Day 5: Tarija - Villamontes - Santa Cruz

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We managed to see Adela in hospital. She had something like 60 gall stones in a jar that the surgeon had removed and was proudly showing us. We spent some time with Walter and some in the hospital with Adela.

The boys wandered around Tarija with 16 year old Brisa. In a small city they were the star attraction. The lady in the hotel told us that the girls in Tarija were going crazy for them. Joe said he’s enjoyed that kind of attention on this continent but is ready to be more “normal” now! Ben did more Ollies.

Nady enjoyed being reunited with Cielo. We know Walter and Adela from the days when they were the pastors of the Anglican church in Cochababma. Nady and Cielo were best friends.

After one more night in the Hotel Victoria Plaza we were on our way again.

I awoke feeling a bit anxious as I knew the road ahead of us to Villamontes was going to be a toughy. I was looking at it on Google last night and it’s about 150 miles on dirt with lots of twisty bits. Walter had done the trip a while back and said “there’s one bit that’s absolutely stunning. All my time living in the Chapare and other bits of Bolivia I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s really narrow with a cliff on one side and a huge drop down to the river on the other. It’s so narrow that oncoming traffic has to wait”. It sounded fun but I didn’t tell the rest of the family too much about the length of the road ahead. I read in a travel book that is was a “good all weather surface”, which doesn’t really tell you anything. I mean tarmac is a good all weather surface!

So we filled up with petrol and the can on the roof in Tarija about 8:15am and set off. As always on these difficult roads it’s deceptive as they give you a bit of smooth tarmac just to get you feeling comfortable. Then all of a sudden the tarmac ends and you get dust, bumps, stones, tight bends with big drops off to the side and on this occasion a fair amount of lorries and coaches.

Four wheel drive was engaged and off we went. Some people go really slowly so we had to negotiate them and then you come up behind lorries, some of them articulated. If you’re lucky they see you and let you past. If you’re unlucky they don’t see you and you have to beep and flash lights to try and make your way past whilst not being able to see anything for the dust. Lots of the bends are blind and tight with big drops off the side. All proper missionary stuff. There are some photos and videos below to give you an idea.

After about 4 hours we were approaching the halfway point on this hot, dusty road where there’s a town called Entre Rios (Between Rivers). I was driving and had started to notice a slight clanging sound. I got worse very quickly and got so bad I actually wondered if the back wheel was going to come rolling past us. So not making it to the town we pulled over at a little restaurant. A quick inspection revealed that one of the leaves on one of the rear springs had broken in half. I’m suspisious that it actually broke going into a massive pothole at the Chile border the week before and had taken until now to rattle loose. Anyway it was going to need some attention. Normally the Bolivian fix is to bind it all back together with a rope made from car inner tubes. The second solution is to weld the broken spring back together and the third to change it all together.

Being in the middle of nowhere on a Sunday afternoon mean that changing it was out of the question. As this is such a common problem on these roads, especially for the big lorries we set about looking for a Muellero (a man who’s trade is fixing springs). Someone at the restaurant we had pulled up indicated that there was an old man a few minutes back up the valley who had a workshop. So we rattled our way to his house only to be met by his little girls who were also waiting for him. Waiting for Bolivians is usually a very long game so we decided to make our way down to the town. Here we split up. Andrea and Ben going one way and Joe, Nady and me the other looking for a Muellero. I found a Muellero but it being Sunday he wasn’t working. A bit of gentle persuasion and promising him I’d help him he said “bring it round here then”. So walking back to the stricken Xterra we came across Andrea and Ben laden with Coke bread and cakes for lunch.

The rather portly Muellero crawled under the car and started puffing and blowing at the first tight bolt and said “you’re going to have to bind it up with rubber”. Asking him if he minded me having a go at it I got it loose. After that he just got on with it. He was by now quite friendly and we were talking about workshops and welding but he was taking a long time! By 2 hours the spring was fixed, back in and we waved our goodbyes to Gordito.

The next part of the journey lived up to its hype from Walter. Truly spectacular and really hairy! There are a couple more videos and some photos below.

Finally we had arrived at Villamontes. A rather sleepy, dusty town not far from the Argentina border at 5:30pm on a Sunday afternoon and all starving after our cakes and coke for lunch. We eventually found a street with a few little shops and restaurants. One restaurant was offering the traditional Peanut Soup. So we ordered 4 of those. Nady asked for a plate of chips and was promptly served chips with a side order of rather dodgy looking chicken leg which she received gallantly with a smile. It must have been a sight to see 5 foreigners devouring their peanut soup so quickly, all washed down with the usual bottle of Coke. The local dogs weren’t disappointed with the bones (peanut soup has meat on the bone and chips as well as rice in it!).

The problem now was that Andrea and me were both feeling like we’d done enough for one day, but there was still another 400Km (on tarmac) to go before getting to Santa Cruz. I picked up some Coca leaves from the local shop which are good for staving off tiredness, headaches, hunger and altitude (pretty much anything really, just like a good old cup of tea in the UK) and settled in for my 2 hour stint after filling up with petrol. 5 minutes down the road the car was pulling hard to the left. I stuck my head out the window and the front tyre was flat. So pit stop team Parker sprang into action and about 20 mins later we were back on the road.

Fortunately the road was very good with little traffic. Whilst it was still light I was slowing down to 80mph for the corners so we kept up a really good pace. Andrea carried on a good pace until it got dark and started to rain a bit. The new lights I’d fitted were helping to light the way on the pitch black roads.

We hit the outskirts of Santa Cruz about 9:30pm and the next hour was working through the big city arriving at our favourite hotel about 10pm. We’ve arrived at this hotel late lots of times in cars in all sorts of conditions and us all in all sorts of emotional states! They’re used to us now as we’ve had a holiday here every year we’ve been in Bolivia during the Winter break.

The restaurant was closed so it was room service: 3 club sandwiches a couple of beers and bed.



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