Simon decided to stay in Sucre for another week to take advantage of the cheap Spanish lessons on offer while the rest of us headed off to the salt flats via Potosi.
Potosi, only a couple hundred K’s away along some windy sealed roads is a very grey city, definitely no Sucre. We had been spoilt with Sucre and Samaipata before that. We opted for some 20 boliviano accommodation and got straight out of there the next morning. Most people head to Potosí to visit the old silver mines. This was not over appealing to any of us. Granted the conditions are pretty terrible and the small groups of co-operative miners are paid very little, but crawling around in a shitty mine 250m underground does not sound like too much fun. Good move Simon staying in Sucre!
Potosi, only a couple hundred K’s away along some windy sealed roads is a very grey city, definitely no Sucre. We had been spoilt with Sucre and Samaipata before that. We opted for some 20 boliviano accommodation and got straight out of there the next morning. Most people head to Potosí to visit the old silver mines. This was not over appealing to any of us. Granted the conditions are pretty terrible and the small groups of co-operative miners are paid very little, but crawling around in a shitty mine 250m underground does not sound like too much fun. Good move Simon staying in Sucre!
Only another couple hundred K’s to Uyuni, this time on dirt roads with a never-ending amount of road works. It was another 10 hour ride and again all very scenic, very different from the 10 hour ride from La Higuera to Sucre. This area of the Andes is very dry with only a few little valleys with water running through them. You find large herds of alpacas and llamas in these areas all with their colorful ear tags.
Great view of the Salar and Uyuni from the mountains. It is a very vast and barren landscape. Upon closer inspection of Uyuni it looks like a bomb has hit it…it's not a very appealing town, grey, cold and our 20 BOB accommodation was like a little crack den, or at least it turned into one. Our first impressions were to get out on the salt flat ASAP and get out of the town and La Paz bound…only this was easier said than done.
We planned to go out onto the Salar for a two day one night trip on the bikes and camp at Isla de Pescado about 80km from the edge of the salt flat. All the prep was in place including lots of warm gear as it apparently gets as low as -25 degrees Celsius out on the salt. Unfortunately we all, apart from Kate, got a nasty stomach bug. So we spend three days doing stuff all except lots of games of Yaniff and eating ‘rice and flavor’.
We did eventually get out onto the salt, only for a day trip unfortunately but it was still spectacular nonetheless. We rode out to Isla Inkahuasi and back. It was great fun and a ‘must do’ place to see in Bolivia.
So after our troubles with Uyuni we pushed on towards Oruro, and then onto La Paz. The corrugated roads took a toll on Matteo’s bike and a massive crack appeared on the rim about half way thought he dirt section. After a road side coffee and a bit of araldite glue on the rim we proceeded at about 50kms/hr to try and get to the next town and put the bike on a truck for the rest of the way to La Paz. We pulled in to a town called Challapata as it was just getting dark, however although there was plenty of trucks that we could put the bike on for the last 300 or so K’s to La Paz, all the truck drivers appeared drunk as it was Saturday night. So this idea was quickly canned and we moved onto finding somewhere to stay. This town turned out to be one of the strangest places we had ever been in and every hotel in town refused to take us in. with all these troubles we decided to take off towards Oruro, in the freezing cold darkness. It is not recommended to drive at night in Bolivia and we soon found out why. We were forced off the road by trucks and scared shitless by drivers coming up behind us with no lights on. All the drivers appeared drunk or high… a truly frightful night. At about 12pm we pulled into Oruro and treated ourselves a very expensive hotel, glad to have survived.
The next morning after reassessing the rim we thought perhaps if we went slow we could make it all the way to La Paz, however 70kms out the crack was spreading so we pulled over a truck and loaded the bike on to get us to La Paz.
People from La Paz claim it to be the highest capital city in the world, with the airport sitting at 4000m above sea level. The result of this is severe breathlessness every time you climb a flight of stairs or the many hills around town. La Paz was the last destination for David, Kate and Matteo to travel to together. From here the journey separated with Dave booting ahead to get back to Santiago for his 25th of May flight out to Sydney and Kate and Matteo, having an extra month till 21st of June, continuing at a slower pace.
We were unable to order a new rim as the earliest they said they could get the rim in was 30-40 days so we settled for the rim being welded and hoped for the best. It the meantime while the bike was in the shop, Matteo, Simon and Kate took a bus to Rurrenabaque to the Bolivian Amazon. We spent 5 days wildlife watching, swimming with the pink dolphins, piranha fishing, trekking through the jungle and taking boat rides. A truly worthwhile trip. As the bus ride was so traumatic for Kate and Matteo, used to their own transport, took a very easy flight back while Simon, braver than most persisted with the bus.
Before leaving La Paz, we did the ‘Death Road’, a 30kms mountainous track, only one lane width, considered the world’s most dangerous road. It used to be the main road from La Paz to Coroico before they built a new tarmac road and apparently about 200 people used to die on it every year, including several tourists. The road is actually one of the most beautiful roads we have done. With stunning drop offs , waterfalls on the sides of the mountains and spectacular views. However this road was done on a very wobbly rear rim on the bike as after the welding the tyre came back completely unbalanced and not so round.
