Christmas in La Paz and the Death Road

The Parador Santa Maria is an old 18th Century house that has been turned into a hotel, and very nice it is too. The town of Sucre itself is very laid back and very rich in the Spanish architecture that shows the history of the region to its best. Unfortunately for the first day I was there I got the first attack of gastro, which laid me up and made sure that I didn’t make it very far from the very nice bathroom I had!!


Main Square in Sucre


The hill at the back of town


Krusty burger anyone?


The View from the top floor of the hotel

While I was there the first rain fell, which made me ask some serious questions about the road to Cochabamba. It ‘s apparently 50% tarmac and 50% dirt which made me reconsider the wisdom of trying to achieve 350km in one day with it raining. I decided to backtrack to Potosi, and then through to Oruro, a hundred km further but all tarmac. One night in Oruro was enough, an old mining town where the mine has run out. If you’re coming this way I suggest you avoid it unless it’s a one-night stopover like me. So instead of spending Christmas in Cochabamba I ended up spending it in La Paz.

La Paz is huge, I came in “the back way” from the top of the mountain, but the traffic soon started to live up to its reputation, the last 20 km took me two hours to do. There are hundreds of small vans that act as buses around the city. They all stop as and when they want so it seems and the resulting traffic jams is a nightmare!! They all use the horn to signal their presence, so the cacophony of tooting is ever present (like India) Apart from that because its built on the side of a mountain it doesn’t seem to have a centre, or heart of the city. Christmas trees and decorations were everywhere and the children were just as excited as anywhere else in the world.


The Christmas Eve market in La Paz


The women don't wear this dress for the tourists


The flowers street was very popular

With Christmas day over I decided to try to book one of the bicycle tours of the “Death Road” that are run by many companies in La Paz. After searching I found one that looked “professional” enough, but they didn’t think they would have enough people to run the tour on the Sunday. After hearing nothing I decided to get the Wombat out, rain or shine, and go to find the road myself. On the road to Coroico 54km north east of La Paz there is a turning to the right, just past the crest of a hill. I 'stoped there initially, but couldn't decide if it was the right place and carried on for another 20km until I asked a woman at the side of the road where the Camino de Muerte was? She indicated it was back the way I had come and at the top of the mountain. When I arrived back at the original spot, a family had stopped to take photos and confirmed that yes this was the start of the death road, and felt confident that I would be able to make it on the bike. I decided that would start down the hill, and if it was bad then I would turn around, at least being able to say that I had ridden some of it. I kept going. Half way down there had been a landslide and a van with some Colombian tourists were stuck, trying to decide that if they turned around they would meet anything else coming down!! I told them there were some cyclists on their way, but I didn’t know if the support vehicles were going to follow them. Their driver seemed to think I’d have no problem getting over the pile of earth that was blocking the way, so I turned on the video and gave it a go. It was softer than I thought, and when the back wheel started to spin and slide towards the edge, I thought I was going to be in trouble. The van driver and his passenger managed to keep me on track and I finally made it across. There was no more traffic until I reached the end, where the support vehicles for the cycling tours had obviously taken the alternative (new) road to collect their charges.


No room for mistakes





I left La Paz the next morning, a little sore after the exercise of the previous day, but satisfied that I’d done one of the things on the bucket list. The ride out of the city was very easy, and I thought that I’d wait until I reached the outskirts before filling with fuel. But each gas station that I passed had a very large que outside, and it wasn’t until I stopped at one of the last stations that the policeman that was there told me there was no gasoline and I would have to go back to one that did have some. It turned out that overnight the government had put the price of petrol up by 83% and the price of diesel up by 76% there are now transport strikes everywhere. I did get fuel, and cheekily pushed my way to the front of the que to get it. It was then a short ride through to Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titikaka.

It was then a short ride through to Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titikaka.


From my limited Spanish this was where they built the Kontiki Rafts


The South end of Lake Titikaka


The view from the hotel window

Unfortunately they could only give me one nights accommodation, and the next morning when we tried to find another couple of nights in another Hotel they were all booked up too. So the decision was made for me that I should move on round the lake and into Peru.

Into Bolivia

The plan was to leave San Pedro and get to the border at around 12.30 leaving about four or five hours to cover the last 200km into Uyuni. Well that was the plan. The last 100km to the border on the Chilean side is dirt road, and not very good at that. 

The Bolivian border

So I arrived at the border at three o’clock and departed Chile no problem in about 15 minutes. Then I rode the 2km to the Bolivian border. It was four thirty when I finally got the importation papers for the bike stamped and I was able to continue. The next 70km took me three hours! It’s some of the worst road I think I have ever taken the Wombat onto. Loose gravel, dust, and patches of sand all came at me without warning or rhythm. A strong tail wind and reasonable temperature kept the motor temperature on the maximum for the whole time and luckily the average speed was low enough to give me very good fuel consumption, because there was nowhere in sight to get fuel (why hadn’t I filled the spare container??) So when the first small village came into sight and there was a picture of a bed on one of the signposts, I thought that would do for the night. $7 bought me a bed, a shower and a good hot meal, in one of the poorest looking places I think I have seen. But I was really thankful for it.


The First nights Hotel for $7


The Village in the morning


The local brick works


Villa Alota village square


Down onto the first small Salar. The signpost is for mines either side of the road!!

I set off again the next morning at what I thought was 08.30. In reality it was 07.30 as the clock should have gone back an hour when I crossed the border! I spoke to three Argentinean lads on various 650’s going towards the border, and they confirmed my fears that the road did not get any better before Uyuni. So the next 130km was a bone-rattling ride with the last 50km consisting of the worst corrugations I have come across. I seriously had a good look at the Wombat the next day to make sure nothing had broken.


Scenery good, road bad!!

Uyuni has one thing going for it, it’s next to the Salar. If not for that then nobody would go there. I booked a tour the next day with one of the many companies in town. I didn’t want to do the three day excursion which most of the backpackers do, I figured two days and one night was as much as I needed.


Uyuni


The train graveyard



The Salar is a spectacular sight. It’s the larges salt flat in the world, followed by Utah, and the Salar de Atacama. Fleets of land cruisers head out every day, and usually end up in the same place at the same time. The only way to have it any different is to use your own transport. If I had been with someone else, or if I had the knowledge I have now I would have done it, but I don’t think it’s the place for taking chances. The overnight accommodation was interesting. A hostel made entirely out of salt, but no showers and beds that would make a door look comfortable. I was the only one that got up to see the sunset out of our party, although there were two Argentineans that had arrived the night before in their own car, and had been there before, set off to see the sun rise over the salt. A visit to the island Incahuasi, which is a coral island in the middle of the salt flats, not only gives you some magnificent views of the flats, but also is covered in Cactus.


The Salar De Uyuni


The Volcano


Flamingo's at dawn




Overnight accommodation in the Salt Hostel


The Hostel on the edge of the Salar


Dawn on the Salar


Incahausi Island



One more night in Uyuni to recover and get clean before heading out for Potosi. The road is about 70% tarmac and 30% dirt. They have obviously been working hard recently to complete the valley sections of the road which is now very nice smooth tarmac, until you come to the hills which are still dirt and in places soft sand.


They're working on it


The down side is that people will miss this when the road is done

Potosi is one of the highest cities in the world at 4000m. Perched on the slops of the hill that contains the Cero Rico mine, and has brought prosperity to the place since the 15th Century. When the Spanish arrived the spirits had already told the locals, that the silver in the mountain was not for them but for strangers that would come from far away. There was little opposition to the Spanish who then started to mine, and process the silver here. Pieces of eight

Were sent from here to the Spanish Main to be transported to Spain with the Privateers and Pirates waiting to try to stop them. The mint today is a museum, which gives a fascinating insight into how important a place this was. The other main tourist attraction is to visit the co-operative mines that still work the hill behind the city. I passed on that. The elevation combined with the potential danger of visiting what can only be described as sub standard working conditions at best, to see people working there way to an early grave did not appeal.


Potosi




Cero Rico Mountain


The Old Mint

So after two nights I headed out again for Sucre, and the promise of tarmac all the way.

San Pedro de Atacama

I wasn’t sad to leave Antafagasta, it’s a town that has been corrupted by the wealth of the mining that surrounds it. I didn’t feel welcome or satisfied by my visit in any way. So in my opinion “the pearl of the north” has become a little dull. So it was back into the desert and heading northwest towards Calama then southwest to San Pedro De Atacama. The climb is so gradual you don’t notice it until I stoped to take the fleece off and checked the altitude. It was 3251m. There is then a steep drop down to only 2500m into the town. I had already selected a list of three Hostels to stay at and all were full!! I asked at another that didn’t look that appealing, and that was full too. It’s the trouble with travelling alone on a bike that everywhere you stop you have to carry your helmet, tank bag (with all the valuables) and dressed in all the motorbike gear in 40 degrees heat looking for reasonable priced accommodation soon becomes hard work. The next Hotel I pulled into was supposed to be $120 a night. I said that if they could do it for $100 I’d take it. So I’m in the Hotel Tulor. Which I have to say is very nice.

The next morning I elected to take a tour up to see the Tatio Geysers. Unfortunately this involves a 04.00 departure!! After we had collected a bus full we set off on a dirt road in the dark climbing fairly steeply all the way until we reached the plateau just on dawn at 4300m. Any sort of exercise at this altitude makes you breath harder and your head thump as the body cries out for what little oxygen there is. The outside temperature is either close to or below freezing which combined with the thermal activity of the geysers makes for the most spectacular spurts of hot water. This was the reason for such an early start, because as soon as the sun appears over the volcanic mountains that surround this place most of the activity stops.





The older pools are larger, but only one has a water temp of around 34c where people can swim if they want. The water in the others is around 95c, which produces clouds of steam in the cold morning air.

On the way back to town we visited a “tourist” village, which is constructed in the same adobe brick style that it would have been hundreds of years ago. Also one of the old water courses from the high mountains down into the valley where the cactus grows catching the evaporating water vapour from the stream. There has been no rain at all in this region for the last ten years, so the cactus are starting to get a little pointed at the top as the growth slows.





San Pedro de Atacama exists for the tourist trade, apart from the Hostels, Hotels and restaurants there is nothing else here. It’s a nice place though just to relax, do the tours and acclimatise a little to the altitude. The town is built of the adobe brick, which gives it a rustic feel. And for whatever reason there seems to be a lot of Rastafarians about?? Along with the packs of dogs that roam the streets, and that like to bark a lot at motorcycles. There are also a lot of backpackers, which is one of the reasons the Hostels are full. My advice is to book three to four days ahead when heading this way.

The tour for the Moon Valley starts at 16.00 when the temperature was still in the high 30’s. A short drive out of town and you turn off to have a look at the “valley of Death” first then back across the road to an amazing landscape. Apparently this was the place that NASA used to develop it’s vehicles for the moon, as it’s the closest thing on earth to the surface of the moon. The surprise of the tour is when the guide leads you into a tunnel that some people were backing out of because there was no light. The guide had a LED panel and we then proceeded into a very tight at times Lava Tube, emerging a few hundred meters later back into the sunlight with a sigh of relief. The finale is a climb up to the top of a very high sand dune to watch the sunset and the changing colours of the desert.


The Valley of the Moon


Into the Lava tube


The Amphitheatre


Climbing the Dune, hard work at 3600m!! 

Top of the dune

North to the Atacama

What an interesting day that was. It all started off innocently enough, and luckily it's Saturday, so the traffic leaving Valparaiso was light, and all the way through Vina Del Mar. I was enjoying the hills mountains and all the fruit orchards, and then the first tunnel appeared. It was only wide enough for on vehicle, but it was controlled by traffic lights. 

The first tunnel

The second tunnel was the same, but no traffic lights and no asphalt, and the road/asphalt had disappeared on the other side to, for about 40km. Where the hell did that come from?? So now the bikes filthy.

La Serena appears to be a lovely town, although I haven't seen much yet. There was some sort of fiesta going on in the centre today, but I've found a nice little apart hotel right down on the beachfront. I'll go exploring tomorrow.







I’m not one for seaside towns, but La Serena has been one of the exceptions. Long stretches of good beach, and an old town to make life a little more interesting. The mornings along this part of the coast in Chile tend to be overcast and a brisk onshore breeze, which keeps the temperature down. I’ve spent enough time in the sea to know when it’s going to be cold., that plus a lack of anyone in the water made sure that a swim was out of the question, but a good lunch with half a bottle of very good Cabernet Sauvignon, finished off a day of sightseeing.

Another cloudy morning the next day meant the ride up to Copiapo started cool, and it never really warmed up, but the scenery soon started to change as I left “district three” and entered the Atacama region. Heading north the last 100km gives you a taste of what is to come as you enter the desert.



Copiapo came to the world’s attention on the 5th August in 2010 when a collapse in the San Jose Copper/Gold mine trapped 33 men underground. The town is dominated by the mining industry. As you enter the town there are service industries for every type of heavy machinery you can imagine. That aside the money that comes with mining is here, along with the shops and restaurants, and I spent a very nice night in the Hotel La Casona.

I passed the road to the mine as I left the town the next day and continued north towards Antafagasto and into the desert. This day I was prepared for the temperature and had put a fleece on underneath my jacket, and put some warmer gloves on. You soon realise how big, and how dry the Atacama desert is. It’s the most desert like desert I’ve ever seen, if that makes any sense.





With one other major town between La Serena and Antafagasto it’s a day of the alternative scenery, and plenty of time to sort things out in your mind as you ride. Just before you reach your destination you come across the giant sculpture by the Chilean artist Mario Irrizabal known as “La mano del desierto” or The Hand of the Desert. From the road it looks as though some giant is starting to reach up out of the desert towards the sky.





I'm heading to San Pedro de Atacama next. Hopefully the wifi will last until there. After that it's Bolivia, and who knows what??