Getting out of that village

Salinas – Challapata – Uyuni – Tupiza at last!

It wasn´t a shock that the driver showed up late. We left for Challapata at 6.30, along with a big group of people, and arrived around 12, as the truck broke down for an hour. I wasn´t surprised, but I was happy to be going somewhere. We found a mechanic that fixed it all and gave me a place to crash, after I had hung out with him and his retired friends, for a few hours, as I didn´t find a car going until the morning. I sent my heaviest bag with the bus to Atocha, and left at 5.30 am. It was dark and lightning was up ahead, yet the locals were certain that it wouldn´t be a problem. It only rained for a little bit.








I figured out why I had ended up on a side-road: the tour van driver had brought me to another road just for us to cross the road. I didn’t see the road going left, back to the main road, and when I met the guys going to Uyuni, I didn´t suspect anything. The main roads going from Challapata to Salinas and from Challapata to Uyuni aren’t that bad in comparison to what I was driving. Still, as all the way to Atacha, there were many areas of sand where I just had to keep balance with my feet. Those roads are really tiring!





I got to the Salar, which is a pool at this time. And with delight, I watched the glassy, turquoise water which a lot of tour vans were bathing in, full of cheering tourists sticking out of the windows. After a celebrational popstickle, and passing through the dry desert town of Uyuni, I continued on to Atacha. I was tired midway. So tired that I was counting the kilometres and dreaming of a coffee. I allowed myself thirty minutes of rest, hanging out with the locals in Atacha, and shipping my bag further on to Tupiza. I wasn´t at goal just yet. The gas station is located in a ridiculous place. You have to drive through a kind of… beach, with little muddy streams to get there, and the guy filling gas sent me further up the streams. I was furious at this point, as he deliberately took a piss, while I was in a hurry to get there before night fall. I found the real road, some stormy clouds ahead and started to question if it was a good idea. I decided to listen to my better judgement, for once, and turned back. But on the way, I met two cars and asked a last time. They were tour operators and said we could ride together. I had a safety net!

The roads weren´t really bad from there. Actually they got quite good and with an improving scenery as I was finally leaving the altiplano! At one point I was driving on the rims of steep mountains, with incredible views and oxygen! The landscape was turning green. Green! I´ve missed it so much… When we reached the valley, I was stunned. It was the most beautiful place I could imagine at that point, lit by a colorful sunset. It wasn´t the worst place for the engine to refuse working. First I figured she was tired, then I thought: air filter.

I love the road mentality in Bolivia. Everyone´s so used to breaking down that everyone stops to help others. I think there must have been six different car drivers surrounding my bike, trying to diagnose it, and I was right. It had gotten dark when we were off, and another car was driving ahead in the colon to show the way. Unfortunately, the dust he left behind made it quite uncomfortable to follow, but I got there, and spoiled myself(paid 60 instead of 30kr) with a fancy hotel. Quite different from the mechanics place, all crammed of dusty clothes and motorcycles. I changed today to the hotel of the guys helping me out last night. I´m trying to find someone to go with me for a two day horseback trip. Today, I´ve had to do some chores, but I´m all shocked right now because two buyers are wanting Tornado.

Yesterday I replied to the two potential buyers, and one of them misunderstood that it was a done deal, and jumped on the bus here. He´ll be arriving in two hours and I´m all shaken up, because I was ready to hit the pavement and explore northern Argentina. I didn´t want to sell yet… Right now, I´m not sure about anything than that my luck has taken a U-turn! I love being here in a big city where incredible landscape is just a few minutes away, and horseback riding costs 32kr pr hour.

Salinas

The place that at first seemed so idyllic has shown its backside, yet I´ve learned a great deal about village agriculture and unfortunate drinking culture. Men drink from 1 am, and unfortunately, so does the mechanic, who in the end, ruined a part of my front break which they don´t have in the village. Couldn´t get him to fix it though. He was out drinking. No one had time to help me fix the kick- stand which suddenly broke, too. A part of me was relieved that I got stuck long enough for that to happen, instead of it happening on the way. Another part was pissed off, having to wait yet another day, and pushing my heavy bike around on the bumpy streets, while wearing all my hot gear because I was supposed to leave for the salt flats that morning. I was fighting for my way out of here, all morning. Seriously fighting, and asking everyone if they knew someone with a truck that could bring me to Oruro or Chatacalla. In the end, I was told that one could hitch hike from the main road, and there I met Grober. This is a little, little town, so everyone knows who he is. That’s comforting, as he loaded my bike onto the truck, and we´re off at four am. He´s bringing me straight to a mechanic, then I can go to Uyuni. Yet this town has turned me into a pessimist, and I´m expecting something to go wrong!







The reason why I´m now a pessimist is how unreliable people are. They really don´t mind making you wait, and often things don’t happen, to Ines´ dismay, as she´s relying on them to do her interviews. Yesterday, I went with her and the hotel owners family to another community, even smaller. We worked on their quinoa farm, which was murdering my back. I have a great respect for what they do. I followed Ines down to the houses for her to do her diet questionaries, before we jogged along towards Salinas. We got tired, started walking, rested, started walking, rested, and time just kept going without the others showing up. What had happened? We didn´t think they could work in the dark, but they did, and finally showed up 2,5hours after they were supposed to. We had been walking in the middle of nowhere, with only starlight, wondering if the car had broken down and how long it would take us to walk the 11kms to the next village.

Quinoa is everything here, which one could tell in the cooking competition, where everyone made quinoa soup and llama fricase. Its just that the people in the community have great areas of land, and are without right to sell it. Its decided that the land stays in the community, even though the kids don´t necessarily want to become farmers. Most of them don´t. Most of them want to get away, just like me and Ines. Maybe her attitude affected me a bit, but I really don´t have time to hang around! I´m going to New York on the 30th of April, and need to sell my bike. I´m all broke, because I needed to buy a brand new ticket, as the payment meant to change my ticket, several months ago, never went through.

She has saved me with a movie and sex and the city episodes, which was a nice break, after finishing all my books, too. I wrote today, instead, and felt at ease after rediscovering who I was again. I think this experience will be one I´ll have to digest, but I won´t forget or completely regret my wrong turn. At least I´m tan, at last!

La Paz - to Uyuni.. No wait.. Salinas?

This was an adventure I really didn´t chase.

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.

Walking the Inka trail, to the community Chaunaqua

When I came back to Sucre, I met my danish friend, Anne Sofie, who had started arranging a trek to Chaunaqua and the cráter of Maragua. The number of people wanting to go just kept growing, un til we were ten, and nervous if we`d have room in the trucks going and if we`d find shelter for all of us in that tiny community. I was overall positive, taking it easy after my first experience of being sick, the night before. In the end, people got spooked by tour agencies saying that it was so hard to find the way, and that three girls had gotten lost for three days, a week before. Only me and the danish girl were still set on going, yet we decided to only go to the community.


We got so many different messages about when the transport was going, that we were there at seven o clock, while they didn`t arrive until 9.30. We decided to grab a taxi some of the way, and got off one hour before Chataquila(90bolivianos in total), and started walking, reflecting, chewing coca, taking photos, and just enjoying a good day.

When we reached the top, storm clouds were thundering, but they were meeting a wall of strong wind, so they kept fighting against White clouds and sun.

The white side won, right until we were done exploring the community, and were ready to retire. We stayed in the hospital, with matrasses, blankets, toilets and a kitchen.

The toilets were provided by “Plan fadder”, which was really nice to see!

The older people there only speak qechua, besides a cute old woman running a little shop. Others speak spanish too. We met a nice man riding towards La Paz, that stopped to talk to us for twenty minutes about the village and Bolivia. He was looking at the community with a western view, from having been in the US; to him, it was poor and full of potential for tourism, so he wanted to make a hostel and bring people there to visit the nearby crater, salars and hot springs. Its a beautiful place, and we enjoyed its genuinity and being the only tourists there.
He also talked a lot about drugs, how 15 porcent of Bolivia did drugs, and how he thought chewing coca was also a drug. What surprised me, was that before mid desember, there had been a drought that had killed many of the animals there. Then it started to rain for two months. I guess my timing isn`t that bad after all.
We were laughing at the warnings we got on forehand, as the whole Inka trail is a road where the trucks and buses pass by with ease, and in the morning, when it was raining, we got on that bus for 10 bolivianos.



There was a big party going on in a village right outside of Sucre, that made all the hostels fill up. I had decided to go straight to La Paz instead. I got a bed ticket for 80 bolivianos, but the damn seat wouldn`t stay down, so it wasn`t the most comfortable night in my life. I`m back in the friendly Hostel Cactus, for another night, before going to Uyuni.

The journey to the Amazon

Day 1:

We left the hostel at 7am, and I drove for the first half, where there was a lot of descending and 70% paved roads. Eventually, he told me, he began to relax as he saw that I was a “very good driver”. Yay. I let him drive for the intense offroad, though. They say the road up north there is worse than the tourist attraction: the worlds most dangerous road, and they were right! The roads could barely fit a car, so you had to honk before every turn to let them know you`re coming. From there, it went straight down, faar, far. Many areas are made up of mud and puddles, and you pass by a lot of landslides. Some places, rocks were still falling. One massive rock fell off a truck, and landed one meter from us.


Day one:

We drove for quite some time, and it had become hot, so we went for a swim in the Amazon river. – Amazing! But then we encountered trouble: a long line of trucks and cars lined up towards where a landslide had destroyed the road, and they had apparently been rebuilding the dirt road for already a day, and wouldn’t finish until night time. We were told that one could drive a smaller road up the hills, so Fernando went for it, while I crossed over by foot and walked to where he was supposed to come down. Unfortunately, it didn`t work, so we went back to the nearest town to spend the night. While I was waiting around for him, I met some guys who were going to join the navy. I didn`t know Bolivia had a navy, as they don’t have any ocean line, since Chile took the northern part of Atacama, but they still practice in places like Lake Titicaca.
Driving here is intense and beautiful. Quite the adventure! It often smells like Colombia, which makes me all nostalgic, though Bolivia is wonderful, too. We could hardly see anything on the way back to town; there was so much dust that you had to honk extra. We were also all covered in dirt and mud, so after washing ourselves, we gave Tornado a wash in the river. He`s now getting a new front light.

Day 2: We visited Rurrenabaque, which was an hour away. Its packed with tourists.
As for the Ayahuasca ceremony, I`ll have to hunt it down sometime, somewhere in the future. In Rurrenabaque, they don`t do it right. In Iquitos they do. In Rurrenabaque, you get a weak potion from a shaman thats from
La Paz. Some locals told me that you had to live with the shamans for months before they`d give you it, or you could go to where they grow it and ask around a lot. I was, mildly spoken, bummed.




We struggled a bit with the lack of gasoline. Another motorcyclist had to push with one foot, while driving, so that we could get to Rurre, to buy some overprices gasoline from a water bottle. Gasoline just wasn`t reaching Rurre.
We then cooled down again in the river, before dinner and reading a bit. I`m now reading "Zen and the motorcycle maintenance".




Day 3: And so it rained

To expect rain in the rainforest, in the rainy season, is not exactly crazy. There was nothing to do when it first began. I was tired, so sleeping the whole morning in the family hammock was way okay for me. Later
in the day, we explored the nearby area and gathered guava fruits and some other fruit, I can`t remember the name of. Before sunset, we played football with the locals, with a big handball. In between that, the family, as always, fed me with way too much food, so that I had to relax and write some. I`ve been writing about people this time, only its not for publishing. Just for me. It was nice to recall.









The food bit makes me feel a bit bad. It`s been a while since I`ve had to deal with politeness, and when we went to a family birthday party at their friend`s place, they fed us even more. Chancho, the meat is called.
White and delicious. The house was packed, and some people couldn`t sit. There was a loud buzzing of a motor, as that was running to keep us entertained with electric light! All in all, a very good day in the little town called El Horisonte, with the family of El Chaco.


Day 4: Entering the jungle

Right now, you can`t do tours on the rivers, where one normally does them, as the rivers are too fisty. Most tourists say that the problem about the Amazon in Rurrenabaque, is that its too touristy. With a local tour guide that hadn`t done a tour in a whole year, far from where the others were doing it, I didn`t have that problem.
He actually owns a great part of it, saving it for later, when it holds greater value. We spent the nights in the shelter of a roof, though we did buy a tent for the mosquitos. They didn`t sting me much, but God, they are annoying!
The reason we couldn`t go yesterday, was that rain makes the rivers too tall for crossing, and we had to cross two of them. We went early, as it does get really hot in the day. It did. There`s a lot of mud and dead trees
right now, and our guide, El Chaco and his budd, were very upset by this. Both kept saying over and over that I Had to come back in the dry season, and that its just so much more beautiful. I still did find it beautiful, though.










Its a bit like the jungle in northern Colombia, only that you`ll find much more interesting animals and fruits, for instance. I discovered one of the best fruits I`ve tasted. Chocolate! Not kidding, chocolate! Surrounding the seed
used to make chocolate, is a wonderful and sour fruit that resembles passion fruit. I just discovered this fruit(or was handed), right before we encountered a big tarantula. Just standing there, really.
I enjoyed the four hour walk with machetes, but got tired of mosquitos in the end, and was glad to get a fire going. The guides wanted us to rest, so they left us to search for prey, while we constructed a bench and found
trees to climb and swing in. I read as they came back, while Fernando was cooking. I keep letting the men do the cooking. What a terrible lady I am.



Day 5: Jungle trekking

The walk today was much prettier, though tiring. Like the locals, I`m chewing a great deal of coca leaves; just got the hang of it! This gives you energy and a lot of nutricion. Thats why the two of them chew so much: they
work with timber. I gave away my ibux and panolin, as he said they made wonders for his back problems. They were just as wonderful as lime. Lime is amazing. Lime cures everything. Sugar is bad, but with lime its all good.
"no pasa nada".





In that photo, I`m drinking very healthy water from a tree.

We were walking slowly, creeping up on monkeys a lot. They`re fast little buggers, but we got to see a great deal of them from afar. As we were walking, El Choco suddenly throws himself back at me, in fear, hoing a word I didn`t
understand. Apparently, there was a big snake. The other guide killed it with a machete(photo), and we could see a frog just standing a few inches from where it had been, possibly in shock and bliss that we had just saved its life.
Close one!





As for other animals, we found a massive turtle that Fernando brought with. It didn`t occur to me that we`d be eating it for dinner and breakfast. It was actually really good! Poor people eat a lot of it. One shouldn`t eat too much.
After a nap on a plastic carpet, we were going to go hunting for Chancho, but they got away. That just reminded me that I forgot to try their rifles! Damn...

Day 6: The return

It seems like a short trip to visit the Amazon, but it didn`t bother me, really. We`re still in the jungle, in some way. Just not squeezed in between trees and mosquitos. Its still beautiful and warm.
We woke up to rain again, thinking; nooo. But the rain passed, and after some turtle pasta, we were off again. As we started out a bit late, it got Hot! Then a powerful wind started to tear at the treetops, so that trees were falling, and the rain was on again. It wasn`t cold, and I didn`t mind the shower, so I walked without poncho. It reminded me of good old, rainy days, playing football, for some odd reason. Luckily, we could still cross the rivers.





The family had cleaned all my clothes and shoes. Most of them got dirty again the same day, but the effort was delightful. We said goodbye, and head off an hour later. We didn`t make it all the way, as the roads were awful, but it
was so beautiful in the hours before sunset, that I was thrilled to be on the back, taking photos. There were a lot of kids with waterballoons on the sides of the road, but we avoided them, luckily. Its carneval season in Bolivia, and in Oruro, especially, madness rules. Fernando said that yesterday, all bolivans were wasted. In that little town, some women with colorful, big skirts, were dancing in the streets to terrible orchestra music. Other than that, people decorate their vehiculos. I was considering to decorate Tornado a bit.

Day 7: San Borja

We drove one hour to San Borja, which is a quite large town. We found a nice hotel and head off to swim in a little lake. There was a very nice little area with a flat, wooden boat, that I sunbathed in, while Fernando was manoovering. He was too much of a chicken too swim in the waters, even though the family living there, said it was fine. We just got back, and the rain is pouring. We, who were going to see some local tribes living without shoes!
This town loves karaoke, so I have a feeling we might fall for that trap, tonight. After some spare parts shopping today, we`re off to Coroico, tomorrow.


Day 8: My ass!

Sore. So sore!
We drove off at 7.15 with fresh gasoline and an extra waterbottle full, just in case. For a few days, we couldn`t get hold of gasoline from the stations, as the trucks didn`t make it cross the bad roads. The scenery was still great, yet cloudy, for the most part, but it was hard to always enjoy it with that sore butt, from in total, ten hours of humpty dumpty roads. It was really, really bad somewhere, and I had to get off to walk a few times. Reaching Caranavi to have lunch, swim in the river, and sunbathe, was amazing. After that, we were off for another two and a half hours to Coroico, which is a stunning little town on a mountainridge, surrounded by many other green, lovely mountains, and a river below. I`m quite swoomed, and wouldn`t mind staying here, really. But the whole morning tomorrow will have to do. I`m considering catching a night bus to Sucre(roads are said to be terrible) and then later to Potosi, before returning to La Paz. I think its a good idea to go straight to Uyuni from La Paz, avoiding that detour. Buses are cheap as hell anyways.