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travel to Florianopolis (day off)

Posted by manicdrums in 2001 VCR South America Tour

Up and out at 5.15am. I ended up spending less than 6 hours in the Hotel Presidente! We are all feeling more than a little the worse for wear.. with two early morning starts and high altitude. None more so than David Osborn, who looked like he had not slept for several days! His organisational capabilities were severely hampered by this today, but we managed to make it through the misty streets of La Paz, to the airport, where I was amazed to see Military Police in pairs at 50 yard intervals along the road, brandishing rifles in the air. We found out later that the President of Bolivia was leaving on a trip, hence the security!

After checking in, we all went to the only place serving breakfast – Burger King! Yes, there it was, in the airport terminal, for all to see.

David was looking decidedly green about the gills by now, and as we went through security to the boarding gate, he was seen ducking outside, and heaving into a flower bed, while a couple of Military Police looked on with vague interest.

He returned to the lounge, white as a sheet, and collapsed into a chair. In the end, Howard (Pollack) organised a wheelchair and some oxygen, and he was escorted onto the plane in the wheelchair, by a medical assistant, whereupon he promptly fell into a seat and went to sleep.

We were all relieved to leave la Paz. Without any time to acclimatise to the altitude, this part of the trip had been a bit of a nightmare for us all. With the kind of exertion involved with singing, drumming and playing Rock music in general, we should have had at least 24 hours to relax before the gig. As it is, we ended up spending less than 24 hours there!

As soon as the cabin pressurised, we felt instantly better! The rest of the journey, via Santa Cruz, to Sao Paulo, and on to Florianopolis, to without a doubt the crappiest hotel of the trip so far, is just one tedious thing after another. Needless to say, we were all disappointed to arrive at what amounted to a low class family vacation hotel, set in a low class Brazilian resort town, on an island off the coast, in torrential rain! The rooms are bare-walled basic 2 bedroom self-catering apartments….NO room service, no cable TV, no TV remotes, a really dreadful buffet dinner (not even worth the 12 Reals it cost). I had a bite to eat, and retired to bed with severe heartburn!