South West Bolivia

From La Paz we decided to skip some bad roads, make up some time and we took a bus to the city of Potosi, one of the highest citys in the world. A city famous for once being one of the richest. The city sits in the shadow of the "Cerro Rico" mountain, a silver mine founded in the 1500s and still in use today, still spluttering out silver. The working conditions have hardly changed in 500 years, an average miner has a 15 year life expectancy once he starts work.

this rail cart weight almost half a ton. The technolody has barely improved in half a centuary

The oldest miner we met was 60 and the youngest only 14. The wage in comparison to the average in Bolivia is high which is why so many people sacrifice so much in order to work down here. 

Dynamite, we bought this as a gift for the workers who have to pay for there own mining materials. 

potholing

 After a couple of days in Potosi visiting this archaic mountain we hit the road again. Two days of nice asphalt road through arid highlands with strange rock formations and lots of nothingless. We arrived in the town of Uyuni late after cycling a few hours in the dark under the scope of the unusually large moon. 

After a day of stocking up on supplies for the remote journey ahead we left to cycle across the largest salt flats in the world. A landscape otherworldly, spanning seemingly forever. The first day we cycled into the abyss of nothingness all afternoon and could have been in the same place we started. The salt was firm and a pleasure to cycle across. We really had no idea which way to go as there were not any landmarks we had to flag down a few jeep tours to make sure we were on the right track. The second day we headed for the island of incahausi It toyed with us on the horizon for about 40km appearing to be running away from us I felt like a donkey chasing a carrot attached to a stick stuck to my head. Eventually we arrived and found ourselves some lunch. Another cold night on the salt.

Needs more salt

a bitterly cold morning

 The horizon went on forever, by the second day the cycling had become mentally torturous it was quite a relief when we finally reached the shore of the salt flats. Only we were met with some of the most awful roads we have encountered so far on this trip. sandy and waving like a washboard we were reduced down to about 4 or 5 km an hour. On route to the last "town" for some time we got lost some how and had to push our bikes through deep sand for an hour in order to find the road again.

food for the 10 days of isolation ahead 

 San Huan, the last town before nothingness, appeared to be a ghost town when we arrived. nothing was open and we couldnt see anything more alive than a sleeping dog, we started to panic. It turned out that during the day most people are working in the feilds so nothing is open untill the evening. we managed to stock up on dried foods, not a fresh fruit or vegtable in sight. We were in for some less than nutritious food in the days to come.

are we really going to eat these sausages!

afternoon nap

 This is the first camp after San juan, after a 10km climb up steep, rocky, sandy, basterdy roads we found a spot out of the wind with just enough shelter to spend the night. The next day was also less than fun, We had some directions and a basic map given to us which wasnt not as accurate as it could be. we were to follow a main road for 20 km and look for a small track turning off to the right. after 25km we still had not found the turnoff. we spent the remains of the afternoon doubling back looking for "a track to the right that doesnt look like much" eventually just before nightfall a truck passed and we were able to ask directions, the turnoff was 12km behind us. we went to bed cold and pissed off, but feeling slightly less helpless than we had all afternoon.

Lunch under a very convenient rock shelter

Sandy washboard roads

 The roads were tormenting to say the least. Sometimes reduced to walking pass and often having to get off the bike and push through deep sand the days were slow going and exhausting. But the remoteness of our surroundings, the isolation and the force of the nature around us was humbling. Made us feel insignificant and vunerable which was actually really quite a special feeling. In the evenings the temperature would drop down to 10 or more below zero. After the first morning we learned that if we wanted liquid water to cook our breakfast with it was nessasary to go to bed spooning our water bottles.

Arbol de piedra (the rock tree) a rock formation sculpted by the wind

Hotsprings on lake Chalviri.

 We arrived one afternoon at a small dwelling consisting of a restaurant and a thermal bath. We spent the evening bathing and after dinner were allowed to sleep on the floor of the restaurant Though we had to be up and packed by 6 when a group of tourists were to arrive for breakfast. This was not a problem as at altitudes of way over 4000 metres sleeping was not an easy feat. we would usually manage a few fleeting hours each night if we were lucky

a lost bolt fallen victim to the washboard roads. fixed with a bit of wire and a strip of old inner tube. Its still holding its own.

packed up to the max. each carrying 8 litres of water and god knows how many kilos of food

Feck you road

an abondoned railway 

an abandoned town

Pink Flamingos on laguna Colorada

a stunning campsite after an exhausting afternoon climb

Nothingness

Wild Vicuna (closely related to the alpaca)

Finally the border

After entering chile we had only 5 km more of bad roads before meeting asphalt and a 40km plumet down 2000 metres to the desert oasis town of San Pedro de Atacama. We are now once again enjoying its treats and its unintrusive altitude.