First week cycling in Bolivia

Hey all,

The first week has passed, the most of the (extreme) nerves are over and the first kilometres are down.

This is the first time in writing a blog on my phone so sorry for any typos!

So, 8 days ago I flew with Avianca to La Paz, and with a little bit of hassle to check in my bike. It was apparently just 20 cms to big (the box) but I pretended I didn’t know. They just ran around looking for a meter, when finally a man found one. The saw the box was actually a bit too big, but quickly took away the meter and said it was fine, while giving me a little wink. Colombians love cyclists he said, and he wanted to support travelling cyclists. So luckily all was good with the bike.

La Paz

La Paz, a city at 3600 meters surrounded by 6000 meter high show called mountains, that’s gotta be special! And it was. After I got to La Paz airport at 3am (thanks again for losing my bike Avianca… and making me spend an hour in the middle of the night filling out forms). I finally rolled in my hostel bed at 5am, but sleeping in a dorm means everyone else wakes up around breakfast time, and so did I, at 8.30. I quickly met a US couple that has done lots of cycle touring as well (amongst others in Colombia last year) so lots to talk about! With some coffee I actually woke up and even managed to deal with the altitude.

Since my bike would arrive until the next day I decided to go explore the city a bit. The cool thing is that La Paz has all kinds of cable cars from which you have spectacular views.

I first took the yellow line which brings you to ‘El Alto’ which is at 4000meters and gives you a great view of the city. From there on I continued with the green line all across and finally took a bus to the city centre. A nice mix of tourists, locals, markets, tourist shops and old houses. I ate some at the local market, unfortunately vegetarian is not really a thing here, and I thus had soup with still some pieces floating in it and just spaghetti (cause the sauce had big chunks of meat).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After walking around a bit more and having a coffee at this really good coffee shop (Higher Ground Coffee) I zombie walked back to the hostel. After a little nap and some reading and talking to the other people in the hostel it was time for dinner. I had seen a crepe place just around the corner. That was a nice surprise for sure! Veggie crepes and chatting with the owners, a group of 4 French friends of about my age.

The next day my bike was supposed to arrive at 8am. So just to be sure I was waiting on front of the door at 7.30. (The hostel has a bell and I was afraid they would not hear the bell, and the bike would be transported back to the airport). So basically I sat there until noon, did not even want to take a shower in between because you’ll just see that that’s exactly when they drop off the bike…

But then it came. Yeay! I put it together,and with the help of Daniel (from the cycle couple) it was all good and ready to go!

After this I did some more walking around and I had to go on the hunt for a new little cooking pit. Mine was campinggaz, and of course that only fits on the campinggaz gas thingies, But they don’t sell campinggaz in Bolivia (sigh) so I had to find a new one.

 

And then, after one more night of sleep it was time to take off. I took the bus to Oruro, since I had heard that the first 200km out of La Paz was not very interesting at all with busy traffic. Cycling from the hostel to the busterminal I noticed it was a national holiday and many of the streets where closed of. So it took some time to find my way. When j got to the busstation it needed some hassling that my bike was also allowed in the bus but then we took off. After 3.5 hours we got to Oruro and it was time to start the ride. It was 3.30 by then already, but I just really wanted to get some kilometres done. Of course, the literal first 5km I did where in the complete opposite direction, great start, I was thinking by myself! But after another 5km back I was on the good route.

Unfortunately the thunder came closer and closer and after 40k the lightening was striking all around me and I am just terrified of that. So I cycled up to a little house I saw as fast as I could and asked if I could hide a while. It slowly got dark and it didn’t seem to get much better so I asked if maybe I could stay at her house. I got the washing room but I was so extremely happy!!!!

 

The next day I got up at 7, put my stuff together, had some last chats with my host lady and then it was really time to take off. My first stop was just 10k down the road to find the local market for some breakfast. I had to leave my bike with everything in it outside (a bit scary but what can you do), but I noticed right away it was completely fine and safe. All the little grandmas were watching my bike and as I came out again with a coffee and bread to eat in the sun they were all quite curious.

That day I finished a beautiful 99km ride over good roads, mostly empty, with some other local cyclists and with our any crazy winds. Since I got to the town of Challapata I saw they had a little guesthouse charging me 35 bolivarianos (around 4 euro) and decided to go for It, as the daily afternoon storms where coming up again. Granted I had to pay 1bs extra for toilet paper and I did by far not fit in the bed, but for 4 euros it wasn’t too bad.

The next day I filled up my waterbottles in the central square and had some soup (again, not very veggie) and the guy gave me a second bowl for free because ‘I needed to eat well’. Again,people seemed to be miss blown by the fact that I was cycling alone, as a women. And my husband let me do that??!!!

Again the winds were not too bad, though they could change quickly I had noticed. I pedalled along and noticed everything was becoming more and more quiet. Towns because scarce and every 30 minutes a car would pass.

 

 

Another 102km down I arrived at a town that had been signalled for about 70km and it appeared to be a street with 10 houses. Luckily one of those was a little hotel as it started to rain and thunder again. This time for the incredible price of 20bs (2.36 euros). And I even fit in the bed, more or less. We played a bit with the little girl and her brother, and especially had fun with my camera and they taking photos of me with their toys and their dog. Good times :):)”) I notice that is what I like most, the little conversations on the road, the meetings. The beautiful old ladies waving to me. Again, on a bike you’re just so much more accessible 🙂

 

 

 

 

This is also the first day I met some other cyclists coming from the other direction. A French couple,and three French brothers. We exchanged ideas and advices on what will happen down the road and I felt happy to be part of this little community of independent travellers. I had noticed this earlier when I was travelling with my Lada in Peru, cars, motorcyclists and cyclists somehow form a different community and help each other out, exchange stories and follow each other along. That is the real difference for me versus travelling by bus as most do.

Colchani and Uyuni

Today I would reach the salt flats of Uyuni,the famous salt flats. I had been a bit disappointed that I couldn’t cross them by bike nor camp in the middle of it. But since these months are raining season the flats become flooded, which makes it impossible to cycle or camp, but makes for cool reflections. I wanted to check it out for myself at Colchani, a little town which gives the entrance to the flats. The 85km to get there I saw nothing. Not a person, not a house,but lots of llamas and every once in a while a car or bus would pass. Was I really on my way to the world famous and touristic Uyuni???? It definitely did not feel like it! But with beautiful snowy mountains around me and some little hills to battle, life was pretty good. I had aimed for a little town Chita to have some lunch, again it has been signalled for the past 55km, but when I got there I figured it must be Quechua for ‘shittown’ because there was a school and literally 6 houses. No little store unfortunately. But I still had some cookies:)

 

 

 

With this I made it to Colchani, with the last 5km being a bad dirt road and full on head wind. But when I got there I saw many jeeps, other tourists, motor cyclists and a van. I got to talking with the motor and van people . It was pretty clear I wouldn’t be able to enter the flats on my bike,the damage the salt water seemed to have done to the motors looked bad enough, my chain would definitely not survive! It appeared the colombian-French van couple was planning on camping out at the edge of the flats and I thought that sounded like a great idea. I had already been thinking where to camp and this was exactly the right spot! We enjoyed the sunset, together with the other jeep tourists, but when the sun went down,they all left and we had the area for ourselves. Making use of the cozy warmth of the van we cooked some dinner, drank some wine (they just came from Chile and had stocked up on wine and olive oil) and chatted until it was 10.30pm (very late for me! ;)). Then I got into my tent and with 0 degrees was never happier with my two sleeping bags. Until I woke up around 4am of the soubds and light of jeeps, it turns out they also do sunrise tours, and another 30 jeeps where going into the water. Luckily I had put my tent behind a little salt rock, otherwise I would have been scared they wouldn’t see me and drive right over me haha. But now I was intrigued and thus with sleeping bag and all sat outside the tent and looked at the most amazing starry sky with a beautiful milky way. It was too cold to leave the sleeping bag and take photos but I enjoyed it nevertheless. I left the tent open and could see the sunrise from the tent 🙂 slowly with the sun it got a little warmer and with a very slow start of the morning we made some breakfast and I packed my stuff. I noticed there were lots of Asian tourists and one Philippine guy even came over to ask if he could take a photo with my bike. He almost fell over with the weight and I am very curious to know what hell be doing with that picture 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was time to say goodbye to the lovely van couple and to tackle the last 25km to Uyuni. This is where all the tourists where, as I got passed by many jeeps!! I found a hostel in Uyuni that had been recommended by the motor cyclists I had met the day before with the notice ‘warm showed and a bed that fits’. Great news since I hadn’t showered in 5 days:)

And now I’m here, on my rest day in Uyuni. Quite a touristy town, but it’s ok for a change. There are other foreigners, they even had some Korean food!!! 🙂 so now I’m preparing for my next week of travelling and catching up on some stuff.