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Published: March 29th 2013
Radar and Barry
Bloody hell it's cold up here!!The ride from La Paz out to Coroico for lunch was a day of challenges for the riders, with extremes of temperature and road conditions.
My challenge was to get the riders from our hotel to the road to Coroico, and back to our Hotel,that is no small feat, I managed with only doing ONE street the wrong way, all the vehicles coming the other way were flashing their lights at us, including a Police car, but they all made way for us silly Gringo's. as it is 500m up, some of the motos were having trouble with overheating and coping with the altitude.
The day started bad when we would not be sold any fuel....Howard will pick up the day as it unfolded.....
This day was probably the most difficult and momentous one that we have had, along with the sand snake day from Malargue to Uspillata and the Uyuni to Oruro one.In the morning we had some of the people who weren't feeling the best. Don and Terry didn't have a good night, and Barry and I had the squirts. Terry was contemplating having a day off but good thing he decided to come
along.The garage where we'd stored the bikes had an opening high up and some of the bikes got drenched During the night. My sheepski had to have a day off and dry, and Terry's helmet on the handlebars was upside down, so was soaked!But off we went, doing our convoy thing through the city very well with no real dramas and one way streets the wrong way Rosco!
Trying to find some petrol, and got refused a couple of times. How can you have such a good tourism drawcard like Uyuni and Coroico and refuse foreigners fuel or make it hard for them, as they sorely need money? Dumb.
Got to the first Police checkpoint and Gerardo asked the cop where to get petrol, and he told just down the road and if any difficulty, to let him know. So yes we were refused, so Gerardo rode back to the check point and bought him back on his moto to the gas station, and yes he helped out for a police badge from Radar and a business card from me.Fuelled up and on the new road to Coroico.
To explain, there is a main, sealed road there,
Don
Looking at the drain he fell into when he fell asleep on his moto! and the Sur Yangas and Norte Yangas roads with the former the Death Road which we were going on later after lunch.Going on the new road it was spitting, and visibility got worse. Main thing though was the surface with all the trucks and buses grinding up the steep grade spewing the oil and fumes on the road, and as this was the first time in awhile it had rained, it was treacherous.Tiny said it was 24 degrees down the bottom but by the top at 4600 it was down to 2 deg and poor Bumble wasn't liking the height with coughing and spluttering with no power. The front tyre slipped once on a not difficult corner, and you couldn't apex the corners as you ran across the middle with all the oil, so had to follow the wheel tracks of the other vehicles..
The views were dramatic and I was taking lots of pictures. Roadworkers were a laugh as at some points they were in the gutters cleaning them out or sweeping the roads with brooms Made of tree cuttings, Pointless I thought, as it was 90 kms to Coroico!The road climbed to 4600m from about 3800 in
La Paz, and then down to 1100m and then up to Coroico again.
We got to the Police checkpoint where you carried on the 45 kms to Caravani or turned off to go up the hill to Coroico. Tiny and Jack were parked at the carpark just past the stop and Tiny said to park the bike and show the cops my licence. So I did. The cop got real irate and started off on this and that. I waited for Gerardo. Then motioned by the cop to go inside and sit on the form like at the headmasters office, and showed me some booklet and pointing and gesticulating like mad, and it wasn'nt that pleasant. I called out to Gerardo when he arrived, and he came to talk to him. Told him I was a cop too, and had to flash the badge and give a business card, but he fined me 100 bs for some thing or another that Gerardo said for me to pay and get out. So I did. Other guys did exactly the same as what I did but nothing happened. This is the second time it's happened to me, first at the Argentine
Tired little puppies
Altitude and temperature take its toll at the lunch stop customs and now the Bolivian checkpoint.
I was the First person to get a ticket on the trip.
we went up the cobblestoned road the 5 or so kms to Coroico, climbing about 1800 m or so. Got to Coroico and it was spitting rain. Parked in the Centro Plaza, and looked impressive us all lined up with the locals taking notice. Went to a very nice restaurant which looked out down to the road we'd come up which was magnificent in the fine weather according to Tiny who'd been 4 years previous. we all had the house specials with Don, Barry and Terry trying to have a kip on the floor of the restaurant, with Barry succeeding he told me.
Then off to the Death road. I was debating whether to put on the rain suit, but as it was only spitting, decided I would get too hot and didn't. Silly boy. Down the cobblestone road again, then on the Norte Yangas road which wasn't too bad at first. Just like a well maintained farm gravel track, but climbing and sharp turns. Then a couple of stream crossings that was a bit exciting. At one, Straymondo
had the video camera working and got us there. I was taking photos hard out until a third of the way through, ran out of card memory. What a time to have that happen!! I hear that Radars battery went flat also.
The road was climbing and winding over itself across the face of the mountains, with houses and stuff high up across the valleys being quite dramatic. That is when the mist and fog dispersed, which it did half of the time. Hard case that every now and again you saw people on the road. At one point, in the middle of nothing else, was an older woman bent over with some long rod things on her back, trudging along. Someone said it was the long rods of a garage door or something! Other times there were groups with just tent things over their heads trudging somewhere. Didn' see any animals, although there could have been, so don't know what they were doing. Got to another crossing with a waterfall coming down, I went further ahead and came to a monument to something but didn't stop, then just further another water fall across the road with rocks in
it, with this waterfall coming down in torrents. This was a Difficult one and managed to get through alright but got absolutely drenched.
Scratch stopped at the monument and had an oops again with his big 1200 GS, then saw me and started gesticulating but I couldn't figure out what Chinese he was saying. Apparently Rosco said something about all having a picture taken at the monument, but I hadn't heard that. Carried on and climbing very steeply then, to a couple of shelters where me, Jack and Terry stopped for a while. Terry was very pleased having gone through that difficult last drenching waterfall. You had to feel for those with glasses, fogging up and with drops on the lens, then the same for the visor to make vision extremely difficult. Came to a part where the whole road had dropped away. There was a work crew taking the debris away rock by rock in a wheel barrow. Terry, the gun Spanish talking guy that he is, established the way to La Paz was up the other road so went up there, which was only about 1 km to the main road again! We wouldn'nt have known, and
still gave the impression we were along way from any major landmark.
We stopped at the intersection until everyone came to have a celebratory photo.There I found out that Don had crashed on the main road even before we got to Coroico. He'd fallen asleep, woken to try and correct the bike which went into the watertable along with him suffering a very sore back. The Suzuki DR didn't receive much damage, but the bar protecting the radiator doing a good job although bent right back the other way.
We were all drenched of course from going through the waterfalls, but the temperature wasn't too bad when we set off on our return to La Paz but that didn't last long until the temperature dropped, and wind chill climbed to make it extremely cold. Tiny told me it got to 2 degrees as we road back towards the petrol station to refill again.The road was slippery again, and the visibility very poor with mist coming in and vehicles looming in and out of it. Even following other bikes you couldn't see the rear lights, just the outline. Bumble was complaining spluttering and with no power again. I was
getting very cold by this stage with the wet gear, and wishing for the hotel and a hot shower like crazy. Also feeling hungry with the cold sapping the energy, and hoping for a chocolate bar at the petrol station.
We got to the summit of 4600m and straight away on the other side, you could feel a change in the temperature with the wind chill less with more protection from the wind. On the downward step to La Paz, and Bumble was getting frisky. Got to the petrol station and just stood in the sun, getting the feeling and warmth back into the body a little bit.Tiny, Scratch and I filled the tanks, and others trickled in so there was a continuous fill. Rodrigo also, and I noticed he was suffering from hyperthermia, shaking uncontrollably. This becomes quite serious as we were still an hour away from the hotel, having to fight through the traffic. Being on a bike you have to have all your faculties, and with hyperthermia the brain doesn't function as well, or decisions made properly so the risk heightens for a crash or consequence like that. On top of that is the altitude which
has a similar effect.
We were all feeling the cold to a greater or lesser degree. Some of the guys had some chocolate and other snacks that was shared around to recharge the body. We were trying to find spare dry gloves for some of the guys who only had lightweight summer gloves which is important of course to maintain control of the bars and levers. Then Barry came in with Radar and Gerardo and he was hyperthermic as well. Apart from the shaking, the other sign is a face grimace, which looks like the person is scared or frightened. So he got the snacks and reassurance which is just as important.
We mounted up and did the convoy thing back to La Paz and the chaos. It got better and better with the rise in temperature and I was feeling good by the time we got to the hotel. This time we were more organized parking the bikes in the confined space acrosswise to allow Gerardo's bike in last to have chain and sprockets fitted in the morning with the ute last. Then to a welcome hot shower and into dry clothes again feeling like new again.
Later Rodrigo and I went to the main plaza again for dinner. Hasta pronto, Howard.
Thanks for your recap of the day Howard, and I must admit it was a day of extremes and I was really happy that we got back to the hotel with no drama, except that we timed our ride with a major football game ending, so we had to negotiate our way through thousands of excited football fans out on the streets.
So I untill the next blog, cheers, Rosco
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Christof Colpi
non-member comment
Happy Easter from the West!
Looks like you are having a intresting time over there, but nothing you can not handle with a cop batch in the pocket!Dirive save and enjoy the rest of the trip!