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Ride Tales Post your ride reports for a weekend ride or around the world. Please make the first words of the title WHERE the ride is. Please do NOT just post a link to your site. For a link, see Get a Link.
Photo by George Guille, It's going to be a long 300km... Bolivian Amazon

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by George Guille
It's going to be a long 300km...
Bolivian Amazon



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  #526  
Old 25 Jun 2014
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La Paz
We went of a bit of a walk thru the old city and the Iglesias of San Francisco.



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  #527  
Old 25 Jun 2014
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La Paz
You can climb to the roof thru this very narrow stairway.



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  #528  
Old 25 Jun 2014
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La Paz
In the large cities in Bolivia they have these Zebra crossing guards to keep people following the traffic rules.



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The main square of the city is quite small and over run with pigeons.



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  #529  
Old 25 Jun 2014
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Death Road
The big event for today is the famous DEATH road or Yungas road of Bolivia. This is a 69 km road to Coroico from the RN 3 about 56 km from La Paz. Leaving La Paz the RN 3 ascends to 4650 m (15,260 ft) at la Cumbre Pass and then descends to 1200 m (3,900 ft) at Coroico.



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  #530  
Old 25 Jun 2014
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Death Road
The road is largely 1 lane (3.2 m or 10 ft wide) with few guardrails and cliffs up t 600 m or 2000 ft. The downhill driver must stay to the left to get a better view. There is little uphill traffic now unlike in the past when the road earned its name. The most dangerous thing on the road now is the mountain bikers. About 1 a year has died since 1998.



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You enter the death road off of the RN 3 and head down hill all the way.


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  #531  
Old 25 Jun 2014
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Death Road
There are some cool waterfalls that you drive thru.



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We met another couple from BC on their way up. They had started early and were almost at the top or otherwise they would be constantly running into moutain bikers taking over the road.


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  #532  
Old 25 Jun 2014
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Death Road
You have to pay a tourist tax at the bottom of the road, but this fee does supposedly pay for road maintenance, signs, and ambulance service. It is 25 Bolivianos each (about 4$).



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Then there is about another 20 km of dirt and water crossings to join back to the asphalt to head back the 100 km to La Paz.



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  #533  
Old 25 Jun 2014
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south again
Now its time to head back south to get a flight home from BA June 19. What we found out about the still continuing road blockade is that they are protesting a lack of public transportation. The blockade started ironically on the same day that the new 250 million dollar cable car system from this area El Alto to the center opened. It transports 18,000 people an hour!



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From La Paz going south on the 1 is construction all the way to Oruro, but this is only 220 km.



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The next town is Challapata in 121 km more, but it is pretty sketchy, so that leaves a big ride all the way to Potosi at 535 km.



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  #534  
Old 25 Jun 2014
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south again
It was pretty windy at times, but at least it was mostly with us. Arriving here we ended up going up the same crazy steep stupid road as we did last time. Well at least we knew the way to the hotel from there.


Mike Waterman had suggested we visit the mint and we did. This is the Casa de Modena and you can only visit by going on a tour. It was pretty interesting, but if you had to choose I would go to the Santa Teresa Convent like we did the first time we were here.


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  #535  
Old 25 Jun 2014
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Potosi Bolivia
Mules powered the early machines, then steam machines took over and these were ultimately replaced with electric presses.


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There were all kinds of scales for weighting various metals. The strong boxes had very intricate keys and lock mechanisms.



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  #536  
Old 25 Jun 2014
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south again
There were also on display a number of silver art objects and a huge mineral collection.

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  #537  
Old 25 Jun 2014
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south again
Getting out of the city is a lot less traumatic then getting in and we had come from Uyuni last time and so finally we were on virgin road again.


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The scenery is very different here from the high mountain pass and plateau from Uyuni. It is a very windy road going down from 4000m to 3500m and the temperature went from 10 to 18 degrees. We headed south to Tupiza where we spent our last 5 Bolivianos on gas and headed to the border at Villazon in 345 km. If you want to change money all the casas de Cambio are on the Bolivian side. We ended up changing USD at a corner store, as there are NO blue market traders on the Argentinean side. Arriving here at the border park on the bridge and to the right. Just ahead to the left is the Bolivian Aduana (where we got our import papers) so go here and cancel your temporary permit. They want your permit and passport. Then head across the road to the Bolivian Immigration where you get your passport exit stamp. The office next to this is the Argentinean Immigration. Here you fill in the tourist paper and get a passport entry stamp and permission for 90 days visit. They will of course want to see your reciprocity receipt. Now go back across the road to the Argentinean Aduana and get your temporary permit. Here they want your passport, title, and proof of insurance. Make sure you ask for 6 months for the bike if you need it and it much easier to get your stay extended then the bike.

Heading into town it was nice to know where the hotel and a good restaurant were already. Filling up with Argentinean gas was also a good feeling after crappy Bolivian gas.

Today we left 3700 m and ended up 200 km later at 2100 m. It was also very windy with it luckily mostly at our backs and with driving at 100 km/hours we made it with 3 liters per 100 km.
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  #538  
Old 25 Jun 2014
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Peru and Bolivia
Thoughts on Peru and Bolivia.

The coast of Peru is sand, garbage, wind, and chicken farms. The towns north of Nazca all look post- apocalyptic to us and in fact in Chiclayo we thought we were in a Mad Max movie. The scenery and towns south of Nazca do improve and Tacna is quite nice. In the south it is much the same with the exception of Arequipa and Cusco. The garbage here is unbelievable and in huge contrast to the natural beauty.

Bolivia is another myth shattered. We were always sold gas without much issue. The people were universally nice to us and friendly. We were never hassled by police. That said this country also has a garbage problem. With the exception of Sucre, Potosi, and parts of La Paz it too looks like after Armageddon.
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  #539  
Old 25 Jun 2014
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Purmamarca
From the border we headed south 228 km to Purmamarca, which is a tourist enclave because of the beauty of the valley.

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There is a nice walk here thru the valley of the colors.



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  #540  
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south again
From here we headed to Salta in 156 km for a 3-day stay to rest up and clean up.



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Dan needed to ride the 4- meter section of the 9 one more time!



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Now it is time to just ride south to BA! The route we chose was less direct but then we did not need to cover the same ground on the 9. We spent the first night in Catamarca 536 km.


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Today we are completeing our 6 week over 13,000 km loop to and from La Falda. Arriving here after 445 km we were happy to be greated by the friendly faces of Walter and Dagmar and hosted to a great dinner and nights stay.


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Since we did not leave their house until after an asado lunch at 3 pm we only made it to Villa Maria again on the 9 after 224 km.



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