Senderos

Week 28 - Junin Huaraz and beyond

2008-09-26T19:49:00.000-07:00

Not sure what this sculpture in Carhuamayo is, funky though - day 190

Welcome to the Altiplano, central Peru style - this is the split near Cerro de Pasco - right is downhill to Huanuco

Heading to Huanuco

Actually, an old bridge - now Hwy 3 into Huanuco - and the end of pavement for a few days (191)

Yeah, this is the same road about 300m later

Corona del Inca - crown of the Incas - day 192

Corn

Just liked these clouds - it's raining up there but not down here

Neat morning shot out the rear window of this little hostal in Pachas (193)

Ahhh - arteries, commence clogging - just a awesome breakfast in Pachas - probably my favorite of the trip (I mean real steak, eggs, and potatoes).

Pachas in the early morning light

Labor intensive farming

Neat Waterfall

Heading up the final final pass - mining road cuts across this picture

Neat mountain ridge

Ditto

My Friend

Morning around 4800m (194)

The critical junction - the left branch (I'm looking back, if coming from Union you turn right here) - left is one of the most amazing roads I've ever seen:

A Moonscape Mountain under a Moon

Just amazing

The closest road to an Alpine trail I've ever seen

Heading down off the pass

Gravel serpentine

More Andes

One of those 100year flower plants (or was it 10)?

Just before Huaraz - down to "only" 3200m or so with 6000ers all around

Morning at Carolines in Huaraz (day 195)

Brick making kiln

Stairway of the Gods

Main Street and Mountain

Start of Canon del Pato

More Pato

Ditto

Ditto - note the road tunnel about 2/3 up this shot

Waterfall in Duck Canyon

One of many rough tunnels on what I'll call the world's worst highway (day 196)

Bumpy but scenic

An even tougher tunnel - plenty of lingering dust after one of these goes through - be sure to have a functioning headlight - some of these are long and may have curves

Getting out of the mountains for the last time

More canyon views

All hail the Gods of Pavimento

Day 190 - Huanuco
Well, yesterday blew another hole in my km-budget, so after no exciting trips to the bathroom in about 20 hours I decide today will be a marathon day to try to catch up a bit. Still a bit weak, but in theory I should have a nice long downhill.

I first need to make it to Cerro de Pasco - Cerro meaning mountain of course, so town is perched near a 4400m pass (actually out of sight on the other side of a ridge, I bypass it). The first 30km or so are along lago Junin, more or less rolling hills and a very alti-plano landscape - even the vicunas have returned (or are they guanacos - it's been awhile). Then the road starts to climb again - and even without any serious grades, in my current condition and at this altitude I notice the climb. But it doesn't last too long (the lake is already 4100m), so by around 2pm I'm at the pass and have covered my first 60km. Only 120 to go.

They will drag on awhile. But the descent is quite scenic - even if frequent, moderately strong headwinds keep me on my toes and slower than I'd like to be. This seems to be the valley of laundry - all along folks have blankets and jackets lying in the sun gradually drying. I should have grabbed that first picture from way up high but missed my chance.

Still not a whole lot of vegetation but some neat river views and waterfalls that come right out of the rocks. Halfway down is a dam and the opposite of a few days ago - around it all the roads revert to very poor gravel. This is where my phone/GPS stops working so I fumble around to recharge it. And then it's onwards and downwards along now not-so-good paved roads with plenty of potholes. Oh well, still beats gravel. By nightfall I'm still 20km from Huanaco but in no mood to camp so I keep going until things get urban and I can find a hostal where the entrance isn't a staircase. Eventually one appears - they still only have room on the 4th floor but I'm a lot happier unpacking my bike in the lobby instead of a night-time street out front.

Well, almost up to date as I enter these words in this very noisy place on the morning of 191 - only 9 days to my B-Day and theoretical return trip although I'm more and more tempted to add a week for Galapagos - we'll see.

Day 191 -

Still keeping up - tonight I write from my tent most of the way up the next pass. Yeah, 1900m was too good to last. Plus I have the cheat sheet now so I kinda know what's coming. La Union is way to far for one day. I hope to make the first pass, but end up about 400m short. As is often the case after a marathon day, it's a bit hard to get started this morning. Plus I'm not quite 100% yet - I feel like the thing from Alien is working its way through my innards much of the day.

But the uphill starts anyway. The road is more or less on par with the bad gravel of before in Peru - perhaps a bit worse - a bit steeper. I do have some tailwind, but I still only manage 7.0km/h average all day - one of my worst. Do manage to log another killer uphill of almost 1600m (probably a bit more due to errors in my altimeter at these altitudes).

The day is pretty much par for the course - slow, slow going, lots of small villages with plenty of folks to remind me I'm a gringo. I'm torn between feeling very annoyed and somewhat intolerant. I have a hard time gauging when folks are showing contempt and when they're being friendly - some are pretty obvious with hands out and a big smile - although even then there are a fair share of beggars today - including tiny kids asking for "plata" (silver or coins). I was warned this is one of the more annoying stretches in Peru and it's living up to that so far. It's a hard position to be in - just biking along but definitely not somebody who belongs here - I can pretty much get out on a moment's notice. Still, I bike through all these tiny pueblos where folks see a gringo maybe every few weeks so it is a bit of an event - me that is. Me who's still a bit queasy and way behind schedule and every 30sec in every town somebody wants to know about my trip. I mostly just keep moving and keep answers short - sorry.

Yeah, still queasy tonight - somewhat unusual I don't finish dinner, well won't get into that too much. Hope dinner agrees with me and that tomorrow is better.

Roads are terrible as expected and the views are quite beautiful - also as expected. Although I can't see snowy peaks from here, the deep valleys are still amazing - higher than the Rockies is pretty normal here in Peru - valleys at 1700-1800m with many roads/passes going over 4000 and in many places peaks reaching over 6000. Well, more of the same tomorrow - hopefully make Huaraz in another 3 days at most and Trujillo 2 days after that - should just be able to squeak an extra day in somewhere and still catch the 2 buses to Guayaquil and hopefully onwards to Galapagos. Time will well. Hopefully nobody surprises me tonight - at least 2 teenagers noticed me dragging my bike to the campsite. Later I had a whole group of workers catching a truck and I just froze - I'm in full view just above the road but I'm pretty sure nobody noticed - at least no one pointed and said anything. Amazing how a red bike and bag can blend in the evening when you stand still.

OK, time for bed.

Day 192 -
Sometimes the days blend together - another long punishing day on gravel. Get up before sunrise, clear out and take down the tent to reduce the odds of being noticed. I still just manage to leave by 8 and yesterday's uphill continues. The summit is near 4000m making it another 2000+m all-at-once climb over about 60km. But I have a bit more energy early in the day and by around 10am I'm passing under the Corona de los Incas (Inca Crown) - an interesting, jagged-rock summit. I take a picture and a local maybe 200m away starts yelling at me demanding a tip for occupying 3 pixels in my photo. Won't be the last one today - lots and lots of kids yelling for plata - teach em young. But actually today goes quite well, including with the locals - quite a few are interested in my travels and I go through the route at most of my stops - of which there are quite a few.

From the summit the road heads down to Chavinillo where I negotiate lunch - it's only 11:40 so still breakfast time although nobody actually seems to know what food is available. After the help goes back to the kitchen about 3 times I can order the single food item that's available. And after asking a few times I can even get a beer to go with it (although the help has to walk to the street to buy it). General confusion about menus is fairly common - most places have colorful posters with all sorts of food on display, or sometimes a chalk/white board with a list, but generally only 1 or 2 items is actually available.

Anyway, the road continues to drop to about 3000m and then it's time to climb. Road conditions seem a bit better than yesterday but are still fairly rough in a lot of spots and the downhill is around all of 15km/h. At one point I manage to skid off the sandy ridge that runs down the middle of the rutted road and end up putting my bike down in a ditch of mud - but fairly gingerly so no real damage.

The final ascent starts around 5:15pm so I figure on camping again but as it gets dark I notice the lights of Pachas appearing in the distance - and it doesn't seem too far, although in the end it drags on until about 7:15. The road is actually really busy - folks driving home their herds in the dark - first time I've ever passed a bunch of cattle (& horses & donkeys) on a narrow 1 lane road in the dark. But I'm glad I made it - a room, sink, lights, electricity, and a pretty decent lomo-saltado (steak, french fries, rice, onions, tomatoes and soy sauce). Nice way to finish the day. Plus I've made another 400m which I don't have to do tomorrow - I'm really tempted to strike for Huaraz - it's about 170km, most of which are paved although I'll still have to make it to 4800m from tonight's 3450 (& actually there's more uphill plus a drop to at least 3200 before the climb). Hmmm... it sure would be nice to have a whole day off to explore Huaraz - supposed to be one of the most idyllic places in Peru. I'll do my best.

Day 193 -
well, best isn't good enough. Manage to get up before 6 and be on the road by 7:30, but still don't seem to have 100% energy, plus waste over an hour between keeping my GPS running, my slow leak happily inflated (and later patched when it becomes too annoying). It's getting really close to the end and I just feel like trying to do the bare minimum to keep things working - while quite a few systems seem to be nearing their limits - my front tire now has a bulge and I'm probably up to a flat every 300km and slow leaks otherwise. I don't even have a 100% spare tube - something I always try keep handy (try to patch a flat in the rain sometime), but I haven't been able to buy a correctly sized new tube since arriving in SA and my existing tubes are barely getting by - slow, unidentified leaks... Only 500km left now - about Chicago to Wausau. Plan to gut the bike in Trujillo - dump things like rims, tires, tubes, chain, maybe more - hope to get the frame really light and small.

But back to today - even without the hurdles, there's no way I would have made Huaraz before maybe 10-11pm, still not something I'd like to try in Peru. Especially as towards evening the pass gets bigger and bigger and soon it starts to sleet and snow - nothing hazardous, just a dusting. Still, not conditions for trying to pull a marathon session. Today is one of the most scenic days I've had in awhile. After a huge breakfast of steak, eggs, fries and coffee, I leave Pachas and the road drops down to an idyllic valley floor and runs along the river to La Union. Here you cross the river at the first bridge and continue to parallel it as it gradually climbs to around 3600m at Huallanca. 40km and lunchtime. I feel proud - I more or less make my first joke in Spanish and get some sarcastic locals to laugh. They ask the normal barrage of questions and finally ask why I don't just fly around SA and I say you can't fly to Huallanca. I guess you had to be there, but I felt pretty good that all 3 started to laugh and one tells me that for money he could get a plane to land [in this narrow, deep canyon with no airstrip].

But my conversational highlight - probably for all of Peru - comes when I stop for a drink and this local waiting for a passing camioneta starts to talk to me. He points across the valley at what he explains is an Inca trail - and indeed now that he mentions it, it does look a lot like the ones near Macchu Pichu. In fact, this is part of the trail that connected the heart of the empire in Cusco with what is now Ecuador. I mention that the bridge at the base of the trail doesn't look ancient and he mentions there was a Spanish colonial stone bridge there but it was destroyed in a flood. He goes on to talk about the Inca trail system all the way down to Argentina and a few other local archeological sites. Just amazing - just wants to relay some pride of his country and culture. Then a passing car stops and he's off - just best wishes for my journey - no request for a tip or anything. I have to smile - my hopes for Peru seem a little closer. Despite the warnings and the frequent requests for plata by little kids, this stretch has been quite nice. The restaurant/hostal last night was great and I've have quite a few friendly folks to at least greet and discuss travel with - yesterday one tried to get me to change my route to take in a local ruin - muy hermosa (very beautiful), but my schedule is really getting tight.

So back to tight schedules - after lunch and a tube repair it's time to attack the last great pass(es) of the trip. The road out of Huallanca is actually paved (my map disagrees, but then it's at best a crude interpretation of reality). But the climb is beautiful - amazing, jagged peaks in all directions. It's also very long - my cheat sheet mentions 4800m - well, I guess I'll have to find out tomorrow - I keep going for awhile as the weather turns, and I approach a summit of sorts - then I get to a fork in the road - Huaraz points down a gravel road. I have this road on my map - unfortunately I don't have the full cheat sheet so I'm not sure which road is preferable - this is definitely a short-cut and probably less vertical, as the paved road heads down into the next valley. It's also muy solitario and muy hermosa. Hmmmm... - I decide to follow hermosa and also possibly save quite a bit of time. Plus I need to camp and soon find a reasonable site. It's not very secluded, but hey, it's dark, there's snow coming down, and no vehicle has passed since the turnoff.

I'm a bit concerned - I like to ask locals when choosing routes, but they're in very short supply up here - the road seems to go through a park so I suspect they'll continue to be in short supply. All the trucks and cars without exception go the other way - maybe weather related, maybe want to avoid this very high gravel road. Hard to say - but tonight it's dark - really, really dark - no sky (clouds) and no lights in any direction. I can't make out my tent when my headlight goes out. Probably the eeriest night of the trip and I only have a day's worth of drinks left - well the road must lead somewhere. I hope I can trust the signs and there aren't any unsigned gravel junctions ahead. I'm already really close to the summit at around 4750m (I think this is my highest campsite of the trip), so it should just be a bit more climbing and after 30-40km I should rejoin pavement. Hopefully. Well, assuming tomorrow doesn't bring a foot of snow and I'm on the right road, I should definitely make Huaraz tomorrow - hopefully by early afternoon. It's about 100km, mostly downhill. I still want to explore a bit if possible (and some laundry would be nice). Well, enough diarrhea of the brain for one day. Tomorrow should be great.

Day 194 - to Huaraz
Fallen behind yet again. Currently entering these words after my trip has entered whole new territory - sitting on a bus heading for Piura and Ecuador. The biking is over, but hopefully there's still a bit of travelling left. More on that later.

Today begins at one of the most amazing campsites of the entire trip. A couple km from the junction of the gravel cutoff road to Huaraz. Definitely go this way. Yeah more crappy gravel, but that pales in comparison to a high alpine road that ranks up there with some of the nicest hikes I've done. Just an amazing 1-lane road set among 5000-6000m snowy peaks.

I'm a bit paranoid to begin with as I haven't seen anyone since leaving the main road yesterday evening. So I actually bike back to the junction - unloaded - and double-check that I'm doing this right - take a picture of the National Park sign which has a crude map. It shows no junctions - but of course that'll turn out to be wrong.

But the sign does confirm that this is the way to Huaraz. I suspect cars mostly take the faster paved road which has the benefit of going through a lot of towns where passengers might be waiting as opposed to a national park. But after a couple hours, I do see my first vehicle who confirms that I'm on the right path.

The road stays at high altitude for the first 15-20km with some ups and downs, and then it's time for my final pass of the trip - from here near 4900m to Trujillo it's just about all downhill.

On the way is a small railing and staircase - check it out - some pretty neat rock paintings right next to the road. There are plenty of other possible side tours to various high peaks, but no time for that now.

The road is actually not as bad as some other gravel stretches and the downhill goes OK - until the blowout that is. Just moving along nicely and bang, my rear is flat in about 1 second. I have a look and it doesn't even look that bad - maybe just some really odd metal object - but once I have the tire off I find a spot I can just about stick my pinky through. This tire is no more. Well, maybe I could try yet another layer of inner tube on the inside to hold things together for a few more km - only 400 to go - but then I do have this spare.

In retrospect I don't know if it was a wise choice. My spare is a road tire - 28mm wide - and basically sucks. It was left over after my Florida tour and my other Specialized lasted all of about 2000km on nice paved roads with light load - but I figured I could save the weight and it would be an acceptable spare until I could buy something better.

Well, turns out you just can't buy hardly any 700c sized stuff in S. America - except a few countries where road racing is popular, but even there touring sizes are nigh impossible. Fortunately the Schwalbes have more or less lived up to their reputation - my first major failure here at around 9800km.

Anyway, the rest of the trip will have a high-pressure narrow front tire. It sucks, it really sucks. Plus my pumps can't even properly inflate to the minimum 5bar. I fall after about 5km when rough surface and lack of steering forces me off the gravel and into the sandy embankment. But that will be the only fall - I just take it even slower on gravel from here on out. There's another 20km or so today and some more N of Huaraz.

Eventually, gravel rejoins pavement at Catac - not much here, but you can buy some gaseosas at your standard roadside markets. And then it's a wonderful paved descent more or less all the way to Huaraz with amazing mountains all around.

Headwinds are the only real challenge - so in the end speeds are still low and I make town between sunset and dusk.

I find Caroline Lodging - the generally recommended backpacker place - friendly folks, hot water (after asking 3 times) and a nice, simple breakfast for S/12 ($4.25). But no private rooms available which I would have prefered at this point. Huaraz is pretty full of gringos - peak tourist season plus a local festival. I really wish I could spend a few quality days checking the place out, but I'm increasingly looking forward to returning home - maybe I just ain't quite cut out for the multi-year trips, but I think it's mostly what you gear your brain up for - I was expecting around 5 months, then 6 and now those are over I think I need a break from vacationing. Yeah, time for home wherever that may be - but possibly after a quick trip to the Galapagos first.

Oh, and there's Internet and WiFi at Carolines. And plenty of decent restaurants, trekking, MTB-ing - well all the tourst stuff to go with some of the most majestic mountains in S. America.

Day 195 - to Huallanca
Well, it ended up taking 4 days from Huanuco to Huaraz, so no extra day in town. Today it's onwards and downwards. It is a bit of a late start for a change (did those words just come out of my keyboard) - I've actually been starting pretty early generally around 8. Today was closer to 11. But initially things go pretty well - the road is mostly down and the winds don't pick up until later.

Then they become a pain. My goal is Trujillo in 2 days, 1 day to hang around and visit the amazing Casa de Ciclistas, and a night bus towards Tumbes and Ecuador. I have 300km of downhill and only about 80km is unpaved, should be possible.

Well, the late start doesn't help, nor does all this beautiful scenery that just screams for me to stop and have a look around, snap a few shots here and there.

So progress is slow and only gets slower as headwinds pick up and up. And where is that downhill - it's mostly 1m up and 2m down but the uphills are short and steep. Finally hit some switchbacks - and surprise - they're unpaved. Yeah, Peru wants to keep me another few days. I baby the bike down the switchbacks without incident and then pavement returns - more or less. More and more frequent patches of gravel emerge and soon I'm at Canon de Pato - the famous Duck canyon. I knew the name but that was it. I really wasn't expecting this - amazing rock formations and a very narrow, steep gorge with a crude road cut out of the side of the mountain. And before long the crude road becomes cruder and cruder and proves my map wrong yet again. I trade about 30km of pavement for gravel. Really, really, really bad gravel. This area has lots of moving rocks - just stand still and you'll occasionally hear something. The local "Duke Energy" hydro-plant (privatized and sold off to the 1st world - in fairness it actually does seem to be a fairly decent operation - at least no were near as oppressive as Doe Run in Oroya - I just prefer economies to stay as local as practical) has lots and lots of trucks rolling down the road and they all have an extra metal grate on top of them as a kind of armor protection against falling rocks. One stops to point out my backpack is askew and we talk about the road ahead - no good news I'm afraid. But in the meantime - the views and the road itself are amazing - narrow tunnels blasted out of the mountain face and a precarious road a hundred meters or two above the river. Too bad progress is so slow I go from day to sunset to dusk to dark in the course of the 12km canyon. I decide proceeding past Huallanca on this quality road at night would be insane and there's a couple hostals here, so it's home for the night. Even find a hot shower - well somewhere between cold and luke-warm actually but it hits the spot as I painfully dropped about 1600m from Huaraz - mostly wasted on horrible gravel. Oh well, no extra day in Trujillo.

Day 196 - to campsite
From Huallanca to Trujillo there's not all that much. Yesterday's driver proved accurate - the road is probably the worst condition gravel I've had in all of Peru and pretty much anywhere outside SW Bolivia and Paso Pichachen. There are very few short climbs and otherwise just a gradual, gradual descent so it should be wonderful but the horrificly large rocks everywhere make progress really slow - under 10km/h on the 70km despite a loss of another 1000m altitude. So in the end this stretch alone is near 90km of really bad gravel on an unsuited bike - I get a pinch flat within the first hour negating my earliest departure yet (before 7).

The scenery is somewhat unexpected - more really dry conditions despite overcast skies in the morning which gradually burn off. Large stretches seem devoid of almost all vegetation. The rocks vary from amazing canyons to basically giant piles of rubble and mud. I suspect this is really hard territory to live in - seems giant pieces of mountains are moving around all the time. Most bridges have evidence of the past 2 or 3 generations of bridges next to them.

Even as the Pacific approaches, the scenery remains desert. After around 67km from Huallanca sanity returns - I hit pavement. It should be a fairly nice rest of the day. I ask at a police checkpoing about the cutoff road to Trujillo - yeah, it's only 10min away - maybe 6km - look for the red bridge, not the yellow one. And he's pretty close - a bit over 8km later the red bridge after the yellow one appears. Not what I expect - these bridges have big fence gates and guards. Apparently a lot of this region is part of Peru's cultural heritage - a lot of archeological excavations going on and this road is monitored with guard shacks on both ends. But they're friendly enough. Open the gate and tell me about road conditions.

So after all of 8km of pavement, the rest of my day is on gravel yet again. At least this stretch is what gravel should be - well consolidated and fairly smooth. I stop to inflate my tires several times - the slow leak in my rear getting noticeably less so and I keep bottoming out. I just don't want to fix another tube out here with about 100km left.

I manage to ride about 25km down the gravel road to at least reach my goal of 100km for the day. The road annoyingly parallels the paved road on the other side of this not particularly big river, but there are no more bridges to cross. In the end, I camp up on a bluff perhaps 5m above the road - fairly exposed but only about 3 vehicles pass all night and I really enjoy my final self-cooked meal of spaghetti (what else) with salami and the rest of my fresh veggies. Tastes awfully good. Tomorrow I'm shooting for the earliest start of the whole trip and hopefully covering the remaining 100km by noon. We'll see.

Week 27 -the Calderons to Doe Run Peru and Junin

2008-09-26T16:29:00.000-07:00

Idyllic dirt poor Peru to big US mining operations - this week has it all...

The Calderons standing on my campsite - day 183

Watch for potholes

Another fine campsite (183-184)

High gravel road

The tollman cometh

Ayacucho - 185

Nice evening gravel heading out of Ayacucho

Evening suspension bridge

Morning camp - one of these cactii kept scaring me at night - day 186

Bride to Malloc

Start of last big gravel section to Huancayo

Evening moon

Colonial bridge in Izuchaca - day 187

Same bridge - complete with donkey

Good morning Huancayo - friends at the hostel - 188

Another friend

Central Huancayo

Bus accident on the way out of town

Ahhhh - La Oroya

And here it is by the wonderful light of day - welcome to Doe Run Peru - day 189

The Vicunas are back

Day 183 -

I leave the Calderon's and find there's an actual hostal a km or so down the road. Oh well. The first stretch is flat, but it doesn't last. After 12km I cross the river at around 1980m alt. and the final climb before Ayacucho begins. This one will go on and on, over 2400m based on my cheat sheet.

The road is truly bad. I take back what I wrote - well, it's still better than SW-Bolivia, no pushing the bike for 10km stretches. But still among the worst roads I've encountered considering it's highway status. The day passes slowly. I eventually make Chumbes - a smallish town on the way up. I look for ingredients for dinner, the first store owner tells me maybe city folks eat tomato sauce and marmelade but I'm in the countryside now. The second owner has a Peruvian bus outside (i.e. a flatbed truck with about 50 people standing in it) and has no time for me. When they're all taken care of, and anyone else who happens to walk in, and she and fellow customers stop snickering at me, she finally asks what I want, gets interrupted by another customer, and returns to me in a very impatient state.

WELL, WHAT DO YOU WANT?

tomato sauce

NO AY, QUE MAS? (There's none, what else?)

Just asking. How about those cookies in the green (verde) pack.

Here.

No the green pack.

Here, here are the cookies in the yellow (AMARILLO) pack, look see, yellow.

Yes, but I want the green pack.

#$@%^ Gringo.

Thank you [for graciously allowing me to patronize your store and buy a half-dozen items].

OK, time to move to store #3. She finally has tomato sauce.

How much?

2 Soles.

But the price you have written right there is 1.20.

2 Soles. Gringo. (Bear in mind a full 2-course meal costs 2.5 to 3 Soles, this 80g pack of tomato paste typically goes for 0.8 to 1 Sol in a bigger town).

Thank you.

OK, I decide it's time for another store, somehow special Gringo pricing by angry store owners just isn't my thing. Roadside vendor #4 turns out to be decent - there's about 4 girls/women hanging around and they flirt a bit. At least I get some snacks for normal prices and a smile and even make smalltalk about my trip.

1 in 4 humane store owners ain't too bad.

And on my way out of Chumbes I get a flat. My tires are getting old and I'm liking Peru less and less. Just 2 weeks to go.

More up and up and up - well that's the rest of today. No real place to stay and while I don't try and ask, no Victors turn up and offer me a place for my tent. A bit after sunset I find an abandoned adobe structure I should be able to hide in, but a stray dog has beaten me to it and I don't feel like having a beggar around while I cook. Turns out to be the last uninhabited building for quite awhile - I keep going and soon it's dark and it turns out roads that are really hard when it's light are pretty much impossible when it's dark. My headlight just can't illuminate the big rocks well enough for me to dodge them at my fairly unstable 6km/h pace and I keep banging and slipping off things, so it's time to push.

Finally, at a curve in the road, there's a dog-free abandoned building (I'm amazed how many abandoned places dot the scenery around here). Not as secluded as I prefer - there's toilet paper everywhere so it seems people stop here fairly regularly. I'm on the inside of a switchback so cars and trucks rumble past, slow down, then rumble past again. I think I end up scaring a couple kids walking down the street at night. But it's dark and cold and home. Not a particularly good day.

184 -
Didn't make summit yesterday - "only" 1700m - still this means my top 3 ascent days of the trip are now all on the Cusco-Ayacucho stretch. Amazing scenery, brutal road, in an increasingly brutal country [I feel] as well. Well, most cyclists I've met said this was one of their least friendly countries in S. America, but noone actually had any serious problems.

The climb continues. After about an hour I meet a nice gentleman with a pickaxe and a saw-horse. The saw-horse is there to block the road. He informs me it's his job to collect a voluntary contribution towards road maintenance. That's rich. By far the worst highway I've been down and he gets to pose with a pickaxe and beg.

How much?

5 Soles ($1.70 - a lot of Peruvians get by on less than this a day).

What?

Please sir, it's a voluntary contribution.

Here's 2 Soles. [Don't feel like getting into an argument with a pick-axe guy missing most of his teeth].

Can I take your picture?

Propia, Propria (tip, tip) as I depart.

Another few hours and I get to my first choice. A fork in the road. My cheat sheet lists a higher summit, but more tire tracks head down the road that is obviously not going any higher. No sign of course. There have been no signs of any kind except for political slogans and about a half-dozen concrete km markers at odd intervals with no really discernable distance to anywhere (I don't know why, but many roads seem to have multiple conflicting sets of km markers at the same time, many of which are vandalized - there are some dedicated vandals who will re-chisel a 5 into a 6 or a 3 into an 8).

I head in the dominant direction but have second thoughts, back up and wait for about 10min at the junction for the next vehicle. I manage to get them to stop and they tell me either road leads to Ayacucho but the left (upward) one is "mas solitario" (more solitary), so downwards it is.

The downhill burns up most of my altitude fairly quickly, and the rest of the day is spent more or less following a contour line along a very long hillside. Every few hundred meters the road heads into a box-canyon and drops steeply between 20-100m to cross the little stream at the head of the canyon, then loops back and up steeply. And hey, there's road construction and a smooth gravel surface, and road signs! For about 10km anyway. Then pure crap, neglected, rock-strewn, sandy and dusty gravel returns. And that's pretty much the afternoon and evening. My phone keeps shutting itself down due to a loose connection to my extra-battery so GPS data is again incomplete. Oh well. I wonder if the data will be of use to anyone - hope to overlay it onto Google Maps with elevation data, but reseting my phone every 10min starts to get annoying really fast and my arrival into Ayacucho gets later and later.

I see the city and worry - it's on a plateau and to get there I go down yet another canyon, bigger than the ones of all afternoon. Much bigger. Oh well. I get to the bottom and it's getting dark. By the time I climb up the final 200m and 3km it's dark, the road is just brutal, traffic filled, and omnious lined with slums and abandoned buildings. Once on the plateau, [poor] street lighting begins, but the lousy road continues into fairly heavy traffic with lots of parked trucks, camionetas, etc. Finally, about 3km later glorious pavement. But the city center is still a few more km away and the road has a few obstacles like bike-eating sewer grates (actually steel-rebar placed into the asphalt at about 20cm intervals over a ditch which crosses the entire road) and unmarked speed-bumps (really wakes you up at about 30km/h on a downhill stretch).

Arriving into a bigger Peruvian city at night is not something I enjoy, but again, no choice given my schedule and I don't want to camp 10km outside when I can get a hotel and shower, decent meal, and internet access. So I make it to the Plaza de Armas and Hotel San Cristobal. A beautiful colonial square with churches going back to the 17th century, and about the only thing that impresses me in Ayacucho.

The area around the plaza is quite decent, plenty of places to stay and nice places to eat. I head for Ninos, and dinner is nice; overpriced and not as good as in Abancay, but lots and lots of meat which should replace some of the protein lost over the last week.

Too many odds and ends to do. I arrive late and shower, wash clothes, replace my first broken spoke of the trip (on the rear wheel, but luckily of the 4 possible spoke orientations, the broken one is the only kind that can be done without removing the freewheel), fix the broken cable on my solar panel, try to fix the wiring on my phone, wash dishes, filter water, buy food, eat out for dinner, go online, transfer pictures off my phone and camera,...

At 3am I finally crawl into bed. A long day.

185 -
The hotel is loud so by 7:30 I decide not much point to laying in bed. Still takes a couple hours to do normal morning things and then get the exploded mess from last night's odds and ends back into the bike bags. Finally head out around 10am and have a look around. Again, the main square and colonial area around it is amazing. I buy a bit more food and by the time I'm leaving a few places already are advertizing lunch so I figure, might as well.

About 10min into my lunch a few gentlemen walk up and start chewing cud in front of the open storefront. I look through them and notice my handlebars are moving. I get up and someone is very badly attempting to steal my trusted steed. He was still about 30cm away from noticing the cable-lock through my rear wheel. Trying to carry a 50kg bike would have been more interesting to watch. Fortunately when he sees me he aborts the mission and his accomplices at the entrance also disappear.

About 50,000 touring-km to date without incident, only 2 weeks into Peru. Not really feeling the love here. Will have be extremely vigilant and always lock it and take all valuables whenever stopped. To be fair, crime is a problem all over S. America - Fanny and Yoann's bikes were also nearly stolen in Argentina in the middle of the night while they were camped (again, the thieves didn't notice the lock and got burdened by them and quickly aborted the job). For that matter, Monika who I met on my first trip in '96 had her bike and all gear stolen outside a supermarket in rural Montana.

Glad to be leaving Ayacucho but how. No signs as usual. But after asking a few policemen and a gas station attendant I'm eventually heading out of town. Leaving town only takes about 3km from the plaza and soon I'm back into desert canyon country on a paved road. This is living. Unfortunately, the ups and downs don't end - leaving Ayacucho is a drop of about 300m followed by a 500m climb to just about 3000m, and finally a long descent into and through Huanta. On the way into town my rear tire is low - drat. Another flat, another delay [turns out my patch from 2 days ago is slowly failing, but won't figure that out until tomorrow night].

Huanta is the end of the pavement - out of town in the dust I get to fix the flat. The road continues mostly as a slight downhill. A pleasant way to end the day. Eventually it's down to and across the river, and then more or less along it - wow a road the follows a river - something of a first in Peru. Still, a rough road with some short steep ups and downs, but a lot easier than one 4000m pass after another.

It's desert country now - which means fairly sparse vegetation, but all land is put to use so the little sprouts between the cactii are kept really short by grazing animals and dessicated shit is everywhere. But it makes finding a campsite easy - lots of well-hidden spots and I pick a beautiful one except in the dark a nearby cactus with a roughly human shape keeps freaking me out. Need to write a short horror story about that someday.

186 -
Well, almost caught up with the writing again - just missing my lost day in Cusco. But it's nearing 2am and I need to get a bit of sleep.

My alarm is set pretty early and I get to watch stars change to dawn and then sunrise (ok, it still takes awhile to get going, but I'm moving by 8am). By daylight my cactus sentry is less omnious. After about 3km I make Malloc - another small town/roadstop with the odd market and hospedaje. And the first shop owner is decent - even fills up my water bottle. Nice.

The road is nice too - pretty much continues where yesterday left off - along the river. Crosses a bridge and now we're following a different river - now upstream, but still gradual except for the odd 50 or 100m steep, steep climb up the canyon wall followed by an equally steep descent. The canyons are just beautiful, but still populated by an awful lot of apparently abandoned buildings - feels like ghost towns after a war or something else that went wrong. Not a lot of traffic, either, but still enough earth-moving trucks to keep my paranoia at bay. Guess they're working on the road here and there - it sure can use it. Safety measures against going off the sheer cliff faces generally involve small wooden sticks with a piece of tape on top reading "peligro" (dangerous) in some day-glo color. I suppose it is a lot cheaper than guard rails.

Pretty much the whole day is at or near the canyon floor. About 30min after sunset I reach Quichuas - the biggest town of the day. There are 3 whole hospedajes/hostals here. I know cuz I went to all of them. #1 wasn't all that inviting and the half-dozen folks at its entrance were getting a bit annoying with all there peppering questions and the somewhat dodgy characters going in and out. #2 had no answer. #3 looked most promising but again no answer. The restaurant next door says the owner is a teacher at the local school and will be back shortly. So I eat dinner, wait, wait some more, get out my Stephen King, read, read some more, get annoyed by the Peruvian music blaring out of the TV

(long parenthesis: not to keep the anti-Peru stuff up but some of the music down here is just bizarre: sounds like amateur, cheap, syntho-stuff, combined with a really annoying, whiny female voice who is either 6-years old or trying to sound that way, and all this is overlaid by a loud male announcer whos is something like a cross between a square-dance caller and a Simpsons-Monster-Truck-Ad announcer - THIS SATURDAY, SATURDAY, SATURDAY AT THE SPRINGFIELD SPEEDWAY, SPEEDWAY, SPEEDWAY. At first I thought it WAS an ad being blended into the song - it's not uncommon for radio stations here to "sneak" in announcing themselves during quiet spots in a song - but with these songs the male announcer is constantly mixed in. A huge contrast to the amazingly beautiful pan-flute music played by folk bands for us gringo/turistas in all the tourist traps; ok, long parenthesis over),

pack everything up, and decide to go back to #2 when I notice a light go on and find my hostal for the night. Nothing special, no hot water, and within about an hour, no water at all (I think this is the 3rd hostal in Peru where this has happened to me now). Well, for S/10 ($3.50) it still beats camping.

OK, definitely time for bed now.

Day 187 - Huancayo
Fallen behind again on the blog entries but the trip has also been quite challenging lately. Writing this on the morning of day 191 from my hostal in Huanuco - my alarm hasn't gone off yet but the general lack of any insulation and continuous cacaphony of sounds drifting in makes me decide I could could be working on this - the traffic just never stops here, nor do blaring horns, car alarms, dogs, big steel gates being opened and slammed shut... Probably the only Peruvian hostal where I managed to actually sleep through was, of all places, "Gringo Central" - Cusco - run-down, paper-thin walls but not many customers and it was at the very end of a long, dead-end street.

Actually, I take that back - the hostal in Quichuas was ok, too (as was the mostly empty one in Huancayo) - not much going on until early morning (5:30ish) when a lot of other guests (I think it's more like apartments) get up for work. So I join them and manage to get a fairly early start around 8am.

The fairly lousy gravel continues out of town but I imagine a better future when the road goes past a dam and turns to nice, nearly seamless concrete. But a few hundred meters furter it's back to reality and gravel. At least we still follow the river valley nicely - some ups and downs but no passes.

By lunchtime I make the 40-odd km to Izuchaca - a small little market town with a really neat colonial-era stone-arch bridge and a few restaurants where I sit down for some almuerzo. Here the roads split with a different gravel road leading to Huanevelica - a provincial capital with no paved roads leading to it. But from here to Huancayo it's all beautiful pavement.

It's also almost all uphill - the road climbs and climbs to around 4000m - lots of hairpins again, and then finally summit but Huancayo is still not in sight. Just the Mantaro valley spreading out ahead (Huancayo is off to the right behind a bend in the hills more or less) An actual, fairly wide valley. Wow. Eventually the road drops into various suburbs and then into Huancayo itself. A much nicer entry than Ayacucho - follow the main road to the end and turn left at the T and you're dumped right onto Calle Real (after asking a couple locals), the main road through town. You'll also use it to leave town heading north.

About 20-cuadras (blocks) later I'm in the heart of town - the obligatory plaza and colonial church. Turn right on the 1st street of the plaza (Giraldez) and head up another 1.5km or so and you reach La Casa de La Abuela - the backpacker place in Huancayo. A neat old wooden house full of antiques and a few world travellers and the first place that includes breakfast (for S/20 - $7). I have a dorm to myself and they have WiFi. Nice.

Day 188 - La Oroya
So nice I need to do some internet stuff and don't get going until around 11:15. By the time I get back to the plaza I decide it's time for lunch - a little cafe/heladeria (ice cream)/burger joint will do. I can snap a few shots of the square while I wait for my meal. By noon I'm finally rolling again.

I think it should still be a fairly easy day - pretty much running along Rio Mantaro, but it turns out the road is a gradual climb all day long, plus the nearly constant light headwinds knock another km/h or two off my average. The road is mostly excellent - about as good as possible. The broad valley ends in Juaja about 45km N of Huancayo, from there you cross the river and it becomes more canyon-like, nothing spectacular but a lot more narrow. Still, an excellent road. The km-signs on the road count down to the point where Peru-3S turns into Peru-3N - La Oroya, tonight's target, so I'm constantly reminded of how many km lie ahead. By sunset it's still well over 20km and by nightfall still over 10. Oh well. I'm tempted to camp but nothing good presents itself over the last 10km or so - lot's of trucks moving earth around (I'll find out why in a few minutes). In retrospect I should have tried harder, but who knows ahead of time.

La Oroya finally presents itself around one final gooseneck of the canyon. The first sight is a giant smokestack and lots and lots of lights. Welcome to Doe Run Peru. It pretty much is La Oroya and turns this part of the world into something that wouldn't look out of place in a Dickens' novel. I follow the road to a T-junction and am in the middle of dozens and dozens of street vendors, horn-blaring camioneta drivers, and a mass of people. And 3 hostals - all of which have a staircase leading to street-level. One has a bit of an entrance walk so I try that first, but it's complete with no hot water and a good layer of grime on everything. #2 looks a lot nicer and a cell-phone-booth worker promises to watch my bike as I ask, but they're full. #3 also doesn't want me, they only have room on the 4th floor, but I insist. My most expensive night at S/30 (ok, it's still only about $11 even after the dollar has fallen about 7% in the last 2 weeks) for which I get a shoe-box sized room up a cluttered staircase on the 4th floor into which all my bags and bike must fit, plus a shower down the hall with something resembling hot water.

I head out and find a pollo (chicken) joint - never much of a challenge here or in Bolivia. Everything goes well until night falls and I feel a bit bloated. I awake a few times to check on my dinner and it's not doing well at all, all green and coated in acid.

Day 189 -
But morning comes anyway and while I sleep in (noise permitting), I still decide I need to move on. This is the last place I want to spend another night. By day La Oroya is equally appealing - a sprawling chemical complex where Doe Run apparently extracts gold, silver, copper, and Peru's minerals for the benefit of its foreign (US) owners and leaves pretty much a giant, polluted eye-sore. There's Doe-Run golf club, Doe-Run park, Doe-Run tennis courts - all nicely ringed with barbed-wire and plenty of keep-out signs. But all is soon forgotten as within 3-4km town is well hidden behind other canyon walls and I can focus on keeping my breakfast down.

Another losing battle. By 11am I leave the contents of my morning meal in a puddle at the side of the road. I decide today won't be going too well and take it easy. No choice really - sustenance at this point will consist of water + rehydration salts + Sprite + a local verson of Starburst. At least all of these things stay down & I manage to extract a few calories & electrolytes to keep me going. Very, very slowly. Despite a pretty easy road (but with a gradual climb of about 500m), I only manage to cover about 55km by 4pm. Taking a break every 5 and then 2km certainly doesn't help. But I've made the next town with accommodation and Junin is a big improvement over La Oroya. I find a cheaper, brand-new (not even finished) hostal with hot water and a big room for all my stuff (still completely lacking in insulation which is very noticable at 4am when a group of tourists arrives). After a 4-hour nap, I head out and find dinner of soup, eggs, and rice. Perfect. Then it's lights out.

Week 26 - Macchu Pichu to Poverty

2008-09-26T15:37:00.000-07:00

OK, over 5 weeks to post in 1 day - week 26 starts at one of the high points of the trip and ends with a local family sharing a bit of land with me between their shack and an irrigation canal...

Entering the site - Day 176

First impressions

Cool tree

Looking back

Local lawn care

Ditto

Looking into the sacred valley

Another view down

The Inca Bridge - I think that wooden platform would be removed in times of crisis, of course there's a lot more sabotage around now

Another grand view

Heading up to Wayna Pichu

Enjoying the view

My turn

Why didn't anyone tell me my shirt is half tucked in

The money shot - from the gatekeeper's post

It's a long story - ask Pat and Bernardo

A city on the edge

The trail to the sun gate and the magnificent moutains beyond

Looking back towards MP

Also along the trail

MP irrigation

Living the highlife - the Hiram Bingham train runs around $700 for the 1 day excursion to MP but does include some pampered meals on the train

Last, unwelcome, day in Cusco (177) looking at the main square

The Inca Monument - you can climb the tower

And here's a differnt view of Cusco from the tower

Finally, heading out (178)

And down - this valley isn't even 1/2-way down yet

This is bottom

Well, actually this is - finally reach the river after about 100km and dropping 1800m from the top

Another river shot

Nice evening view

Beautiful Andes - climbing the next day - 179

The next pass - over 4000m (I have 2 & 4 fingers up - 2000m to 4000m abs)

An asphalt ribbon heading to Abancay

The colonial bridge for a nice long stretch of gravel - day 180 - half a year

Looking back at Abancay and fire

Stampede!

Ditto

Evening view

Did I mention Peru is really pretty

Ditto

Andahuaylas - day 181

Friendly folks who let me stay... (182)

here - ya takes what ya can gets

Markus and Heidi - the friendly Austrians with 8 months or so to go

Afternoon sleet

Glorious sunshine on the way down to... (see next week)

Day 176 -
Well, where do you start on a day like today. Early for one thing. Silvio is at my door by around 4:10am just in case I wanted to sleep. And by about 4:45 the 5 of us are stumbling through the dark towards Macchu Pichu. Not quite sure why this early - if we were out for a photo session it would make sense, but in the event our guide talks merrily through the sunrise - which is quite an amazing spectacle.

At any rate, this part of the trip is quite different - Silvio parts ways with us on the streets of Aguas Calientes and we hike alone to Macchu Pichu - about 90min and 450m vertical from the hostal. The loss of guide probably has to do with the fact that we get a new guide and a new group - about 25 of us in all - and Ricardo, our new guide, is waiting at the entrance gate. The hike is a bit tricky in the dark but easy enough with flashlights (bring one) and by around 5:30 the dawn twilight suffices. At least the multitude of stars signals that we should have a good sunrise.

By 6:30-ish we're in - and there's plenty of others here either in tour groups or near the summit waiting for the sunrise. The entrance gate is where you can optionally have your passport stamped - but they don't do it during peak entry times so try to remember to return at some point (unlike yours truly).

The first impression is just amazing. A town and walled-in cultivation plots which housed an estimated 500 Inca elites and a couple hundred extra during festivities - but the most amazing thing is the location - perched about 450m above the valley floor on a ridge with terraced plots running down the both sides. After trekking along the valley floor all around the site, it's not hard to see how the Spanish never found it - it's only visible from the valley floor in a couple locations and when the last few Incas retreated here they sabotaged the connecting Inca trails and later continued their flight into the jungles further north.

While locals knew of its location, it wasn't "discovered" by the West until around 1910 when Hiram Bingham came looking for lost cities of the Incas and was shown the overgrown ruins by a local. The current appearance didn't start to take shape until the '40's and uncovering the ruins lasted right up to the 80's (there's still a lot of excavating going on at Inca sites all over Peru - a bit like Egypt I suppose).

The tour takes you through various religious and architectural aspects of the site and while I find the history amazing, some of the information seems to be, well, let's say generous to the Incas. Our guide waxed about the site of MP - how the profile of nearby Wayna Pichu peak appears to be an Inca face, or a bear, or a falcon... There is a pretty neat, bordering on optical illusion, 3-D sculpture of a falcon within MP - where the 2 wings are natural rock faces and the face is carved into the floor. I often wonder how much of our assumptions of how ancient societies lived is based on pretty slim evidence.

A few fairly incontrovertible facts are that Incas deformed the heads of nobility - almost making them look like coneheads - by attaching boards to the skull during formative years. Another is that they performed brain surgery using coca as an anesthetic - there are quite a few skulls with large holes cut in them. There was also some human sacrifice, but our guide is at pains to inform us that the Incas did this quite rarely and much less frequently than previous tribes of the region. I videoed his talks until my phone died, then discovered that the biggest video of about 30min somehow never recorded properly. Oh well.

But back to MP - the site is huge. After 2 hours the tour is over and we're basically on our own all the way back to Cusco. I decide to hike up Wayna Pichu - about a 400m climb which is dotted with Inca ruins - if you want to try this, go right away after your tour (or better yet before) and pick up a free ticket - only 400 people a day are given a ticket and they're gone by around 9am. Besides the very impressive, although somewhat repetitive, site itself, there are about 4 trips you can take - Wayna Pichu, the Inca bridge, Cerro Macchu Pichu, and the Sun Gate. I take in all except Cerro which is a 3-4 hour hike up the highest mountain overlooking the site - it'd be quite a rush to try to do them all in a single visit (and a 2nd entry is only possible for another full admission).

Wayna Pichu is a fairly challenging hike and not for those with vertigo but the views from the top are outstanding - not just MP but also of the snowy peaks beyond. From there you can continue down the backside to the cave and Temple of the Moon, although these were somewhat disappointing and quite a hike at that (you drop almost 600m to get from the summit to the cave, then have to climb back up to return to MP). But the return trail seems like another section of Inca trail - a narrow line of rocky trail impossibly attached to a vertical cliff face. Budget a couple of hours for the round trip.

The trail to the Inca Bridge is similar - lots of cliffs again, although the bridge itself isn't really much to look at. But you get good views of the distant, now abandoned, Inca trails and can ponder just how they built this stuff. It's a fairly short hike - I hiked the round trip in under 30min at a good pace.

Finally the trail to the Sun Gate is probably the easiest and least vertigo-inducing. The views back towards MP are good and at the gate you get to look down the "classic" Inca Trail that the lucky trekkers get to use. An impressive site and hopefully on some possible return I might come this way as well. It's a moderate length hike & I'd budget a bit over an hour round trip.

And then time's up, a final hike down to the canyon floor to meet up with the gang again over a very late lunch (for me), and a late train ride back to Ollantaytambo. Next time I'll try to arrange for an earlier train as I basically sleep through this ride (it's already dark). And then we're off the train and thrown into a fairly chaotic market scene on your way out. We're on the lookout for Lucy buses and eventually find them, except they're not interested in us - somebody forgot to put a sticker on our train tickets which means we're not supposed to be riding with them. But as they don't check for this until after we get on the bus and the 5 of us aren't inclined to leave and procure our own transport, after several minutes of debate the desire for everyone to get back to Cusco overrides the desire to throw us out.

So we make it back to town and sure enough, my travel agent, where my bike should be waiting for me and which assured me they'd be open when I get back, is closed. Tomorrow should be interesting.

Day 177 - Cusco reloaded
Well, yesterday's closed tourist shop was a bad omen. I get a decent night's sleep and head out around 9-ish to collect my bike - they're open every day, except apparently today. So I have breakfast instead - it is a Sunday, maybe they start later. Find a nice place with WiFi and get some work done as well. OK, try this again - head back to the hostal past the office and - still closed. Bear in mind there are about 5-6 shops in this little arcade and there are now quite a few irate folks waiting outside - apparently it's supposed to be open. I talk to a few folks and before long they fetch the tourist shop guy who's just around the corner. Hmmm, oh yeah, my bike. Turns out the owner of the arcade had a late night with a bit too much social lubricant and is apparently in no position to unlock the arcade this morning. So various crafts stores and my tourist office won't be open for business any time soon.

But not to worry - my bike, surprise, surprise, isn't at the tourist office - no it's still in storage. A phone call later it's on its way. I buy a few souvenirs and when I return there it is, waiting for me. Only problem is I also had an Ortlieb bag with my helmet, gloves, repair kit, etc. Hmmm, a phone call later and the guy from the warehouse is on his way. He's going to explain to me, in person, why I can't have my Ortlieb bag. Turns out it's in a different room at the warehouse and the only person with the key to that room is off in a different town to some kind of race. It is Sunday, after all.

Oh well, basically no chance of leaving today, so by early afternoon I get to do a few more odds and ends, walk around, head to the Inca monument, take a few pics, and get ready for tomorrow. By 7pm the bag finally arrives so tomorrow will be it. This complicates things - I'm already way behind and really can't afford to lose another day. Stuff happens I guess - somehow I was sceptical about this working smoothly - in general the more folks at places like tourist agencies assure me that something is "no problem" the more I assume it is. Need to force a few more phone calls next time - but still glad I was able to use my bike for the downhill and didn't have to deal with storing it - have heard of problems doing this and my hostel lady didn't seem too keen on the idea anyway.

Day 178 -
With last night's arrival of my Ortlieb bag I'm finally set to leave Cusco. Just a few final errands - nice breakfast with WiFi to upload all those pictures I got the chance to process on my involuntary day off. And a quick dash to the post office to mail the DVD of Cusco and Macchu Pichu in case I'm relieved of all my possessions in the last few days ahead.

And by 11 or so I'm hitting the road again. Cusco is a great place to explore - quite a few possibilities exist in the surrounding area - mountain treks to jungle, but my time is short.

The road climbs out of town to Abancay, the coast, and Lima. You're out of town pretty quickly - much faster than the drawn out city when arriving from Puno.

It's a bit of a climb, but after 300m vertical, you summit and are on a high plain. After 15km or so the road to the Sacred Valley splits off - keep left for Abancay. The next stretch to 40km from Cusco is pleasant enough - just be sure to go to the bathroom when you get a chance. I'm looking forward to a pit stop, lunch, and a nice draft of water.

Instead, I end up on what seems to to be an endless uphill populated by perfectly spaced groups of school-age kids. I pick up the first contingent. I'm already hoarse, so conversation is limited. I don't dare stop - I'll probably get mobbed for information and candy. So I keep going and one group falls back and is replaced by the next - some run alongside, others point out how slow I am by cycling circles around me. I'm not really surprised, but do get annoyed when one boy grabs a strap of my backpack for a free ride. I recommend not showing up here around 3pm when school lets out.

Every time I think I've dropped a group, the next shows up - this goes on for about 10km and 400m vertical - or about 50min. Finally, I reach a kind of tollbooth situated at a summit of sorts and my world changes.

The high plain and annoying schoolkids are replaced with deep green valleys and a road that snakes away out of sight. I'm at around 3700m now and the next 50km will be awesome. Time for a long overdue pitstop and lunch break.

What follows is 50km of downhill - from pass, to valley floor, to small town, and again to ridge and another downhill - until finally it all peters out at a bridge about 100km from Cusco and down to about 1900m. This is gonna cost me - but not until tomorrow.

It's already getting a bit late and while I'm thinking of camping, out of nowhere this hotel just shows up - all by itself in the middle of nowhere. Well, this is even better than camping - and they even have food. I appear to be the only guest, but all goes well and I have a trout dinner and dream of unending uphills...

Day 179 -

2100m

2100m

Well, that sense of foreboding at dropping 1700m over 50km of downhill proved to be accurate. Today was probably one of the hardest days of cycling I've had. Well, maybe not quite true, but total vertical climbed far surpassed the 2nd most vertical day on this trip at around 1600m. Today was basically yesterday afternoon in reverse - start at the very bottom (almost, I did climb a bit after crossing the river yesterday), and head up, and up, and up... I somehow think town is around 2900m so I secretly hope that the road will be this amazingly gradual climb of 1000m up to another valley. I even hope to make it past Abancay to the next town about 40-50km down gravel.

And after 20km (about 122 from Cusco) and 800m vertical, you do actually emerge from the inner canyon into the first and only bigger town of today - Curahuasi. This would be a decent, if quite challenging, long day ride from Cusco and I'm pretty sure there are a few Hospedajes around given the multitude of decent looking restaurants I see.

But that's just the start. After a brief downhill, the upward trajectory returns and you do another 200m vertical and another 5km and take a break then another 200m vertical ... well you get the idea. Another valley floor, another climb to a higher plain. Switchback after switchback and finally, after 53km and five and 1/2 hours of cycle time of just about continuous climbing between 3-6%, you're at the top and right around 4000m. While the trip to here actually covers some ground, from the top you immediately see Abancay directly below you, only the road to get there hugs the side of the mountain and via dozens and dozens of switchbacks you cover the 30 road km and 1600m to drop into town. So in all today is about 3700-3800m of vertical over 90km or about 4% average grade all day long.

By now it's around 5pm and I'm in no shape to continue. Just looking forward to a nice, easy evening and the Hostal Victoria on the main street (Arequipa 305) near downtown (across and a few doors down from the BCP) is just the spot. Clean rooms and hot showers for S/15 ($5). From here there's an internet cafe, food market, and probably the best steak I've had in months all within a 2 minute walk (near the junction of the main road from Cusco and Arequipa my hostal street - first word in the name is Carbon - look for a big sign showing grilled meat - just a fabulous Lomo with pimiento - pepper sauce - and even a free salad bar - just the thing to return a few calories after today's climb).

Well, time for some well-deserved rest - tomorrow is shaping up to be another killer long day as I head back to ripio for the road to Ayacucho.

Day 180 -
72.3km, 9.4av,, 55.2mx, 2143m, 7:40 to 22106km, 150.8km
Half a year - at least for those who issue warranties or track prepapid phone credits. Been down here quite awhile now, but things are drawing to a close rather quickly. Peru is growing on me - unfortunately I won't be able to spend much quality time here. But trying to cycle as far as possible each day is tiring - especially in this highly vertical part of the world. The views here are just amazing - peaks over 6000m and valleys down to 1700m visible at the same time. Snow, pine trees, and sugar cane.

But it sure makes for tough cycling - the only way to follow up the most vertical day of the trip is more of the same - even more vertical meters today and today we'll do it on gravel thank you very much.

Just as I finish packing my bike, the first person I encounter is a policeman. He pretty much tells me to turn around and chill for another day, or possibly later, perhaps this afternoon. Today the Peruvians protest. Hmmm, more complications. One of the tour operators had suggesting booking right away as the trains would be on strike on the 9th. That would be today. Well, at least they're on schedule - roadblocks and lots of people out... So we talk for awhile and finally I ask him whether it's currently "tranquil" and he say it probably is - but I should hurry. So I lose no time and bike out of Abancay. The streets are eerily empty and I see a few groups of policemen, complete with rifles. Hopefully they won't be put to use today. But no real road-blocks, just an occasional odd glance as I cruise down Abancay's streets out of town. They seem to take their protests more seriously here, Bolivia's had more of an almost party atmosphere but no friendly faces chowing down on something here. At least not at 8am.

And down it is - Abancay is above yet another river valley and for 15km I have a really pleasant morning. Then reality strikes and I hit the bottom. There's a sign with the word "Puente" (bridge) and I ask a nearby person about the road to Andahuaylas. Yeah, I can go either way - the sign points down a rough gravel road and I see across the valley a diagonal up the mountainside connecting with a bigger road higher up. This seems like the appropriate choice as I'm warned there are probably more roadblocks at the "real" junction. So it's off of pavimento for the next 350km or so and the start is rough - tough gravel and lots of sand flies looking for a meal if you let your speed drop too far.

After a km or two through sugarcane plantations and new and abandoned houses, there it is - an ancient looking stone arch bridge across the fairly violent current below. It also has a blockade of sorts - big rocks on both sides of the bridge effectively permit only small things to cross.

So this is bottom. 1700m.

The rest of the day will be spent getting away from here. Up one switchback after another. I see the first ridge and after another 90min or so in pretty good heat, I clear it to reach the first pueblito of the day - about 10 houses aligned along this only street. Another short climb later I get my first challenge - a junction with no useful signage. I ask another local and again, I can go either way. The way to the right is supposed to be "mas circa y mas facil" (more direct and easier), but the left road is a bit bigger and has more tire tracks. Hmmm, I decide to ignore her advice and initially start to regret it as my road climbs higher and higher above her recommendation. But by evening as I cross ridge after ridge, it's clear my road is far more direct with an even grade - her choice takes you to a high pueblo at around 3200m or so, but from there you'd be on some really rough, steep tracks to get back onto my road.

It's a common theme of today - I make smalltalk with some of the folks I encounter and, of course, ask about the road ahead. Everyone has an opinion, but the information is pretty useless - "after this last ridge the road is plano" (level - it isn't, perhaps a tad less steep, but still uphill). One person tells me Andahuaylas is about 6km away (probably closer to 75). I get the impression they really want to help, they just don't know.

I'm greeted with cries of Gringo everywhere - one old lady seems especially offended at my existence, although eventually she also succumbs to smalltalk - where I'm from and where I'm heading. In general, it seems the men are more friendly at smalltalk than most of the women I encounter - not sure why. The lady behind a counter in a small shop clearly points out to anyone interested that I can't understand Spanish, although I still manage to hold my own with two gentleman who have entered and sat down for a beer.

I do have a pretty hard time understanding the language here in the sticks, the policeman this morning was probably the most comprehensible conversation I had.

It's a challenging day - basically, an unending uphill on gravel. Not terrible gravel - everything seems ridable ever since SW-Bolivia - but pretty challenging none the less. But the views are rewarding - Watching Abancay move from above me, to level, to below me, to really far below me with massive, snow-covered peaks popping up behind "mere" 4000m ridge lines. Afternoon and evening are spent above 3000m again and still climbing. The sugarcane is gone, replaced with pine trees and grazing land and all sorts of random animals crossing the road - donkeys, turkeys, goats, you name it.

And still the road climbs - a ribbon attached to the side of a mountain. 3500m, 36, 37, eventually I see what I pray is the summit - and with the sun low on the horizon I arrive here. Small towns dot the plains a few hundred meters below with no easy route to them, while this high road continues along at altitude. The pass is right around 3900m and next to it is a small quarry - perfect piles of rock to block sight of my tent from the road while I still get to enjoy dusk (and hopefully dawn) over the mountains and valleys.

What a day. Each day seems to get another notch harder (my speedo reads 2143m today, again I suspect it's probably 50-75 low) - I wonder what lies ahead - there can't be even deeper valleys and higher passes, can there? The road from Cusco has been the most vertical of the trip so far. I still cover decent distances, but not nearly enough compared to what's ahead and it's pretty punishing. My horizon keeps shrinking - I wonder if I'll make Trujillo at this point. Time will tell. Hopefully tomorrow I'll break 100km again.

Day 181 -
88.4 11.8 36.3 947 7:30 to 22195
Needless to say, I don't make 100km today. Yeah, this road is tough. Really, really tough. Morning starts out in the clouds, feeling the altitude as holes here and there reveal the small towns below and more distant mountains. Probably my first campsite directly on a pass.

Initially things go reasonably well - the first few km are just slightly downhill, then a bit steeper and soon I've descended about 200m, but this was not the real pass. No it's time to climb again - up to around 4150 this time over the course of quite a few km. It's going to be a long day.

And then the descent finally begins, only it won't be a pleasant one. Scratch what I wrote yesterday about road conditions. This road is definitely cyclable and easier than SW-Bolivia, but if I were a local, I'd be ashamed to call this a national highway. One of only two which run N-S in Peru (the other is paved but leads to Lima which I want to avoid).

It really is quite abysmal. Trucks crawl both up and downhill and I see 2 with flat tires in the course of a few km. I actually manage to pass a crawling truck on rough downhill and a few moments later an Ortlieb pannier snaps off - first time that's happened on the whole trip but it won't be the last time it happens today.

A rough road.

Fortunately nothing is broken but the truck gets ahead of me again and this ain't an easy place to pass them. Trucks show each other courtesy by pulling over so faster ones can pass, but I'm given no such treatment. So I just pull over and take a break while the truck continues to inch down the hill.

Gets me thinking about development. There's something both true and amazingly unfair about the biblical concept of how to those who have much, more will be given and taken from those who have little. When infrastructure is this bad, you end up with vehicle damage, incredible wastage of fuel, and wasted driver hours and yet there probably aren't the resources to build a decent road, or better yet to get a decent topographical survey of this place and build some roads with less elevation changes or maybe even a tunnel or two.

You see it everywhere here - water not fit to drink so poor people have to spend even more resources to boil it while the government has to subsidize fuel so poor people can afford it in the first place and again, no resource to provide drinkable water in the first place. Where to start? I think I'd focus on education and trying to instill a drive for quality. It's amazing how few things are actually installed properly down here - people just put up with it, but showers don't work or they give you an electric shock, wiring is totally haphazard, I just look and cringe but again, it's such a waste of resources.

But at least Coca Cola gets to do a brisk business in bottled water.

Anyway, needless to say the downhill is mostly wasted in heating my rims, by the time I drop 1200m or so, my average speed is all of about 12.5km/h. I've had faster uphills. And of course on reaching bottom it's time to go up again. But by now I've already cycled 6 hours and it's well past lunchtime. I manage to find a little diner in Andahuaylas and have a much needed meal, but there's still a few hours left in the day so I continue. I really can't let afternoons go to waste anymore. So it's back to gravel and back to climbing. I make the next town after a couple hours and ask about a place to stay. This particular police post was probably the least helpful or friendly I've had on the whole trip. The helpfully point out that they're a police post and not a hostal. Then tell me there's no place in town to stay and finally that I should head back the way I just came for the last 2 hours - there's rooms in Andahuaylas.

As I thank them and leave, I'm pretty sure they're joking and laughing about me with other locals. About the least welcoming place I've been to. I try a local business but they're equally unhelpful so I continue. I really don't mind camping but try to either do so in full view and with local permission or completely hidden in the backcountry and the latter is hard to find around here. Fortunately, a km away or so I find a much friendlier business owner who offers a vacant building across the street where I'm now typing these words. So far Peruvians seem to come in roughly 3 flavors - the tourist savvy entrepreneur, the friendly local, and the f$*&-you Gringo type. I guess I just need to get used to it.

Well, did cover some ground today but not really enough. Tomorrow will be another tough one - the rest of the trip will I guess. At least the scenery continues to be spectacular. This part of the world is truly amazing - it just requires you to cross one mountain range after the next. Anyway, time for bed.

Day 182 -

Been falling a bit behind on my log again - been hard to put in the long days, keep up with all the odds and ends each evening, and make these entries. Currently in a lower-end hostal in Quichuas on day 186 as I make these (hopefully) 4 entries.

Anyway, today starts off in the barn - no windows so it's a pretty dark start, but there are quite a few roof tiles missing so some light gets in. The pleasant shop owners who let me stay here last night are already up and about by the time I get out of the barn. The husband comes to offer me coffee and sweet bread (one of the somewhat annoying food things here and in some places in Bolivia is a tendency to put sugar in most bread varieties - although they often taste decent just plain). And I get to try a local fruit - small orange things but I decide they're not my thing. Later when I ask for "kitchen" water (i.e. tap water which is generally not drinkable here, although I have my filter) I get a bit of a tour of the place - more than a bit shocking for me. Used to quite a bit by now, but the store owners share space with a smokey wood firepit as a kitchen, cats, dogs, chickens, and lots and lots of cuy (guinea pigs), all have their pecking order for food (and rats - i.e. catfood - as the owner is keen to point out). I guess it all fits together, but definitely not what I'm used to.

She offers me a fuller breakfast which is quite good. Amazing the generousity despite the poverty - she doesn't want anything for breakfast.

And it's finally time to continue - still a pretty early start and right back to the uphill I left yesterday. Another big one, although I start near 3000m so it can't be that high, right? Anyway, it continues for quite some distance. I see a tractor out in a field, for me a rarity in Peru - a lot of farm labor appears to still be manual (a lot of labor of all sorts for that matter).

As I take my first break I see what I first think is a motorcycle coming down from above - but no it's Markus and Heidi from Austria (www.2roadrunners-on-tour.at) who are 13 months and 22000km into their 18-month epic from Alaska to Argentina. My first fellow Markus on this tour.

We exchange information about what lies ahead and they give me a handy list of towns ahead on my route with food and/or lodging. And the climb continues. At 4300m I finally summit and my phone promptly dies. I've been trying to faithfully track these amazing roads on GPS using my phone. I get out the electronic gear and nada, I just can't get it to accept a charge. Meanwhile the clouds move in and it starts to rain, then it starts to sleet. OK, no GPS for the rest of today.

But it's all downhill from here. Down and down and down. Through the odd town, beautiful scenery, cries of Gringo, and chasing dogs. Standard Peru. The downhill helps with the km count. By evening I'm pretty much at bottom, ready for tomorrow's certain climb (I now have the Austrian cheat sheet).

From the summit's 2C and sleet it's warmed up to around 28C or so. But it's getting dark and there's one more call of "Gringo" but this one is Victor Calderon, a fairly friendly fellow with his family around so I stop and talk and within a few sentences I have a place for my tent (descansar - rest - is an important palabre - word - in these situations). Tonight is probably the poorest household I've met on the whole trip - there's electricity connected to their rough adobe shack but it's not on, too expensive. Life is by candlelight and LED-flashlight, an interesting mix. But they still offer to share what they have.

The stuff I unpack is quite the show - a portable gasoline stove and the rest of what will become dinner. Water and washing is via the irrigation stream which flows in front of the house. I also use it to wash off a layer of dust which pretty much covers everything quite quickly on these roads - it's hard to get over how much fine dust is on these roads - somehow in the switchbacks you end up with inches of the stuff. I don't get in my log entry but do finally get some charge back into the phone (the connection to my extra battery broke).

Week 25 - Peru - Puno - Cusco

2008-09-26T13:36:00.000-07:00

Well, after a long interruption, the final trip entries are here. Week 25 I finally make it into Peru and to Cusco. In theory I'll eventually move the pictures and comments around, but for now:

Lake Titicaca near Puno - day 169

Downtown Puno

The Altiplano - Day 170

Caption included

Heading into Sicuani

Good Morning Sicuani - day 171

The Inca Dam of Tipon

Colonial Cusco at night

The Inca Bath / Fountain - Day 172

Cusco from on high (this should be moved up one)

Colorful Vendors near the fountain

Amazing rugs

Inca Stairwell at the bath

Pukapukara - the fortress across the road from the bath

Excavations at the lunar temple near Q'enqo

neat passage at Q'enqo

Sexy Woman - Sachsayhuaman 1

Sachsayhuaman 2

Sachsayhuaman 3

Pack in the main square

Works in the modern art museum

Ditto

Ditto 2

Main square and cathedral

Qorichanca - the lower part is the old Inca temple ruin, the upper is a Spanish church

Dance production at indigenous theater

Ollantaytambo - Inca Fortress in sacred valley - heading to the MTB road - day 173

Ollantaytambo reloaded

The way up

The way down

The Gang - Caroline, Bart, Rachelle, Dror, Me, and Silvio our guide

Dror hot-doggin'

Waterfall along the road

Hike starts - day 174 - bananas and papayas (I think)

Silvio shows us a native dye made from seed

Holy Coca

Stay back

Awwww

Ants Marching

That notch up there is the trail - partially a reconstructed Inca trail

Ahhh - nice thermals after a long hike

Market along the railway near the hydro plant - day 175

Crossing the sacred river

Gratuitous hummingbird shot

Gratuitous hummingbird shot 2

Workin on the railroad

First sight of Macchu Pichu - the entrance anyway

Afternoon hike up that ladder

Stupid Markus Shot

Aguas Calientes (day before MP)

Day 169

Puno - finally. Well, 2nd time's a charm. Ilave isn't the most attractive city so I opt for breakfast of powdered milk and granola in my room and try to get an early start. I'm on the road by 9 - or 8am local time - gained another hour crossing the border.

Unfortunately, I'm running out of time so the rest of the trip will be more than a bit rushed - and today is the first marathon day. The scenery isn't really all that great - miles and miles of yellow brush altiplano with occasional views of Titicaca - but without much mountain splendor in the background anymore.

Puno is also not exactly a world class city, although I do venture downtown as I need cash and it offers the first ATMs in Peru. The central Plaza de Armas is quite nice and the pedestrian street is bustling, but no time to explore. After getting cash from Scotiabank - the Canadians have arrived - it's up out of town. About 150m to climb heading for Juilaca.

Juilaca makes Puno look like a world class city. Although it comes with the airport if you need to fly here. I only get some drinks and snacks and continue.

In all, today will be 150km of fairly rough, mostly level, paved road under sunny skies with variable but mostly light winds. Pretty decent day to crank out a few miles and I'm pretty happy as the sun sets, although town is still a bit away and with frequent streams cut under the road, finding camp is straightforward. I'm well hidden except people are everywhere in Peru - the place is just crawling with them, although I spot noone, frequent dogs, sheep, and other animal sounds indicate folks are not too far away. Well, it's dark now so I should be OK until morning... Now to just make Cusco in another 2 days - better get up early tomorrow.

Day 170 - to Sicuani

Another marathon day - never did encounter anyone at the campsite, despite widespread evidence of animal grazing (i.e. there's shit everywhere). Get a decent start and head for Santa Rosa, a sleepy town on the way to the pass between Puno and Cusco. The altiplano here is a lot like the altiplano in Bolivia - lots of isolated homesteads in various states of existence or decay, llamas and assorted other animals grazing, and a generally poor population. Which means St. Rosa has quite a few cheap places for lunch - the kind of places where you walk into a dimly lit room covered in posters of local festivals and scantily clad Ms Local Beer 2001 calendars and order "lunch" - whatever that may be, and then eat what you get. Generally, it includes soup, potatoes AND rice (matching the Bolivian National Side Dishes) and some local meat. Timing isn't a forte here, so sometimes soup may come after the main course. But it still tastes good and sets you back about S/3.00 ($1).

The altiplano is also a bit boring for cycling - but boring is good when you're trying to crank out the miles and after passing St. Rosa the road starts to climb steadily to the 4300m pass and the scenery becomes more alpine with several beautiful snow-covered peaks near the pass.

Joe has warned me of this place - he had killer headwind, but I am more fortunate (and it seems the more normal state I've observed in most of Bolivia - generally light to moderate tailwinds on the way up passes and headwinds on the way down with travel along long valleys and plains having more random wind).

After the pass you drop down to a hot spring (another Aguas Calientes) - which seems to be frequented by local tourists. And then it's a nice, long, gradual downhill almost all the way to Sicuani - plus the scenery becomes greener and quite idyllic. And you follow a train line - always a plus for me - especially as it usually means less steep ups and downs.

And only 150km later as the sun is starting to get a tad low on the horizon, Sicuani appears - quite a bit bigger than I expected with hundreds of 3-wheeled taxis, similar to Thai tuk-tuks (some still pedal powered - yeah!). They're scurrying about, somehow all dodging each other and me and after another 20min I'm in the middle of town. No central plaza but a fairly interesting bridge over the local river with another bridge leading to a tiny pedestrian section. After finding a hostal I get to explore and evetually find a decent hole-in-the wall and get to watch Matrix-Revolutions in Spanish on TNT while enjoying Bifstek al lo Pobre (poor-man's steak - which is actually one of the fancier options here and in Chile and includes steak, eggs, some sausage, and, like all entrees in Peru and Bolivia, potatoes and rice).

Day 171 -

Well, despite the unexpected extra 50km, Cusco is in striking distance. Just about 140km to go. Hopefully the rest of the trip also works out this well. Biking today continues along the same river as yesterday - a nice, gradual, idyllic downhill through green, you could even say verdant, but that's too fancy for this blog, valleys.

Mostly today, like the past few, is about cranking out a lotta km. The road passes quite a few archaelogical sites - and if I had the Boleto Turistico available in Cusco I could even visit them, but I won't have that until tonight. Plus time is limited, although some are quite visible from the road, such as the dam-like structure of Tipon near Andahuaylillas.

In general the road from Copacabana has been fairly easy - almost no severe grades and really not all that many hills in general - just one highish pass, and today continues in that vein. Winds are a tad bit worse, but still quite a decent cycling day.

I make it to the outskirts of Cusco by around 3:30 and this is gonna take awhile. Traffic gets heavier and heavier and they sure don't put low-sulphur in their diesel here - man is the air full of soot and smog. That and the road is chock-full of camionetta drivers - like taxi drivers but without the good manners. Basically minivans which act as public transport in much of Bolivia and Peru (plus lots of motorized and manual 3-wheeler taxis as well). They basically stop wherever they feel like and almost never signal this intent, which tends to be extremely sudden - as in they see someone who may possibly be a potential passenger and swoop in with the sideman calling out a destination and fare and checking for interest. They make for interesting dodge-maneuvers when you cycle near them - pretty much unavoidable as they make up about 50% of traffic in cities. And in the middle of all this, a pick-up flags me down and a Dutch (I think) lady gets out to advertize the campground she helps run near Sexy Woman (more on that later). From the first impression it sounds pretty decent - complete with WiFi, although it does involve climbing out of the old-town, not an easy feat with fully loaded bike (probably 150m vertical or so) and I won't make it there tonight.

But by around 5:30 I've made it into the historical district and make for the tourist-info center as Joe has warned me that the price for the Boleto Turistico will nearly double on July 1 and I have 30min to get the old price - S/70 vs S/130 (about $23 vs $43), success on one front. I also look up Joe's hostel which he recommended as a good place to store a bike. I then set out for it and the complications of Cusco fully set in for the first time.

Cusco is an amazing place where it's just about impossible to get from A to B on wheeled transport without foreknowledge. The map I get is pretty much useless as it doesn't indicate 1-way streets or stairs. Intricate, narrow, cobblestone streets full of taxis and really tight sidewalks, oozing with colonial architecture and dead-ending into staircases on all sides. Did I mention the old town is situated on a steep hillside. I try 3 times for about an hour to get to Joe's recommendation - maybe 1.5km away - each time getting a bit closer, but in the end I'm stuck 1 street over and no tourist or local knows of a reasonable route there which doesn't involve stairs or a long way down - but you can get there because taxis do run up that street and generally U-turn to get back down.

This is a place for walking - which I really want to do as soon as I can find a hostel. Fortunately, no matter where you are in the old town, there's probably a hostel within about 20m, and one of the tourists recommends their place as well - nothing special, but cheap and they put left luggage in their house. So I check it out - it really isn't anything special, but at S/15 (about $5) / night plus I really don't want to push my bike anywhere anymore, The Hospedaje Familar de Cascada de Sachsayhuaman is home for tonight.

Now it's time to find out about the Inca Trail. 4 stores later and no slots are available - one goes so far as to say that while people may cancel, it's impossible to take their slots. Not sure how true that is, but everyone is offering the "alternative" Inca trail - the "Jungle Trek" - 1 day MTB, 2 day hike, 1 day at MP. It includes about 500m on a real Inca Trail (which will be amazing) and costs about $170 or about 1/2 the Inca Trail price, even less than just taking the train to MP for a 1 day trip. I get it for $160 as I'll use my own bike and related gear - takes care of figuring out where to store it as well. So tomorrow relax and check out Cusco and nearby ruins.

Day 172 - the next 5 days entries are a kind of "tourist" report - not exactly bicycle touring related, but perhaps of use if you're thinking of coming this way...

Finally get up at a reasonable hour - around 8am or so. Get bearings and head for Tambomachay. There are 4 ruins "in a row" along the road more or less north of the old town. Tambomachay is the furthest away - the "Inca Bath" it's an ancient (well, pretty much all Inca creations are between about 800 and 500 years old, not all that old compared to much of Europe or the Mideast, but still a pre-Columbian civilization) fountain. The Incas were very adept at cutting and moving amazingly big stones into place - some exceed 100tons and still have amazing precision. The stones of the fountain aren't of that magnitude, but it's a nice place to start. Idyllic setting in a small valley about 7km from the end of the Old Town - and still diverting water spilling through various stone guides (not sure how much is original, but it all looks original).

To get there, I decide to take about 150 stairs from the hostel to the road, then the actual cycling begins. It's basically all uphill - I'll climb about 420m in total, and drop them again, all in about 15.5km for about 5.5% average grade then turn-around and come back. There are also dozens of "City Tours" available which run pretty much the same circuit (well, the bus doesn't do stairs), but this is a bike trip.

From Tambomachay, cross the road to Pukapukara - an Inca fortress. Not all that big though, compared with what's to come. Keep heading down the road, but keep straight at the junction where Sachsayhuaman is marked to the right (alternatively, just before/uphill from the junction, watch for horse-back riders on the left side and follow them - they're taking a 5min side trip to the temple of the moon - currently still being excavated, although some is visible in a rock outcropping.

Anyway, the straight road option leads to Q'enqo - an Inca Temple with some interesting passages - a sorta hybrid between natural rocks / caves / and manmade massive stone walls. It also has rock carvings (which are surprisingly lacking in most Inca architecture - nothing compared to cultures like Egypt or Ankor Wat or Maya). Unfortunately, you can't see them anymore since a tourist gazing at them fell off the rock to his death.

Continuing back down the road we finally arrive at Sexy Woman - or Sachsayhuaman (or Saqsaywaman or any of several spellings, in general things are quite flexible here between Quechua or Spanish or various attempts at transliteration - Cusco is also Cuzco or Qosqo). By far the biggest Inca ruin in town - this is where there are 100ton blocks after 100ton blocks. A really big place - basically the fortress for Cusco - which itself means navel - i.e. the capital of the Inca empire. At its height it stretched from north of Quito to around the Bio Bio river in Chile and arose in the space of just a few centuries until Spanish conquest cut it down in the 16th century. And this place was the capital.

The Spanish had little use for massive native architecture and basically carted off all the gold and other precious metals to Europe and used many of the stones for building their own places. So this massive, massive place has been reduced to a small shadow of its original size. While in Cusco town, medival, colonial architecture is everywhere. But on a closer inspection the original Inca foundations still form the base of many Spanish buildings in Cusco - most visible along some downtown passage ways and at Qorichanca - where a church and monestary were built over an Inca temple (which was first stripped of tons and tons of gold coverings).

Anyway, that's history. One economic tidbit I find interesting for folks who cling to ideas like a "gold standard" - at that time pretty much the whole world worked on the gold standard, but the massive inrush of gold into Spain caused a kind of gold-hyperinflation - gold was suddenly in ample supply and stuff to buy wasn't, so in the end prices jumped, imports surged, Spain lost its manufacturing base (who needs to make stuff when you've got a currency everyone else wants) to other European powers which focused more on manufacturing rather than finance, and within a fairly short time it's world-dominating empire was over. Any parallels to today?

I spent much of the day going through my Turistico Boleto, visiting Qorichanca - somewhat annoyingly, many sites are not included - and those that are change from time to time. Most of the religious sites are now not part of the ticket, so at Qorichanca you get to visit the lower, Inca portion while the upper current church and monestary require separate admission. Also, the main cathedral - effectively one of the biggest art museums in town - charges S/25 ($8) to visit. I decide to stick to the ticket - this place really charges some steep entry prices, even by Western standards. Fortunately, local things like food and lodging are nowhere near as stratospheric - for example, the 4-day trek with food and lodging will be $160 which includes entry and a guide to MP and a 50km or so train ride - those two are over $75 alone. And you can sample plenty of tourist menu meals for around S/10 ($3) to S/20.

The modern art museum is worth a look, I'll post a few pics, and I really enjoyed the evening dance show at the native art & dance theater. Evening is a mad dash of repacking for tomorrow's Jungle Trek...

Day 173 -

No sleeping in today - the 7:30 pickup shows up at 7:45 which is good as I just finished moving my extra bags into storage and getting everything ready. The trip takes paved roads to Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley - an amazing Inca sight by itself - if you take this trip, I suggest talking to the booking agency to see if you can get an earlier train from MP to here to explore town and the site on the way back (or even spend an extra day in Aguas Calientes - more time at MP and not a bad place to while away the evening - then catch an early train to explore it the next day - the agencies are fairly flexible up front and much less so - basically disorganized - once the trip is underway). In my case, I only get a 5-minute gaze from a distance.

From Ollantaytambo, the paved road climbs and climbs and climbs - an amazing work of engineering. You climb well over 2000m over dozens and dozens of switchbacks. Again I'll post a few pics. The summit is well over 4000m and then you drop towards Santa Maria. The bus drops you around 3300m and from there it's a bit like the "Death Road" - an initial winding paved descent followed by a gravel finish - about 50km in all. While this road is not as narrow, it has some traffic and still quite a few cliff edges.

The scenery is amazing. Frequent streams cross the road and switchback after hairpin make for a great descent.

Our trip is a bit chaotic, we have several flat tires (not me this time) and in general the bikes aren't in all that great a shape - pretty bald tires and not particularly well tuned - but it's random, we even have some fairly new disc brakes. I'm more comfortable with my mostly rigid hybrid - at least I know its quirks. In the end we lose Silvio our guide for the last hour or so. He takes a bike with the flat and disappears. We make it to St. Maria and have a beer and about 45min he finally makes it in a van, with a bike and a flat - claims it just kept going flat.

If you think you can avoid this - I doubt it. It's really hard to get a handle on the exact details of any tour - the tourist agencies are separate from the operators - the whole thing seems overly complex bordering on deceptive. In our group of 5 we have 3 different agencies and will end up with completely different conditions on the final day - more on that later. I couldn't find an agency which could actually show me a physical bicycle, just pictures. It seems to be a giant clearinghouse where all agencies somehow string various operators together to create a tour.
By the way - our group of 5 is Rachelle and Dror both currently from Israel (Rachelle is originally from the UK) and Caroline and Bart from the Flemish part of Belgium, plus yours truly.

Considering that, it works quite well and in general I don't have any major complaints except for the very end, but that will follow.

So we all meet up for dinner, which is quite decent - a bit annoyed that they charge me S/1 after telling me I could charge my phone in an outlet - more nickel-and-diming. One thing I definitely won't miss about S. America is having to ask the price of basically everything if you don't want any surprises. In general, nothing is extravagant, but quite adequate given the price. The hostel is a bit ratty - ants in my room and there's an extra charge if you want a hot shower, although it's hot enough down here so we make do with cold.

Day 174 -

Switch from bike to hike. We're now at the bottom - around 1200m, and MP is around 2400 so we're going up. The hike goes through St. Maria - which has a train station of a line abandoned apparently after it was washed out in flooding (the same line that still runs a bit past MP). The trek has quite a few ups and downs today - you go up the canyon wall, past all sorts of plantations. These are quite different from what I'm used to - I quite like it, although I'm curious about bigger picture issues. Rather than hectare after hectare of bananas, you have bananas mixed with coffee mixed with coca, papaya, mangoes and oranges. Certainly makes the hike more interesting. Don't worry much about packing food or drink - there are plenty of vendors along the trek. In general, you could probably do this trek sans operator quite easily - the route isn't too complicated and lots of tourist necessities are pretty much everywhere - not that you'd save much money, but the bike ride itself would be quite an adventure and you'd have more flexibility. I'll post the GPS recording I have eventually as well.

Definitely pack a lot of repellant. In general, the lower elevations here and in Bolivia are shrouded in a cloud of biting ... sand flies? Whatever they are these tiny buggers are a plague. Whenever you stop you'll see dozens swarming around you and before long you'll have dozens and dozens of bites. And they're hard to kill, although I think pretty much all clothing is thick enough to stop them and repellent seems to work well enough. Apply frequently and liberally. Dror decides to try garlic instead. Still not quite sure on it's effiacy, but he's happy with it - the dozens of bites were from "untreated" sections or while bathing.

Today we encounter a small section of an original Inca Trail - makes me want to do the full Inca trek - amazing stonework set along impossibly steep cliffs. Definitely not a trail for those with vertigo, but an amazing sight. Not hard to see how a lot of this stuff remains hidden even now.
But it's just a short portion - maybe 0.5km. From there we drop back to the river for a really nice lunch, then make our way to Cocalmayo - a little piece of tourist heaven set in a cloud of sand flies on an amazing valley floor - yeah, a local hot spring / pool complete with beer and Pringles. Great way to end the day - except it's still a 40min walk to town. Bart and I decide to walk - dragging a slightly annoyed Silvio along, while the rest bus it. Again, accomodation and food in St. Teresa is OK - reasonable for this tour.

Day 175 -

Today begins with a choice - hike all the way to Aguas Calientes beneath MP, or bus the first half and then climb a local mountain across from MP. We opt for the latter - and I highly recommend it unless you have vertigo (I think it's another nickel/dime ploy, as far as I can tell all groups are offered this "special bonus" hike, but hey it's only $3 extra). So we bus it to the hydro-electric plant. This is where the road ends and the rest of the trek is on the rail line. Not sure if you could try this approach from Ollantaytambo (I think the roadless stretch is much longer from that side plus there are a lot more trains), but basically you walk the train line to Macchu Pichu. There are 2 trains a day to this spot and again plenty of vendors hawking drinks, snacks, and meals at the makeshift "train station". I still think the hike is quite scenic, if a bit monotonous. Only problem is you're hiking on a rail line so the "trail" is rather large, loose, uneven gravel or unevenly spaced rail ties/sleepers. You end up spending a lot of time looking at your feet. But look up from time to time - the canyon walls are amazing and there are hints of MP here and there.

We make AC in the early afternoon, have lunch, get our hostel rooms, and start the 2nd hike. The rooms here are a pleasant surprise - compared to the past 2 nights they are roomy, clean, and I even have a nice hot bath/shower in my room. The food, lunch and dinner, is quite good, too.

The afternoon hike is probably the most difficult thing of the trip. I really like it - ladder after ladder - the longest is probably about 25m vertical. Once that's over, you follow a ridge line to the top where you're rewarded with a great view of MP across the valley.

A nice dinner and early evening - need to get up at 4am for MP - next week...

Week 24 - Quite a week - High Point, Death Road, Lago Titicaca, and ... Peru

2008-07-06T08:59:00.000-07:00

Week 24 - Quite a week - High Point, Death Road, Lago Titicaca, and ... Peru

Day 162 - The High Point of the Trip
Well, today is it. Last "night" passed without much or any sleep, but I was able to make the log entry in one corner of the tiny refugio and then continue Dostoyevski - managed to read "The Grand Inquisitor" although I probably wasn't in the best frame of mind for it so I'll probably reread it at some point. Well and then it was all of 8pm, 5 hours to go.

But time passed slow. Not sure if I slept at all - breathing at 5300m is quite a challenge. There was a lot of heavy breathing and a fair amount of coughing all around - only Fanny said she slept OK, but unfortunately, she decided not to attempt the summit.

So every 90min or so I decide to check what time it is and eventually 12:30am comes and it's time. Most of us have headaches, but for me just getting up, having a mate de coca and some breakfast almost gets rid of it. And once underway it disappears completely. Other than difficulty breathing and the near total lack of energy, it will be the only altitude sickness symptom I experience.

I actually feel like a real mountaineer: starting in the middle of the night, headlamp, boots, crampons, rope... it's really an amazing environment. Even more amazing is my guide - 50 years old and about twice a week he leads people to 6088m, sometime higher on other peaks.

This is not easy - Jan-Willem makes a good point - this is probably what it feels like to reach the age where breathing becomes challenging - you take a few steps and find your heart racing and feel unable to catch your breath. Even our guides have quite pronounced breathing. At least they have a relaxed pace and even so, we are actually faster than your average group. This despite my frequent stops for some night photography under a nearly full moon and a fully white mountain.

We leave the refugio just before 2am and the first few hours pass uneventfully, although an extra lung or two would come in handy.

This is a heavily travelled trail over mostly snow, actually, it's surprisingly non-technical - if it weren't around 6000m I'd say piece of cake.

The only scary bit is the summit itself - the snow and ice faces get steeper and steeper and we're following switchbacks to the very top which is a very narrow ridge of ice/snow and an extremely steep cliff down the other side - just hope a big chunk of this doesn't decide to liberate itself while we cross. Gudrun plants her axe at one point and sends a fairly decent chunk of it into the abyss.

But this also is over quite quickly and we're at the summit - also a bit scary - unlike most summits I've been to, this one is just tiny - there's barely room for all of us and the snow slopes away in all directions. I'm almost paranoid about taking off my backpack and putting things down and the guide telling us not to get close to that edge, it may break off, doesn't exude confidence.

The guides are quite good, though, we're all anchored in at the top and the whole summit passes without incident - just your normal picture taking session. My guide agrees to wait for sunrise which is just amazing, and then he lets me rappel down the face that more advanced folks climb up. Only each time I reach the end of my rope I need to anchor myself into the face - not too difficult (maybe 60deg or so, not vertical) - and wait for him.This would make a nice double-black-diamond ski run although the snow is icy and rough. We later see folks hiking up with skis in hand.

And before long, it's over - less than 2 hours after sunrise we're back at the refugio and by 11am we're down in the valley at our first night's refugio, looking up and finding it hard to believe that only 4 hours ago we were on the summit of "that".

The rest of the day is pretty easy going - return to LaPaz, some basic chores, and dinner out together. I'm definitely not feeling 100%, but hope it will pass.

Day 163 -
OK, still not feeling 100% - somehow it just seems hard to spend time here without a bout or two or three of Montezuma's revenge - and this time throw in a pretty decent chest cold. Oh well, won't get too much done today. At least manage to spend some quality time on WiFi and make a few VOIP calls and do internet/finance chores.

Day 164 -
Still not 100%, but time is running low and the others want to set out for Lake Titicaca tomorrow. So despite some reservations, today will be "Death Road" day. I'm to late to do an organized trip, and since I basically have all the gear I need, I'd really rather not. So I finally head out from the hostel around 9:20 (normal tours start around 7). The first step is to cycle to La Cumbre (the summit) at around 4670m. That's 1000 up from the hostel and I do manage to bike through LaPaz, through a protest that's closed the road, and about 250m vertical. But I realize I'll be cutting it close if I want to return today, so I break down and talk to a taxi driver who's just sat down for breakfast. He'll take me to the pass for 40Bs ($5.50). Deal.

So by 10:30 I, too, am at the summit and some of the big groups are just unloading their vans. I get a bit of a head start and notice my front wheel is a bit spongy - needs air. Stop, refill, get passed by group, then start off again. The first downhill section is amazing - really fast and smooth - I soon pass the group at around 65km/h and won't pass or get passed by another cyclist for the rest of the day. After 20min or so I won't even see any cyclists until I reach bottom and after entering the "Death Road", I won't really see anyone until just before the end. Quite amazing - I was expecting this overrun road, but nobody in sight all day.

The first 30km are paved, and they include a narcotics checkpoint and the spot to by a ticket for the "mountain bike park" - 24Bs (at around 20km). Finally the turnoff arrives - not really marked except for a sign indicating straight for Coroico and right for the first town on the death road. Turn right here and immediately you're in the thick of it. By now you're already 1500m below the summit and in clouds with amazing green vegetation. The clouds tend to mask the fact that you don't want to leave the road, especially on the side that drops off into grey mist.

A few km further and the clouds mostly part - now you can appreciate the drop-offs. They're not quite vertical, but awefully close. The road itself is just amazing - this 3-5m wide ribbon chiseled out of some amazingly steep mountainsides. In quite a few places the drop-off is near vertical, but as a cyclist it's really not that hard. Just keep your cool and don't try to set a speed record and you'll probably be fine.

In my case the desolation makes it especially easy to descend. Apparently the occasional drunken minibus driver has caused some serious accidents. I overheard there have been 8 cycle fatalities in total - a bit high perhaps, although well over 100 people/day do this.

The road keeps heading down and down and down. This is just too easy. 3hours and about 62km from the summit and you reach bottom - Yolaca at around 1250m. This is where the normal tours end. Pampered novices can't be expected to bike uphill. Coroico is still 7km and 500m vertical away up a cobblestone road.

It's amazing - lots of air to breath again and no load on my bike and this hill practically bikes itself. Only my chest cold still gives me grief.

And by 2:45 I'm in town and looking for the first way back to LaPaz. This turns out to be a challenge - the minibus terminal is chaotic with some seriously unhappy people trying to figure out the same thing as myself. Apparently, for reasons I don't comprehend (possibly due to my still mostly non-existent Spanish, but in this case I'm not sure), there are no more buses for LaPaz today.

OK. Taxi 1. 300Bs just for La Cumbre. Taxi 2, 3, 4,... 300Bs.

OK, plan C - who else is going to LaPaz? I head into town and within 10min spot an empty van covered in bicycles. Promising. The driver is nearby and I manage to talk my way into a ride back to town for 30Bs. Much better. Amazing what a little bribe can do. They're not supposed to do this and the driver asks me not to really bring it up with the other cyclists - I'm just thankful to make it back to LaPaz - riding up 3000m wasn't really a possibility today and I'm still not feeling 100%, plus I want to go to Copacobana tomorrow.

The ride up is probably scarier than the ride down - the driver also takes the death road as it's quite a bit shorter than the newly paved one. This time you get to appreciate how narrow 3m can be. To give you an idea - you're supposed to pass other cars backwards - as in pass oncoming vehicles on the left so both drivers are as far apart as possible & the driver near the ledge can see exactly where the ledge is relative to their wheels.

The return trip takes almost as long as the bike ride down - about 4hours. My new group of riders are mostly from Brazil with 1 Israeli. Quite a lively bunch. One girl did fall but just some cuts on her arm. And so I make it back to LaPaz, even 30min early. Not too bad, about 1/3 the price of the normal guided tour and about 3hours less, too. But mine was rather rushed and lunch was not included.

One final note - despite abject poverty and the general concern about crime here, as I'm pulling into the bus terminal, a small boy is shouting at me - once I stop I notice him running down the hill with my jacket in hand. It somehow freed itself from my bag on the cobblestone descent. I am so grateful - it contained my wallet and passport among other things.

Day 165 - 123.7km, 18.6av, 58.4mx, 868m, 6:40, to 21224km. 142.5km alt

Leaving LaPaz - probably one of the most amazing cities on the trip. Not that Buenos Aires doesn't have it's charms, but pick the right direction and in a few hours you can be on skis, trekking up 6500m peaks, descending to near sea level on various mountain bike trails or whitewater rivers, and then continuing on in a hammock down a slow river cruise on an Amazon tributary through the jungle, or the pampas for an aminal safari. All amazingly close. Plus the city itself has the most amazing location at the foot of Illimani - a 6400m+ peak. And even the center is quite a nice place to walk around with buildings going back to the 16th century and a few obligatory high-rises. I barely explored the city itself - the rich "Zona Sur" will have to wait for another time.

There's just not enough time and Peru is calling. So today we set out for Lake Titicaca and Copacobana. Only problem is the taxi that's supposed to take us and our bikes to El Alto, where we'll start riding, isn't coming. Yesterday was a big festival (start of winter / ancient new year) and the taxi companies are really short of sober drivers. So the group decides to bus it instead.

Being the purist that I am, plus the fact that I'm not returning to LaPaz means I decide to cycle after all. The hotel finds a basic taxi for me and finally around 10:45 I'm in El Alto heading for Copacobana 135km away.

One note - the Hotel Austria is a great place to stay - decent rooms, cheap rates, and generally very quiet. The taxi they call for me is just about the opposite - smooth talker, flexible (high and then higher) rates - he decides to charge me 70Bs for the 15km trip (yesterday's was about 20km for roughly 1/2 the price). I really don't care about 10Bs here or there until he gives me change and tries to hand me a counterfeit 20. It was quite obvious - he has a wad of bills and as he notices me carefully inspecting my 20 he completely innocently offers me a different one.

Anyway, a slightly different version of Bolivia vs. yesterday's child. Still, overall my trip here has been fantastic, despite the challenges and illnesses.

Anyway, cycling starts out easy - El Alto, once you get out of the crowded bits, isn't too bad to get through - just keep straight down John Paul II road and don't turn for 60km or so and you'll be fine. I doubt myself, but there are at least a few signs now and then that I can verify on my map (Copacobana isn't mentioned for the first 90km or so).

The road is flat until it isn't. The first 80km just fly by - only about 70m elevation on the first 50km and about 200m after the next 30km on slightly rolling hills. It runs near Lake Titicaca for quite awhile with one little town full of hotels after another.

Then it ceases to be flat. I figure on being at the ferry before 4pm but with only 15km to go, it's time to start clmbing - about 250m or so. Still get there only a few minutes after 4 and it turns out there isn't so much a ferry as about 30 independent small barges with small outboard engines which just take their turns ferrying vehicles across the ~500m channel. I put my bike on one but I need to wait until the next car comes along before I can cross - so 15min later a bus comes and after another 10min we're on the other side. Only 38km and 2 hours of daylight to go.

Only this tiny strip of land ends up reminding me of the island of North Cape - only a few km but it's amazing how many big hills they pack onto this bit of land and how the road seems to seek out all of them. It climbs well over 400m to over 4200m again - and I still have my cold. I basically hit the wall. Soon it's dark and I'm tired, hoarse, coughing and cold. Plus the scenery is just amazing except it's dark now and the road has no markings whatsoever. The last 10km will be better tomorrow - a nice 400m descent with daylight. I find a place for my tent and hope to stay undiscovered. Thought I was doing pretty well until a minibus driver honked and stopped for me... Hopefully nobody with less noble intentions notices a small tent well out of sight of headlights (I'm pretty sure he noticed my own headlight I was using to put up the tent). OK, time for bed.

Day 166 -
Welcome to the birthplace of the sun, conveniently located near the birthplace of the moon.

Finally make it to the shores of Lago Titicaca - an amazingly large lake considering we're around 3850 above sea level.

The night was a bit cold, a bit below freezing, but still quite comfortable. The fires from last night are gone and a few locals with donkeys wish me a good day. By daylight my campsite is definitely not hidden. At one point a crew of road construction workers passes and they all wave and yell good day. Time to move on.

Camp turns out to be near the high-point of the road - near 4200m, and from here it's almost all down to Copacobana - just another 10km into town, past about 50 construction workers - the ones who waved - using modern tools like pick-axes and a surprising number of brooms to repair the road. A lot of road construction seems to consist of sweeping sand around and the ratio of motors to workers is about 1 : 50, but for the most part the road to here has been really, really smooth blacktop.

And then the 350m descent is over and I'm back at "sea" level - with Copacobana - hugging the hilly coastline - and it's not even 9 yet. Find one of the rather expensive Internet cafes (up to 12Bs/hr, in La Paz they get down to 1.50/hr), and then find the rest of the group - nicely resting in the local HI-affiliate and rather surprised I'm already here.

We have a really nice breakfast (Copacobana has rather random prices - you can get really good set menu meals for around 15Bs and really nice rooms overlooking Titicaca for about 40/person, while burning a DVD - 30Bs - or using the internet is about 5-8 times more expensive than LaPaz) and decide to spend the afternoon heading to Isla del Sol.

Today is a lazy day - eat, eat some more, take a boat ride, find a place to stay, and then it's time for dinner.

Getting off the boat dozens of pint-sized hustlers will approach you to take you to a hotel. Ours is very persistent and when we decide on another place becomes persistent in asking for a tip (apparently you need to pay to be annoyed by advertizing). Hard not to feel sorry - I really think all the hotels on the island should form a cartel so they don't slit each others throats through competition. They seem quite overbuilt and some places are down to 13Bs (under $2) incl. shower, yet new buildings keep going up. It is an amazing place.

Just don't stay in Imperio del Sol - the first recommendation in Lonely Planet - all the people running the place seemed trained in annoyance. We make the mistake of paying first, then wait quite awhile and play UNO for reasons unknown, until the sun is getting quite low and we ask again for our room keys so we can walk to the local summit catch the summit (definitely do this if here - it's an amazing view). At every opportunity the owners ask us our plans and how they might mesh with the possibility of eating here or spending another night.

Only it turns out there's no running water, we need to find someone and ask every time we want the communal toilet manually flushed; we don't bother asking how the "hot" shower is supposed to work. Plus we need to be back before 10 because the power will be cut and we can't play UNO in the rooms - possibly the floor or possibly the bed can't withstand the load of 5 people in a room (the bed because we're not supposed to move chairs around).

We do manage to do the really scenic summit hike and find a great place for dinner.

Day 167 -
The next morning is even more interesting as one lie follows another - whether incorrect ferry times (so we'll never be able to complete the hike) or claims that the local restaurants don't open for another hour - all to try extract a few Bolivianos - desparation is a hard lot (even if this hostal is one of the more expensive places) and we finally tell the owner we don't want breakfast and aren't coming back because they're just so annoying. At which point we're informed of our stupidity and the need to turn in our keys now.

So that goes well.

We get our stuff and hike to the north end of the island. We take the "high route" and encounter our next toll-booth. The 2nd one - where we need to buy our 2nd ticket to marvel at the island. In general, everything is really cheap but things don't seem thought through - there would probably be a lot more money to be made by combining things and lowering the nickel-and-dime annoyance factor. The final insult is when the return boat ride to the mainland is priced at double the cost of getting to the island, although after negotiations it turns out we can get it for only slightly more.

Anyway, the high trail is a really, really nice walk. A ribbon of nicely placed cobblestones running the length of the island. Could be somewhere in Greece, except for the huge, snowy peaks across the water. After a couple hours we arrive at the Inca site - the ruins are nice although not all that big, but are a great spot for lunch. I think the sacrifice altar looks a lot more modern than the rest, although this was supposed to be a ritual site.

I think the trail and views are worth the trip. The return trip is even more scenic along the coast, although slightly longer and a lot hillier. It takes you through several communities right on the shore with a few nice sandy beaches. The water and air temps are surprisingly warm - I won't go swimming with my cold, but even now near the shortest day of the year it's quite comfortable here. Must be some microclimate with the lake as we're still over 3800m. We settle on skipping stones.

We do make the ferry after all and it is at 4pm as advertized and by evening we're back in Copacobana where I head up the local hill for a nice overview and sunset followed by probably the best pasta I've had in S. America at something Postal. Really, really good food.

Day 168 -
A day of changes - I get my gear ready fairly early and by 9am we're all together for the final group breakfast. Dutch Team and French Team are heading back to La Paz for a fairly comfortable week or two at the end of the Death Road and further down into the tropics while I will continue onwards alone for the time being into Peru.

Breakfast is decent and a steal and it's time to say goodbye - first met Jan-Willem and Gudrun way back in week 7 at world's end in southern Chile, while Yoann and Fanny stayed at the Koala Den in Potosi a few weeks ago. Time flies. It's been a lot of fun travelling together.

30min later and you're at the Bolivia/Peru border. I recommend taking/converting sufficient currency - there's not much until Puno and I have again underestimated. Not sure on how I managed to misjudge, but Puno is still about 150km away and it's noon and I won't make it and my $5 ain't going all that far.

But the day is nice enough - decent riding conditions, fairly level road, winds are moderate if variable and mostly cross. Meet Patrique from Strassbourg who is somewhat surprised to see me (hasn't met a cyclist in several months apparently - hard to believe as I know of several in Peru heading the other way right now). At least we have decent recommendations for each other and he relieves me a bit as he has nothing but good experiences in Peru. Still, the first 3-year-old I see points out that I'm "Gringo" and proceeds to put her thumb to index- and middle-finger and rub in the international gesture of money as in gimme-some. Even though Peru is richer than Bolivia it does seem more crass so far. But I do enjoy lunch on the side of a road construction site talking with a local worker about everything from small-talk to Iraq to the travelling difficulties of 3rd-worlders/illegal immigration.

So Puno is too far, but Ilave is about 90km away - where Puno was in my mind and plans of making Cusco in 3 more days. I decide to call it a day as the sun will go down in about 90min and I don't want to rough it until I get a better feel for Peru. Town is one dingy chicken restaurant next to another and nobody will sell me beer. Oh well, it's just one night and there is a place to convert dollars which proves very useful (and has better rates than at the border). But no ATM.

Well, for the first time in a long time I'm completely caught up - writing these words in a rather loud hostal (sounds like there are lots of school groups in town) here in Ilave and fleshing out the past 3 weeks of logs as well. Should have a lot to post soon - hopefully in Cusco. Thanks to everyone for writing. See you next week.

Week 23 - LaPaz finally, the almost to the true High Point of the trip

2008-07-06T08:57:00.000-07:00

Week 23 - LaPaz finally, the almost to the true High Point of the trip

Day 155 -
A difficult day - it starts out harmless enough - in the same office where we bedded down - plus we have a kitchen complete with stove, so breakfast comes with hot drinks and a place to sit. Not a bad way to begin.

And Ramiro appears again and offers us info on the road ahead and wishes us well - quite amazing hospitality. But once outside, it's pretty clear we're back on the altiplano, temps are around freezing and we immediately turn into a head wind plus climb. It's going to stay cold and windy for quite awhile. From town we only climb abaout 40m before the first descent of around 200m and then the actual, final climb begins. The road climbs up to about 4500m (about 14,800ft) and there's even a sign: "Cumbre" (summit) for picture time.

Fanny seems to be feeling the altitude a lot so it's rough cycling - plus the cold and the headwind don't help. Immediately after the pass the road descends again - nothing too spectacular, but at least we're in something of a wind-sheltered canyon for a more comfortable lunch. From here on it's basically fairly monotonous, level & wide altiplano plain - temps never get much over 10C and the steady headwind doesn't help. But we form a peleton and it works really well - we do nearly 20km/h all afternoon and reach town quite early.

Then the difficult part starts. We seem to have encountered the least friendly town in Bolivia: Carapollo - about 40km N of Oruro. We first hit the main road junction south of center but are told center is further up, so we bike another 2km or so, only the center contains one solitary hostal and it's run-down and full, so it's back down the hill to the other alojamentos. Only noone answers at two of them and the others are quite run-down with one or more of us sleeping on a floor and not much on offer e.g. showers. One of the closed ones has a phone number so we call - they're in Oruro heading this way in about an hour.

So it's time for dinner - nothing special but after some confusion we all get served something. That plus some snacks and beer and UNO and about 75min pass. Gudrun calls again - still 20min away, then the guy just hangs up. We ask if we can sleep in the restaurant - no, but the owner knows someone, and after that falls through he knows person 2 and 3 and nobody wants us. We're starting to feel unwelcome.

We finally decide to head back and take whatever is available - we settle for an adobe building with no water, real toilet, and a nice soft earth floor. At least everything fits in this one not-so-big room - plus we decide to set up our tents indoors. A very cozy night, but somehow you always get through. At least the price is right at 5Bs ($0.75 - pretty sure this will be the cheapest non-free night of the trip).

Day 156 -
Writing on a much improved day sitting on a toilet (there's an outlet here & I won't disturb the others so much) next to our private hot tub - yeah, after sleeping on a dirt floor in an adobe room with no toilet, running water or electricity in a town that didn't seem too welcoming, tonight was a definite improvement - even had an amazing dinner served to our room.

Today initially continues where yesterday left off - unwanted. We return to last night's diner for breakfast, only at first they won't take our order because bus passengers (herds and herds of them) come first - we're only cyclists. Then they can't get our order straight (2 coffees 3 teas - not that hard) and let us know we should go back to our country. Let's just say we are glad to leave Carapollo behind us and head for greener pastures elsewhere - perhaps LaPaz? Only there's not much green around here - mostly yellow scrub. Still - peaks well over 6000m come into view (incl. Bolivia's highest around 6,400m) and the road is nearly level with almost no wind - even the temperatures aren't that bad - so basically a nearly ideal cycling day.

Perhaps the most interesting oddity cycling today was truck after truck loaded with cattle and passengers riding on top of them - let's just say Bolivians make extremely efficient use of vehicles - generally overloading them with everything and then adding lots of passengers.

I guess today (Sunday) must be market day - town after town was loading up animals and in the bigger ones they're being unloaded to await a most likely grim fate.

Up until early afternoon cycling goes quite well - we've even gotten into the habit of cooking lunch. But by early afternoon winds return and things slow down a notch or two. We do clear just about 100km but the next alojamento (accommodation) is uncertain and then out of the blue, there it is - tiny little dusty town with big hotel/swimming pool sign.

We have to check this out and sure enough - there is a hotel connected to a swimming pool - only they're not open - that is to say they have no room for 5 cyclists - that is to say there is a room but it's 300Bs ($40) a night but the kitchen is closed - that is to say they have a room with this amazing hot tub, lots of space for bikes, a table, 4 decent beds, and they offer a great dinner with room service for another 25Bs/person ($3.50).

I really don't understand how business works - almost everything we ask for, the first response is "no" - and depending on the mood of the person - or if a friendlier person is available, the response generally changes several times, usually in a more positive direction. Especially when it becomes clear we intend to pay for services.

Still not quite sure what this thing is doing here, but we're not complaining - quite a step up from last night. Amazing how far $12/person goes in Bolivia. So hopefully, we'll get a really early start tomorrow and make LaPaz by late afternoon. We'll see...

Day 157 - to LaPaz, pizza, ice cream
Never do manage to visit that swimming pool - but we do get an early start. LaPaz is about 100km away and the ride is fairly uneventful. We just want to make it all the way into town and not get stuck in El Alto - "The Heights" of La Paz.

Everything turns out fairly well - we cover 50km by lunch and by 2:30 are getting into more and more built-up areas. There's no real border to El Alto - just residential and industrial subdivisions in various states of construction as you get close, gradually becoming more and more occupied and completed buildings, and then you're in some pretty heavy, polluted traffic.

You never really see La Paz from the main highway - just this giant hole to the side. The main highway runs amazingly close to the edge of the bowl and now and then there's a gravel road leading down. Just take one - the views from the edge are outstanding. And dominating above it all is Illumani - the 6400m, snow-covered peak. Here are a few shots of our first view into the bowl - but La Paz is still behind another ridge.

La Paz is about as peaceful as Los Angeles is full of angels. As we get close, the main road becomes more and more difficult - but a couple streets in is the old road - a lot less motorized traffic but a lot of pedestrians and shops. But you need to cycle this way - it leads to the old road into the valley (unless you want to try the newer expressway).

El Alto is considered the slum of La Paz although to me it seems a lot more like the industrial heart while La Paz is the upscale neighbor. El Alto now has a larger population - much of which is on the altiplano, but a good chunk of it is precariously hanging on to what appears to be some rather questionable, earthen, and amazingly steep walls of the bowl of La Paz. Roads here are either serpentines, or just ridiculously steep affairs which sometimes terminate into staircases. I wonder how much rain it would take to send a lot of these buildings sliding into the city center.

So we bike through El Alto and perhaps 100m past an incredibly chaotic bus-terminal/marketplace, you see LaPaz in all it's glory - it is perhaps the most amazing ride into a major city I've ever had. You go from crowded street to seeing tens of thousands of buildings spread out across a natural bowl with snow-covered peaks all around. And perhaps most amazing of all is the air isn't all that bad - maybe there's just not enough cars per unit of area, but in general you can really see far.

So we enjoy our downhill and soon are into the throngs of downtown LaPaz - definitely not a bicycle, car, well just not really a friendly place to get around. You really need to watch in all directions because everything is moving and pushing to get through - but with this much congestion, at least speeds are low so a serious accident is pretty unlikely.

We finally settle into the hostel Austria where Dave has already been sleeping for a few nights. A decent place, nothing really special, but good rates, hot showers (when functioning), and pretty clean - but most importantly we can fit our bikes in the courtyard.

Dinner is in a different world - Eli's pizza followed by Bozzo's ice cream. This is not Bolivia but more like suburban USA. A bit surreal - seeing so many people struggling on very little while you can buy NY-style pizza and something which comes amazingly close to Italian Gelati on a well-lit street with one bank after a movie theater after a Toyota showroom... this too is the 3rd world.

But we enjoy the food (we're all starving and end up ordering so much pizza that no one finishes their dinner) and especially the ice cream - we'll be back.

Day 158 -
Today is our first day to explore LaPaz. So we decide to take in the latest Indy Jones flick - it actually makes me a bit homesick, but at the same time much of it takes place right around here. In fact, some of the scenes are places we've already visited (at one point he goes over Iguazu falls) and others are places that the local tourist shops have pictures of - including the temple with the stone heads he beats to release the sand behind them. Odd connection to this place.

Afterwards we start to look into the next big thing - climbing Huayna Potosi - a 6088m (just shy of 20,000ft) peak just north of LaPaz. But today is game day for the Eurocup and we have 2 dedicated Holland fans in the group so we first end up at the Dutch cafe in town (Sol y Luna - sun and moon) for a big-screen soccer match. While I get to make use of the wifi to establish that my wireless company is about to screw me - I now hate AT&T. They bought out my old carrier and proceeded to force-convert all the accounts, except the only way to convert an account is to go to their store in person, which is rather difficult for me at the moment. The also dropped all existing internet registrations and even prevent you from sending them email until you've registered with them (in person at a store). After a 20-min non-toll-free international call I determine that they really can't do squat for me, but at least the operators can confirm that I'll probably lose all credit on the account while in Bolivia. Idiots.

There are plenty of tourist shops for climbing local peaks. We settle for Huayna Potosi - sounds like an appropriate name and has some decent reviews as well. Plus they more or less own one of the refugios so we should have at least 1 sweet night on the mountain.

Otherwise not too much of interest today - but we do have more great ice cream.

Day 159 - LaPaz - Dave Sick
Today is even less eventful - was thinking about the Death Road but it's a bit tight as tomorrow we start the hike. So instead it's mostly hike-related errands and not much else. We have a really basic physical at the climbing place to somewhat ensure we're ready for high-altitude activities and also head to their office to check-out all the gear we'll need - axe, cramp-ons, boots, ... probably a good thing as we're short on a few items and my feet turn out to be too big for their stock of boots - need to borrow them from another operator.

Oh, and more ice-cream again. Plus I check out the coca museum - a lot of info packed into a tiny place. They're goal is allegedly one of fighting addiction through information, but they're a bit heavy on anti-western feelings. Not that I have a problem with that - I think our anti-drug policies are pretty much disatrous at home and especially in South America (and Central Asia). Cocaine is the primary root of modern anethestics (basically everything ending in -caine, even if synthetic.) Somewhat interestingly - there's a panel discussing the original anti-cocaine laws passed around 1912 which resulted in Coca-Cola coming clean - but the quotes and political cartoons shown primarily focus on the evils of caffeine.

A more open drug policy still leaves the very real problem of very destructive addictions. A tough one. Worth checking out - and they sell plenty of coca-laced products from standard leaves and tea to cookies and liquor.

Dave wants to leave for the Death Road today but Montezuma's Revenge keeps him mostly bedridden. Haven't been having much luck with illness since entering Bolivia.

Day 160 -
Haven't had a hiking day since Iguazu Falls, but today is no ordinary hiking day - of course they never are.

Today all 5 of us are breaking new territory - for most of us it's our highest night's sleep at around 4750m (tomorrow should be another 600m higher) - and we all got to try ice climbing for the first time. Nothing particularly technical - just some guided training at the end of a glacier off of Huayna Potosi.

If you want to give this a try and happen to be in Bolivia I can only recommend it. The local tourist economy is pretty amazing. Today is our first day on a 3-day excursion - starting off with getting critical supplies in the morning like Coke and chips.

And also most likely saying good-bye to my cycling parter of the past 5 months - Dave - it's been great. Enjoy the Death Road and the rest of Bolivia and see ya soon in the States.

After good-bye and shopping, we drive to this amazing refugio complete with electricity, running water, and a full kitchen where our meals are prepared for us. Almost everything is included, and most other things can be procured if needed (in our casse, we're unusual "backpackers" - we don't have enough backpacks since we're bicycle based).

Once everything is together, it's another scenic drive through El Alto to a gravel road. Biking this would have been fun, but we have enough challenges. We gradually climb past several of LaPaz's reservoirs and finally arrive at the stone refugio. Quite a decent lunch. Then it's off for ice climbing.

I think I could get into this. At least it seems easier than rock climbing - everything is a potential foot or handhold. But we're all first-timers so they take us through the basics including some real ice faces around 50-60deg. - basically harder than anything we should encounter on the hike over the next 2 days.

We all manage to do OK - get down in one piece, have a spaghetti dinner, and play UNO. Tomorrow it's off to the next camp - a fairly easy day. The challenge will be the next night/morning when we attack the summit starting around 1am...

Day 161 -
Well, definitely a first for me - writing these words at around 5315m in a mountain refuge beneath the summit of Huayna Potosi - the peak we'll be attacking at around midnight. It's been an amazing day - the tour company has taken good care of us - breakfast was bacon and eggs and yoghurt and fruit and hot chocolate and coca tea and bread... I think it's the first time I've had bacon since leaving the States and it was damn good at 4750m.

After a lazy morning we had another warm meal and then set out for the mountain refuge - in some sense this is all a bit of a dream - the peak ahead of us is completely snow and ice covered and yet here we are - all novices to varying degrees and tomorrow we're going to do it - providing the evening clouds don't get more threatening.

The hike so far has been quite strenuous but the views are amazing. Pretty much makes up for all the stuff that went wrong - my sunglasses breaking, my camera breaking and then fixing itself again after a few hours (it no longer focused except at full wide angle - one of these days I still need to log all my equipment but my camera is definitely not getting an A), and of course losing badly at UNO - all these important things fade away when you get to look down on the world and the clouds from well over 5000m and watch the sun recede up distant snowy peaks.

Well, I'll let the pictures speak for the rest of today - definitely one of the high points of the trip and tomorrow - starting around 1am - will be all on snow and ice up the remaining 750m - about 6hours up and then all the way down to yesterday's refugio and back to LaPaz if all goes well.

Week 2 - Sucre to Cochabamba and beyond

2008-07-06T08:51:00.000-07:00

Week 22 - Sucre to Cochabamba and beyond

Day 148 765m 4:25 17.8av, 58.8mx, 79.2km, to 20347km 18.6583S 65.1744W 1719m
Not much time for a report today - it's kmorning on day 149 and another beautiful day is starting up. The sun is painting the mountainside across the valley but over here it's still dark. OK, that was rather painful, my wireless keyboard decided not to cooperate this morning, so instead it's now evening on day 149 and things are working better - the mysteries of radio.

Anyway, today is party day in Sucre. The roadblocks are (temporarily) down and university is about to commence - which means parade time. All those marching bands that have been practicing every night into the wee hours in the main square are dressed up and on full display.

At least I assume they are. The blockades are down and it's time for Dave and I to be leaving. We manage to get a decent start around 10am - and for a pleasant change I'm ready a lot earlier than that.

On the way out of town, evidence of the blockade is everywhere in the form of one truck after another parked alongside the road. And the long line of vehicles waiting their turn at the gas stations (which apparently have gas again).

At least all blockade evidence indicates we're probably on one of the main streets out of town, because there basically are no signs anywhere telling you which road you're on. But folks are friendly and hopefully knowledgeable and repeatedly confirm that this is the way to Cochabamba.

Not sure why directional/destination signs are such an afterthought here, there are quite a few other signs around.

To get out of town you first must climb, then climb some more. Around 200m up from the center, you finally get to something like a summit and see it - the local cement factory.

But this is no ordinary cement factory - it's home to the largest single rock-face of dinosaur footprints in the world - an ancient lakebed with extremely fast deposition of sediment (they figure 2 layers of sediment per day) has preserved literally dozens of different tracks of many different species along a rock face several hundred meters long - much of it a single layer implying all these tracks were put down some lazy afternoon a few tens of millions of years ago (a total of 8 layers are uncovered to varying degrees and if they so chose, they could continue mining and would probably expose new, very similar layers underneath.

This particular face has been exposed for around 25 years and is quite soft, so the footprints have eroded quite a bit, but are still distinct and the site may get a UNESCO recognition along with a preservation effort involving latex.

For now, there's a somewhat kitchy observation platform with life-sized fiberglass dino-models and a snack-bar complete with gift shop.

And there's a still active, giant, cement factory next door (which I think would make an equally interesting tour, though none was advertized).

So instead we continue - past what smells-to-be Sucre's unofficial solid waste disposal site (the hillside along Ruta 5 - they do have signs telling you not to dump your garbage here) and after an amazingly windy, hilly road which seems to follow contour lines out of town, we eventually leave Sucre behind.

Immediately following is another amazing downhill. The road is in decent condition and traffic isn't too heavy - just a nice, curve-filled, high-speed descent.

But it's over way too fast and the rest of the day is pretty much one steep uphill followed by a slightly longer downhill as we gradually lose altitude. The hills really are quite steep as our somewhat low average speed shows - by 50km we have roughly 1800m in total elevation changes (up and down) or around 3.6% average grade - that's a lot. So it's quite the workout. We still cover about 80km despite the tour and 2 lunches, so it's a pretty good day.

Road conditions are good - all paved plus much of the day is along a scenic river valley.

Evening finds us camped behind the berm of a curve with beautiful views up and down the valley while reasonably well hidden from the road. We cook and camp and I for some reason have no energy to blog - maybe the 2am previous night - so it'll have to wait for tomorrow...

Day 149 - 63.6km, 10.7av, 54.5mx, 1094m, 5:55 to 20411km, 2286m (133.6km alt) 18.2005S, 65.1796W

Dust, perhaps all we are is... but today there really was a prodigious quantity of dust in the wind, on my bike, bags, chain, clothes, skin, eyes, lungs... mostly kicked up by one truck after another after another. Bolivia's Ruta 5 is not kind, but at least the road itself isn't too challenging.

From camp this morning there's still glorious pavimento. That lasts for about 10km (about 90km from Sucre) of mostly downhill. And that would be the literal low-point for today - around 1600m for the first time in over a month (Salta) and the end of pavement.

And then you cross the bridge and start both a very long uphill and a very dusty gravel road. Basically the rest of the day is a fairly gradual climb. After the tortuous roads of far SW Bolivia, everything seems pretty easy now. And it really isn't too bad except for the occasional dose of silicate and fine diesel particulate and other miscellaneous toxins - plus the near total loss of vision for a few seconds each time a truck rumbles by.

The scenery keeps getting greener and more tropical and temperatures are very pleasant today - around 30-35 in the sun - on the warm side but after weeks of freezing in the tropics (at altitude) the heat is welcome.

Nothing too much else to write on - Aiquile - our home for tonight - turns out to be about 35km further away than the map would have you beliieve, but I suppose that's still better than the mislocated town on the stretch between Uyuni and Potosi. I guess I'll need to think of this thing as an approximation at best. At least the general directions seem to be right even if there are very few road signs to confirm where you're going (after 145km I have yet to see Cochabamba written anywhere).

So after climbing to over 2400m again, the road gradually descends into Aiquile and fortunately we made it as Dave was growing to loathe any more travel on dust and I wasn't much in the mood for camping or cooking. So here we are - the town specialty appears to be deep fried chicken served on the Bolivian National Side Dishes of rice and potatoes (you tend to get both with pretty much anything you order). About a dozen places in a row have deep fryers out on the sidewalk serving what appear to be near-identical dishes, although eventually we do find a place that's also serving something resembling hamburger (served over rice and potatoes of course), so we end up with one plate of each and are now fairly sated. Well, time for bed.

Day 150 (pretty sure data is from 150 - although was org. 151) - 55.3km, 10.0av, 38.9mx, 1180m, 5:30, to 17.8512S, 65.1678W, 2787m (134.7km alt), 20466km

5 months... landing in Mendoza on Jan 11 seems like a different era - I know I can go home and return to a "normal" life, whatever that may be, but right now life on the road is seeming normal to me. Not my longest trip distance-wise, yet, but there's still time for that.

Falling a bit behind again - writing this on the morning of day 151 camped near a hilltop cemetary and the dogs keep barking but hopefully not too close - but back to 150...

Today may have knocked Utah's "Million Dollar Road" out of its top spot for me. And there are a few others - the road leading through the Swiss National Park, just amazing, amazing mountain roads.

The road leading from Aquile towards Cochabamba is not an easy road - it's actually quite annoyingly amazing. The first cobblestone highway I've ever encountered (& tollroad, too!). Fairly punishing road surface (although very rideable contrary to what some blogs may say, again, this is much easier than far SW Bolivia). But the surface can almost be like washboard cast in stone. I wonder how this would compare to bicycling in Roman times.

But road quality is only half the challenge today. After Aquile, the road follows through undulating farmland until after 25km or so, you hit it - this amazing river valley and then the fun starts. Today's main descent - a winding, hairpin affair that drops to the valley floor and the fun is over. You can already see the saddle in the ridge line where the road exits the valley. It's way up there.

The scenery keeps getting greener and greener and the road gets nice a steep as you climb around 700m off the valley floor.

Just amazing views all around.

And then you reach the saddle only to discover it's a false summit. The road keeps going up - hugging the side of the hill at first and eventually running from hillside to ridge line to hillside as it keeps going up and up - this spindly thing that follows the contour lines at around 2500m.

Dave just has the energy knocked out of him - amazing how the mind can focus on that summit and when the prize is taken away, you almost feel cheated. After another few km he can't go any further, so in the end we have to find camp in this high-hill area, still unsure of where the final summit is, was, or will be. But we're almost up to 2800m again, so it definitely can't be much higher.

So we have a look around and walk right through a cemetary - not some grand affair - this one has no real boundary, just mostly iron markers staked in the scrub and overgrown (and it's not abandoned - graves are from this millenium, just a different approach to leaving the dead). We're not actually camped next to any graves, but they are fairly closeby - less than 15m away. Certainly the oddest campsite for me, but everywhere else is farmland or grazing and we'd rather be somewhat hidden. And the views are outstanding - the sun is setting as we set up camp and we can see green mountains in all directions as we set up camp.

The road is just an amazing work of engineering - and the cobblestones continue all day long (local's refer to the road as being "piedras" - or rocks). It really slows you down, although for stretches there are bike tracks along a fairly smooth shoulder. But how it is cut out of one hillside, then opens up on both sides to reveal canyons and distant tree-covered mountains on both sides - following this precarious hilltop course - I think I'm going to enjoy some of the roads further north.

Time to break camp and keep a move on...

Day 151 - hillside
Well, my hunch was... wrong. It can be higher. Substantially so. We get a decent start to the day and defying expectations, discover that, in fact, we aren't even close to the top yet.

The hills around here are quite deceiving - you get the impression you're pretty much on top of everything, plus Cochabamba is actually slightly below last night's camp, so how hard can it be.

For the first few km, the road continues it's hillside /ridgeline hugging ascent - we're now around 2900m, then we hit something like a 30m descent and the first houses of Totora come into view - nothing very special looking - a somewhat "standard", if dismal, brown-wall lined cobblestone street leads into town.

We hit the first tienda we can find and load up on cookies, snacks, soda... in other words, essentials. After really draining our food last night , the first shopping opportunity leads to mild binging.

Turns out town is still another km or so down the cobblestone and soon we're in the town center.Here you can buy real food - fresh fruits and veggies and even some cheese. Turns out Totora is actually quite an old pueblo - another from Spanish times and it comes complete with a very nice colonial plaza.

It also comes complete with paved road - right in the middle of town, the cobblestones disappear under pavement. From here to LaPaz we should be on a nice, smooth, hard surface.

The road climbs slightly out of town and after a few km, descends again to the junction with Bolivia's main road - I believe it's the only through road which is completely paved - from Lake Titicaca on the border to Peru, through El Alto (the slum area surrounding LaPaz), Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, and on to the Argentine border.

We'll be on this to Titicaca. But first lunch. Like pretty much anywhere in the world, important road junctions tend to attract restaurants, gas stations, hotels, ... lunch it is.

And again the road climbs, not quite sure how we missed it, but without much change in altitude we went from high-ridge-line, hilltop windy road overlooking beautiful green valleys to being on the valley floor and seeing even higher mountains all around.

So we climb some more - 3000, 3100, 3200, the occasional drop of 100m or so, but otherwise pretty much a steady climb. The scenery changes quite a bit as well - what earlier seemed to be distant clouds possibly hovering over the lowlands to the north are now these amazing, fast-moving and very low clouds, shrouding the mountains and moving down their sides, sometimes blanketing the road in a fast-moving fog. I somehow think of cycling in Scotland.

There's an occasional sprinkle, but no real precipitation.

The road is actually quite pleasant - it climbs, but it's paved and not steep so we're able to cover some distance. Still, we get worn down and eventually the sun sets without any obvious campsite or place to spend the night. Eventually we ask a local to camp on their property and they're quite friendly - inquiring about our trip and, of course, offering us a spot on the edge of their lot. The owner was just unloading some bricks for building his house a bit further up the hillside.

And so we camp right next to the road, but there's a slight hill, some scrub, plus fog so we're pretty much out of sight.

Evening shrouds us in fog for some interesting light shows as cars head down the pass.

Somehow we started out on top of the mountains with awesome views, well above Cochabamba, spent most of the day climbing, and still ended up on a valley floor with no obvious summit in sight at around 3400m - about 600 higher than this morning. Oh well, still an amazing road.

Day 152 - to Cochabamba
Morning comes and so do a few curious local kids to watch us break camp and pepper us with questions about our trip. And for the most part I can even answer them, although apparently one asked Dave if we were father and son. I suppose I can forgive the kid, although in Potosi we got the same question in the mine. In my defense, I didn't actually hear any of this - only what Dave told me later, although that may have more to do with my loss of hearing at my advanced age.

Anyway, we eventually make it back on the road. And the climb continues. And continues. We make another ridge line and discover the top is still further, but after 15km or so we finally complete the final 300m to the real summit - a near continuous climb from 2 days ago: A cobblestone road on a beautiful valley floor, to the top of local mountains, and then up some more to higher and higher saddles and new higher valleys - from around 1700m to now 3700m (about 12200ft).

But we make it and now it's payback time. At first the road enjoys the now really high plateau with a nice, gradual, meandering descent. We get to cruise down a roughly 2% slope at about 30km/h for the first dozen or so km. Then it gets serious and soon we're doing 50-60 and losing altitude quite quickly.

After another few km, we're down around 3000m again and it's time for a brief climb followed by a very fast, windy descent - really, really nice. Too bad about all the trucks, but they tend to be so slow you can pass them in a second or two at speeds approaching 70km/h. Then one final short ascent and the ultimate descent prior to Cochabamba - a very windy road hugging a rugged mountainside with cliffs just off the right side of the road as you head down, and quite a few slow trucks again. This one is really fun, although short and that's it - you're down to 2750m or so and the next 40km into town will be a nearly straight road peppered with small dusty pueblos, tiendas, and restaurants. We eat lunch 1 and a few km further down I do lunch 2 as well.

A few more km and the road hugs a reservoir - home to this great seafaring nation's naval station - perhaps here in case LaPaz attacks Cochabamba.

And finally the last few km and more and more dwellings, shacks, luxury villas, and slums appear - we're approaching Cochabamba - Bolivia's 3rd city (I guess it's Bolivia's Chicago - gritty and formerly 2nd city after LaPaz, but now passed by warmer and richer Santa Cruz to slip into 3rd.)

It takes us awhile to actually get into the city - this is no Potosi or Sucre - little colonial architecture, just industry and one seemingly endless market with a cacaphony of noise and utterly chaotic and basically gridlocked traffic. The last few km take a long time until we finally break free of the market and hit downtown.

It's definitely not a pretty city, but it does offer a slightly larger Christ on the Hill statue than Rio - Rio's is 33m tall for Christ's age, while this one is just a bit more - since He was a bit over 33 when crucified.

Well, and that's pretty much it - except of course for the Vitrionox store downtown - I've been looking for a replacement pen for my swiss-army-USB stick-light-pen thingy - except the pen has been empty for most of this trip and every tourist trap and city in S. America has at least 3 stores selling these things but nobody has replacement cartriges.

Until now. So if you ever need one, head to this place on Heroina Avenida in central Cochabamba - they have everything and even the prices aren't bad [of course I also find another store selling climbing goods and replacement pen cartridges in La Paz's tourist section].

Otherwise it's a pretty gritty place with quite a few area's not recommended for mindless wandering after dark and more than a couple warnings for daytime as well.

But the lovely Hotel Heroina on Heroina has really nice cable TV.

Day 153 - to partway up pass -
66.7km, 14.8av, 52.4mx, 1032m, 4:30, to 3470m, 20699km, 137.5km alt, 17.6733S, 66.4236W, 3474m

But I can't comment on their breakfast since this morning I'm really pressed for time. We're back together with the Dutch (Jan-Willem and Gudrun), and for the first time the French (Yoann and Fanny), and I would like to cycle together with them out of town. Dave decides to continue by bus so now it's the 5 of us heading for LaPaz.

After a mad dash to the central market, with about 30seconds to admire the fairly nice main plaza, and a couple minutes to compare the amazing fruit salads on offer here with those from Sucre (really hard to pick a winner - Sucre is a whole Boliviano more expensive at 7 - still under $1 - I'd say Sucre has a slightly nicer fruit variety but they're both an amazing treat I think I could go for every morning). Otherwise just load up on pasta, sauce, fruits, veggies, and junk food and back to the Internet shop/call center to change my flight (%@$% NWA still can't hire enough operators so that failed for the 2nd day in a row after about 8 attempts) and finally to the hotel to get a move on before 9:30.

The road out of town is heavily polluted and crowded and also has the first bicycle lane I've seen in Bolivia - annoyingly they put speed bumps at each intersection, but not to urge cars to use caution but rather to slow the bicycles down. But it does offer somewhat polluted but still beautiful views of the peaks NE of the city which were dusted in snow last night.

After 15km or so the city starts to fade and things get a little easier. We're still on Bolivia's main highway here, so traffic isn't exactly light, but it's not too bad either.

Around 33km, you hit bottom - around 2475m, and then it's time to climb, and climb, and climb. The rest of the day is almost exclusively uphill and dedicated to shredding our tires.

We have lunch on this nice little overlook of the road below. And as we leave, Fanny has a flat. Once she's up and running, I make it about 500m and join the club. I tell them to continue and proceed to remove the biggest thorn I've ever had the pleasure of running over. It must be 4cm long. I patch up and inflate and repack and note my tire is flat again. !#@$!. So I remove it and pull out a 2nd thorn. At least this time I'm thinking a bit more and look for a 3rd hole since that 2nd thorn got 2 chances to bite. And I find that too. So 3 patches later I'm finally ready. About 45min later we all meet up higher up and I find out Fanny also had a 2nd thorn and flat. And I also note I now have a slow leak - I was expecting this too, given the size of that thorn but I couldn't locate it in just a couple minutes. Oh well. That will wait for evening.

In the meantime, we pass the remains of not one but two broken bottle festivals a few km apart on the climb - at least I assume that's what they were - must be dozens and dozens CASES of beer bottles crushed to nice sharp shredding implements and carefully strewn about the road and shoulder. We actually get off and push the bikes to reduce the likelihood of more unexpected delays.

Let's see, we see a very jack-knifed semi + double-trailer in what appears to be an impossible maneuver with the cab facing uphill and the 2nd trailer across the road below it. Lucky because here there are fairly steep, almost cliff-like embankments leading several hundred m down on both sides of the road.

And then there's the smoking egg truck. This one is still a mystery - a truck full of egg-cartons passes us with smoke rising - not too unusual but instead of the scent of heavy diesel it smells more like burning wood.

We later see the same truck parked at the side of the road with dozens of smoldering egg-cartons and eggs just strewn about the side of the road. And then it passes us again - still smoking egg cartons.

But today was more than just bizarre occurances - it was also a pretty good cycling day - we do climb almost 1000m net along some amazing roads with beautiful views of the mountains around Cochabamba as well as the upcoming pass. In parts, the road reminds me of the one a few days ago with a climb to a ridge, more hill-top riding (with the jack-knifed truck) and a climb to another, higher ridge. I guess we still have a ways to go, too.

Time runs out on us and we don't make the 2nd ridge and town at around 3700m, so camp is around 3470 behind a pile of dirt in a bend in the pass - but with a pretty nice view of the whole climb and as we set up a goat-herder just walks through our campsite while everyone gets set up and I fix my front wheel - 4 patches for 1 lunch among thorns - must be some kinda record.

Well, time to turn in, tomorrow we try for around 4600m again.

Day 154 - to Confital & Ramiro - 51.7km, 11.3av, 75.8mx, 1388m, 4:35 to 20751km, 4368m, 138.9km alt
A week ago I wasn't expecting to get this high anymore (i.e. altitude, coca is widely available here in Bolivia although chewing it is pretty tame - it mostly just numbs your mouth and throat). So here we are, spending an enjoyable evening playing UNO and approaching 4400m (about 14,500ft) and the road is still climbing for awhile yet. Back to the altiplano. And back to this morning:

Today begins at a bend in the road. We have an uneventful night out of sight, which is good as this is apparently the poorest region of Bolivia and camping isn't really recommended - but when stuck partway up a pass and night is approaching, well, we are 5 people so...

From there, we continue up our interrupted pass - and of course it's really nowhere near as high as we need to get - after 45 min or so we reach this immediate top with amazing views all the way to Cochabamba and the mountains beyond. But we're still only around 3700m. At least there are plenty of convenience stores and even my cell phone works. Time to try changing my flight for the 15th time or so - NWA must really be cutting back on staff - I've been trying for 3 days to change this flight and every phone call ends up with an apologetic recording telling me that there's noone available due to extremely high call volumes (this includes calls around midnight). Needless to say, there would be no success from the top of the pass, either, but I did succeed in adding minutes to my phone - a rather random task here in Bolivia - pay 31Bs for a 30Bs card and end up with all of 20Bs credit on your phone. A call to complain informs me that I apparently bought the incorrect recharge card - not sure how this is possible - but sometimes they offer promotions where you get more credit than you pay for - I guess that makes up for sometimes getting less. The next identical card does in fact add 30Bs to my phone which should be enough credit for changing my flight. We'll see.

We continue onwards and upwards and again the road is reminding me of the cobblestone affair of a few days ago - amazing high ridge road with valleys all around. We pass 4000m and 4100 to before today's only real descent - a very steep, but fun, drop of about 300m (and about 5min) with speeds getting close to 80km/h (50mph). So now we're in a red rock canyon and know we're going to have to pay for 5 minutes of fun, but at least it's scenic.

J-W and G stop a few times to pick up the Holland vs. France Euro-championship soccer match on shortwave radio (Holland Wins!), while the rest of us keep plodding along. A hard, slow, and increasingly cold day. By around 5 temps are down to 6C and we're around 4350 and have reached today's town - the small altiplano pueblo of Confital - not much here besides 1 open store/restaurant and a toll-booth, but J-W and G strike paydirt by talking to a friendly face. We come across a local USAID / religious anti-hunger office and Ramiro, one of the employees, takes an interest in us - so we have indoor shelter and running water tonight - and after procuring some refreshing beers and cheese snacks, it's an evening of UNO with our gracious host.

Interesting to get local views on the current state of Bolivia - in Sucre we had an amazing museum guide who was well-(out)spoken and quite pro-automony / anti-Evo, matching the stereotype of the richer, southern, middle-class urbanite; while tonight's host is much more soft-spoken and informs us that this is Evo's territory - the poor rural folk who are really having a hard time with food inflation and just trying to get by on local subsistence farming because they can't afford to "import" food from the richer parts of Bolivia. I see challenging times ahead as commodities show no signs of become more plentiful in the foreseeable future.

Well, time to wrap up a very enjoyable evening - tomorrow we're off to another early start (I actually hit the road before 8:30 today believe it or not).

Week 21 - Potosi to Sucre

2008-06-21T14:38:00.000-07:00

OK, uploaded the rest of week 21's stills - this is the Potosi market +church on day 142

Dave in the middle of a road block on 144
The amazing descent on 144
J-W and Gu enjoying fruit salad in Sucre on 146
This is an awesome fruit salad
The Sucre market - 146

The Declaration of Independence of Alto - High - Peru at the liberation museum on 146
Freedom Fighter (or terrorist?) - 146
The amazing mask museum - 146
Sucre at night
Sucre marching band

At night - 2
The whole new group of cyclists on 147 - Yoann, Jan-Willem, Fanny, and Gudrun L to R - but we won't cycle together until Cochabamba.
Sucre's Eiffel
Stuff that grows on power lines here
Sucre at sunset from on top - 147

OK, here are some of the pics of week 21 - a lot is missing and there appear to be a lot of blank lines again - anyway here are the 4 miners - Gudrun, Jan Willem, Dave, and myself - day 141

Hmmm - normal stuff for sale on a Potosi Street
Dave is happy
Separating Ore the primitive way
The mine entrance
Ditto

El Tio
Moving a cart in the mine
Dumping ore
Exiting
Yes - a lit fuse

A few moments later
Nice road shot on day 145
The Bridge
Bridge from the plank
Another Bridge shot

Another Bridge shot
Ditto
Ditto
I just love the wire wrapping
A ruined mansion on the way to Sucre

A golf club that's seen better days
Countryside near Sucre - 145
The Blockade
Sucre Plaza
Marching Band

Week 21
Day 141 - the Mines

Well, I'm actually complete caught up again, writing this from the rooftop of the hostel here with amazing views of town. We just got back from our mine tour - definitely worth doing. OK, got interrupted there so again, this is now one day later at the hostel, but I got close.

It starts out with an early, generous breakfast here at the hostel (even serve eggs).

Unfortunately, coordination isn't all that great so we're wolfing down our food as the tour group is loading us up. From here we head to the agency's changing room where we don mining garb. They talk about the life of the miners - definitely not an easy existance - for around a ton of ore they collect around $100. But that's gross. 18% off the top to the cooperative/government. Then there's the rest. At the miner's market there are little mom & pop operations everywhere providing services such as recharging headlamps (find it hard to believe the miners can't afford a charger, but for around $0.30 you can drop off your lamp and collect it again charged), all sorts of mining gear, and, of course, explosives. Yep, here, in broad daylight, you can pretty much walk down the street and pick up a stick of TNT, a detonator, and a bag of ammonium nitrate (another potent explosive - generally mixed with diesel as we unfortunately learned in Oklahoma City) in one shop (about 18Bs / $2.75 a hit) while next door you can purchase coca w/catalyst (either Sodium Bicarbonate or, I understand, some kind of compressed ash) to keep the miners happy.

Tourists are expected to purchase some of each as gifts to the miners so we leave the market with the obligatory offerings, plus a few extra sticks for detonating our own little part of the mountain afterwards. All in all we have about 30 sticks of dynamite on our bus as we head for the mine.

Actually, next stop would be the processing facility. As I mentioned yesterday (last week), Bolivia has no smelter, so we're told, all that happens here is the really rough stuff - miners drop off crushing the ore, mixing it with various toxins to create a foam which adheres to the minerals - these then float and are collected in a concentrate of mostly lead and tin and some silver which is generally the main interest here.

I can guess what happens to all the non-valuable stuff - the ride into town was along a garbage strewn foul creek - so you probably don't want to drink anything downstream from here (which is a long ways as we're at 4000m). Interesting how this deregulation dream results in brutal working conditions and environmental destruction. All for a little money - much of the profit goes elsewhere - primarly by the trainload of concentrate to Chile.

The mines are called cooperatives - although a guild is probably a better description - boys around 13 start working alongside their fathers, brothers, and uncles all working the same veins and more or less hold the "claim" although I don't think there are any formal claims. 15,000 miners in total (the guide tells us there are about 40 mine fatalities per year, although lung disease after "retirement" is the main killer). These groups, often relations, work within cooperatives and share amongst themselves although I guess there's enough room for everyone and people pretty much leave others claims alone.

It is a brutal place - the entrance dates back to the colonial period and is covered in llama blood - a sacrifice to Tio - the Spanish devil of the mine. Apparently we missed the ritual which was last Saturday - somewhat gruesome as some miners will cover their faces in blood as well. All we got was a dark red/brown entry portal. From there, duck, the rest of the tour will be for the little people. I'm not all that big, but bigger than the average local so I will be banging my head quite a few times before this is over. Lots of stuff hanging down from the ceiling - mostly wooden chutes for ore. And then there are tubes and tubes and wires - hard to get a handle on what's what - the guides just inform us to not touch anything.

First stop is the "museum" - with a sculpture of Tio and some various bits of info on mining in Bolivia. Afterwards, it's deeper into the mine - probably less than a km, but starting with an altitude around 4300m, only natural ventilation, and lots of dust, it's a pretty hard place to breath - so 1km of crouching, crawling, and scrambling down questionable ladders is enough.
We're introduced to one of the oldest miners at over 50 who's here with his sons today. Later we walk down another passageway to a locked door where we yell to another old-timer followed by a loud blast. That would be a stick of TNT. Afterwards the air reeks of fireworks.
We are shown the blast site - down another ladder - the miner needs to place the charge and scramble up a rickety ladder to safety in about a minute - the fuse length. I can see how things may occasionally go wrong here.

We deliver our gifts and head back out to daylight. Outside it's time for the final show of the day - we get to set off our own explosives. I didn't buy any and although Dave did, he had to surrender his to the guide so we get to watch how the stick is molded (into a conventient plastic bag), the detonator is placed, and the fuse is lit. Yep, lit right there. Then it's time for some really quick pictures and finally the guide is off (hope he never forgets one of them), to place the explosive a safe distance away and continue running himself, and finally the big boom and all is well.

I won't say it's enjoyable, but visiting the mines is definitely something you should try when here. Afterwards we don't do too much - a lazy afternoon - check out the local market. Neat little place - dozens and dozens of stalls selling packaged goods, fresh food, and meat. Dinner is pizza with J-W and G as well as our new French cycling friends - we'll be heading to Sucre together on Monday. They've been on the road for 10 months now - most of it in Africa. Should be an interesting week.

Day 142 -Not too much to report on today -spent the day in and around Potosi, getting the bikes ready, a bit more exploration at the market, working on the blog...

And getting sick.

Day 143 -

Yeah, probably the fastest onset of food poisoning I've had to date. Still felt OK at dinner yesterday, but the gut was churning. 4 or 5 times during the night I make an emergency run to the toilet and need to make the critical decision of which bodily orifice to mate with the porcelain throne. A few times I need to switch mid-stream and by morning I'm pretty much drained - just a mixture of dry-heaves and foul fumes.

Still don't know the cause. So today is pretty much spent sleeping, rehydrating, experimenting with which simple carbohydrates are acceptable to my GI-tract, and a bit of work on the laptop and TV.

144 - 89.4km, 19.5av, 66.9mx, 648m, 4:35 to 2705m, 20201km, (130.5km alt) 19.4935S, 65.2138W

Amazing how time flies. It's been almost a week since I was last making entries in my tent. Soon I'll be back in Norte America, but there's still a few more weeks down here. Hopefully we'll get into at least part of Peru. We shall see.

Tonight is much different than the last few weeks of camping - we're about 1100m lower than the lowest recent site at "only" 2700m (just under 9000ft). And so life is warmer (sleeping without the fly for a change), greener, moister, easier to breathe, and noisier - lots of insects chirping around the tent tonight, but still a glorious sky and no human lights around, save for headlight I'm using to enter these words.

Woke up this morning still feeling pretty lousy and had another bathroom run. At least the vomiting has been over for 24h now. A marked improvement from yesterday. Wasn't all that hungry but still managed to down the Koala's decent breakfast offering and a mate de coca - too bad it's illegal outside of the region - makes quite a nice tea and seems to calm an upset stomach a bit. It's pretty much a cure-all around here.

Halfway through breakfast we're informed that nobody's leaving today - all the buses have been canceled due to the roadblocks around town - apparently the miners are demonstrating. We go to the hostel staff and, indeed, they confirm this - but not to worry, they're not "molesting" bicyclists - only car drivers.

I generally hate waiting around to get better, so despite being sub-100% and the roadblock, Dave and I decide to set out again. First a quick dash to an ATM which included passing a group of protesters with some fireworks (at least I hope that's all they were - never know what to expect with this group).

From the hostel, it's a fairly quick route to the road to Sucre. No signs of course, but locals help point us in the right direction and before long, the city is spread out beneath us. And then we see the jumble of trucks blocking the road. Here we go.

The trucks aren't much of an obstacle to a bicycle and at first nobody seems to be around, but we approach the final junction at this end of town and soon there are more parked trucks and a few protestors. A friendly lot, mostly just sitting on the guard rail and having lunch. I say "Hola" while Dave decides to have a longer conversation.

And then the roadblock is behind us - I guess we're the only hostel guests to actually cover some distance towards Sucre today.

And we do cover some ground. Right after town the road has a leisurely 2-3% descent - just great cycling on a sunny day. There's a bit of wind, but in general things go quite well.
Of course no descent is forever and soon the road is more a set of large rolling hills - despite losing about 1300m today, we still climb almost 650.

The scenery is noticable different as we continue NE. The landscape is greener - some of the streams actually have water in them, and there's a lot more agriculture - actual cultivation as well as sheep and goat grazing. And the mountains aren't as high anymore - no more snow in sight.

Just before camp we hit our biggest descent of the day - around 600m of glorious, winding downhill - I hit 67 while Dave hits 74. But it's over too fast and we're climbing again. We manage a few more km and decide some of the large cuts near the road would make a nice, sheltered campsite so that's where tonight finds us - about 64km from Sucre and 90 from Potosi.

Day 145 - Didn't manage to keep on top of my entries so this one is a few weeks late (currently in LaPaz in week 23).

More beautiful road - today pretty much continues along the same lines as yesterady - except we start out at the bottom and will have to climb to reach Sucre. But it's only a fairly short distance. Scenery is very similar - still quite arid but much greener than the Altiplano - and quite a few wide gravel stream beds with a trickling stream meandering down the middle.

And then there it is - a very unexpected bridge - connecting the departments containing Potosi and Sucre. An amazing work of engineering - I would describe it as a wire-wrap bridge for any older electronics fans out there. I'm guessing this suspension bridge is at least 100 years old, and to make things more interesting, one side is anchored directly into a hillside, while the other side is anchored in the tower itself - no heavy cables running to a ground anchor.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about it is that it was just renovated this year and is in near-perfect shape. Even though it's not really in use anymore - the modern road bridge is perhaps 200m away.

But there it stands - feel free to scramble down the hillside to reach one tower and climb around on it - there are ladders leading to the top of the tower and quite a nice view as well. I'll post plenty of pics and hopefully the video I took as well.

Of course, this means we're at bottom and it's time to climb again. Much of the rest of the day is spent gradually approaching Sucre. The road climbs at a reasonable rate and the ride is quite scenic - more and more agriculture and something I'd even call a river parallels the road as you approach Sucre from below.

The road is dotted with all these amazing buildings - the Sucre Golf Club, all sorts of big colonial style mansions and estates and almost all of them are in various stages of decay - missing or damaged roofs, broken windows, etc. - like a long parade of Bleak Houses.

And then you reach Sucre - not much at first, you need to climb 150m or so, but suddenly all the amazing colonial architecture lines the roads of what was the most important city for this part of S. America about 400years ago. But more on that tomorrow. We meet up with J-W and G and the "French Team" in the center of town and get our bearings.

Day 146 - Sucre - Bolivian national museum, market, fruit saladsSucre - originally La Plata meaning Silver, combine that with words like Argentina - whose capital city has a river named La Plata flowing through it - which is apparently accessible from Sucre, and places like Cerro Rico and you get an idea of what was on the Spaniard's minds when this area was colonized. A beautiful city - old Spanish capital of what would later become Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia, and later the birthplace of Bolivian independence. Lots of colonial architecture around the town center, and lots of poor adobe construction on the periphery.

We roll into town and stay at the Hotel Bolivia - not a bad place although there's only 1 functioning hot shower which is a bit challenging with around 35 rooms. Breakfast is sparse so you'll want to head over a couple blocks to the central market - a densely packed place where you can buy mostly food and household items from a few dozen vendors, then head over to the somewhat famous "fruit salad court" - a dozen or so vendors all peddling amazing fruit salads and milkshakes - the largest thing on the menu is still only 7Bs (about $0.95), so you can definitely splurge.

We arrive for the human rights film festival, as well as university commencement - but in the end I don't see any movies (everything from "Sicko" to movies about indigenous Guatemalan health care). On the other hand, the univeristy commencement is hard to avoid - there are marching bands everywhere - on the main streets into the main square there seems to be a band interfering with traffic every few minutes. Party atmosphere.

We do manage to go the main museum in town about Bolivian history. And we're treated to an energetic, and highly opinionated, tour guide. He has quite a mix of views: Bolivar, the country's namesake, never actually fought for Bolivian independence - he just showed up after the fighting was over to help work out the details. More of late - Bolivia seems to be close to civil war with the poorer north, LaPaz, and parts of the Altiplano and more generally the poorer rural folk behind Evo while the richer south especially Santa Cruz trying to become more autonomous and ideally restoring Sucre as capital. For many, particularly richer and better educated folks, there's not much love lost on the populist "El Indio" - Bolivia's first indigenous leader.

But besides the fiesty tour guide, the museum also has a collection of paintings and important documents of Bolivia's history, and also the chamber that hosts the Bolivian parliament once a year when it meets here.

And then there's the mask museum - which we just sorta stumble into - quite ornate constructions used in various regional celebrations - it's free and definitely worth a stroll through.

And of course, there's the Joy Ride Cafe - which our Dutch friends are keen on - the owners are also Dutch, although Evo ate here and they're proud to declare that he declared it's not just for Gringos. Still need to look-up the exact root of that word. Plus they have WiFi, decent food and beer, and sometimes free popcorn.

Day 147 -

We're supposed to leave here today, but somehow the last few attempts to leave towns have been thwarted by disease and today's no exception - except it's Dave's turn. Just a cold this time, but we decide to wait another day and have a few walks around town - there's the supreme court and nearby park with a local Eiffel tower, and heading up a street the other way provides nice views of town. But mostly it's just doing errands - rebooking flights, a bit of bike maintenance, etc. And another trip to the Joy Ride till 2am which has me questioning Dave's illness a bit. But tomorrow - next week - we're definitely leaving.

2008-06-06T12:56:00.001-07:00

Week 20 - from Uyuni to Potosi - lemme outta this steam engine - day 134
Pattern in iron
Dave goes for a ride
Hmmmm

Dave screws up
Get ready for dust - day 135 - the following shots belong further down, the typical Salar trick shots...
I need a beer
More Mate (that's mah-tay)

My surrealist shot
Interesting read
I like this one
Dave finally gets burned
Where did I leave that giant water bottle

Big Wheel
In all seriousness
No comment
My beloved Schwinn
The riders

Salt Crystal
Mandelbrot (above)
Uyuni Street
Minuteman Pizza

Waiting for gas (for cooking) in Bolivia

French recumbent (first recumbent we've seen) - day 137
Final look at the Salar
That speck is the hotel, on the left is the island
My final salar shot

Pulacayo
Morning camp - 138
Tico Tico
Nice descent, 19999 & 20000 below

Beautiful evening shot
Our campsite - small speck in lower left side is camp related -139
Llamas Lunchin
Train and truck and building in blue-yellow theme - Aguas Castillas

Aguas Castillas and Porco
Desert Basketball
Last campsite before Potosi - day 140
Potosi from the prison below, and below - my kinda town and a shot of Cerro Rico

Street shot, the Koala Den, and where´s that locomotive hiding

The art gallery (with last pic of loco., at the Casa de Moneda)

Virgin of Cerro Rico - see text for more explanation

Metal forming machinery, 17th century
Hold that look
Bolivianita - Ametrino
Child mummies on display

Interesting teapot

Switch to steam for minting
Then switch to Electricity (and finally switch to Canada and Spain, the current source for coins and notes). This is at the Casa de Moneda, below is a place for meat and a night shot of Potosi

Week 20 - Return to the Salar and then to Potosi

OK, I won't even guess where all these extra line feeds came from just now, sorry, I'll fix all this... someday.

Day 134 -

Today won't be live - I'm currently on the rooftop terrace of the Koala's Den hostel in Potosi, but you can read more about that next week - as I write this it's day 141 and we just got back from what was once the world's richest mine in Cerro Rico.

But back to week 20. Today was a fairly lazy day - mostly errand running - laundry, bit of internet, etc. Not too much else. Had dinner at a fancy "French" restaurant - El Loco (I'm guessing a play on the words for crazy and locomotive) - where they do serve some amazing cuts of llama. The nice thing is for us gringos, everywhere is quite affordable - even fancy places are only around $6-7 for an entree, while local places are around $1.50-$2. Still not as easy in a country where a good deal of the population is living on under $2/day but so far we haven't experienced any problems.

About Loco - Uyuni has a "train theme" - a bit of a rail hub here in the desert with lines running to Chile, north to Oruru (and in former times to La Paz I'm guessing), as well as a freight line to Potosi which I think is still active, although we will see some abandoned rail cuts on our way out of town later this week (but Potosi and vicinity do have functioning trains which allegedly connect to Chile).

Anyway, if you're here, check out the rail graveyard - walking distance from town and an interesting monument to the former glory of steam. Neat place to take pictures and while away an afternoon which we did today.

Not too much else to report on today.

Day 135 -

Today I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. [too bad I can't edit this properly at the moment, so see above]

[OK, The 4 of us headed back to the Salar for a photo session. Beyond that we had a great local dinner with lots of meat and then some local hamburgesas - an all-in-one sandwich with bread, meat, veggie-toppings (& ketchup/mayo), and french fries all served together in a napkin. Really good for around 3-4Bs ($0.50).]

Day 136 -

Dave decided he wouldn't mind another day off and I made use of the time for getting the bike ready and finally getting some more stuff online. Bolivia has surprisingly good internet connections, although I haven't been as lucking finding any WiFi. Anyway, not too much new today, just getting ready for our next leg to Potosi and the famous mines. It should be a beautiful road. Food was all local today, although I had to get a Minuteman T-shirt - just a bit surreal - bit of American history with a Uyuni, Bolivia dateline.

Day 137 - to 60km from Uyuni - 60.2km, 11.7av 44.0mx, 782m, 5:10 to 19956km, 3850m (127.5km alt), 20.2916S, 66.4601W
After 4 days of stuffing myself on an eclectic mix of local offerings, today is finally the day to leave Uyuni behind and head for Potosi. Both Dave and J-W are feeling better - J-W & G left for Potosi yesterday and we're playing catch-up.

So this morning it was time to say good-bye to the fine folks at Minuteman Pizza with another order of their fine Minuteman Pancakes (apple, banana, cinnamon salsa). Mmmm. Will miss those for another month or two.

After filling up on what must be subsidized gasoline - at around 50cents/liter (Uyuni has no less than 3 gas stations - one in each direction out of town), it was time to attack the pass.
Immediately the road begins to climb and climb. As usual, it starts ok and gets steeper, but this one keeps getting steeper. A few km out of town, we cross paths with Jean-Luc - a Frenchman on a recumbent bicycle - first one we've seen down here. He's touring Bolivia for a few weeks and met up with J-W and G last night.

We're on Bolivia's Ruta 5 - an unpaved affair, but generally a whole lot better than any Bolivian roads encountered on the Altiplano (save for that sweet, sweet descent a few days ago).
Ruta 5 changes every few meters from kinda paved and quite smooth to gravel to washboard and occasionally to sand, but it's generally quite decent - like better parts of the Carretera Australe.

Except for the grades. Those get quite silly. We end up pushing in sections despite a quite decent tailwind which accompanies us all day long.

The first climb is about 300m, followed by a brief respite, and then another 275m or so, and that's almost it for the day. Once at the summit around 4200m, you get to turn around and see the salar just opening up to you - visible beyond the ridge of the first climb in all westerly directions. Our final view of this amazing spectable. Even the salt hotel and island are visible as specks in the white distance.

And then you descend. Quite a reasonable descent, in fact. Not as steep as the climb up. The first town is Pulacayo. This was quite a rich mining town about 100years ago, still has a big steam-engine yard complete with turntable - now fallen into disuse. Although the steam engines look fairly well preserved - much better than what's on offer in Uyuni's graveyard.

Of course, my view is only for an instant. Pulacayo isn't the friendliest place. There's a guard shack before you get to town, although that's just a brief formality. Then all the mining operations come into view, although the main road to Potosi heads into the valley and a side road leads to town.

We go to check it out but there's a gate and another guard and we ask about taking a few pictures and he tells us to go to the tourist info office for permission. Doesn't really look open - is it? He doesn't know - i.e. stop bothering me.

So we head out again and I walk along the wall to at least get a few pictures in, although nothing close-up of the steam engines.

Apparently, our friends stayed here, although we're at a bit of a loss as to where.
Anyway, we decide to head out of town, into the valley, and have lunch at the first place out of the wind. Then it's time for our final climb - this one's a bit under 200m, but still plenty steep, and finally, more desert scenery, llamas, fun descents, the occasional habitation, and just a really nice cycling day.

We should be near Agua Castilla, although I don't think we've seen it yet. We make 60km, not totally great, but not too bad on a somewhat late start and with pretty significant climbs on variable quality roads. So tonight finds us camping rough near some kind of ruined adobe structure - mostly out of the wind which continues to blow. Temps are noticably warmer than on the Altiplano or Salar which is nice - feels like it may only get a bit below freezing tonight.
A welcome respite. My hands are just raw and blistered from all this cold and wind and sun. Finally got some cream at a pharmacy - hopefully it will help.

Well, time to turn in and maybe read a few more pages in the Brother's Karamazov...

Day 138 - to a canyon along the road - 64.5km, 13.0av, 44.5mx, 761m, 4:55 to 20020km, 128.2km alt, 19.9536S, 66.1738W, 3661m

Today went almost as well as possible. Last night was probably the warmest in quite some time - nothing froze including myself.

This morning starts out with a nice early sunrise around 7:15am. I still struggle with an early start, but by around 9:30 we're on the road again.

The first 25-odd km go really well. It's a gradual downhill to Tica Tica and while not paved, the roads are generally quite good. We generally are around 20km/h, occasionally a bit more.
Tica Tica is a fairly small village, but still has at least 2 places to eat and quite a few shops - I'm guessing a place or 2 to sleep as well although we don't investigate this.

We do investigate lunch at 8-Hermanos (brothers): for 10Bolivianos (around $1.40), you get a decent bowl of soup, chicken, rice, potatoes, and a bit of garnish. Definitely beats the planned lunch of bread and dulce-de-leche - a bread topping which for all intents and purposes is caramel.

So that goes well. On the way out, I feel like the pied piper - a half-dozen or so kids start to congregate around our bikes and when I give out some candy it kinda mushrooms. Unfortunately we are still looking for bread at this point and basically have an entourage to accompany us wherever we go on our bread-quest. We eventually get lucky at the fourth or fifth place - another diner which sells hamburgesas and could part with a few buns - more like rolls, anyway. One kid actually runs after us for maybe 500m out of town.

So that goes reasonably well. Of course, no day is perfect. My vinegar continued to leak - at least I get another decent salad out of it before final disposal. Also have a flat on a really dusty stretch of road - for the 2nd time, my extremely durable Schwalbe tires cause a flat due to internal delamination. Still, hit 20000km today - not bad considering 10000km was only in November (fairly meaningless milestones - 20k since I mounted this bike computer back in Feb '06, I wish I had one for the lifetime of the bike - it should be around 110-120000km by now). For the trip I'm at 6500 making this a helluva pair of tires.

After Tica Tica things get much more challenging - the road isn't quite as good, but still decent, and it's time for today's pass - a 500m affair - with the flat it'll take us some time. But the scenery is majestic. It looks like Bolivia is slowly upgrading its roads - there are crews out in several locations today and a lot of grading and measuring seems to be going on. No sign of asphalt, but you can build fairly decent gravel roads, too.

And upon reaching 4050m or so, it's time for another descent. This one is a bit too steep to really enjoy - a lot of braking. But the views are amazing - lots of folded mountain ranges.

The road keeps going down and down and down - to around 3450m or so and the next town - probably Visicia, but signs are scant and my map places towns in the wrong location now and then. If you come this way, make a nearly 180 turn when you see the bridge over the river - that's the route to Potosi. There are no signs, but we eventually asked.

And then it's back uphill again. It's getting late so we only make another 15km or so and climb perhaps 200m as we gradually leave this valley. There are still quite a few hills and about 80km to Potosi - hopefully tomorrow...

Day 139 -

Still doing my best to stay "live" with the reports. At least staying "alive" is a bit less challenging lately - for whatever reason, the nights haven't been so cold since we left Uyuni. Tonight is our 3rd night on the way to Potosi - unfortunately we didn't quite make it today. Only about 20km to go as we camp here just off the road again. A different kind of canyon tonight - much grander view with the freight train line to Potosi nearby. Enjoying another camp cooked meal under an amazing starry sky.

Today went fairly well. The scenery has been fantastic. We're finally very slowly leaving the high desert and returning to slightly greener surroundings. Even had to ford a pretty decent sized stream this morning - we both stopped short like a horse that doesn't want to jump a barricade and had a closer look. Dave threw a rock in and it didn't look too deep (maybe 20cm) so I decided to go for it and he followed without incident.

After breaking camp at a reasonably early hour (just after 9am), we continue with the climb we interrupted yesterday. Another 100m or so of vertical and we're on another plain (which included the ford above). Shortly thereafter we make the next town of - well no And then another up to over 4000m again, followed by another descent into a surprisingly narrow canyon. Lunch consists of bread, dulce-de-leche, and a constant pelting of sand and dust under the gaze of dozens of llamas in a scenic canyon.

Dave seems ready to throw in the towel - just isn't enjoying the endless gravel road with constant ups and downs. In the end, it's becoming clear we won't make Potosi today - bit of a shame but these trips rarely go as planned and this stretch usually takes 4 days anyway.
We continue up and out of the canyon and up and up some more. Eventually we make Aguas Castillas - which is odd since by my map we made it a few days back already. Oh well - there are barely any signs anywhere anyway, anyone could make this mistake. Dave's ready for a nice bed - only "Pension" here doesn't mean a place to stay (unlike in German) - just a place to eat. She sends us down the hill and further into town, and the next person even further down to the main plaza. Once there, we're informed there aren't actually any places to stay in town - but in the next town, Polco?, 4km away and down and up more hills (on my map, the town we're in should be Polco, but who am I arguing with). Unfortunately, we'll be coming back this way and up again to head for Potosi which changes Dave's mind.

So we U-turn and continue up and up to around 4200m again with amazing canyons in all directions. And another descent - this one would be the final one for today - again about 20km out of town.

Roads, I thought, we're pretty decent today. There is road construction going on all over down here - probably well over half the vehicles encountered today were somehow engaged in it. Makes cycling more challenging and a lot more dusty, but again, roads vary a lot from smooth to washboard to sand, but a lot better than the stuff before Uyuni. Grades were probably no more than 8% and generally under 5.

Day 140 - Potosi, finally

Well, only a day late, but today we finally rolled into town. Actually those last 25km or so are really quite challenging - the hilliest of the entire stretch and you approach town from the bottom. It's pretty much strewn across a few hillsides including the famous Cerro Rico - "Rich Mountain" - source of Potosi's fame. It was actually founded here after silver was discovered in the mid 16th century. Lots of amazing colonial architecture jumbled together with toxic waste from mine tailings and a few slums. Besides the mountain, a kind of space-needle restaurant sticks out as you approach the city, but eventually you find your way to the colonial quarter and it is really quite spectacular. All 4 of us seem to agree that this is one of the most agreeable cities we've visited on this trip so far. Quite a few nice alleys to walk along.

But first the ride - we awake to another sunny day - what else. We're really getting spoiled on this trip - I think the last hint of rain was probably around Tucuman and the last real rain while cycling would have been in Punta Arenas (there was the rainy hiking day in Ushuaia and more rain around Iguazu, but the trip has been amazingly dry as a whole). We immediately hit the grades - about 250m up again, then up and down pretty much the whole way to Potosi. By the end of the day we're over 700m again in only around 25km - that's a lot.

The road is mostly under construction and is pretty much of similar quality to the rest of the stretch from Uyuni - a mix of everything and lots of construction vehicles. Once you make town, glorious pavement returns, and just in time as the grades in town get amazingly steep - probably up to around 15%. We end up cycling up most of the hillside and find a little diner selling the more-or-less standard 10Bs lunch of soup and a main course (llama on rice & potatoes in this case). From there we continue to the colonial center, find a fairly useless tourist info booth, and eventually follow our Lonely Planet guide to the Koala's Den hostel which I assume is somehow Aussie affiliated. Really nice place - a bit higher than others at 40Bs a night ($6.50), but has a good breakfast, hot showers, and even internet access sans WiFi [note if you´re heading this way - Dave had a price misunderstanding so it came to 70Bs a night, still ok although less of a deal for Bolivia].

We hit the Casa de Moneda in the afternoon - the old colonial mint where coins were still pressed up to around 1950 - although another sign of the place, today coins are imported from Europe and Canada, as are bills. The country with the richest silver mine of all times finds itself with no refining ability - originally pure silver was mined and minted here, but now there's only ore left which is concentrated in Potosi with a toxic coctail of among other things cyanide (& possibly mercury, at least they used to use it) disposed of in local streams, and the resulting concentrate is shipped to Chile for smelting and refining. Rather sad, especially when you see what people go through to mine it (that's tomorrow).

Today we just get to see what was the former glory of town with all the various implements used to make coinage over the last 250 years or so, along with an eclectic mix of aretefacts, paintings, etc. One neat one is an anonymous work mixing Catholic beliefs with older Inca/Quecha religions - it's called the Virgin of the Mountain and depicts Cerro Rico with the Virgin Mary as the mountain and also as Panchamama or Mother Earth with the Trinity above, the papacy and Imperial Spain below, and sun and moon left and right (a sorta Inca Trinity - sun, moon, and mother earth as Mary).

As we're heading in, Jan-Willem and Gudrun are heading out so we meet again - they got an earlier tour (the museum is by guided tour only - our guide seems most anxious to get out on time and tends to forcefully escort us from room to room).

Well, we just wander around a bit, have the biggest meat platter I've ever had for dinner (most expensive thing on the menu too, at 35Bs / $7), and just have a content evening.

Week 19 - SW Bolivia and the Salar de Uyuni

2008-05-26T20:07:00.000-07:00

Week 19 - finally have all the stills up here, too. This is Thermas Polques at dawn - day 127
With the first brave - well not really - bathers - around 7am or so and probably -10C

Dave's down for the count
Heading up to the highest bicycle climb of the trip (about 4950m, 16000ft)
Laguna Colorada in the distance
Gudrun and morning routine - day 128

Jan-Willem's turn - last group picture until Uyuni
Red Laguna Colorada up close
Pick a road - leaving the NP on 128
Piedras del Arbol - day 129
Like the shag green rock

Pick one - they´re all bad
Like this shot.
Ecohotel - day 130
Flamigoes near the ecohotel
Hi there cute little fox - no - no - go away - aaaahhhhhhh (ok this will make more sense when you read the blog below)

Really bad road - 130
First of many night shots this week
Smoking Allargue - day 131
Decision time - easy or hard, I picked easy
Uyuni - Chile rail line - people were living in these yellow-blue cars

An actual train, probably the first outside of Buenos Aires
Colcha K is no here, really like the thermal inversion on this shot
Lipez Necropolis near San Juan - Day 132
Closeup of the above
Proud San Juan

Worst road of the trip by far, this is washed out, later it turns to around 20% grade on sand and gravel
But the view on the other side is nice - first view of the salar
Finally, Colcha K
No, not stretched rocks, just thermal inversion. The salar (& a jeep)
Heading out to the salar

Looking back at land, on the dam

I like this shot - night camp
354º

[Try blowing this one up (click on it), you should see the Big Dipper]
Another camp shot, left my light flashing to warn stray jeeps
Final night shot

Morning on the salar (this is my lens freezing up) day 133
My trusty steed, near my front wheel and spare rim are 2 fairly critical parts (screw & standoff holding the front rack on) that somehow fell off right here.
Morning salar
The island
White 1

White2

Life, here too.
Salt close up
The view from the island and a road
Bird on the island

Offerings to Pachamama - the little blue thing is a Skittle - I like somebody's thinking.

The road to the hotel, or was it the left one (I eventually switched)
Watch for potholes
Not long for this life, but still amazing how this got there - miles from any plant
Me at the salt hotel

Miners

Day 127 - May 17

Well, another live one - from another cold tent on the Bolivian Altiplano south of the Salar de Uyuni. Tonight we're in sight of Laguna Colorada. But we've changed. We're down to 3. Dave caught a jeep to Uyuni and awaits us there. After his first cold night and subsequent misery and sickness, he decided he wasn't up to another round. So today the group is myself, Jan-Willem and Gudrun. And today was one of the most challenging days on this trip.

Due to the logistics of feeding a dozen or so jeepfuls of tourists, we had to clear our bedsite by around 6am so it was a 5:30 alarm to awaken into starlight. No lights at the refugio, but we soon roused ourselves and got our headlights switched on. Then packed, moved our stuff into Dave's room (seemed prudent for him to have the room to himself), unpacked breakfast, and spread out again on one of the tables in the same room we slept in.

By around 7 the first jeeps were arriving and discharging their cargo into the hot spring. I still liked our session last night, but watching bathers in a steamy pool with air temps around -15C at sunrise is still a pretty neat photo.

We return to our simple breakfast of stuff that keeps for a week or two - powdered milk, coffee, cereal, ... Dave is awake for awhile and we start talking to the drivers to see if he can get a ride to Uyuni. Everyone is helpful - the first driver is willing, then the man who's kind of in charge of the refugio also offers a ride, so that's sorted. He should be in a jeep heading out of here by around 9:30.

We have a pretty lazy morning - a few photos, filter water, pack,... no rush, we want to see Dave safely off.

Only problem is 9:30, 10, 10:30 come and go and no ride for Dave. We're assured the jeep is coming but are running into our own problems if we stay much longer. We have about 40km of some of the hardest riding ahead - a pass near 5000m followed by 16km at altitude before dropping back to something reasonable near Laguna Colorada. We don't want to get stuck high up, it's hard enough camping around 4300m with the gear we (especially myself) have. So in the end, we have to leave Dave at the refugio and set off.

First impressions are pretty smooth - road isn't too bad or too steep and yesterday's tailwinds are back. Nice. Scenery is still surreal - vicunas feeding amidst a harsh, alkaline lake & salt bed.
And then a long beep and Dave's hanging out the window of a Jeep and is about the happiest person I've seen in awhile - amazing for someone who could pass for near death a few hours earlier (I exaggerate, but the turnaround is still the fastest since Lazarus).

First road impressions are deceiving - soon the northerly road turns west and right into a now very impressive wind. It also gets steeper although the road itself is still managable. Our pace is now down to 5km/h or so with frequent sections of walking. But it's still amazing how the body adapts. 2 weeks ago I was struggling to push my unloaded bike to 4800m and now we're all riding fully overloaded bikes (around 10l of water per person) on a gravel road up to 4960m (well over 16000ft). My understanding is that at altitude, the body produces a lot more hemoglobin to carry oxygen around so you can still function fairly normally despite less than half the normal air being available.

But it's still a very harsh place as Dave found out and we're still finding out. We make the summit about 20km from the refugio and the wind is still unrelenting. We're not even sure it is the summit - just a rolling road as far as you can see. There are geysers nearby but we don't have time or energy to seek them out.

The day is wearing on and I need to make a pitstop in the midst of nothing - no trees or rocks or anything for miles well, anyway, a jeep stops and I swear they're taking pictures, but no, Mareike gets out. We met while hiking down near Ushuaia about 6 weeks ago on a rainy, rainy day. Small world.

And then it's on into the wind. Finally after another 5km of brutality, the road turns north and we get a break. We can actually enjoy the downhill, except in parts the road is so bad we end up walking the bikes down - easy mountain biking terrain, but not something to which you want to subject a bike with 50kg of deadweight pack.

The road continues to improve and eventually, after a few twists and turns, the horizon opens up and you see Laguna Colorada - and yes, it is kinda reddish/pinkish, a bit hard to describe.
The downhill is just beautiful, but I'm really getting cold - despite being well into the tropics now, temps only hit 10C but in the wind it's just freezing. We get to the valley just as the sun sets so it's time to find a campsite fast. There's a small canyon near the junction of the roads around L. Colorada and that's home tonight. A hard, hard ride.

A nice meal, conversation, and cards and it's time to turn in and write these few lines. Hopefully tonight is not quite as cold as last time, but I won't hold my steaming breath...

Again, the exact path with altitudes will be posted, but basically the road starts out pretty good from the thermals, climbs about 500m over 20km to our highest pass of 4969m, then flattens out and except for a few km after the turnoff to Colorada, it's really not too bad. Just a few sections of sand and of course plenty of washboard but there's usually a way to avoid much of it. From the pass it's a pretty gradual downhill for 16km and then you drop a few hundred m to the Laguna over another 8km or so.

Day 128 -
to a high plain in the middle of nowhere - about 5km S of Piedra del Arbol, 27.9km, 5.9av, 25.6mx, 283m, 4:45, to 4570m, 19449km, 22.0774S, 67.8646W

Wow, what a difference a day makes. My situation at the moment isn't much different from yesterday - inside a chilly (about 0C) tent and it's only gonna get chillier - this is my highest camp ever at around 4570m (almost exactly 15000ft) on a high plain here in the Bolivian altiplano.

But the larger situation has changed. A lot. Yesterday we had to get Dave out of here, today it was Jan-Willem's turn. Similar symptoms - nausea/vomitting, heavy coughing, and general misery. So that was camp this morning. After some discussion, Jan and Gudrun decided to flag down a vehicle and get to Uyuni, just like Dave 24hours earlier. So again, I got to say goodbye after breakfast.

And then there was one.

Not sure if this is a good idea, but I've been feeling great and nothing seems close to failure, so apart from catching the same illness, things really look ok. I'm proceeding through the altiplano and across the salar to Uyuni alone.

Having a small group is definitely advisable, but oh well, probably won't be back this way any time soon. It is an amazing and brutal place. Plus there's plenty of jeeps - at least I thought there were.

After saying goodbye, I decided to take the more difficult route to the salar - mostly because the entire route gets at least some jeep traffic while the "easy" cycle route has about 30km of sandy, railroad track which the jeeps don't take.

But it sure is difficult - right off the bat the road turns to sand and rocks and that will pretty much sum up the whole day.

The jeep thing was a bit odd - we camped only 15km from the Refugio on almost blood red Laguna Colorada, but in the nearly 3 hours it takes me to cover that stretch I don't see a single vehicle anywhere near me. The refugio is out of sight until you're less than 2km away, so I really start to wonder if perhaps this route is closed at the moment. I hear the crossing from Chile further north is closed at the moment - maybe there's some major road problem. I'm already running various scenarios through my head - turning around to the "easy" route - but there goes pretty much day and my water situation doesn't have a lot of spare days (you have to carry what you drink - there are pretty much no natural sources, although some of the lagunas may be filterable if really desparate).

Still, cycling along this lake is a bit surreal - it really is very, very red.

Fortunatetly, the refugio is open. Just the store is closed, but I can get water and I can also verify that the road ahead is, in fact, open.

Today will be my hardest day to date. Don't quite make my goal, but at least I get water. The road situation after the refugio does not improve. Mostly it just gets more chaotic - as you head north, the road splits again and again and pretty much the whole hillside is dozens of ruts cut by jeeps. It seems once a track is too rough, the jeeps seek out new cuts through the desert - so vegetation is pretty much dead for hundreds of meters.

As a cyclist, you pretty much pick any path at random. They're all really, really bad and they frequently converge and diverge.

My average speed today is under 6km/h - a record low, about a brisk walking pace. If it weren't for a few patches of ridable surface and a downhill, it would've been below walking speed. I think I pushed my bike more km than I rode it today. Hmmm, the roads ahead shouldn't be quite as bad from the info I have. I sure hope so - tomorrow is another pass (only around 4700m) and I would like to camp lower and warmer. Hopefully I can make it to the remaining lagunas on this road, but they're still over 50km away.

And despite all this, the landscape is starkly beautiful, and I'm still accompanied by flamingoes and vicunas. Picked up my first flamingo feather while walking to L. Colorada.

Fortunately, in the evening I see plenty of jeeps. While it's perhaps a bit of an absurd situation - jeep after jeep of tourists tearing up the terrain, it's still comforting to know I probably won't have go for too long (well, still 12h maybe) in an emergency. Hope I stay well - don't want to be freezing with nausea.

So the roads - well, the exact route will be posted. Basically, you follow the W side of the lake, more or less level on really bad roads. Then hit the refugio, and afterwards start to climb very slowly on one of dozens of tracks up the hillside. Later the road(s) cut west and that's pretty much where I'm at at the moment. Road is perhaps a bit generous - mostly they're just sand, plants, and rocks beaten down by a few jeeps until the washboard gets bad and they cut new paths. This stuff is really not cyclable any more - either too many big rocks or too much sand. But you still get patches of ridable stuff - I think I did manage maybe 1km at most without getting stuck in sand or rocks. Well, tomorrow's another day and I'm getting cold. Time to get warm in my bag. Ciao.

Day 129Well, no live report tonight - writing this one a day later under slight duress, but more on that in a few minutes. So let's go back to yesterday...

First off, it's cold. It's really, really cold. I think this was my coldest night in a tent, ever. Water in the tent froze solid. To have some liquid water, I pack all the big bottles into a single Ortlieb bag, cover it with insulation (in this case my breakfast cereal bags) and seal it up. Those bottles didn't freeze solid so I have some water for a nice morning cup of coffee and some cold cereal.

My thermometer was already down to -5C (its limit) before I went to bed. I suspect it got to -10C or less in the tent and probably around -20C (-4F) outside. Still, it doesn't seem quite so cold - I still remember a night around -15C on my first bike trip in central Illinois and I seem to cope better now, despite my current bag being less warm. I wonder if being in only half an atmosphere reduces the rate of heat loss much...

Anyway, this is a bike ride so after shooting a few videos in the tent, it's time to get a move on. Still have a hard time getting going before 9am, especially in these temps, but eventually hit the trail a bit after 9:30.

The sun is amazing. By 10:30 temps are already around +20C. I make it to Piedras de Arbol, my missed goal for the previous day. The road is pretty much non-existant. The entire high plain here is covered in jeep tracks. Nothing grows anymore, just a desolate maze of trails maybe 800m wide. And they all suck. But not quite as bad as yesterday. I actually manage to ride for a few km at a time now and then before getting stuck. Washboard is everywhere, though, so it's definitely slow going. My goal of around 70km to the ecohotel is quickly out the window.

I kinda hit the various GPS waypoints that J-W and Gudrun found on the internet. Kinda because I'm generally between 0.5 and 2km away, again because there is no obvious "main" trail. The marker for the final high pass at 4700m is quite elusive. I never get to that pass, instead I get bogged down in a sandy valley and push the bike for several km. If you come this way, when you see what may be a military or mining post straight ahead and the trails head off to the right/east, pick the far right trail. I think that's what the GPS author did. All trails constantly converge and diverge, but my choice of the middle-of-the-road trails was nothing but soft sand for several km.

Really hard going.

And then evening came and I finally kinda made the pass - not quite as high and several km from where I expected it to be, but the road does drop down. This is the best part of the day. My average speed until now is only a little faster than yesterday, but from around 4670m the road drops to around 4280 (and keeps going down, but that'll wait till tomorrow). And for the most part, the descent is fun. Just watch it. It's impossible to tell how substantial the roadbed is - I frequently hit sand. Mostly it slows you down, but it can throw your front wheel and take you down pretty fast. I highly recommend not using clipless pedals on this trek. You'll want those feet free for split second kicks off whatever ground is handy to keep from falling when your front tire skids. Fortunately, I can choose normal or clipless with my setup.

Anyway, I actually manage to break 20km/h. Wow. I also manage to put the bike down once, and once I also go down with it. Fortunately, not at any substantial speed and nothing breaks, although the fall resulted from my front wheel facing backwards after getting stuck in sand, so my steering needs some manual adjustment (i.e. force the handlebars back straight).

Beautiful descent, even has a few killer switchbacks thrown in for fun. Well, the sun is going down and my hands are really getting cold, but I do manage to get 50km in for the day before stopping. Not too bad on these brutal roads. Night finds me in sight of the first salar which precedes the set of 4 lakes - about 15km from my goal, but not too bad. Just a beautiful full-moonrise over the mountains as I set up camp.

Day 130 - my turn?
39.8km, 8.2av, 25.3mx, 330m, 4:50, to 4230m, 126.1km alt, 19540 - pass 6000km today, 21.3977S, 67.9942W

I hope my luck isn't running out as I write these words. Today is live again, just wrote up yesterday. And again I'm in a chilly tent - about the same altitude as yesterday. But last night wasn't too bad - probably about 10C warmer than the night before - hopefully tonight will be similar.

But otherwise, today didn't go too well. Get up as usual, make coffee, cold cereal, so far so good. I really have to take a dump before even finishing breakfast - first round of diarhea. The second will follow before I break camp. Not good - I'm already low on fluids.

Cycling continues where it left off - down the hillside. The first 10km or so are just awesome - averaging well over 12km/h - that's really good for this road.

I make the ecohotel before noon - it's not much to look at, but I'm just glad it exists. I lost another 1.5l bottle last night - it partially filled my Ortlieb bag which conveniently soaked everything at the bottom in a few inches of water. I started today with just over 2l and while I know what's ahead from others, I still get concerned when my health and the ride are dependent on this hotel existing, being open, and having water. I could flag down a vehicle, but I'd like to avoid that if possible and it can be hours between vehicles which may choose tracks a km or more away.

But the hotel is open and has water - just no drinkable tap water, I need to buy the bottled variety. Still, only 12 Bolivianos ($2) for 2l. I end up with 4l of water and 2 of Coke. 8l total should see me to the next town.

Lots of jeeps around to view a huge flock of flamingoes - they really are everyhwere down here. And these are fairly used to humans so you can get a pretty good shot.

I continue but am wearing down. I have no appetite, am producing amazing quantities of gas and acid reflux, and the road gets worse and worse. I'm really getting concerned I may be coming down with the same thing that claimed Dave and J-W. So far no nausea or vomiting, just weakness, loss of appetite, and my morning adventure.

Lunch is just Coke and dry bread. Seems to stay down fairly well even if it isn't a whole lotta calories. It's a big problem - it's really hard to eat 4-5000 calories every single day and I've lost a fair amount a weight already. Losing a day of food intake is really hard and I can't really wait around here in the sticks to get better. I just have to take it slow, frequently push the bike instead of riding, and just relax a lot. I decide not to push it too hard today - set up camp around 5 after only 40km. Unfortunately, there's noone left to nurse me, so I need my wits. Set up camp, get warm, take a nap. I awake again and decide for a very simple dinner - more Coke, more dry bread, a rehydration drink, and I chance some milk. It's really hard to get a balanced diet out here with no fresh food. Everything is canned or dried. I figure powdered milk at least has some electrolytes and a fair amount of vitamins and minerals even if it's not the easiest to digest. So far so good.

But back to riding today - the road heads along a set of 4 lakes. The hotel is on the 2nd from the North and from there it's a decent climb and descent to the final lake (in my direction). I take lunch here away from the crowds of jeeps. Get a chance to recharge the laptop - the solar cell has been working really well on this 10 day excursion away from electricity. I'm GPS-recording each day on my phone which typically nearly drains the internal and my external kludged battery, so each evening and on breaks I recharge the phone and the laptop when possible.

And then lunch is over and there are no jeeps around, just a beautiful lake with a thin veneer of ice. When the wind is just right, it pushes the ice onto the shore making some interesting noises as I watch sheets buck up and break. Watching the birds skid as the land also provides some lunchtime entertainment.

Afterwards, I continue to head north. Tailwinds have been mercifully present much of the past few days and today the trend continues. But the road quickly turns into the worst section I've encountered so far. Not the thing you want to experience when you're already weak.

And as I leave the lake, a cute little fox passes by. I take a shot of it and it continues heading for me. Hmmm, not used to friendly foxes. Rabies? Doesn't look sick. I look around and quickly see another one - also heading my way. And another, and another. I'm starting to get a bit concerned - can these small predators gang up on large mammals like myself? I yell but they keep coming. I realize they're probably just looking for handouts - used to all the jeeps, but still it's pretty creepy. And for icing, a large vulture hovers maybe 5m off the ground looking down.
OK, I still have a few tricks up my sleeve - grab a few rocks and take aim. Ahhh, nothing like being a tool-making primate. My suspicion is probably validated - after scattering, the foxes return to the rocks to ensure they weren't some kind of high-speed meal. After no hand-out, they eventually disperse. Still, my heart was pounding awhile as I tried to charge up a fairly steep, loose hill with my bike with 4 foxes just trotting along a few meters away. Like a bizarre Hitchcock movie.

Anyway, the road goes from worse to worse stil. Most of the afternoon is pushing the bike uphill, then pushing it downhill - even jeeps have it hard here. A rocky road with stones of all sizes, ruts, sand, you name it. Fun on a mountain bike, but less so with an extra 50kg. Falling or breaking stuff would be unwise here so I take it really slow. Wish I could shoot some video, but there's no way to do this one-handed and my helmet-cam is still just a dream. Some stills will have to do.

Evening is spent coming off the 2nd to last pass of 4300m - a brutal, rocky descent complete with switchbacks. I decide to call it a day, and well, you already know the rest.

So I'm back in my sleeping bag. My meager dinner is staying down and so far my intestinal noises seem a bit quieter than earlier today, so perhaps I'm winning the battle, or there's just not enough food in the system for them to get excited about.

I should know by morning - hopefully a really big breakfast to replenish the calories missed today. If not, I'll probably have to think about bailing as well - I'd really rather not, I'm only about 2 days from the Salar and I want to make it without a jeep. Plus I can see a road junction and trucks just flying down the other road with which I'll merge in a few hundred meters from my camp - looks like road conditions should be picking up. Time will tell...

Day 131
Well, skipping a day - currently in another really cold tent approaching midnight in the middle of absolutely nowhere - surrounded by miles and miles of salt flat. But that would be day 132 as I write these words.

131, well, what a difference a day makes. Today was almost perfect. It starts out a few hundred meters from that junction - and I was right, the other road is new, and boy is it nice. Definitely among the best gravel roads I've had the pleasure of travelling down anywhere. Really smooth chip seal, almost no give, very little sand and after an initial maybe 60m climb, it's all downhill. About 30km worth. From around 4300 to 3700m. To give you an idea, I hit over 60km/h - I think that's a record for me for unpaved road.

Oh, and I'm feeling better, too. Thanks for asking.

After 10km or so, you have to decide - stay "pure" and follow the direct, but crappy, 4x4 trail, or stick to the new road and add perhaps 10km to the ride, but probably save at least an hour or so.

The choice is pretty easy for me, after cursing rocky, sandy, barely-pushable terrain for a couple days now, a high-speed descent is in order.

On arrival at the bottom, you're in a another salar - Chiguana, not Uyuni. That's still a ways off, but if things go well, perhaps later today...

Actually, you're at the border checkpoint/train station. It's only a few km back to Chile from here. After a few questions on the further road, I'm off again - this time the road isn't very obvious at all - it more or less parallels the train line, but of course, there are plenty of alternate routes. None of which are signposted. There's a military checkpoint in about 30km which I'd rather avoid as I'm still not yet legal in Bolivia until I reach Uyuni and buy my visa.

It's not too hard to find an alternate trail which skirts the base to the north. In fact, you can pretty much go in any direction, as long as you know where you're going. This proves somewhat elusive. I'm using a set of GPS waypoints from the Internet. And I really like my phone now. It tells me which direction and how far to go - just punch in lat and long.

So I look at the next waypoint and it's looking pretty good. Just miles of salt ahead - the riding is still smooth and fast. In fact, I look at the waypoint after that, too and it's looking good to, just a few km further away - hell, with a giant salt flat and lots of tracks in all directions, might as well skip a point and head directly to the next one.

So the scenery just whizzes past - salt flat, occasional soft patches, but nothing too bad, and mountains all around.

Then it hits me - something's wrong - there's no way those mountains are more than 30km away - the distance to the waypoint. Hmmm. Unpack the map - sure enough, Cholca K is on the other side of the range and there's no way through. The correct way is now several km out of my way, back to the first waypoint - the reason you should do these in order and keep an eye on a real map. Live and learn.

[Note: if you cycle this way, have a look at the satellite imagery - the trail I was on appears to also head to the salar - you might save a full day - I just didn't have enough water to try this. It would be a really smooth, sweet ride. Follow the jeep trail straight ahead where I turned 90deg to head for San Juan. I was really, really tempted to do this - even make a 180 around the mountains after looking at my crude park map, but thought it too risky on less than 2l of water left, so stock up on water at the train station/border and give it a try, I would have.]
So it was time for a 90deg. turn and a new bearing. Probably only cost me an hour, but the salar today doesn't look too likely.

And then the road goes down two or three notches - back to soft sand and washboard. The last few km are a real struggle, but I still make San Juan before sunset. I decide this is it for today and find a decent family hospedaje. If here, get a room at Lidunas - only they're renovating so no heat. But there's a piping hot shower which feels sooo good after 8 days without (well, the hot spring was nice too, but even that was quite awhile ago now).

Then it's time for dinner with my hosts - some really nice soup, llama meat, and quinoa? a local grain which is making inroads in the West - quite healthy.

Still, this is a poor place - electricity lasts 2 hours a day and it's hard to buy fresh food.

As I say, roads are generally excellent all day. See comment above on possible alternate route to the salar. Speeds were amazing - over 20km/h for the first 2 hours and still a respectable average for the day, would've been higher except the last 10km or so before San Juan are really sandy washboard again - quite a bit of pushing. Have a look for parallel bike trails next to the main road - they exist here and there and are generally much better.

Day 132
75.0km, 10.5av, 27.2mx, 296m, 7:05 (a long day), to 3700m alt, 19716km, 126.5km alt

Well, from San Juan it's not even 50km to the entrance to the Salar. Piece o cake...

Yeah, right. Well, things are off to a good start - locate a tomato and onion - dinner should be good. Only problem is the onion will bounce out of my bag at some unknown point. But the tomato is still good.

Then there's a local museum - worth a look - but the main attraction is the local necropolis - I forget the civilization's name - pre-Inca - Lides or something similar. Anyway, these bizarre jagged earthen tombs are just outside town, and most were opened and robbed at some point and there's plenty of skulls, mummified remains... gruesome but somehow we humans are a curious lot.

From San Juan the road heads north towards the Salar. It's pretty obvious that this is no piece of cake. Lots and lots of sand. After 15km or so, a sign for Colcha K. Have a look at satellite imagery before you go this way. I swear this sign was put up by a sadist and there must be a better route [i.e. head towards Juluca and turn left further onwards]. Anyway, I follow it down an even sandier road at the bottom of a basin. Hit a town called Santiago which isn't on any map of mine. From town, the "road" is degraded to a really bad trail - pretty much straight up the side of a local hill. This is getting ridiculous. Washed out road bed, big rocks, it's hard to see how jeeps handle this. I'm sure most of them don't - there are almost no jeep tracks. There must be another way to Colcha K, but oh well, I'm here now. So I push the bike for several km in what turns out to be about a 150m (500ft) climb - probably an hour of really hard pushing. And then, there it is - the salar is in front of me - spreading out in all directions, nicely framed by the hill I'm standing on which is covered in cactii.

Lunchtime.

Down the other side, you're still not in Colcha - just another town. And more bad roads - really sandy washboard hugging the side of the hill just off the salar. I'm tempted to head down there, but have heard that near shore the salar is unpredictable - can have lots of really soft sand. So I stick to the road and after another hour or so pass a big military base. I'd like to shoot a few pictures, but decide against it - being an unpopular Yankee without visa I figure it's a bit of a risk. But you can skirt the base and then, Colcha K is in view.

But it's already getting late and still over 20km to go, so I don't even head into town, just keep following the hill contour north.

Needless to say, the road does not improve. This is up there with the worst roads, just no hills and no headwind, so at least I'm making 7-8km/h. By the time I'm finally at the entry to the salar, the sun has gone down. But I'm gonna spend at least one night on the salt and I want it to be tonight.

At the entrance to the salar is another tourist / jeep base and several are parked here with a nice view. But I continue - onto the dam I assume is needed when the salar is flooded. My guides say head 3km out, then head bearing 354 across the salt.

GPS makes this too easy - just head out to one waypoint, then follow the arrow towards the next waypoint. But actually, it's not needed - the sun has gone down and the Big Dipper is out. May not sound like much, but I haven't seen it in over 4 months - you can't see it further south and I didn't think you could see it here, either. The N star is below the horizon, but It's pretty clear where it should be so a bit to the left and start rolling.

The salar is not as smooth as I thought / hoped it would be - still a whole lot better than anything else I've been on today. Picture a gigantic parking lot with about an inch of crunchy, slightly icy snow and that's pretty much what this feels like. But the amazing thing is how far it stretches. It just goes on and on and on. Hard to describe or picture but it is amazing. I even turn off my light for several km at a time - everything's white and just starlight is enough to make out rough contours - just a bit to the left of the Big Dipper.

It's an amazing feeling - and finally, after an hour or so the moon makes an appearance and really lights things up. But it's getting cold and I'm hungry and tired, so eventually, about 15km shy of the central island I decide to call it a night. Have the place pretty much to myself. I decide to turn on my rear flasher as I park my bike in case there arre any errant jeeps running without lights across the expanse. But I see absolutely no human lights from here - just an amazing, cold, cold, sky and white to the horizon in most directions. Just amazing, amazing place. Here are a few night pics. I can't wait to see this by day.

And that's coming soon enough as I type this in a freezing tent. I waited a bit too long, so my water bottle was already a nice slush before I stopped and getting everything set up and myself warm plus cooking dinner turns out to be a challenge. Quite annoyingly, 2 of my water bottles have failed, so each of my front Ortlieb bags are swimming on the inside - not too much gets wet and I only lose maybe just under a liter, but still really, really annoying. These roads are just brutal - I think I lost 2 bottles on the whole trip before now and 4 in the last few days in Bolivia. At least I have a beer again after 9 days so I'm doing ok. Riding towards the stars without lights under a bright moon was worth it. This is an amazing place. Well, time to call it a day. Ciao.

Roads, lets see - first couple km are ok, then it gets challenging. After the turnoff to Santiago at arounnd 12km, it gets worse, then for a few km out of Santiago it's just insane. The downhill is manageable, but very challenging - ride the brakes. Afterwards, the road varies all the way to the Salar's port - a lot of sand, a lot of washboard. After Colcha K it gets a bit worse - have a look for parallel bike paths others have made, they sometimes save you a few hundred meters of washboard. Towards the end you may be able to cut out some concave curves and cut across the salar - generally a good idea if the salar is passable (as it is right now). Finally, the dam itself is rough but solid - I also tried the parallel jeep tracks as the salar is currently dry - softer but smoother. Finally, the salar itself is surprisingly variable - sometimes fairly smooth but never completely smooth - always some bumps and crunches.

Day 133 - May 23 -
The Salar de Uyuni!

What a way to wake up - the hum of a jeep passing near your tent. Fortunately, I left my taillight flashing - there are no roads here - just a plane about 100x150km or so. Actually, there are some "roads" - slightly smoother, blacker lines on the salar, but I won't see my first one for several hours. It's already light so no real danger of being hit in my tent, and actually, I'm already a bit away. And then, darnit - the sun is already on the horizon. A bit of a scramble to get out the door and snap a few shots. My cold lens doesn't just attract condensation, it immediately freezes, so a few shots are really interesting.

But wow! This is even better in the light. I'll just let a few pictures speak for themselves.

From here, the bearing continues where I left off yesterday - 354N for another 18km or so. And then you're at the island (Incahuasi) - a rocky, sandy little hill, covered in cactii and birds in the middle of endless miles of salt. I would definitely recommend a visit - there's an extremely well-marked trail to the top from which you can peer in all directions of white. There's even Mongo's - a fast food place, although I don't have time for a snack. Today will be my longest day in Bolivia - it's 62km to the Salt Hotel from here, then another 15 or so to shore and 25 to Uyuni - over 115 for the day and I'm in no mood for exploring Uyuni after dark.

So I hike to the top, get in plenty of photos, admire the amazing Salar, and continue westwards.
Bring sunglasses & plenty of sunscreen.

The ride is nice and smooth and fast - no winds at all. You can head in any direction you like, although following a road is recommended - smoother and you won't need to check your bearings as much. Unfortunately, roads aren't labeled so it could be a bit tricky. I use the theory that like everywhere else here, there are just plenty of parallel roads all leading to the same spot.

If you come this way, when heading around the N side of the island, there is an obvious road. It splits into 2 roads both heading ESE - take the left (more northerly) one - at least that's what I ended up on. From there, all other junctions should be fairly obvious and eventually, you'll see the salt hotel appear on the horizon. The instructions I had said bearing 106, although the road is never that precise - running between around 94 and 115, but it's a lot faster than the salar itself.
The rest of the salar is pretty much more of the same, but I'm surprised to see a few potholes - a bit of an understatement - the salar is just missing in spots and there's water underneath. It's as if the salar is a slab of salt on top of a maze of salt pillars and water and in quite a few places the top layer has broken through. The crystals are amazing. Fortunately, I didn't hit one of these last night with my light off (they only seem to be in one small region between the salt hotel and the island).

Also, the salar has an amazing variety of textures from what I'll call popcorn to almost a honeycomb like surface of interlocking panels, sometimes with fairly severe ridges between them, and in other places it really is very smooth.

Well, I make the salar and so has a jeep I met at the island. They're obviously American and we get to talking and I ask about their rentals and no, they live here. At first I'm thinking missionary or aid workers but it turns out quite a few folks from the embassy are out on a field trip today so I get to say hi and even get a contact - who knows, perhaps a place to crash in LaPaz.

From the salt hotel (currently shutterred) it's an easy ride to shore - you can see the buildings in Colchani you're heading for - except they're on the shore and Colchani is a few more km away from shore. Town is somewhat grim looking - a lot of adobe buildings in various stages of construction and/or decay. But folks are out selling handicrafts and pretty much everyone I've met so far has been friendly and waved or at worst indifferent. Quite a nice country.
But I must continue - the sun is setting. The Americans warned of the bad road to Uyuni - fortunately, they've never taken the jeep tour of the far SW. This is a piece of cake - I still average nearly 15km/h and barely need to push anywhere. The road has plenty of washboard but you often find a slightly more sandy, but smoother parallel track. Basically, to get to Uyuni, cross the train tracks and follow them right (SE). And after 15km or so, I see the first signs of civilization after 9 days - a cell phone tower.

Uyuni isn't all that inviting at first - no real street signs so orientation is challenging - but inevitably, you can find center in a town of only 14000 and there's plenty of gringo restaurants - including Minuteman Pizza - owned by an American/Bolivian couple (he's from Boston, hence the name). I'm currently proudly wearing their T-shirt as I enter these words a few days later. I first find a hotel, then internet, then Dave who's doing fine (although J-W is still a bit sick), then pizza and a beer. It's been a great, great day and week and I'm exhausted.