Vallegrande - Cochabamba - 400 km

Well it is the last riding day from Vallegrande to Cochabamba, unfortunately the main road is under repair so we took a longer detour which is on 150 km of newly made gravel road,which turned out to be a very dirty dusty drive with trucks and cars constantly passing us raising so much dust that at times we had to stop. even on this road, half way along, there were roadworks and the road was closed to us for 90 mins before we could continue. this gravel road was lime all the rest we have travelled for the past couple of weeks, continually winding up and down through the Andes. After the end of the gravel, we had some bitumen, then cobblestones for some time.

 

Dogs, there are stray dogs everywhere, even on the remote highways you see dogs every few hundred meters, these dogs are fed by people who throw scraps from their cars, so the dogs lie on the highways waiting for this.

 

We finally arrived at our hotel at 6:30 pm

 

Just a day here in Cochabamba, then a day layover in Santiago Chile, and I'll be home.

La Higuera - Vallegrande - 60 Km.

After a  walk around the small town of La Higuera and a visit to the museum, which is where Ché Guevara was killed, we were back on the bikes for a short run to Vallegrande, unfortunately we are still in a pretty remote area which means that the 60 km is all on the same extremely poor dirt roads that we travelled on yesterday, which again made for some hard riding, Even the couple of Australians (who are experienced off road riders), on the tour were saying how much more difficult this is than riding dirt roads in Australia.

With no more major incidents (just a  bike breakdown that was quickly remedied), we arrived at Vallegrande in time for lunch and not long after it rained heavily which would have been a nightmare on the dirt had we still been riding.

Sucre - La Higuera - 281 Km

Today was a long day weaving in and out and up and down through the Andes until we end up in La Higuera, the town where Ché Guevara was arrested and killed by the Bolivian Army, we are staying tonight in basic accommodation in a historic building that used to be the telegraph building that was used by Ché Guevara, fortunately I got my own room and the others have to share 2 rooms, maybe because I paid for single accommodation, or maybe because I snore so badly. 

 

As I said it is a winding road cutting through the Andes, but the last 150 km is unpaved dirt, gravel and rocks, which made for challenging riding, so much so that one of our riders has come off at low speed and badly twisted his ankle. It was also very hot 42 deg, and as we covered the last few km to at La Higuera dark clouds gathered and lightning and thunder were striking all around. All the bikes faired reasonably well but the support vehicle blew 3 tyres off the car and trailer, and limped in on its rim.

 

Lunch was pretty interesting in the middle of nowhere with no options, Peanut Soup, although I didn't taste any peanuts, there were a number of ingredients that I couldn't identify. 

 

as it was quite a walk from the hotel to the bike parking all of the guys opted to ride the trailer through town.

 

 

Potosí - Sucre - 160 Km.

Not much to report today just a short ride today to the capitol of Bolivia Sucre, with the afternoon free so I just chilled out a bit in the central Plaza. We did come across an interesting bridge made at the end of the 19th century, crossing the Pilcomayo River. Last Night they fixed my bike which was one of those with battery charging problems, so no problems today. 

 

The crossing guards dressed as Zebras were pretty interesting, not just stopping traffic, but controlling cars and pedestrians and assisting young and old to cross the road, all while making quite an entertaining game of it.

Potosí Mine photos

Uyuni - Potosí - 220 Km.

Today we leave the Altiplano and head across the Andes to Potosi, This is a beautiful new road with fantastic scenery as we ride through, unfortunately the same fault has occurred on the same 2 bikes which cause a 30 min delay, it seems like these 2 bikes are not charging the batteries, These were fixed later this afternoon by replacing the alternator.

 

This afternoon I made an optional visit to the medieval silver mine of Cerro Rico, Well its something I can say I've done, but wouldn't do it again. We had to get kitted up in overalls, boots and mining hat with light, then purchase a gift for the minors, Food & Drink or explosives, yes you can buy dynamite right on the street, or cocoa leaves. Then we were driven to the mine.

 

The mine is 300+ years old and was pretty rough, very little in the way of roof support, in many places I had to stoop very low to get through, and the air was not good, its amazing what some people will put up with and do to make money in these places. I went into the mine which is carved into a mountain side for about 500 mtrs and watched some of the mine workers pushing very heavy loads along the tracks in the mine, the whole operation was primitive. There were some interesting stalactites and stalagmites, one I saw was black. 

 

Uyuni photos