How does one go about checking up on a guide recommendation when said guide is not listed in guidebooks, has no website and does not respond to the e-mail found by Googling? Make friends with Jose Jordan.

To fit our three chosen locations into a measly 2-week trip, Hemmy and I had to keep a tight schedule—a difficult proposition anywhere in the developing world but notoriously difficult in Bolivia. Torotoro was the wild card. In terms of both money and time, we could only afford to go with Gonzalo Milan, but we needed to reach him in advance so we wouldn't just show up in Cochabamba and find him unavailable.

I couldn't tell if Gonzalo didn't respond to my e-mail because the address I found was incorrect, or because my grammar was so garbled he didn't know how to respond. I decided to contact high-end hotels in Cochabamba where the managers were likely to speak English.

Jose with his daughter Camela at Hotel Aranjuez

The first to respond soon became my trusted friend. Jose, manager of Hotel Aranjuez, was fascinated by our excursion to Torotoro...even though it's relatively close to Cochabamba it's complicated to visit. Oddly enough, Gonzalo's phone number was listed in my guidebook as someone who could arrange transport, so Jose called him and worked it all out. Taking a fatherly stance, Jose felt more secure about recommending Gonzalo after they spoke on the phone, and assured me Gonzalo seemed serious about his work. Even better, he told us Gonzalo would only charge us $90 each for the tour, although this was unfortunately disputed later. We arranged to visit Torotoro second, after the jungle.

A week before our trip, it turned out all of the airlines changed schedules for low season. Scrambling to create a new itinerary, I urgently asked Jose once again for his aid. Ever the kind soul, Jose worked it out so we could visit Torotoro right after arrival. In addition, when I had difficulty booking a domestic flight online, Jose arranged it for me.

During an instant-messaging session, Jose inquired about my career. When I told him I worked in fashion, he became VERY excited and insisted I stay in his hotel and meet his little daughters. I hated to disappoint him but at $59/night for a double, Hotel Aranjuez was far out of our range.

We went back and forth on the issue, Jose insisting he was not trying to sell me services but really didn't feel comfortable with me staying in a $5 pension. Finally, he surprised me with an offer: if I brought some items from work for his daughters, Hemmy and I could stay in his hotel for free!

I was floored by this generosity—especially as it costs me nothing to pick up samples around the office—and by his further insistence that we have dinner with his family at the hotel restaurant. Falling between 3 days of rural life in Torotoro and our trip to the jungle, a night in the "fancy" hotel sounded amazing.

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