Bolivia: Dirt roads, llamas and Salt Flats

Hello from Oruro, Bolivia, where the days are cold and the nights are colder! (We´ve been sleeping with 2 pairs of pants and three jackets, and still are cold!) It is now the 22 of February. We crossed the border around the 10th of Februry from La Quiaca into Villazon. After running errands and enjoying a bit of the gorgeous Villazon carnaval (very elaborate costums, our favorite were the miners because they were funny and were the only ones representing people from the working class), we headed out into the dusty unknown of Bolivia´s dirt roads--me with my new liscence plate that says ¨Pedaling to mitigate climate change". The first day was fun, getting used to the dirt road with it´s potholes, bumps (bachacitos) and sand traps. The second was tough, as we did 53km and we started to feel the constant vibrations in our bones... and our behinds! It was this day that I realized that my bike really isn´t cut out for this kind of mountain terrain (without front suspension and with smooth tires). But it held up! And so did we. We arrived in Tupiza as the night fell and found a cheap hostal (no such thing as camping in cities in Bolivia, that is truly an Argentine phenomenon). We stayed a few days as I got sicker and sicker (again!) and decided to take the tren to Uyuni because we knew the roads were terrible and my health as well. So we took off at 6pm--Cristhian´s first time on a train!--very happy that the train system still works in Bolivia (in Argetina it´s dead!). In Uyuni we rested and I got better, thanks to anti biotics (I´ve been on 3 different anti-biotics in one month! A new record for me...) and we took off to Colchani, a small town on the "coast" of the largest salt flat in the world (as they say), el Solar de Uyuni (and enjoyed watching the baby llamas that were all over the place!). We arrived at night and found a hostel, where a group of agentinos and estado unidenses were staying. They invited us to dinner and we stayed up all night talking, especially about US politics as one of the argentinos had lived there for 5 months. The next morning we awoke, and decided to cook breakfast next to a store in the main intersection in town. As would become normal in Bolivia, we attracted a grand audience of kids who were very curious about what we were doing. We conversed with and entertained them for a good hour, and then headed down to the solar. And there, our bikes shrunk and we blew them away! No no, just kidding, we just had fun messing with the camera and perspective because the salt flat makes you loose all perspective. We had wanted to cross the solar biking, and many tourers have done before us, but as we had heard in Tupiza, and as was confirmed when arrive on the shore of the solar, the solar was covered in a few feet of water, and there wasn´t anyway to cross it in bicycle--even the jeeps were having trouble! We hung out on the coast for a while, taking in the amazingness that is the giant sea of salt, and were surprised to see jeep after jeep full of tourists enter the water after taking a few photos of the beauty, and without thinking, leaving a thick line of oil on the coastline. They are destroying the beauty they have come to see... ironic and sad. Our advice to you--if you are going to cross the solar, cross walking or biking because if you go in jeep you´ll only help to ruin the solar. We were sad to not be able to cross in bici, but very happy to have had the chance to see the magnificent solar. We headed out of town and camped in a sea of rocks in the paramo. Good thing we went to the solar, because no one here sells the rock salt we need for our water purifyer! (yes we are purifying the water here after hearing many stories). The next day we biked a good bit, and walked too (as there are patches of sand that you just cannot bike through!) and camped behind a farmer´s house who had llamas, sheep, chickens and geese. We almost froze that night and realized we need to sleep in all our clothes! The next day we took off and right away ran into some road workers who had bikes. We asked them how long it takes to bike to Rio Mulato and they let us in on a little secret--it´s much faster if you take the bike path! They told us how to get there, and we found it (looking for bike tracks) and took the first bike path we´ve seen in Bolivia--that cuts right through the paramo! It was fun, a nice break from the bumpy road. It was perfectly the right size for bikes, and after cutting through the paramo it followed the railroad. I´m not sure it was faster (as we had to get off our bikes often to cross holes and bridges and the sort) but it was refreshing, and we think it´s great that the cyclists here take it into their own hands to make thier own bike paths and don´t wait on the government to do it for them. In Rio Mulato we bought food and purified water, and headed out again, finding some protection from the wind in a little hole in the ground. The sky was threatening but beautiful, and it looked like someone watercolored it. The next day we were siked to bike (we only had 100km more of dirt roads!) but quickly found out that Cristhian´s freewheel broke! We´d never seen such a thing, but it just broke in half. So I returned 4km to Rio Mulato where I met a cyclist who helped me out with information about how to get to Oruro. I found out that at times he bikes to Uyuni (about 90km) in 8 hours...which is a great feat on these dirt roads... and the most impressive thing is that this man has one arm! It is cyclists like him who inspire and motivate me. We spent a good part of the day trying to get a train or bus or truck to take us to Oruro where we could buy Cristhian a freewheel because we didn´t know how much longer he could bike on the broken one and we didn´t want to be stranded. After a bit we got sick of waiting and headed out biking, and that night camped 20km beyond the town behind a campesina´s house, where they gifted us hot soup at night (how kind!) In the morning the 7+ children formed our audience as we packed up to go. We biked fast that day, zooming along at 15km/hour (which is super fast for the dirt roads). We arrived in Sevaruyo happy, but there was a small problem, between us and the town was a giant river. But never fear, we thought, there´s always a way. So we decided to cross the river on the train bridge. It turned out to be a funny choice because, well, Cristhian crossed first, and I was struggling across with my bike, perhaps one third across, when beep beep! we realized a train was coming! oh no! But luckily it was a mini train which, presumedly, has good brakes. However, it wasn´t stopping, so I turned around and with all my strength I lifted my bike to my shoulder and began to run back to the side I started on, while a women below doing her laundry in the river yelled to me "Drop your bike in the river and run! Drop your bike!" But I thought, No Way am I going to drop my bike in the river, I´m gonna cross this bridge or die with my bicycle! Okay, maybe not so dramatic, but I felt very protective of my bike. I arrive on the other side just in time and dropped to the ground exhausted. Cristhian took my bike to cross it and I started crossing alone and just then, poof! a giant storm appeared out of no where (we haven´t had rain at all in Bolivia!) and dumped hailstones on us! So here I was in my little bike shorts crossing this long train bridge with hailstones stinging my legs and laughing because really the situation couldn´t get more hilarious. We finally made it to the other side and found shelter and 5 minutes later, there was a bus! And they told us they could take us to Oruro! Ironic, we waited a half day in Rio Mulato for a transportation to Oruro, and in Sevoruyo a bus appeared within minutes! So we hopped on, sad to not be biking but happy to be able to get a new freewheel without being stranded in the paramo. The bus was full of miners, employees of the Washington Group, Bolivia, a US corporation, and there was one man who was so siked that I a "Americana" he gave me a beer and cheered me. Haha. Ironic that the first person who´s excited that I¨m from the states is working for a US-based transnational that is exploiting the earth in Bolivia for silver. So! After all these great Bolivian adventures we are in Oruro and preparing to bike on to Cochabomba to visit some of my friends from college and other contacts. From there we will head on to La Paz, Lago Titcaca, and we hope to be in Cusco, Peru, within a month, where we will meet up with a friend from Quito to head on up to Ecuador! Cristhian has a new freewheel and we´ve washed our clothes. All set to bike on to Cocha! Until the next time... bike on!