part dos.
Our stay with Don Hans and his wife Juanita was too brief. We were caught up in go-mode and really should have taken a day (or 3) to rest a bit and explore the amazing countryside and craigy peaks within a day's walk from his place. Instead we left after a night, not quite recovered enough for what was to come.
The next day found us rolling along on a gradual ascent higher in the valley. Fun riding, lots to look at and everyone seemed pretty happy.
I want to see this guy show up at NAHBS, he'd clearly win top honors.
Illimani on the horizon now.
We ascended away from civilization and back up into the high country. The road was rough and abusive. We were both feeling pretty tired and unmotivated after climbing like 9,000' at this point.
We left the main road that kept climbing to a 15,000' pass to head back to a glacial lake on an old mining road.
to a killer campsite. Cold night above 14,000', but the views could not be beat.
evening tea, when in Bolivia, do as...
Hitting it the next morning, big broad mellow switchbacks to 15K'
Freeze this moment... this photo is why I go bike touring.
Julie feeling stoked at the top of pass #1. Some marginal weather was blowing our way and we did not know what was around the corner, if we stayed high or dropped down. No map at this point, no idea what was coming.
oh, another gigantic climb. ok, now about that black cloud?
The storm blew in straight off the nearby glacier and caught us with no where to hide. Driving sleet mixed with rain and gusting winds. We made it to what looked like an abandoned bunk house for miners that was all boarded and locked up but it provided the needed shelter to wait the storm out.
After about an hour it was like someone flipped a switch and the sun came out. We warmed up again by walking up a bit and picked up this black dog in the process. The pooch followed us over the next 2 passes and we can only think that we brought him to a better life or he does it every day...
Smooth sailing at over 15,500'
Once we crested the pass and could see what lay ahead of us, we were both a bit nervous. It was 4:00 pm and it gets dark at 6ish. We did not want to spend a cold night up this high and the route ahead only descended a short bit before a steady rise to an even higher pass far ahead of us. We had little options other than pushing on, a stiff and frigid wind blew off the glacier which made camping in the megamid a grim prospect.
Chasing the sunlight, we put the pedals down and pushed on.
Julie getting close to the summit at 16,400', we just wanted to get over and find a campsite at a lower elevation.
"can we please be done climbing now?"
Top of the pass at sunset. We put on every stitch of clothing for a very chilly bombing run down. We were fired up with the descent and the huge day we were about to put behind us.
Made camp at a beautiful lake in the dark and woke up to sun and blue skies. We lounged around and made seconds & thirds of instant nescafe.
From here we thought it was all downhill to the town of Quime, but one nagging detail was stuck in my mind. Quime is on the opposite side of the mountains than where we were headed. Ignorance is bliss, until we started climbing again that is. We'd find out later that every foot we dropped down, we had to gain again. Our legs were not thrilled about it either.
a typical tienda re-supply. You start to learn which sugar cookies are the best and which canned tuna is at least one notch above dog food. Julie get's her sugar fix on.
Abruptly the road hung a left and we started climbing again in the heat of the day. It was a dusty one and it took a while to get into it.
roadside company.
up, and up and up..
Things start to blur together here and fall apart. We reached a main road that links the Altiplano to the west with the Sur Yungas to the east and had to climb over another long rolling pass. The area was undergoing massive road construction. Julie was at her limit, too much climbing at too high an altitude with not enough recovery. We grinded along and the final hump was in sight. Once again we were fighting the daylight and evening chill. Again, camping up this high was not a good option with the temps and even if we could get over it was going to be dark on the descent and who knew what that held. I looked back one moment and Julie was loading her bike onto a pickup truck. Done deal, I jumped in and that was that.
It turns out we made a very good call. Moments after getting in the cab we pulled up on an area with active blasting. Bolivian safety standards are hardly what they are in the states. With not much more than "knowing" what was about to happen. The driver put the truck in reverse and backed up about 1,000'. BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM. rocks fly, dust blows. We both mumer a holy shit and think about how this would have played out if we were on our bikes. not pretty.
Our ride got us over the pass, once we dropped elevation a bit we unloaded and got back on our bikes. We made camp in the dark nessled with some bushes in the mist, we were out of the mountains and had started desceding into the Sur Yungas
More road construction!
We ended up in the town of Quime, nessled at around 9,500'. This was the largest town we'd been through after leaving La Paz and quickly got into some R&R.
One rest day turned into 2, filled with exploring the trails and nearby mines on foot and chilling. We stayed at nothing short of a "weirdo's" place, it was a nice spot and comfortable but the eccentric host made for some awkward moments to say the least. I'll leave it at that.
Our rest in Qumie slowly chipped away our motivation to continue the route to Cochabama. The route continued to descend into the tropics, then launch back up to 4000m to it's end. In my head I had some unfinished finished business from my earlier trip out on the vast openness of the Altiplano, and part of me wanted to show Julie the area that I grew a bit fond of last time around. We waffled and played grass is always greener... got on a 4:00 am buss leaving Quime to climb back to the high country.
a short part 3 next.