I was riding early in the morning. The scenery was quite dull, my hands were chilly and I was thinking about yesterday. After practicing a lot, guitarplaying, and having a delicious sushi meal, Fernando showed up at last. I had a potential buyer, and went to talk with his friend about it. In the end, I said I´d be going to Uyuni, and if this guy would buy my bike for 3500usd, I would return.
I´m online to see if he´s replied, and to buy my ticket to New York, then Norway.
It started to rain on my way to Oruro, and I thought about staying, as I was freezing cold. I changed my mind and clothes, then continued. Was going to go to Challapata and stay there, but the riding improved with the scenery of impressing colours and yellow flower, framed roads. I stopped and talked a bit with a woman sheparding cows, thinking about how different our lives were. Then I was off, and noticed that the place was called Poopo. I realized then that I might not be mature enough for this, after all.
Another woman I talked to, reminded me how they always seem shocked that I´ve come all this way because there are so many dangerous people out there. There seem to be a true fear for the unknown in both cities and towns. I had to say that I had only met good people. Other friends say that they get advices about not going places, and that place will say the exact same about that place.
The roads are dangerous, as they´re not paved and suddely consist of deep sand. Two guys in a truck wanted to ride with me just in case I´d slip, but after they suddenly drove past me in a sandy area, so that I couldn´t see, I decided that going with them would be even more dangerous. I was tired at this time, and really just wanted to get there, safe and sound. I was mostly worried about Tornado. There were two rivers I had to cross, and the first one was just fine: put my legs in the air and made everyone around grin. The second one however, is the main reason why I´d dread the thought of going back there, to La Paz. The beginning of the crossing is like the smaller river; flat and seemingly okay. But you can´t see the bottom, its deeper and suddenly there were bumps and rocks. I thought I was losing Tornado at one point, and it was dreadful...
The two guys caught up with me, and one of them tried to convince me to wait up at the next village. After seing his almost empty whiskey bottle and the druel on his chin, I decided that, no.
Maybe I should have, because I think that was where I took a wrong turn. Somewhere along the road, I did, and went twice as far, to realize after talking to a woman that finally could tell me that "you´re not on the way to Uyuni, but Salinas". Everyone else before that had just answered "I don´t know". It didn´t even occur to me that I wasn´t, as I had followed the main road all the way.
I had no idea where Salinas was, or what. I just followed directions, hoping that they were true. I passed by a massive crater and some of the most amazing landscape I have seen, and I couldn´t bring myself to care. My mind was sick of it all. I had been too stubborn and pushed it too far.
The sun was beginning to go down, and still I was far from anything. I saw a truck and rushed after it. The truck never responded to my honking, that bastard, and instead I had to break for my life as a big ditch suddenly cut off half of the rocky dirtroad. This was Not good timing or the place for a tumble. Both of us made it just fine, but I had had it. The thought of camping out in nowhere, next to my bike that was halfway down a ditch, so that I couldn´t lift it alone, wasn´t really what I needed at that moment.
It didn´t take more than two minutes for two cars to show up and help me out. One of the cars were going to guide me to Salinas. I had been on the right road, but it was nice to be certain. The people helping me, and reaching Salinas, which turned out to be an amazing place, brought me one step away from crying from relief. Never go all that way in one day.
I´m staying up the hill in a pretty hostel with a kitchen, lots of room, a nice staff, beautiful view and a nice Polish girl thats working on her master in nutrition.
Here in Salinas, everyone says hello, and its safe to walk alone at night time. They also say that Uyuni is a shabby tourist town and that you can´t go far into the Salars, anyway. So I guess my wrong turn was a lucky one.
The reason why she´s here is the vegetable they´re growing here, which has become a large export merchandise, and she´s trying to find out how their diet has changed. Unfortunatly for the growth, they´re not able to think ahead, and don´t use crop rotation, so that the crops get worse year by year. She´s also told me about a large amount of unplated trucks that normally pass through the town, from Chile. They just rush past everything, past the police station as well, where the two cops are powerless.
I´ve been sunbathing today, walked a bit around, talked to the polish girl. Its nice to relax now. Here, I feel no rush. To avoid that river, I´ve been recommended to wrap up my engine to protect it from salty water, and cross over to Uyuni, very slowly. Its really a big pool of water, so that no tours actually go to the island, these days. I´m interested to see how the island sustains itself for that long at a time. The information guy said that I could make a deal within the hotels here and there, that if I didn´t arrive on time, they´d send people for me. Should´ve had a phone!
So awesome to go for a run with the polish girl, who´s training for a marathon. It was six kms uphill, to a beautiful sunset, then 6 back down again. I did go a bit too far, but all is good! I saw Chile. It was so nice to see that my body could still get the job done despite all this travelling. Repeating the run tomorrow, after the cooking competition that´s getting the town all excited. I´m helping out a bit.
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