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Published: March 21st 2008
More Blog from Mike...
Since my last email much has happened. Some good some bad, we left Andagala in drizzly conditions to traverse a mining road - they had had the most rain in 20years over the last few days so river crossings were expected to be a challenge, and they were. 10Kms out we encountered our first, I was first across no problem but 2 or 3 guys gave there bikes a bath. "Product endorsement" Dri rider waterproof boots and overtrousers ARE, even when standing in fast running water helping to pick up bikes. We continued up to a height of 3000m plus on a slippery road with a huge drop thankfully mainly shrouded in mist. We need to clear a couple of rock slides and also build a rock ramp over some huge boulders so the truck could proceed. After a great ride of around 120kms on this road (5 hours) we arrived at the seal and then stopped at Santa Maria for lunch. Unfortunately we soon heard from the next group through that Alec had crashed and broken a collar bone and ribs. We proceeded to Salta (still in Argentina) whilst the 2nd group assisted with Alecs transfer
to hospital and safe storage of his bike and stayed in Santa Maria overnight.
Salta is a bustling city (very Spanish style) & our hotel was right on the Plaza. We dined out and experienced the South American late night life style. The next morning we all met at the local hospital where Alec had been transferred to for the latest news, and then proceeded with a stop for lunch of empanadas (small pies with a filling of your choice) and their national drink Coca Cola. We headed over a 3500m pass and descended into a dusty remote town San Antonio de Cobras. This town was originally a copper mining town but now a military establishment. Most of the group suffered from varying degrees of altitude sickness here - I along with some others had just a headache and others were quite debilitated by it. The next morning we headed on Ruta 51 towards San Pedro De Atacama which involved a good sealed windy road getting up to around 4000m.and passing the turnoff to Bolivia we were to take the next day. We stopped for gas at a small dusty dirty town called Susques - these places have to be
seen to be believed rough (I mean rough) red dirt main street and dust everywhere. Reaching the Chilean border by way of a long descent to San Pedro de Atacama we passed through customs quickly but then spent an hour practising our spanish trying to find a gas station and then our hotel. This was another dusty red dirt backpacker tourist town which would be better avoided. However when we found it, our Hotel (Alto) turned out to be in a river valley out of town, at least 6 stars with 6 swimming pools and a spa where you could soak watching the sunset over the Andes. I think they cater to rich Columbian Drug Lords who arrive by helicopter as when I asked the manager why no signs he said most of their clientele arrive by plane or chopper!
Who cares this was more like it and maybe a taste of things to come. Yeah right!!! Shortly after settling in to the barside drinks routine we were advised that the advance group of myself, Keith, Alan and Charlie had failed to complete all the necessary customs formalities at the border so back we went. Returning to the hotel we
were greeted with a gourmet meal and top quality Chilean wines -their Malbecs are superb! Unfortunately I had to curtail my dinner as I had an urgent appointment in the marble lined bathroom with Montazuma. This fortunately (pardon the pun) quickly passed.
The next morning after a quick ride through the Valle de Lune (amazing landscape) we cleared customs and ascended the long hill to take the road into Bolivia. Arriving after 5kms at the Bolivian border post we had our passports stamped, met our guide who would lead us for 3 days of desert crossing and set off to see a green lake which was ringed with white ...which on finding was asbestos & not salt and the wind was blowing towards us we quickly set of on our first crossing of a Bolivian desert. There are no roads as such, just various tracks that the 4wds use, the terrain is mainly scree with patches of soft sand. Where its firm - its corrugated and where its soft - its front wheel grabbing soft! We followed our guide across the Salvador Dali desert where apparantely he came either 80 or 120 years ago (depending on the mood of
Really Out There
Wide open countrythe guide), by donkey and painted some famous paintings which are now part of a collection in Spain.
We continued on and descended from 4000m to about 3000m to an area of lakes, geysers and natural hot pools where we had a soak for 30 minutes. Onwards and upwards we proceeded on more tracks to reach the pinnacle of of our travels at 5020m at a customs post where a moronic official took 2 hours to check our paper work and allow us through. My theory he was sent to this remote outpost as punishment for being equally moronic at lower altitudes - his lift was definitely not reaching the top floor!! Many of the team at this point were suffering badly from the altitude - from sleepyness, lethargy, feeling sick etc. Fortunately I felt little effects so was one of the luckier ones as it can strike, young, old, fit, unfit etc indiscriminately. We eventually left this remote post to follow our guide on more rough "roads" towards our nights accommodation. For a variety of reasons our system broke down at this point and a small group got left behind. As they had no way of knowing which track
Tom being cool
Tom in Bolivia to take they stayed put. Charlie and then myself volunteered to backtrack and find them and we eventually all arrived safely at our Concrete Bunker Hotel, no hot water, no showers, but hey it is supposed to be an adventure.
The next morning we set off to cover the remaining 150kms of the Altiplano region on the 4wd tracks, taking around 8 hours to complete the journey due to a variety of reasons not limited to : slide offs in soft sand, 2 riders opting not to ride any further due to altitude exhaustion, changing tyres which Greg & myself did for our Chilean Engineer Christian - (at this altitude felt like a 2 hour workout in a gym) all added to the delays. Zane one of our support crew rode Klaus's bike (brilliantly) Tom's we loaded on the truck.
Eventually after passing an active volcano and also seeing some amazing scenery we arrived at our 2nd Concrete Bunker hotel this one more upmarket with a (1) shower and hot water.
The following day a 150km ride towards Uyuni on a proper gravel road, was easy by comparison. We stopped to see a steam train graveyard (remants
Rosco and Gerardo
Time out for a pickie of the Pacific war - late 19th century.. caused by the victors, Chile according to the Bolivians reneging on the surrender agreements and failing to maintain the tracks.) There appears to be a lot of animosity between Chile and Peru/Bolivia over this war (mainly about minerals) and the feeling is it would all start again if it wasn't for the fact that now Chile has a huge economic power throughout the continent. Arriving in Uyuni we were pleasantly surprised with our Hotel which was comfortable clean, secure lock up for the bikes and truck and had all rooms opening onto an inner courtyard. Uyuni, as are most small to medium Bolivian towns we have visited are dusty, dirty, unhygenic dumps with packs of dogs roaming in the streets. However the spectacular scenery and the friendliness of the people make up for all of this.
The next day we had a day off the bikes and a trip onto the Sala de Uyuni the worlds biggest salt flat, (12000sq miles) in 4wds. Firstly we visited a salt processing plant where we got a demo of the process the salt goes through after mining, saw a tame Vucuna (Like a gazelle
Greg
Time out for a smoke at 4000m ?? but distantly related to the Llama) - (spat at Lance and a lady from another group) and bought a few souvenirs. We then travelled out onto the salt, saw the miners working (shovelling by hand) and then travelled a few kms further to see a salt Hotel. Built on the salt from salt with salt carvings, tables chairs etc. We asked what happens when it rains to the salt blocks however as it NEVER rains here its irrelevant. The salt is 6m - 30m thick with water underneath. Apparantely it is regenerating at 1cm a year so will never be exhausted. We then travelled a further 70kms (not a missprint and not even 1/2 way) across the salt to an "island" where we had lunch. The salt is 3600m above sea level and the island 4000m. Amazing to think this was all at one stage under the sea!!! On the return journey we saw a volcano that had had the side of the top part of the mountain completely blown out by the eruption.
The following day we left Uyuni for Oruro with Keith, String and myself as an advance party (we were gassed up and ready to go
Team KL
Rest break for Team KL earlier) travelling over around 190kms of fast gravel with a few exciting river crossings and soft sand patches was a real buzz after the slow corrugated and soft sand tracks we had been traversing on the Altiplano. We reached the town of Huari, had a break and Greg caught up - we were now a group of 4. After waiting an hour and three quarters, we decided to press on to Oruro. The rest of the journey of 130kms was sealed, good roads and we passed some areas where there was actual greenery and cows were grazing. Arriving in 400 year old Oruro (another dirty, less dusty but bigger town of 300,000) we managed to fight the horrendous nose to tail traffic, narrow one way streets and with help of many questions of friendly locals and Rosco's excellent instructions found our hotel. A quick taxi tour of the city for an hour (great views, shit roads) was followed by an excellent meal in a great restaurant all at ridiculously cheap prices (Top quality Chateau Briand Bol $42 approx $NZ 7 !!!!) On returning to the hotel the rest of the group had arrived with the news that Charlie had an
On The Highway
Adventurers adventuring in Bolivia altercation with a Llama or a Vucuna (depends who is telling the story) and was now in Uyuni hospital with a broken leg. Arrangements had been made for an air ambulance to fly him to La Paz the next day - our next destination where there was better hospital care, so the team continued so we would be in La Paz when he arrived.
We awoke early in Oruro as we had to remove our bikes from the hotel park due to a market running in the street. We set off for an uneventful (thank goodness) sealed road ride 320kms into La Paz. Climbing most of the way with a few stops for gas, oil and photos we arrived in this bustling highest capital in the world early afternoon. It is built into an huge steep valley with spectacular views of snow covered peaks in the background. Keith and I walked a few kms around the main street, changed some money and I bought a new digital camera as my one (as has Strings) destroyed the LED screen due to the corrugations in the Altiplano. This is without doubt the most sophisticated place we have been in Bolivia although
Graveyard
Resting trains in Uyuni nearly changed my opinion on that during a hair raising cab ride from one side of the city to the other to see the spectacular views and get some great shots. The city comes alive after dark with traffic you cannot believe, mixed with pedestrians and to top it all off and add to the confusion, markets which spill onto the streets. However inspite of the appearance of Chaos it all seems to work.
Onwards and upwards, tomorrow we will be visiting the hospital (Charlie arrived tonight) and then onwards towards Peru. Tomorrow we are ferrying on part of lake Titicacha.
Hasta Manyana, Mooy Bueno!!!
Mike V
Thanks a heap to mike for his blog contributions, as you can imagine, both gerardo and I have been kept fairly busy with misshaps that have to be sorted. Charlies altercation with an alpaca (as mike said, depends on who is telling the story) but when I got to the accident scene, all the local aplacas were standing around wondering what all the fuss was about. I just could not beleive my eyes when I realised that it was Charlie laying there in the middle of this two lane
Tom Thumb & finger
On the Salar out of Uyuni 'highway' I could not imagin what had happened as it was a straight clear road, how come he can dodge all the bloody kangaroo's in Austrailia, then come to Bolivia and snot into a bloody alpaca !!!
We could see that he had broken his leg, but it was all held together by a good pair of boots and a wooden road distance marker. We then loaded him into the truck and took him back to Uyuni hospital. We actioned his insurance, made sure he was as comfortable as possabile, with an english speaking doctor, the problem was , was that the leg had two fractures and needed surgery, so he would be flown to La Paz overnight. We headed out of town at about 4.45pm to cover 120km of rough metal road, then 197km on highway to Oruru, we arrived at 10.00 pm. The staff at the hotel could not have more accomodating for this gang of tired and weary adventures's. There is a roumor going around that we should have an ambulance, not a chase truck !!Also a name change to 'See South America By Night With Rosco'.
We went to see Charlie in La Paz hospital
Charlie Resting
Charlie resting with his broken leg splinted with marker peg 12km, wearing Mikes new sombrero and he seems cheerfull enough today, even though they have not yet operated on his leg.
Today all the riders have gone onto Puno in Peru, and left Gerardo, Lance , Zane and me with the monumental paper task to get permission to take Charlies moto with us, what a bloody mission this has turned out to be, it is currently 5.30pm and we still have no confirmation and it is Thursday of Easter and nothing can be done untill Tuesday, if we can't pull it off today ???
I have had a major mission to restructure my computer to find internet, but thanks to a ong skype call to Shane in NZ we finally got on line again, so stand by for more blog. Cheers, Rosco
News Flash--News Flash--we have just parted with Bs.100,000 to secure the release of Charlie´s moto, so we can head North early in the morning and catch the rest of the guys in Puno tomorrow.
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Nadine
non-member comment
Where's the chase nurse
What a gang! You know sailors used to think it was bad luck to take women on their ships, but I think that's exactly what's missing on this mission. Some positive female carma. Just a hint for the next trip, have a nurse in the chase truck. Short white mini dress maybe with suspenders, that will do instead of a lot of expensive medicine. How's the llama (or alpaca, or vucuna) anyway? Toodles, Nadine