The time I spent in Sucre held some of the
best days of my trip thus far. Loic and
I quickly made friends with all the great people staying at our guesthouse –
James and Rebecca from the U.K., Gael, Nicolas, and Juliana from France, Christa
from Germany, and Grace from New York/San Fran, plus a few others, but our
group of 6-8 were glued together. I saw
very little of Sucre in the end, aside from a restaurant one night and the
market for shopping or juice runs. The
night of the Barbeque saw us up at 4am, still going hard and Sunday afternoon
saw us rock climbing up above the city. Monday
was still the weekend for us, and Tuesday James and I finally decided to go
easy and just watch a movie. Life of Pi,
highly recommended. Gael cooked
incredible crepes, vegetarian lasagna, etc and it was all-in-all a grand old
time. Hours of hanging out in the
courtyard and I managed to expand my collection of movies to 50 in addition to
a few TV seasons… But best of all, I got
new music!!! You can always count on a
Brit with a computer to have the best music around, so from Rebecca and James
came tons of great artists. Most of the
people here are studying at the nearby spanish school and I was very close to
staying here for next few weeks to volunteer and study, but have decided to
push on.
Leaving this great family behind was sad,
and I certainly felt the college-days-drinking to weigh me down on the hills
outside the city, but I soon got back into my rhythm and we climbed from
7,700ft up to 13,000ft over the next three days through beautiful mountain
scenery to Potosi. The new music
certainly helped, and I had plenty to look at, passing by dry braided river
valleys and giant cacti. Nearing Potosi,
we could start to make out Cerro Rico, the mountain that has been mined from
back in the 16th century for its abundant silver. At one point in time, Potosi was one of the
largest cities in the world, but at a cost.
The mine has since claimed over 8 million lives, and is still irresponsibly
used today for tin and zinc.
We arrived in Potosi, found a decent
hostel, although all the clientele seemed to be French (what is this!?), and
tagged along with a French-Swiss couple to swim in a geothermal lake in a
nearby canyon. At 70ft deep, it was no
cakewalk for me (not a deep water person…), but at 12,000ft, the warm water was
much appreciated. The next morning, we
did a 5-hour tour of the Potosi mine, visiting the refinery, walking through
the entire mountain end-to-end, and then partying with some locals afterward
for some important anniversary. The
inside of the mine had parts only perhaps 3ft tall and there was a section
where you had to climb up three ladders through a narrow, bored-out hole. Not a claustrophobics dream, but well worth
it to see the maze of tunnels and brilliant blue-green stalagmites within. The mine has several cooperatives attempting
to make the workplace safe and organized, but it is far from so. The workers go with their own equipment,
which is usually nothing more than a few sticks of dynamite, 96% alcohol and
coca leaves, literally. None of them use
expensive masks and life expectancy is short.
We had our own swig of the 96% alcohol, which is mere rubbing alcohol,
and emerged into daylight to run a few more errands for the ride to Uyuni. In the evening, we went out with some French
folks on our mine tour for some local soup and wine.
We pedaled out of Potosi around mid-day;
little did we know that the ride to Uyuni harbors extraordinary scenery, a
rock-climbers dream really – if only I had brought my shoes! Near the end of our first day out of the
city, we dropped down into a canyon that resembles bits and pieces of Bryce
Canyon, with huge red-rock pinnacles and vertical walls left and right. Oh, the climbing possibilities. We could have continued cycling, but called
it an early day, stunned by the scenery and wishing to see it by
moonlight. We perched the tents out of
view of the road on a sandy bench above a dry canyon and watched a nearly full
moon rise above the surreal desert.
The next day was even better, as the road
undulated up and down through red-rock canyons, before plummeting down to a
sandy, salty valley. I found which
artists of my new music collection held the same rhythm as my pedaling, adding
a whole new perspective to the scenery around me. We neared 14,000ft a few times, but could get
away with shorts and a sweatshirt, which is always more comfortable to cycle
hilly roads. In the evening, we found a
dry riverbed to camp and had a big pasta dinner, retiring to our separate tents
to watch movies. Lord of War was my
choice – oh Nicolas Cage, you bad man. The
night was relatively warm, not dipping below 32 and the moon and stars made it
possible to leave headlamp in the bags!
On our last day to Uyuni, we cranked out
40km quickly on the flat altiplano-like landscape, leaving the beautiful
canyons behind. With 30km left to go
after lunch, the infamous southwesterly wind picked up dead ahead, and coupled
with a few 1000ft climbs, wore us right down.
With a little Polica and Forest Swords playing, I managed to tackle the
final hill, the view of the vast Salar de Uyuni opening up before us. We descended down, thrown side to side with
the turbulent winds. The gusts were so
strong on the downhill, even my little Bolivian flag snapped! Thankfully, we rolled downhill all the way
into Uyuni, later finding a descent hostel to pass a few days.
The town of Uyuni is really quite
horrible. The paved road ends here and
dusty roads lead through a very bleak desert town. Poverty is everywhere except for the few
blocks around the tourist center in the middle of town. The ride to see the Train Graveyard was
difficult against the wind, carrying all the towns’ trash around the
desert. The museum itself is incredible,
with dozens of rusting and broken locomotives and boxcars amidst the
orange-yellow desert landscape. A photographer’s
paradise, my camera battery decided to die, but I’m thinking of returning
tomorrow.
After tomorrow’s rest day, we’ll be cycling
out to and across the Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat. The vast white expanse is even used by passing
satellites to recalibrate their altimeters.
We will spend a few nights on the ancient lake, visiting the famous
Incahuasi island in the middle, then traverse south, using compasses and a
great PDF made by cyclists over the years to meet up with the famous Laguna’s
Route which leads through the isolated Southwest Bolivian high desert and down
to Chile. There is one town along the
way near the beginning, which is so small and isolated that we won’t even be
able to find bread or fruit/veggies.
Then it is 300 desolate kilometers on sand and dirt-track “roads” to the
border of Chile. We will pass by almost
a dozen beautiful lakes riddled with flamingos, including one lake that is
bright red, then through the Desierto de Dali, which looks as though it has inspired
Dali paintings. There is no food along
the way and water will be scarce. We
will be required to carry 12 days of food and we’ll be carrying nearly 3
gallons after every water-source we come across. We will hit a new trip-high of 16,500ft near
some geysers… I suspect this to be the
hardest part of my journey. Stay tuned,
I’ll be back in two weeks!
Loic and I with 12 days of breakfasts, lunches, dinners,
and snacks for the crazy road ahead! Three gallons of water
and one of gasoline later and we´re set to go.
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