On back roads through Western Bolivia
Days away from everything on the Bolivian Altiplano… This is where the real adventure starts! Sand storms, hail, extremely sandy and washboard roads, stuck in the snow, little water access on the one side – burning sun, amazing clear camping nights under millions of stars, tiny villages with poor and always incredibly guest-friendly Bolivians on the other side… We like Bolivia!
Part I: La Paz to Curahuara
I recover after lying in a hotel room in Viacha for five days (nearly too small to get all our stuff in!). The first night camping after Viacha we funnily are discovered in our hidden camp spot behind a hill: two other cyclists suddenly appear as if they knew where we are. Luki from Stuttgart and Daniel from Innsbruck. Obviously, we all have the same preferences finding a place for the night! A hilarious cyclists meeting in the middle of nowhere accompanied by Lukis guitar sounds in the night and in the morning…
But two days after taking off Hardy has the very same symptons like me before. This damn sickness really slows us down, we have to change plans and go to Patacamaya to stock up food, medecine and cash as we are not in the planned shedule any more and to give Hardy a rest day. But we are unlucky and the ATM does not work for us – we even have to go back to El Alto by bus for a day!
Being slow can get on your nerves but we have to get used to it as it would not change the next two weeks due to the worst roads we have ever been on. And it also has a good side, spending time in the villages again brings us close to the people. We have the feeling the Bolivians are a bit more restrained than the Peruvians, but as soon as you approach them, they are curious and incredibly friendly. Everybody is happily waving hands as soon as we greet them. And we hear no more Gringo shoutings – thank you for that, Bolivia!
We cycle through hundreds of lama herds. They are funny creatures: When they recognize us the complete herd stops grazing and all of them stretch their necks in our direction to stare at us curiously. Hardy is curious as well and chases them to find out if they have RFID tags in their ears. They are always faster than him…
On the way to Curahuara we pass numerous Aymara (indigenious people on the Bolivian Altiplano) funeral towers, some are still complete, some only half. That is how the Aymara bury the deads and we are quite surprised to really find some mortal remains in there!
But it is not only sickness and bad roads, it is also the weather. For the first time we experience a real sand storm, which is followed by hail and then snow. Luckily, we are only about 8 km away from a few houses when the sand storm surprises us on the flats of the Altiplano. We see it coming from far and think „Ohhh f***! We have to reach the next hills before it hits us!“ But we do not, it fully catches us. From one second to the other we are covered with sand, cannot stand the wind on the bike, and are not able to see further than one meter. We push through as fast as we can. After a few minutes the hail comes and hurts the face. But we make it to the houses, looking for shelter. Surprisingly, it is not only a lama farm but they offer very basic accomodation and food as well. The only water they use is rain water, so they are happy about the weather and catch water with plenty of buckets and basins to in the back yard. We stay and enjoy a yummy lama steak with rice and salad!