Rhumba Run Bolivia

Rhumba Run Bolivia
For Saturday, September 27, 2025

We take a couple of days to ferry aircraft from Peru’s Pacific coast over the Andes to Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia’s largest city and its 21^st century economic powerhouse. On the first day we flew from Pisco on the Pacific to Juliaca high on the Altiplano. Our second day will take us from the shores of Lake Titicaca over the Andes to the eastern tropical lowlands and Santa Cruz de la Sierra.


The tropical lowlands of the east

We depart from Juliaca [SPJL] and proceed over Lake Titicaca, famous as the world’s highest navigable lake. This is South America’s largest lake and it has hosted freight and passenger steamship traffic since the late nineteenth century. The population around the lake are mainly indigenous Aymaras and Quechuas. An interesting minority are the Uru who came to the lake over 600 years ago and subsequently found the existing powers (including the Incas) hostile. In reaction, the Uru built floating-island settlements which could be moved if threatened. For hundreds of years they lived near the middle of the lake for safety. But recently they have moved much closer to shore near Puno, the main port city of Lake Titicaca. We fly 75nm over the main part of Lake Titicaca to the Bolivian town Copacabana [SLCC] located on a small peninsula that divides the larger from the smaller parts of the lake. This is an attractive fishing village that now attracts outside visitors looking for a quiet and beautiful spot for relaxation. (The small airport has recently been enhanced to serve the new clientele.)

We continue toward La Paz but first we pass low over Tiwanaku (or Tiahuanaco Sp.), the site of a large powerful pre-Columbian imperial capital with a population of over 10,000 that lasted about 700 years before its sudden collapse around 1000 AD. And we then land at El Alto [SLLP], the international airport of the national capital. The city La Paz is located just east: down in the Choqueyapu Canyon surrounded by high mountains with the grand Mount Illimani dominating the vista. The metropolitan area (including the higher-elevation and larger El Alto) is about 2.2 million – recently surpassed by fast-growing Santa Cruz.

The 500 year-old city long dominated the trade routes and, by the late nineteenth century, it became the center of the government – hosting the presidency and the legislature. On a more idiosyncratic note, La Paz is also known internationally for operating the world’s largest urban aerial cable car network Mi Teleférico which serves as the backbone of the urban transit system. (You might like this long informative documentary.)

We head southeast, first circling over the city to get a sense of the exotic setting and then flying past Illimani and making our way through the high mountains of the Cordillera Real. Definitely rugged terrain. Finally, we circle to land in the high mountain basin that surrounds Cochabamba [SLCB]. This is known as the “City of Eternal Spring” because its high altitude and mountainous setting give it mild temperatures all year round. And historically, its congenial climate and rich soil have made it Bolivia’s breadbasket. For most of its existence, Cochabamba has been Bolivia’s “second city” – a dynamic economic counterweight to the politically powerful La Paz. This was the country’s first industrial base and continues to produce cars, chemicals and cement.  And modern aviation took root here, most famously as the headquarters of legendary airline Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano (LAB). Even today, it is the main hub for the national flag carrier Boliviana de Aviación.

On departure, we fly north and pivot over the Plaza Colon to see the modern cosmopolitan business district and the cultural center of the city. And on a hill to the east of downtown we take a look at the Cristo de la Concordia. The statue was modeled after its counterpart in Rio de Janeiro and is slightly taller. Visitors can ascend 2000 stairs or take a cable car.

Then eastward, over the basin’s encircling mountains and down to the tropical plains and forests of eastern Bolivia. As of the mid-twentieth century, this large eastern region remained sparsely populated and largely undeveloped. However, governments of the 1980s and 1990s initiated programs to encourage internal migration and external immigration to the promising agricultural areas east of the Andes. Many poor families from the arid Altiplano made the move and began growing tropical fruits and vegetables. They discovered that while normal cultivation could be successful, another crop was even better. It could be harvested four times a year and it paid more at local markets: coca. Now traditionally, Bolivians enjoyed a tea made of coca leaves and those living in high altitudes may specially benefit from that tea. But of course, these same coca leaves could be processed to produce cocaine. When the Bolivian national government cooperated with the US efforts to eradicate coca growing, the newly successful farmers of the east rebelled against attempts to take away their livelihood. One son of the region, Evo Morales, helped organize the coca farmers and eventually rode the indigenous-populist wave to become Bolivia’s elected and popular and largely successful president (2006-2019).

Our route following National Route 4 through the mountains takes us near Villa Tunari, the social center of the coca-growing region and only a few miles south of the Morales family home. We land at Chimoré [SLHI]. The airfield here had been a US-built military air base but the Evo Morales government turned it into a commercial civilian airport to encourage integration of the region into the greater Bolivian political economy. When Evo Morales returned from exile in 2020, he came to this airport to meet tens of thousands enthusiastic supporters. We continue eastward along Route 4 with a quick stop at the small farming town Bulo Bulo [SLBB], on the border between Cochabamba and Santa Cruz provinces. (As a sign of the times, the town sites a state-owned billion dollar Ammonia-Urea plant about 2nm west of the airport.)

Finally, we reach Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia’s largest city which by itself produces about 35 percent of the country’s GDP. Over the last fifty years, regional agriculture has expanded and become modernized and more productive – commercial farmers now export soybeans as well sugar, cotton and rice. The high terrain south of the city has South America’s largest reserves of natural gas – the export of which has produced real investment and growth for a country that was previously the continent’s poor stepchild. The city itself has incorporated an urban core with high rises and business headquarters and banking centers – and yet apparently retains a relaxed tropical small town culture. We finish our day at Santa Cruz-El Trompillo [SLET], the old commercial airport and now a busy general aviation airfield. Situated within the city only 1nm from the central plaza, the airport had been a mainstay of LAB and Panagra during the mid-twentieth century. But in 1984 the new Viru Viru international airport became the primary commercial airport. El Trompillo is now mainly a field for flight schools and private aircraft. This will be the new home for our little fleet.

[Author’s note. This mission was inspired by the ferry flights over the Andes by volunteer American pilots in the early 1940s. The idea was to replace the German-built airline fleets in Bolivia and Brazil with modern American aircraft – then a matter of geo-political strategy. Stories of these early days aviation in South America are told by Bradley Young’s “Rumba Run” (1944) and by Ernst Gann’s Fate is the Hunter [Ch. 7] (1961).]

Documentation
The flightplan can be found here.

Aircraft
Our employers have purchased fast twin-engined piston aircraft. Popular types include the Cessna 404/414, Piper Aerostar and Beech Piston Duke. I'll take the Flysimware Cessna 414AW. As always, please fly whatever you like.

Additional Scenery
All airports are in the default FS2024. The following provide additional scenery details and are recommended. Our thanks go to the talented authors.
You probably downloaded these two weeks ago.
Ica Las Dunas [SPLH]. Cserz
Ayacucho [FPHO]. Febble_raven35. FS2024
Andahuaylas [SPHY]. Feeble_raven35
and for Day Two
Copacabana [SLCC]. BoliviaVFR
La Paz Alto [SLLP]. BoliviaVFR
Cochabamba Jorge Wilstermann [SLCB]. BoliviaVFR
Chimore SLHI. BoliviaVFR
Santa Cruz El Trompillo [SLET]. sebtaj. FS2024

A scenery package can be found here. (300MB)

And further, there are payware renditions of Cusco (FSDG), Juliaca Inca Manco Capac (Low-End PC Studios), La Paz El Alto (Sierrasim).

Time and Weather
For takeoff, set the simulator at 1:00 pm local for September 27, 2025.
We typically prefer real weather.

Multiplayer Particulars
Date and time: Saturday, September 27, 2025. 1800 UTC
Where: AVSIM RTWR Teamspeak - Casual Flights Channel
Teamspeak Server Address: ts.teamavsim.com
Microsoft Flight Simulator Multiplayer: United States East server.

If you want to help others enjoy the multiplayer experience, don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer spreadsheet (linked here). Your courtesy will save others a lot of time and effort. Thanks