Bolivia (Colchane - Oruro)

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After crossing the border at Colchane we continued North-East towards Oruro, a city just over 200km south of La Paz. Close to the border is the Coipasa salt flat which we made a detour to see on the way. Coipasa is smaller than the more famous Salar de Uyuni just south of it, but it is really beautiful as it has a volcano in the middle and has the Volcan national park on the horizon. The problem with getting there was that it was a very sandy track down from the main road to reach it. Fine for going down but meant more pushing of our bikes to get back up! We spent a few hours getting there and walking on the salt flat before carrying on to the town of Sabaya before it got dark so we didn't have to camp in the cold. The difference between Chile and Bolivia is noticable as soon as you cross the border, with the Bolivians looking much more how you would think a traditional south american would look. We felt like giants in the first town and even the beds are only just big enough for us, with my feet touching the bottom. Everything is also so much cheaper in Bolivia, with acommodation costing 2-3 pounds each per night and eating out for a pound or two each. Good news for our bank balances after nearly 4 months!

After staying the night and spending longer than it should have trying to buy supplies (the shop keepers don't seem to want to display their goods in the shop, they'd rather you ask for each thing individually before deciding if they have it or not!) we got on the road again. The road to Oruro is about 200km from Sabaya and about half of it is paved, which meant a very bumpy 100km or so. The area of Bolivia we cycled through is the antiplanar so is all at around 3700m ish and really flat. During the day the sun is really fierce so can get very hot but as soon as the sun goes down the temperature drops rapidly and is below freezing at night. We don't have a thermometer with us but i'd guess it goes down to at least -5 degrees as even water inside my tent has bits of ice in it. We try to camp as little as possible because of the cold but because of how limited some of the towns are sometimes we can't avoid it. One night some roadside workers invited us into their huts after seeing us camping. They offered us dinner and breakfast too which was really nice of them, but we cooked our own food as we were greatful enough for a place to sleep! We reached Oruro after 3.5 days of riding and plan to spend the night here and head off to La Paz tomorrow. It's about 220km to La Paz so probably around 3 days riding depending on terrain.

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Photos

Returning from the Salar de Coipasa
Very sandy road meant pushing was the only option

My bed for the night
Staying with the road workers