For anyone considering visiting La Paz, may I make one suggestion. You fly in and explore the city from a downtown hotel. La Paz is not a city to go anywhere near with a car! As Dennis told you yesterday, it is an absolute nightmare of heavy traffic, van taxis that stop anywhere, market stalls that impinge on the roadway and crowds of pedestrians.
Leaving the outskirts of La Paz
Today dawned bright and sunny, but chilly, after last night’s thunder storm. I was looking forward to a warm shower. Neither Dennis or I could get the tap in the shower to budge. Water was just nonexistent. We decided to cut our losses and leave.
On the way out I advised the owner/manager that we had paid extra for a private bathroom, but it was no good without water. She took me back to the room and for her the tap turned and the shower worked! Frustrating. We were dressed and ready to go, so no going back.
Soon we were out of the urban environment and heading south on the highway. A highway here is a dual carriageway. Driving through a very wide open valley with gentle mountains on either side, we have left the majestic, snow covered, jagged peaks surrounding La Paz behind.
We make good progress as the road is straight and level. Although the surface is deteriorating in places and pot holes are emerging. As it is flat it gives a false impression that we have descended, but we are still at over 3,800 meters. I think we have become accustomed to the altitude now.
The scenery is very barren. It is so dry. You would never know a heavy rainstorm had occurred last night. There is some agriculture and we pass through a few small towns, where traffic is queueing at all fuel stations.
Even tankers queuing for fuel!
In one small place we stop at a stall and buy fruit and eggs. We cross many rivers which are bone dry. Even large rivers have just a trickle of running water.
There are two or three toll booths, where we pay 8 or 9 Bols. These are followed by police check points. They quickly check our vehicle document and waive us on.
We are progressing nicely, when another police check stops us. I thought it was just another check, but then saw the speed gun in the officer’s hand. He was looking very severe. Advising we didn’t speak Spanish was no help. He clearly showed us we were doing 86km in an 80km limit. Not really terrible. He then tried to tell us it was a 50km limit and we must pay a 500 Bols fine. About £60 or NZD120.
Of course, we said we didn’t have any money. After some Google Translate conversations, which didn’t make much sense, he reduced the fine to 100 Bols. We persisted in saying we had no money.
Asking if they only stopped tourists and why other vehicles were going past at a rapid rate and not being stopped, he said something about giving them gasoline. We continued to play dumb and eventually he gave up. He told us to be very careful and not to speed again. If we were stopped again, we would have to pay Customs 500 Bols, before we could leave the country.
Passing through Oruro
Setting off again towards city of Oruro, the valley narrowed and for a while the road was slightly more undulating, but still pretty straight. We debated whether to stop for lunch before we reached Oruro, or to traverse the city first, and decided on the latter.
We didn’t actually pass through the centre of Oruro, but skirted around the dusty commercial exterior. I looked for a supermarket, but failed to find one. We haven’t see one since we entered Bolivia. Fortunately, we have plenty of fruit and veg and eggs to keep us going.
Once through Oruro our lunch stop was a long time coming. The road is being upgraded to a dual carriage way and for several kms roadworks were taking place along both sides, so nowhere for us to pull off. Eventually, we were passed the roadworks.
We found a place next to a small derelict looking mud brick church, where we could shelter from the wind. Even better it had a long-drop toilet in a little building next to it. Great, I didn’t have to search for a bush or a wall to hide behind!
Coming to a point where the road forked, there was some confusion, it was a brand new road and not showing on any of our mapping Apps. No signposts, of course! Dennis was sure the new road would go to Sucre, but to make sure we asked a mechanic who was working on a car nearby. He confirmed it did go to Sucre. Our map and the sat-nav showed the 300 or so kms to Sucre as being unsealed. It’s a great relief to find it is sealed, so far.
It looked like a bypass to the town of Huanuni. Quite a sizeable town with a big mining operation in the hills above the town. It was indeed a bypass and we rejoined route 6, which continues to be tar sealed. Now we climbed up into the mountains, so very different scenery, seeing many slag heaps from mining operations. No names of mines or any indication of what might be being mined, though.
Shortly we arrived in the town of Llallagua, where I had located a hotel for the night. It is very difficult to wild camp on these roads. It is either wide open with no shelter and no way of being hidden from the road, or you cannot pull off because of cliffs, sheer drops or drainage ditches.
Like most towns, Llallagua is steep with narrow, one way streets and many people. We couldn’t locate the hotel at the point located by Google Maps. As it was a narrow street we couldn’t park and go and look for it. Continuing up the street, we recalibrated Google Maps to see if it was the right place, but we still couldn’t see it.
Stopping to ask several passers by, they all looked at us blankly. Finally, a gentleman, in Spanish, said he knew where the Hotel Continental was but to get to it was complicated. He said he could come with us and show us. I hopped up on to the central box and he took my seat. We followed his instructions up/down and around tiny, crowded streets, until he announced we had arrived.
We thanked him and gave him 10 Bols, with which he was delighted. It turned out to be the Hostal International, not the Hotel Continental at all. Never mind, there was a car park right next door where we could leave Poki. I went to investigate. It is on a par with last night. Zero stars, but has towels, hot water (we hope) and soap. It is small and pretty grotty. The bedding is clean but the bed sags dramatically in the middle.
Not the Hilton..:)
Parking Poki in the car park, it will cost us 10 Bols in the morning. We returned later in the evening and cooked frittata, followed by fruit salad and yogurt. Hopefully, the night will be restful.
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