Epic plane journey

Having got back from the pampas and spending a night back in our hotel we thought our ordeals were over. How wrong could we be?!

 

We'd already booked our flight back in between getting back from the jungle and going out to the pampas, but we were a little worried about the weather as other flights had been cancelled and people were getting stuck out here. The morning after our night in the hotel we went down to the flight offices at 7am as the flight was at 9am. We were told straight away that the flight had been delayed til midday and to come back at 10am.

 

So we thought, that's not to bad, we'll just grab some brekkie and come back later. Arriving back at 10am, we were told it had been delayed a further 2 hours and to come back at midday by which point we were getting a little annoyed and what's the best way to stop being annoyed? Yes that's right caller......have a beer at 10.30 in the morning. The beer was super good and chilled me out a bit but after getting to the offices for midday and being told nothing, we just sat there til 1pm until we were finally put into some 4x4s. It didn't take long to get to the airport, and we went through the minimalistic customs even though we had to pay 2 different taxes to leave for some reason, they never explained why.

 

After sitting around for a little while we were put into a minibus and carted off to the plane. Way cool, we'll finally on our way after a three hour delay so onto the plane we all got where the flight attendant told us that the seat numbers were pointless, just grab any seat. Some of the people from our pampas adopted tour group were on there and they had sat anywhere as instructed only for someone to come along and say he was in their seat and asked him to move to which he refused due to the instructions. This went on for far too long with neither backing down, they both had a point to make but it was painful to endure the pointless argument and the tour guide chap finally gave in.

 

After all the commotion we were ready to leave and the plane set off down the run way only for everyone's worst fear to come true, the plan took a massive veer about 100 metres down the runway and then pulled to a dramatic stop. We were all wondering what was going on until a girl peered out the window and told us all that the left propeller was pretty much on fire with smoke piling out of it. Evacuation time, with everyone surprisingly calm, as if that had happened after take off it could have been a much different story.

 

So off we all jumped and walked back from a potential explosion and onto a safe grassy area a few hundred metres back at the start of the runway. After watching all the technicians faff about for a while we were ushered back onto one minibus, when we needed two. For some reason the other one wasn't about so half of us (including me and Jen) had to walk back across the mud to the airport, whilst we saw a group of wild pigs cross the runway (safety first).

 

 

 

 

Back at the airport we were told they were fixing the plane and with most of us not really wanting to get back on that one, we sat there nervously. Much more faffing later we were told it was unfixable and they were flying in a new plane for us from La Paz. Feeling a bit more at ease, we waited for that not knowing that this wait would take us through til 5.15pm.

 

Finally we're told we can go and get on our new plane and once again without the minibuses anywhere to be seen, we all walk down the mud and to the runway, great service eh?!

 

We get there and what do we see?! The same plane that we had all been on before, as we could tell from it's tail number. All of us were saying we ain't getting on that but with the airport closing in 45 mins at 6pm due to light restrictions we were all keen to get out of here but not really at the mercy of a clapped out plane!

 

With a lot of questions going on, the flight staff didn't really have a whole lot of answers so we all just sat on the grass next to the runway until we got some information. We were finally told that a plane was indeed coming and with us all listening out for planes in the sky, we were disappointed to see the first two flying above us with the clock ticking down.

Finally at 5.55pm our plane turned up and we all got our luggage on board pronto and got on there. No arguments about seats this time, everyone just wanted to get on and get out of here.

This time we had got an ex army plane which was a bit more sturdy but much less luxurious with it looking like it had been converted with clips on the roof for paratroopers. None the less, we were all on there and took off without any further issues.

 

 

 

 

We were on our way out of crazy Rurrenabaque with some awesome memories, some not so awesome but looking back it was a funny story, even though it could have been much worse.

 

Oh and just to add to it all, we got the worst turbelance I've ever been in on the way back in a small rickety plane so it wasn't the most fun journey home. But we made it back to La Paz, ready for our second outing in the joint capital of Bolivia (thats right, Sucre is also the capital of Bolivia, weird eh?!)