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Road Conditions in Bolivia and Peru ??
Hey guys..
Just been talking to a few guys who said the RTA40 is a dream compared to all the roads in Bolivia and Peru... They said the roads are just sand, boulders and gravel all the way.. Now my bike is held together with bunjee cords and black tape as it is, and I have no shame that im worried about crashing alone on some miserable dirt road and being stranded with my bike in pieces ! So, what are the roads like and what kind of fuel range do I need ??? Im still going to do it, just after a "heads up" :thumbup1: |
Stay away from Uyuni
Ted:
Sitting in Fuetalefue with Sebastian. Caught up on your escapades on Ruta 40. We both had to laugh, after groaning through your tale of woe, knowing you'd persevere after all. So to answer your question, skip Uyuni. The road there up from the border crossing of Argentina, and the road from the north are dreadful. The best way to get there is from Potosi, but then you'd eventually have to step into shit to get out, unless you really wanted to go back to Uyuni. For the most part, Bolivia and Peru aren't as difficult as that stretch of Ruta 40 you did. There's some places where it ain't easy, but it ain't Ruta 40. My advice to you - go into survival mode. Dial it back a knotch. But remember, have fun. And think of the stories you and Maria have when you're back in England. I have no stories - yet! |
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Cheers for the advice though, ill be sure to take it onboard... P.S. Im glad my escapades are a source of amusment, id hate to dissapoint :thumbup1: Ride safe dudes !! |
Haven't quite gotten to Bolivia yet, but I'm in a 30 year old van and haven't seen any really bad roads in Peru, though I certainly did in Ecuador and Colombia.
Don't listen to them, they're just trying to wind you up! Loraine |
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"-hmm funny lots of people from Viedma have crashed, So lucky I haven´t" - Then BANG!!!!! I think Grant should create a price for the unlukiest Overlander of the year. I am still ahead of Ted but only a bit! He´s got potential! Ted I read your blog. I couldn´t help to laugh! You keep your sense of humour that´s the most important!! Now I´m off to see a lawyer! KTM boy insurance is not worth a penny. Time to get serious! |
Some more advice Ted:
think bicycle! I'll bet you can get an even up trade for that beat up thing you're riding with some fully-loaded bicycle traveler...you don't see their gear laying all over the roads. I heard the bookies in the UK have started tracking your travels. Right now, the odds are heavily against you, so you may want to plunk some money down, pay off that Antarctic cruise if you can beat them at their game. |
Nice idea but it won't work
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Ted would have to put cash with the deal to do a swop! |
Hola folks,
Maria and Ted, I´m really sorry for your accidents!!!!!! I thought together with Ra I´m the queen of accidents and misery. But there are others wich overtook me. :nono: At the moment my inside-tent doesn`t close, my mattress is flat every morning (I dipped it for hours in a lake, sunburn was the only result), the coating of my visier comes down in stripes and my boots have a hole... But Ted, I´m a bit afraid of the roads further north as well. I was told the road to Uyuni must be horrible. This also dependes in the person how to find it. For me up to now a part of the Carreterra was horrible :stormy:, the 40 anyway. But others had possibly fun there. So we all have to make our own experiences... Ted don´t swop your bike with a bicycle!! (I had thoughts like this a well) Everything is going to be allright :mchappy: Saludos to everyone Uschi from the Carreterra |
As usual, all good ideas there from Chuck !! hahaha I would consider it, if it didnt involve waking up before ´"beer O´clock" and actually having to use physical effort to get anywhere :rolleyes2:.
My beat up XT is actually still mainly holding up pretty well. Most of the bolts have rattled loose (with loctite), my handle bars of 30 degrees off centre and my right pannier is somewhere under the rear wheel with the lid held down with a bunjee and water kept out with my gortex jacket lol.. Maria, who else has crashed from Viedma apart from the maple syrup gang ??? Remember Duncan the Geordie who stayed in the apartment with us ? (also at Rio pipo), well he crashed on the 40 while doing 70mph plus and broke his arm, rib and collar bone.. I bumped into him at a cafe in Puerto Madryn (small world huh) and his bike is in an estancia on the 40 waiting for him to collect it when he heals... Uschi, you make me laugh so much... Your cow probably has BSE and is just moments away from a foaming mouth death at the side of the road... Has Ra been crashing allot too ?? She should more time looking at the road instead of checking her lipstick in her mirrors :rofl: BUT................................ GOOD NEWS EVERYONE... While at La posta, I was explaining my woes to Monicas brother and the next day he phoned around the whole of the Calafate area and actually located my bag in el Chalten... The police there have my documents, passport and my camera (no cash but i didnt expect it) WHOOOOO WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !! Im trying not to get too excited and i wont relax until they are actually in one piece and back with me. They have to battle the Argentian postal service next !!! Looks like its a 5-6 day wait at La posta for my bag... Hard life isnt it !! :) |
Fantastic news about someone finding your document bag Ted! You will be rather relieved at that no doubt??
Re your query about Bolivia, the ride from San Pedro De Atecama to Uyuni was actually one of the highlights of my trip. The scenery was really stunning- yeah the 'road' is crap, lots of deep gravel etc but you really do feel like you're in the middle of nowhere. As for navigation, the Garmin Worldmap I had showed a surprising amount of the tracks out there so we didn't get lost. There are lots of tourist 4x4's using that route anyway so you can always ask them for directions and fuel (you'll need to carry extra). And if I can take a lardy 1150GS through that, you'll have nae trouble with that XT of yours as long as you keep it in one piece!! |
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YEs I heard of Duncan crash, we bumped into Sebastian and Chuck 3 days ago and they told us. WE also bumped into USchi yesterday in the supermarket, and I can confirm her cow is not foaming yet! :) Other crashes (not involving yours and USchi and Mapple sirup crowds) that I can remember: Dela (from Viedma) had to fly back home after bad crash and Duncan.... and now me! Some sort of curse going round? Last time we met Duncan (in torres del PAine) he was mixing with the wrong crowd! One guy in particular spent his time talking about his speeding offences and riding at 150mph and being banned for a year etc... back in the UK. They must have been going really fast, which is never a good idea on Ripio . At least they did kill or destroyed someone else bike like KTM "Paris-Dakar" boy did with mine!!!! |
Excellent news on recovering passport etc!!!!!!Yeeha!!!!!!!!!!!!
I also am someone who seems to get myself into 'fixes.' I think it's part of being a risk-taker. The key is, when something goes wrong, to remain calm, or if everything begins spinning, heart beats faster etc, notice that in fact, all is still fine in the world, and you just need to take the next step. For the past month, 'incidences' continue, but my attitude about them has shifted. They just happen... Ommmmmm. ;-) Lorraine |
Ted, you charming boy, are you cuddeling to much with Quilmes?
My calf runs well up to now, it doesn´t have any foam. Some argentine Rockers shortend the chain with a hammer and a rock. |
Bolivia roads
Hi, I just got back to La Paz to find that roads have been washed out all over the place. There are no links from Cochabamba- Santa Cruz, La Paz -Rurrenabaque, Trinidad. I haven't heared how La Paz- Uyuni and Uyuni -Villazon are yet, but, it is a bad rainy season and they usually get effected pretty bad.
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I think the rainy season is November to March ?????????????
I wont be there until late march or early april so maybe it will be better ????????? |
Washed Out!!?
Ted and gang,
Great thread going. I was just thru Bolivia in August, but it seems like eons ago now that I am back in snow country (Maine)! My son (17) and I were in La Paz Aug 1st I believe it was. We came over from Corumba, Brazil, caught the "Train of Death" to St. Cruz, then hoofed it to Cochabamba, La Paz, then on into Peru. You will be fine on your moto. We made our 6,000 km trip on Brazilian made XR250s... web site about our trip: Around the Block 2007 | About Peru, I have lived and traveled there almost all my life, alot of it by moto. Where are you trying to go? Toby |
no-tent-man dr 650
hola amigos
just reading about all the accidents with luckliy few bodily damages. i went down on the ruta 34 in las lomitas.formosa. the bike looked worse than me i thought after getting up,paniers and tankback all over the road. luckily mario a local stoped and helped to get the bike stored and drove me to the local hospital.only 4 stiches to the left elbow and that with my protection gear,short trousers and a sleeveless shirt. after a week the bike was fine again,the stiches didn't help a thing,the cut broke off the same night they removed the stiches,luckily no infection.took a nurse plus a doctor to remove the stiches,bloody nurse was blind and did only find two of them. hopefully no more of these stories. all the best geri |
Impolite Maria
Hi Everyone that knows me,
Firstly I would like to ask Maria what she means by ¨The Wrong Crowd¨ Dave & Neil are two of the best guys anybody is likely to meet and both very succesful in their proffessions and personally. Neil(the hairy one) a very qualified phsyciatric nurse who has private residential care homes and fantastic farm/holday homes in Devon, Dave the one with 2 degrees works in Dubai if I remember correctly in employment law for large multinational companies and climbs serious mountains already on this trip has climbed Aconcagua also made the 5 day walk round T D paine look like a sunday stroll, Im pretty sure neither are crooks nor malicous characters. At no point did either of these two have a hand on my throttle and at 45 years of age I think I can make my own mind up about speed, which is the reason I had chosen to travel with these two funny fellas who do not spend their time worrying about how much anything costs or who might do them wrong. Perhaps Maria an apology if that is in you would be nice!. Second the correct e-mail address for Jose Meyer in Santiago is adventure@aat.cl Do get in touch with him first (as finding him is a bugger) if you need repairs on any BMW he is good and very efficient had me in and out the carage in three hours that included realigning forks engine oil change gearbox oil change resetting abs sorting bent engine bars new indicator making good loose instument housing plus couple of other little jobs some of these I would normally have done myself but with still bad shoulder would have been very awkward and all at a very reasonable cost Look forward to an apology Maria Duncan |
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sorry I did not mean to offend any one! If I did I truely apologise! It was more meant as teasing than anything else! But getting sense of humour in a post is sometimes difficult and I don´t often use icons ... maybe I should have! Your friends were indeed lovely people and good fun, no doubt about that, and if you meet them pass them my apology! Speed in unpaved roads is dangerous for others though, as I found out myself when someone crashed on me after loosing control of his own bike on a bend! I was lucky he did not kill me. I would have preferred he crashed alone! Obviously he had nothing, same for his bike, while mine.... I spoke with Rafael today, good to know you have recovered and that your bike is ok. For us we are still waiting for spare parts from Germany. It´s been nearly 3 weeks now. The guy who crashed on me was riding way too fast and wiped me off the road, straight onto my front wheel. Forks, triple clamp, rim... all is bent, bearings damaged etc... Not much to do than wait now and hope the parts will turn up before the winter set in! |
go villazon - uyuni
you can get on the salar without going into water, and the road there from villazon is a blast. recently put it on the best road in south am thread. loads of laughs. few corrugations tho. road out to potosí good too though not half as much fun. what you on about, chuck?
cheers, andy. em wants to know if the button holding out after all your "adventures"? |
go villazon - uyuni
you can get on the salar without going into water, and the road there from villazon is a blast. recently put it on the best road in south am thread. loads of laughs. few corrugations tho. road out to potosí good too though not half as much fun. what you on about, chuck?
cheers, andy. em wants to know if the button (sewn at ushuaia) holding out after all your "adventures"? |
Road to Sucre is interesting
Hi Ted,
Glad to hear you eventually made it into S.America after all those posts on equipment back in the uk. Sorry that I don´t get on line as much as I want to but Chile is more expensive than the rest of S.A. and the hotels I stay at don´t have internet, but there are cafe so I´ve not got much of an excuse really.:confused1: I met Duncan in Arica and he told me all about your woes, glad to read that at least you got your docs back.:thumbup1: My guide book tells me that less than 10% of the roads in Bolivia are paved, so beware of the Garmin World Map as it does not see the difference between good and bad roads, and is often wrong. I spent an hour around Oruhu looking for a road that no longer exists!! It has been re-routed along a different route. :confused1: On the map getting to the capital, Sugre, looked simple, 6 hrs from La Paz. I arrived 2 days later at 1.00 in the morning after 1 day of 13hrs and another of 17hrs. Many of the rivers do not have bridges but fords, and most of those I went through had been pretty well washed away by recent bad weather. I have never intended to ride by night, but water washing across a mountain road by starlight can look very attractive (wait while I gag at that lie). Also my f650 only does 250miles on a tank, and on mountain roads in low gear, trying not to drop of a 600 ft cliff at every bend in the dark, I only got 160 miles, so take spare fuel as well. I ended up out of petrol at midnight with the lights of Sugre in front of me, but luckily remembered that I had half a litre in my camp stove. Also don´t trust local advice, :nono: 2 old men sent me over a mountain instead of around it, I realised after that they were only telling me that is the way they would go, but probably on foot with a donkey!! One good road that is not on the World Map is the new R11 (I think it´s R11, but my notes are in my room) that goes from north of Oruhu to Arica, NOT the dirt track that Garmin wants you to take, but about 15 miles further on towards La Paz, there is only a tiny sign there, by a petrol station, but just up that new road is a toll booth and they will confirm. There is a small border crossing into Chile with petrol at the end of the Bolivia section and most roads in Chile are fine, also it´s nice to get warm again, although the desert is a bit boring. Anyway I´m off to Santiago in the morning to try and get my bike serviced as it is playing me up a bit. Keep the rubber on the road folks. ( huh - look who´s talking:innocent:) |
Sometimes you can't beat a good paper map. Unfortunately they are hard to find for Bolivia.
If I remember correctly, the best way from La Paz to Surce is via Potosi, not the direct route, and it's a good tarmac road the whole way (8-10hrs), but there have been major flooding there, so maybe things have changed. The road to Arica in Chile from Bolivia is halfway between La Paz and Oruro. It's a major trucking route to Bolivia's major port in Chile. It's a big intersection with truck turning bays and is signposted. And also not a bad back way into the saltflats. |
Long way around
Yes you are right about the Potosi road being better, I came back that way and there are one or two new bits that are quite fast, so when coming from La Paz ignore the signposts around Oruhu and your GPS as well and head for Potosi.
Just as a matter of interest my Garmin WorldMap and another computor map also shows a none existant road leading to Yuni just west of Potosi, It looks as though either it got washed away or they dug it up!! |
yeah there's lots of inaccuracies in Garmin's World Map for down there. I have v3. Don't know if v4 is any better. They have the road from Uyuni to Tupiza completely wrong (which is a loverly ride, but sandy), and leaves right from Uyuni not back on the Potosi Rd. And they have the Potosi - Tupiza Rd wrong too and spell Tupiza - Topiza. Plus many other things wrong.
The is another South America map at GPS de Argentina y del ConoSur. Which also has plenty of errors as well. Only they are different ones, so you need to cross check it all, and offend they both manage to completely disagree and still both be wrong. There are good free street level maps for Argentina, Brazil and Chile on the web. But it sounds like you are heading north. |
Also, the road from Potosi to Uyuni (the best Rd into Uyuni, best is a relative term), leaves right from the southern edge of Potosi, not back on the road to wards Oruro. It's not sign posted in town and not easy to find. I have a bunch of tracks and waypoints for all these roads if anyone is interested.
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