Potosi and Sucre

November 11, 2010

Today we rode to Sucre, up and over 4 mountain passes. Gorgeous ride, gorgeous views of the mountains and peaks, river valleys and for the most part, gorgeous road. There were a few rough spots but the new payment and twisties made up for the few potholes. We were shook down for tolls at 2 toll booths, 1 only charged us once though and stamped our ticket on our return. The other charged us for $b8 but gave us receipts for $b6 each time. Obviously the pocketed $b4 (FYI $b7 = $1 can)
Then on the way back another robber tried to shake us down for another road tax using an official looking receipt booker and I said no and drove away… Going with John and Sharon to the 4060 pub for dinner tonight. 4060 stands for 4060 meters above sea level. Potosi's name to fame is that its the highest city in the world. We are sleeping at 13,300 ft above sea level. Wow, and you can feel it with every step you take, every beer your drink and the bikes feel it too. They don't have much power up here, but they still have a lot more the the cars we pass. Had to daun our rain gear on the way back from Sucre for a few sprinkles. Its raining heavier since we got back to our room.

Either we are getting used to being down here or Bolivia is looking better than Peru. I know that I said Peru looked better than Chile. Bolivia's road signs are better than Peru but not as good a Chile. As we drive through these small towns, the red mud brick homes aren't as overwhelming as the were when we started our trip. In the large cities, People have money and are all buying cell phones and TVs and computers and and and. Language is still a barrier for us, but we are not as intimidated by the lack of communication as we were in the beginning. People look much the same as people in Canada, just much thinner and shorter. Down here I am an average height for a man and most women are about 5ft to 5ft 2 inch. I see many beautiful young ladies and many well weathered old ladies wearing flat rim, of bowler hats and skirts. Sounds like these people wear these outfits for their religion or to display that they may be indigenous people. Not sure yet. Have no idea how old these old ladies are but if I were to venture a guess I would think about 50…. My age…  I am probably one of the greyest haired people around. These people's hair is jet black and when they do start going grey, only a few side hairs. There is no heat in our hostel room. Currently (5:45pm) the temperature is 58ºf, little cool. Blankets will have to keep us warm tonight. Have noticed many trees that shed their bark here in South America. I thought the Arbutus Trees on the BC coast were the only ones that shed their bark, maybe they were imported from SA many years in the past??? One thing that gets to me down here is the smell of urine. People pee anywhere and everywhere. The smell can be quite strong. Maybe it will get washed away with the rainy season, which is coming soon. Many rivers are dry or down to a trickle. People say they have 2 seasons in South America, Dry season and Rainy season. Reservoirs are empty, prairies are dry, there are more clouds in the sky every afternoon, now. Had a rain and thunderstorm this afternoon.

November 10, 2010

Went for breakfast, that was included in the hotel cost, and met some guys from Belgium driving around in a 4X4 with ultralights and flying over numerous places. They saw us riding the "Death Road" from up above. Also a couple from the US via Malaysia have been riding BMW around North, Central and South Americas for the last 10 months (John and Sharon) Talked with them for a bit and they left before us but we caught up to them along the road and rode with them to Potosi. Very nice people, they are heading to Ushuaia too. We arranged to ride with them to Uyuni and they are heading to Chile while we are heading to Argentina. Turns out Sharon's spanish is very good and she was able to find us a hostel for $b140 ($20can) per night, but no internet. We will meet up with them in Ushuaia for Christmas. Turns out they were in Cusco and met a few of the people we met as well. First time we rode in rain since our trip started, but then it was all of about 20 minutes and then just cloudy. Upon arriving in Potosi, many streets were closed down due to some celebration. Apparently, its a 200 or 300 year celebration of Potosi. If people weren't in the parade, they were watching it and fighting the crowds was stupid. Most or many shops were closed and finding something to eat was difficult, but the challenge was undaunting and finally a restaurant off the beaten path was open.

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Bolivia and "The Road of Death"

November 9, 2010

Left LaPaz and rode to Oruro today. 3 hours of high plains (alta plaino) riding. Our altitude was fairly constant at about 3900 meters (12,800 ft) Roads were better than expected and signage was too. Got into Oruro and needed a small screw for my antenna and directions to a good hotel. These guys helped with both. they were very nice. One guy got directions and drew us a map. Now I'm blogging...

November 8, 2010

"Death Road" here we come. After figuring out how to get unto the highway and running another gambit through another "cluster fuck" which we were much more able to manoeuvre because our side panniers were left at the hotel, therefore much narrower and lighter. We did as the local did and split lanes and weaved between stopped taxis and passed trucks on speed bumps (tapas). Then up up up and away. The pass peached out at 4669 metres (15,400ft) Talked to some people riding mountain bikes, with all the gear and carried on. There was the first Yungas Rd turnoff and as we deliberated about going down it, a bus was coming up. There are no buses allowed on "The Road of Death" so this bus ruled out this first road and we carried on. After Chapata, we noticed some mountain bikers heading down this other road and figured we should follow. Stopped and talked to their guide who confirmed we were on the right road. 1 km further confirmed our insights with this sign confirming the Death road. The road is about 30 kms and it is spectacular. Nearly vertical mountain slopes in many areas and we went from dry alta plaino desert vegetation to jungle vegetation in 50 kms Went from 46ºf @ 3600 meters (11,800ft) to 93ºf @ 1000 meters (3280 ft) in the same time. Rode under a few waterfalls. Then we went up to Coroico, 9kms up lousy gravel and cobblestone. Had lunch there. We ordered hamburgers and after an hour they finally came with no bun. There was no bread in town. Oh well? Then we returned on the new road that was opened in 2007. There is still a lot of repairs needed to the road but quite cool. As we were riding back to the hotel, there were many switchbacks, gravel stretches and repair work. but what a road. At one point the road crested the mountain and you could see gorgeous valleys on either side of the ridge then we went into a 1.4 km long tunnel. It was trying to rain and getting cold and in the tunnel was emergency pull outs where Michael and I stopped and got out our rain gear. Ended up the only thing it was used for was to cut the cold as we ascended to the pass. While ascending, cloud were being blown up the mountain and on 2 occasion the clouds created a visual vortex as they hit the lip of the road. We both commented how cool it looked. You had to be there, i guess…. Back in town, we bought groceries enough for dinner and lunch the next day for $b86 ($12.75can) including 2 beer each.

 November 7, 2010

We moved into LaPaz. After riding around town for a couple of hours trying to find accommodations with wifi, we finally found the one we are at now. Talked to Julie and the WiFi keeps cutting out. What a pain the in then ass. After reading my Lonely Planets book this morning, it sound like internet and ATMs are relatively sparse in Bolivia. So you will get what you get. Tomorrow, we are going to find the "worlds most dangerous road" and ride it if we can. Some have said that only bicycles are allowed down it now, but we will check it out. Tried for 2 hours to hook into the internet this afternoon so that we could talk to friends and family at our house for Miranda's 22nd Birthday Party. We missed out and I am upset with not having access to the internet when we needed very much. Walked up town and found a pizza joint. A large pizza, bread sticks and 2 beer cost $b110 ($15.75can). It was good too. The area of LaPaz we saw is more than I expected. Cleaner and more exciting and we felt quite safe, but didn't take any chances, so we were in before dark.

November 6, 2010

Got our bikes loaded before the tour and was picked up on time. The tour lasted about 3 hours and was very informative. The people who started building these reed rafts (islands) initially headed into the swamps and into reeds to hide from the Spaniards. They developed a culture away from everyone else and eventually started building these rafts. The rafts have a life expectancy of about 25 years and takes a family about a year to build a new one. Tourism is a major supplement to their economy and appears to be doing them very well. One young lady showed us her room that she shares with one of her sisters. Then we had to buy some hand sown pillow sham to help support them.

After getting back from the tour, we got on our bikes and headed for the frontier (border). 2.5 hours later riding over another 4000meter pass, we arrive at the border town and am surprised to see how busy it is. We figured out that many trucks do not cross the border, but instead off load their cargo and put the cargo onto 3 wheeled bicycles with flat decks built on them and people wheel the cargo across the border and reload trucks on the other side. Simply amazing. It took us about 1.5 hours to cross the border and import our bikes, relatively painless and then down the road to LaPaz, Bolivia. We made it to El Alto (a suburb of LaPaz) about 6:30pm their time and what (excuse my Bolivian) a cluster fuck. Taxis off loading and picking up fares 4 lanes wide in each direction. People weaving between stopped and moving cars, People selling their wares, produce ad anything else that might be sellable from the side of streets, middle of streets and bridges… Finally, we needed to find accommodations before dark and asked a taxi to show us to a good hotel with parking. I can only hope that was not one of the better ones in town. The manager could speak english, but there was a night club one floor below us. NOISY or what. Even with my earplugs in, I could still hear the night club and the perpetual honking of taxi horns.

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