Day 42 - 45. Pleasant surprises and a not so pleasant reminder

Day 42 Hotel Titicaca

A short day, and quite cold. The coldest day of riding yet. Even compared to riding through the high altitude National Park Huascaran back on day 21.

So we had 75km and 845m of climbing. The climbing was done in lumps, which I've begun to appreciate just getting a climb done and then on to a flat or downhill part rather than a long drawn out gentle climb.

Woke in the morning to find the surrounding mountains covered in snow. Quite pretty. Left the hotel and straight into a climb. As usual when there's an immediate climb and no warm up, asthma kicked in and I had to let it settle down, which it did after perhaps 5km. By then of course my fellow riders had disappeared. No matter, I had a peaceful ride.

At the top of the climb, the scenery was beautiful with the mountains and Lake Titicaca both to the north and south of the spit of land I had climbed. As the road weaved its way to the water crossing, I guessed this is how it would look to ride through the Scottish highlands with its terrain, water and climate. Not that I'd know, I've yet to go there, but it still didn't stop me hoping to catch a glimpse of Nessie (Loch Ness monster) in the water.

I made it to lunch and the water crossing in good time despite the annoying asthma at the beginning, I was only a minute or 2 behind Tamsin. Some of us hid in the trunk during the lunch break to try and warm up. Even Ilkka from Finland had arm warmers and was sitting in the truck. I need to say no more than that!

The water crossing. Oh boy. The lunch truck went on one err...umm..ferry? No. Raft? Better. Collection of drift wood! There it is. A collection of drift wood with a small outboard engine on the back. Watching the truck go out first rocking across the water was rather amusing. Then it was our turn. The...I still have difficulty calling it a ferry, but ferrying was its function. It contorted and twisted with the small waves so that the front was twisting one way, and the back the other way. The little engine made very slow progress across the water.

The wobbly raft. I'm faking confidence in our fate, standing to the left in the grey and red jacket.

With the crossing safely done, we had another climb then some easy rolling hills to this fantastic on the side of the lake.

The hotel is worth mentioning as it was unlike any other place we've visited up until then.

It's a place you'd imagine wedding receptions, or a place to stay for weekends away. It had a playground which some of us big kids enjoyed, a pool (covered over this time), the rooms were comfortable, a nice big lounge area with fireplace with views of the huge lake, llamas grazing nearby and views of the snow capped mountains. Put this altogether I had a feeling of immense satisfaction staying there. In my rather jovial state, I then said yes to 1 beer which somehow never became empty no matter how much I had, which later magically transformed into 2 shots of whisky.

The hotel, complete with UFO on top of the slippery slide on the left of the photo 

One of the many views from the hotel. Photos cannot give this place justice.

Day 43 La Paz

Another relatively short day. 80km with 408m of climbing making it rather flat. Except for the 400m or so of descent into the city to finish the day.

The ride to lunch was uneventful. I was up at the front behind Paul and Babette for the first 25km or so, on the way to lunch until my achilles' heel appeared in the form of a climb, and the rest of the group who apparently had been following 300m behind me caught up. So I joined them to save some energy by letting the riders in the front push through the wind.

I rode with the group for perhaps another 10km before deciding on a snack break and some peace. There are advantages riding in the group. It's easier due to the lack of wind resistance when riding behind someone. There's also safety, as drivers are less inclined to try and squeeze past, but rather pass properly like they do with other vehicles. The downside in my view is there's no peace. There's also a lot of concentrating on the riders around you to make sure you keep a safe distance, and so less noticing the environment.

The lunch stop was good with 2 benches were put side by side and a ping pong net set over the top. So there were all us gringos setting up a picnic beside a petrol station playing ping pong. Not something the local drivers see every day.

After lunch we later grouped together to ride into the large city of La Paz. The downhill into the city had a dangerous road surface where each lane sometimes was at a slightly different level. It was steep enough for us on bikes to reach around 70km/h, so if we weren't careful changing lanes we would have fallen. That has happened in previous years of this trip. We all got through without a scratch.

Looking down on the city of La Paz before the descent

We then had 2 rest days waiting for us.

During the rest days I tried to do as little as possible. Although I still had to hunt down some road tyres to replace the overly soft and puncture prone tyres I'd been using before then, and so I could return the borrowed tyres to Anna that I'd been using for the last few days. The city was at first just a chaotic city. After walking around it became more fascinating with its churches, plazas, witches market (complete with many llama foetus hanging from the entrance), and cafes.

I'm also in the company of certifiably crazy people. Most people when they come to La Paz, book in to ride the Death Road. A descent from almost 5000m above sea level, down to 1200m. Great fun you might say? Nooo. Rigo, Richard and  Lee decide they want to ride UP this road. So that's what they did on the first rest day. Congrats guys, huge achievement.

The hat maker across the road from our hotel, also had a very good few days from us!

We also said goodbye to one of the original Quito starters. Kees from from the Netherlands. He originally booked himself in to ride to Ushuaia, with the thought of seeing how the first 2 months go. So the decision was made to go back now that the 2 months was done that he's missing home. We had a big farewell dinner with him. We also said goodbye to Tim who joined us in Cusco. His farm is calling him back home to manage.

Day 44 Lahuachaca. Test of nerves.

On paper, not such a bad day. 136km with 936m of climbing. Approcimately 400m of the climbing was at the beginning to get out of La Paz.

Started out well. Of course climbing started immediately, so had the usual asthma kick in and watch everyone drift off. Once that settled, I didn't find the climb too bad. Perhaps I even enjoyed it a little? I'll be submitting my brain for further studies later.

At the top at El Alto, I wasn't surprised by the annoying taxi mini vans. They all want to stop at the same place. So first they'll fill the far right lane. Now that spot is full, but more want to stop there so they'll stop in the 2nd lane. So the process continues until all 4 lanes are full of mini vans going nowhere with someone leaning out the side yelling where they're going. A traffic jam for no reason. Once I'd weaved through this, all was well.

The road begins to shed its lanes, but there's still plenty of traffic. Eventually it's a single lane in each direction and busy. Quite often the shoulder disappears as there's road work going on, and there was dirt heaped on the side of the road right up to the white line. So I was forced to ride in the middle of the lane. Very comforting when there's a bus or truck approaching at over 80km/h constantly on the horn and I have nowhere to go!

The weather played a part in the day as well. Some of us experienced sleet. All of us experienced cold winds, and I had some cold rain. The landscape was quite open, so it was nice to be able to various weather systems develop and do its thing.

The road work is actually due to a dual carriageway being built, which will be great when it's finished! Quite often to get away from it, I rode on the new unfinished road. So quite often it was unpaved, or had large ditches cut across it, or fresh wet bitumen. Still preferable to playing with the traffic. The new road slowed me down quite a bit with all its obstacles. So eventually arrived at lunch after 1pm with 75km to go.

I decided to continue, knowing that I'll be pushing my luck to get to our final spot for the night before running out of daylight.

Eventually the new road became too annoying with all the pipes and drains being put in, and not yet covered, and then it disappeared altogether. So I was forced back on to the busy road.

The truck drivers aren't too bad. They'll leave some space. The bus drivers here however must be on some sort of time incentive. They drive dumb and selfish, and therefore dangerous. They'll always try to squeeze past with only a few cm to spare between bike and the side of the bus. I had a previous example of this when I was brushed by a bus in Peru approaching Cusco. When they pass at more than 80km/h, they create a blast of wind that can make the bike unstable. Not to mention they're very aggressive with the horn. So by the end of the afternoon I'd felt like been assaulted with all the noise, wind blasts, stress and near misses. I was hit by a car last year, so that started to come back to the front of my mind with the sound of each approaching vehicle every minute or 2, wondering if this was the time I was going to be hit. A few hours of that, my nerves were totally frayed. I arrived at our hostel at 6pm just on sunset.

Even at dinner later that night, I had to go to bed early as I couldn't handle the noise of everyone talking.

Day 45 Oruro

Given the previous day's example, and this day was on the same road, I opted out of riding. I didn't want to be in the same condition by the end of the day. A pity, an easy day of 99km and only 354m of climbing.

Not that this day wasn't enjoyable.

I was in Richard's truck, with Adrian (UK) whose nerves were also frayed by the previous day, James (NZ) who has been unwell since Cusco, crew Susana and Jaap, along with Richard driving of course.

We first went and visited some nearby graves which are from pre-Inca times. On approach they looked like they made a small city. Inside they still have bones inside. Whether they're truly the original bones, or from more recent times, I didn't have a way of checking to be sure! Either way, a fascinating spot.

The pre-Inca graves on the altiplano

On arrival to Oruro I was quite surprised by this town. Statues and sculptures all over the place, and the centre of town looked quite modern. I even saw 2 cinemas. The 2 plazas were quite beautiful with trees, grass, fountains and more statues. Remember this is still the altiplano, which is high altitude and dry. So seeing trees and grass is quite startling after seeing the surrounding landscape. I also surprised myself appreciating the work that has been put in to make the town beautiful. I wouldn't call myself a person who goes seeking and appreciating art, but in the absence of it for a while, seeing it this time really made me take notice.