I´m sorry for all Australians but Australia has been outranked from the 2nd rank of the list of my most favourite countries by Bolivia. This country is gorgeous, not easy, but ou are rewarded for every effort.
At the exit of Uyuni I finally found the first signpost, after I´ve been travelling for 240km in Bolivia.
But only after I´ve been on the correct road and no trace of a junction. Lucky that my GPS is still working.
There has been much traffic on the first 20km to Colchani, mainly 4WD occupied
with tourists, who all headed to the Salt Lakes. After all I was by myself again. On my own I fought my way through the sand and over the corrugations. The landscape around became more and more prettier and greener. It was really nice to see some flowers at the side of the road after such a long time.
Dark clouds were appaering, there was a thunderstorm in the distance, it was
raining lightly and I was glad not to be on the Salar at this time. The
Altiplano in this area is in fact Alti (high), but not plano (flat). Some hills
had to be climbed, not high, but you really have to breath hard in this
altitude.
And there are hardly any bridges...
There has been much traffic on the first 20km to Colchani, mainly 4WD occupied
with tourists, who all headed to the Salt Lakes. After all I was by myself again. On my own I fought my way through the sand and over the corrugations. The landscape around became more and more prettier and greener. It was really nice to see some flowers at the side of the road after such a long time.
Dark clouds were appaering, there was a thunderstorm in the distance, it was
raining lightly and I was glad not to be on the Salar at this time. The
Altiplano in this area is in fact Alti (high), but not plano (flat). Some hills
had to be climbed, not high, but you really have to breath hard in this
altitude.
And there are hardly any bridges...
Similar to Australia I just crossed them with my boots on. Unfortunatelly it was
not such a good idea here. It was Saltwater and it was very cold, no chance for
my shoes and socks to dry. After a while it became much to cold for pushing
further.
Beside the road there are sometimes some clay-huts, and Quinoa-farmers and
Alpaca-breeder used to live in there
not such a good idea here. It was Saltwater and it was very cold, no chance for
my shoes and socks to dry. After a while it became much to cold for pushing
further.
Beside the road there are sometimes some clay-huts, and Quinoa-farmers and
Alpaca-breeder used to live in there
One of them allowed me to camp on his grounds which was sheltered by the winds.
The older people as well as the oldest son obervered me out of the dark of the hut, but the two little girls braver and spied over the wall from time to time.
But again it was so cold that I had to retreat into my tent.
In the next morning everybody was up early, so there was no alternative to get up early as well. It was the first time since arriving in South America that I found my tent wet, it is definitely a different climatic zone.
It´s very confusing that they have different names for places, obviously Spanish
and Quechua, the aboriginal language. In reality there are more settlements than marked on my map, so I never know exactly where I am. I always have to inquire with the locals, and sometimes I found a coincidence between the information I got and my map. But the most important thing is that there are settlements at all to get food and drink.
And suddenly a lake appeared in front of me. I heard it before that there must be some flamingos at the salt lakes, but I´ve never seen some before.
In the next morning everybody was up early, so there was no alternative to get up early as well. It was the first time since arriving in South America that I found my tent wet, it is definitely a different climatic zone.
It´s very confusing that they have different names for places, obviously Spanish
and Quechua, the aboriginal language. In reality there are more settlements than marked on my map, so I never know exactly where I am. I always have to inquire with the locals, and sometimes I found a coincidence between the information I got and my map. But the most important thing is that there are settlements at all to get food and drink.
And suddenly a lake appeared in front of me. I heard it before that there must be some flamingos at the salt lakes, but I´ve never seen some before.
And here they are, by lucky chance. Further on I went, passing along Quinoa-fields.
Depending on their grade of ripeness they have a different colour. From the seedlings to the harvest, it´s all manual-work.
I had to cross another river before I reached Sevaruy. There was a railway bridge, but I didn´t dare crossing it because the tracks were dangling in midair. I thought that it might be better to cross the river through the water instead of falling down with the heavy bike from above. But I made the mistake to cross it at the most shallow part, because I sank ankle deep into the deep sand. I really had to struggle to get my bike out of there.
Two Bolivian women who were sitting on the river banks didn´t seem to notice me.
But after a while they obviously felt sorry with me and were shouting ”camino” and pointed more to the right side, where the water was deeper. Obviously the ford was there. After I reached it and I made my way to the other side of the river. I was totally exhausted . I still had not got used to the altitude.
The track that was laying ahead wasn´t easy at all. So I just stopped in the next small village. I asked a young women if I was allowed to put up my tent in the windshade of a wall. That wasn´t a problem at all, I even got a bucket of water.
Only preparing a meal, putting up the tent and ejoying the evening light. I couldn´t do much more than this any more.
During the night it rained, and it wasn´t that cold, but I remembered the mountains sourrounding me the evening before hadn´t been so white.
I had to proceed on really awful roads.
But I knew beforehand that this would finally come to an end. And very luckily was that the end came earlier than expected. After 570km of Gravel-, Sand- and Saltroads and Tracks finally something like tarmac.
Normally the road wasn´t open for regular traffic, from time to time I had to detour some sand hills, but I had the road on my own. Thanks to all roadworkers for this glorious task.
Here on the Altiplano the altitude variies between 3600 and 3900 m. If the sun is shining, it´s alright. But if the sun disappears, it gets really really cold. And usually the sun disappears every evening ;). On this special day the sun kept on hiding behind the clouds. In the market hall of Huari, the town itself being famous for it´s beer, I could warm me up with a hot Quinoa-soup.
The snow-covered Mouantains surrounded me the whole day, a fabulous scenery.
Some time I couldn´t see it any more. Dark clouds rose up accompanied by a thunderstrom and a headwind. It just started to rain heavily when I arrived in Pazna. The houses over here do not have roofed verandahs, but you only recognize that if you desperatly search for a place to find shelter from the rain. The only place I found was the entrance to the policestation. Some people were already sitting and standing there and one market women offered me her stool to take a seat.
When it stopped raining it still was very cold and the headwind hadn´t deased either. Why bothering to continue on such an afternoon when the next morning is to be expected wonderful? So I asked the policemen if they could recommend me a room or a campingspot to stay. I wasn´t actually keen on camping. At first they said there is nothing in this village, but after a while they led me to house. I couldn´t see any sign that indicated that they had accomodation like a hotel, pensione or residenzia, like you call these down here. A giant Coca-Cola sign could have been a sign for the restaurant in there. In the backyard they had some small rooms crammed with beds, which usually were used to accomodate workers. The toilet was situated in the backyard, no showers but I had plenty of water above me the whole day anyway.
I payed only 15 bolivianos, 1,5 Euro. I had a warm and cosy place, I was very content.
On the next mmorning the weather really cleared up and the sun was shining.
It´s quite nice to see some flowers growing beside the road.
With a tailwind I could easily cope with the hills on roads with bitumen. It really felt good to use the higher gears and notice that they still were working. They webadly neglected during the last days.
Because I have problems with my lips for a couple of days I only ride strongly disguised.
The wind and the sun produce blisters, and I can´t cure it with. Lip-protectant. Very unpleasant if the lips stick together during the night and tear open if you have to yawn. Very annoying, so I prefer riding disgiused.
After a quick ride I arrived at my first larger Bolivian town, Oruro. Very irritating to have to deal with so many roads without proper signposts. Actually I just wanted to download my e-mails and off we go, but I received a mail from my bank to call them. So I had to find a place to make this call, they didn´t have Skype, neither Wifi. When I finally managed it I only caught the answering machine: ”You´ve called us out of business hours, please try again later.”
Because I knew that it was very importnat to call them back I took a room, because the next opportunity to call them would have been La Paz.
In the early morning I was already sitting in front of a hamburger restaurant (no, not Mac Do) with Wifi. The restaurant was closed but the server was switched on, how handy. So I could contact my bank and I experienced that they didn´t even started to issue my new credit card not to mention sent it o La Paz.
It was Easter holiday and we know how much work there is be done during these days. I quickly realized that I faced a longer stay in La Paz.
After asking my way through every crossing and every roundabout in direction of
La Paz I was very glad to be out of Oruro again.
Once again after a couple of 100m on an arterial road I discovered a signpost
indicating ”230 km to La Paz” . Not very helpful for general direction-decisions
but good to know to be on the right way and very comforting.
Passing beautiful lakes and mountains this stunning scenery helped me to calm down and not before long I forgot all this trouble with my bank. I decided to make the best out of my forced stay in La Paz.
The light in the dusk was getting more and more beautiful and before arriving in La Paz I absolutely wanted to spent the night outdoors in my tent surrounded by this beautiful landscape. It got very cold and for the first time I discoverd hoarfrost on my tent in the morning. Not very motivating to get up. Because I didn´t know if I would reach La Paz in one day I just relaxed until it got too busy around me.
The sun rose quickly because the mountains were in quite a distance and soon it became warm. After having breakfast my tent nearly dried up.
I Patacamaya I saw a giant queue of people with their big yellow-orange gasbottles, similar I've seen in Oruro. The more furtunate had a little handkart, the less fortunate had to carry them. An older women carried her gasbottles on her back in a cloth. Nearly everything is transported in this manner, of course also infants.
Sometimes it was very hard to find a restroom. I saw some signposts with ”public toilets” on but these places never looked really inviting. Because of the lack of appropriate shrubs the alternative for human matters are old, crumbled walls. If you find such a place you soon realize that hundreds of people had the same idea before you. Maybe someone would contribute to the developement of Bolivia to put up enough restrooms and enough possibilities to dispose nappies. It´s really unbelievable to see how many of them are lying offroad.
And not only in Bolivia, in nearly every remote region you´ll find them beside the road because many parents want to get rid of the smelly ballast as soon as possible.
But if the whole things ends up with these kids wading in nappies in the future, someone has this to make clear to the nowadays-parents.
But still you can overlook all the rubbish and enjoy this beautiful countrie.
In spite of all the hills I quickly arrived in El Alto, a ”suburb” of La Paz, and here you´ll also find the worlds highest airport in 4100 m altitude. There are also some bikeshops along the road.
La Paz lies a fair bit lower. Sometimes you could get a glimpse of it between all the blocks of houses.
First to Aquacalle, which looks like a luxurious recreation area with lakes and boats. Though there didn´t exist a direct route from La Paz to there, too many ridges were in between.
A little bit further down I had a beautiful view of La Paz. I have seen many lookouts so far, but this view exceeded everything. Absolutely stunning to see how this city is build between mountains and rocks.
A steep and nearly infinite seeming stairway led down. Also here all the women were heavily laden. I used the Autostrada.
After admiring the countryside from above a viewing platfrom, with a wonderful view od Huayna Potosi, I raced down 500m to 3600m of altitude nearly crashing into a ood-friday-procession.
The further course of the road was closed for car-traffic, but I was allowed to proceed. This circumstance made my arrival easier and I quickly found the Chuquiako Bike Cafe, where Luisa and Cristian were already awaiting me.
I´m now living here and helping out in the Cafe, it never get´s boring, I meet many bike-travellers, even some from Bolivia, and many Germans as well. About 80% of all travellers are between 20 and 30 years old.
The cafe is situated directly in the city centre, embedded in all those coloured jumpers and cloth. It´s a good place to be until my longdesired creditcard arrives.
