La Paz to Oruro, 135 miles
I’ve mentioned before our tent doesn’t breathe well. Well, last night we were in the tent because our hotel was such a dump, and because we are at 12,000 feet, I wasn’t breathing well either. At about 3am I woke up gasping for air. I literally couldn’t breathe. I opened the tent flap and stuck my head out (I think there may have been CO2 build up?!), which helped but not much. I couldn’t get back to sleep. I got dressed and watched Indian Jones, Raiders of the Lost Arc on the laptop sitting on the hardwood floor while Amie slept. At 6am the sun came up and I thought I would try sleeping again, luckily I got a few more hours.
La Paz is a cool experience. Replace the lava in a volcanic crater with a city and that’s what La Paz looks like. Its pretty amazing. The streets are full of people and traffic doesn’t move. Negotiating our laden moto on the steep cobblestone was not easy or fun. Stop, go, stop, go, almost hit a person, almost hit a car, stop, go, etc. I’ve been working on a new beast skill for my fans, but have injured my wrist which has made maneuvering the bike and working the clutch painful. Amie had a breakdown yesterday because of the hotel, I had one because of the traffic.
Getting out of town this morning was the same scenario, sharp pain in the wrist, lots of clutch feathering and people running in front of the bike while Toyota mini-van taxi cabs jockey for position all around us. 3 miles must have taken us 45 minutes.
Once we got out of town, the road opened up and we were quickly on our way to our next stop, Oruro. I’m do for an oil change, but none of the stores we stopped in carried anything decent. I finally found some castrol, but buying it turned out to be difficult. I think its easier to buy a gun! 3 signatures, 3 stamps, a trip to a warehouse… 30minutes for 3 quarts of Castrol Motor Oil!
We pressed on towards our destination not really knowing what to expect. We were flying across the altiplano (high plain) at about 90mph. No wind, no animals, straight road, and really no scenery. Lonely Planet didn’t say much about our destination; its just a practical place to stop between La Paz and Sucre. Lucky for us, its not too bad. It’s a decent size town with plenty of hotels and restaurants to choose from, without all the buzz and chaos of La Paz. We checked into a 3 star hotel which I negotiated down to $25. As Amie says, SANCTUARY!
We spent the afternoon updating the blog and responding to email. I went out for a snack and found the most amazing empanada/meat pie stand in the world. $.50 gets you a dough wrapped beef stew thingy. They were delicious. I had 4. J
The good book did recommend a restaurant splurge that we visited for dinner. Supposedly it’s owned by a famous French chef who used to cater to the jet-setters and movie stars. I had rack of lamb, Amie a pasta, dessert, drinks etc. Total, w/ tip = $12. This is the cheapest country so far. 2L bottle water = $.30, Gallon of gas $1.70.
Bolivian mid-day, mid-week, parade
La Paz is a cool experience. Replace the lava in a volcanic crater with a city and that’s what La Paz looks like. Its pretty amazing. The streets are full of people and traffic doesn’t move. Negotiating our laden moto on the steep cobblestone was not easy or fun. Stop, go, stop, go, almost hit a person, almost hit a car, stop, go, etc. I’ve been working on a new beast skill for my fans, but have injured my wrist which has made maneuvering the bike and working the clutch painful. Amie had a breakdown yesterday because of the hotel, I had one because of the traffic.
Getting out of town this morning was the same scenario, sharp pain in the wrist, lots of clutch feathering and people running in front of the bike while Toyota mini-van taxi cabs jockey for position all around us. 3 miles must have taken us 45 minutes.
Once we got out of town, the road opened up and we were quickly on our way to our next stop, Oruro. I’m do for an oil change, but none of the stores we stopped in carried anything decent. I finally found some castrol, but buying it turned out to be difficult. I think its easier to buy a gun! 3 signatures, 3 stamps, a trip to a warehouse… 30minutes for 3 quarts of Castrol Motor Oil!
We pressed on towards our destination not really knowing what to expect. We were flying across the altiplano (high plain) at about 90mph. No wind, no animals, straight road, and really no scenery. Lonely Planet didn’t say much about our destination; its just a practical place to stop between La Paz and Sucre. Lucky for us, its not too bad. It’s a decent size town with plenty of hotels and restaurants to choose from, without all the buzz and chaos of La Paz. We checked into a 3 star hotel which I negotiated down to $25. As Amie says, SANCTUARY!
We spent the afternoon updating the blog and responding to email. I went out for a snack and found the most amazing empanada/meat pie stand in the world. $.50 gets you a dough wrapped beef stew thingy. They were delicious. I had 4. J
The good book did recommend a restaurant splurge that we visited for dinner. Supposedly it’s owned by a famous French chef who used to cater to the jet-setters and movie stars. I had rack of lamb, Amie a pasta, dessert, drinks etc. Total, w/ tip = $12. This is the cheapest country so far. 2L bottle water = $.30, Gallon of gas $1.70.
Bolivian mid-day, mid-week, parade
posted by Pedro and Maria at 1:11 PM
4 Comments:
I just came to your blog from the ADV site....as a fellow Strommer...you adventures are carrying a great flag for our bastard machines. Great write ups....Hope you two have some great holidays....Look forward to reading your New Year's Eve write up!
cant stop the body rock,,, my hands are frozen off!! altiplano I love and curse you.. chepe
hey saltys I put up a new blog!! one a month thats my goal.
Mike,
You should get an ace bandage for your wrist. Don't let it get worse...give it some support and slow down on the beast skills!
love your caring cousin!
gene
Post a Comment
<< Home