news soon from Peru!!
Jun 11th 2008 – Jun 17th 2008
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