May 8, 2001
Location - Guanay, Bolivia

The advance expedition team arrived in Bolivia on May 1, 2001. After all our preparatory work we are excited to finally be here and have set upon our work with great enthusiasm. We are presently at Guanay, the location of our base camp. To get here we travelled a distance of 230 km on one of the worst roads in South America.

Our eleven-hour bone-shaking journey took us over the Andes at heights of 15,000 feet, through the steaming jungles of the Yungas and past roadblocks set up by rebellious coca farmers. Our 4WD vehicles negotiated narrow roads with frighteningly sheer drops of several thousand feet on the sides. Under Lt. Col. Ernie Drury's direction, a 10-ton Bolivian government lorry carried the expedition's stores safely to Guanay. Here we set up the base camp, which we named Fort General Sir John Mogg, in honour of the distinguished British soldier who helped found the Scientific Exploration Society.

At Guanay, we were warmly welcomed by the local people. They informed us that they had sent a group of cutters to start clearing the trail to the site of Paititi. Prince Leopold D'Arenberg, Lt. Andrew Craig RE, and Mike How have also set out on a 20-mile trek through deep jungle on a reconnaissance mission to locate Paititi.

Veteran river navigator, Captain Jim Masters, and environmentalist, Major Bill Holmes, have already been to Lake Titicaca and have met the Catari family, the expedition's reed boat builders. Work on the boats is progressing well and they should be ready to be transported to Guanay on Bolivian army trucks by the end of May.

Preparations are also underway for the next phase of the Kota Mama expedition. Col. John Blashford-Snell (JBS), Jim Masters, and Yolima Cipaguata are currently carrying out an air recce of the Rio Grande Gorge in Southern Bolivia. The information they collect would be essential for the planning of Phase IV of the expedition.