Puerto Suarez Airport Experience

In all of our travels we have never experienced anything at an airport as in Puerto Suarez, Bolivia.  We arrived here after and hour flight on a crowded AeroSur 727 jet, which by the way, left Santa Cruz a day late.  The Puerto Suarez airport is like a bus depot in small Canadian towns.  They took their time in unloading the luggage and then it sat on carts behind a counter. Luggage caroussels have not yet been discovered in this part of the world.  The Bolivian and Brazilian passengers pushed us gringos out of the way and crowded around the counter, shouting "that one" and waving their baggage claim tickets.  It was complete chaos and after about an hour of pushing and shouting we also were able to get our backpacks.  Then the fun began.  The taxi drivers who were booked to take us up to the Brazilian border, decided they wanted more money than was originally agreed to.  The local operator did not tell them that they would be transporting gringos and there is obviously a two tier tariff here.  So again a lot of shouting, foot stomping and arm waving, and this went on for more than half an hour.  After some sort of truce we finally boarded a cab that had only one headlight and and no tail lights for a half hour ride to the border.  The driver looked pissed off so it was no sense in trying to practice our Spanish with him. From the border we travelled on the back of a truck to our hotel in Corumba, arriving after 11 pm.  What a trip!