TRIP INFO BOX

We knew there was a border crossing to Peru via Copacabana. Finding it was not as easy as we had imagined.

Leaving Copacabana to the SouthWest, first we tried to fill up our tanks with some of that awful-cheap Bolivian petrol to give us a “soft landing” in Peru. However the petrol station would not sell to us at the reduced local rate, and even a private petrol seller refused us after a bit of negotiation on price. This upset us a bit at first, but looking back, it was probably the best scenario because the border customs guy, though friendly, did ask us whether we have any petrol in our tanks and I expect that he may have confiscated it were they to have been full.

The route to the border was as follows:

Leave the town on the main road (Av 16 Julio) SouthWest, which crosses with the main tourist strip (Calle Jauregui) in town. Turn right at the T-junction on to the Ruta Nacional 2 (the road with the petrol station if you had gone left).

This coastal route turns to sand shortly after leaving town and after less than 1Km there’s a steep looking dirt track heading up the hill to your left – take this turn off up the track. (You may have to ask around a bit if this description isn’t clear enough but I recommend asking a few sources and comparing results before you move on.) The road alternates between dirt and asphalt for at least 2Km and then eventually becomes an asphalted road which leads to the border crossing at Kasani.

The Bolivian side of the border crossing is of course closed from 13:00 to 14:00 so be sure to time it right or be prepared to wait – we lost time finding this route so we waited. Border exit formalities were quick and painless. The Bolivian aduana officer looked a bit miserable but didn’t give us any hassles luckily.

The Peruvian guys were all quite friendly – they came and stood with Ebru at the bike and chatted away while I went to sort out paperwork. Peruvian customs was computerized and straight forward. The only thing I had to do was get some photocopies of documents, but there were facilities right next door, including money changers aplenty at both the Bolivian and Peruvian sides.

The road to Puno continues on good tarmack.

TRIP INFO BOX

Copacabana is about three hours ride from La Paz on a reasonably good asphalt road, with a ferry crossing just about 10Km before Copacabana (at negligible cost). This territory is still very high up, around 3800m, and therefore monotone and dusty.

Copacabana is a small town with a few interesting buildings but most visitors seem to stick near the water’s edge; that is, the shoreline of Lake Titicaca: the “largest-highest” lake in the world and the largest in South America. There are number of hostels at reasonable prices there, small fish restaurants at the lakeside and a tourist strip with a number of hippy cafe/bars and eateries playing you soothing tunes.

One which has good food and probably the friendliest staff in Bolivia is Mauraz! The town isn’t so much to write home about, but it is a special place, being where it is, and offers some great views of the lake and surrounding ice-capped mountains.

We check into Hostal Los Andes (100BOB/dbl incl. breakfast) for one night and arrange to leave our motorbike and the stuff we don’t need with us in storage with them, whilst we go to visit Isla Del Sol. Isla del Sol is what most visitors really come here for. Reachable by boat, you can arrange day trips from Copacabana, but we opt for staying there over night. It’s a large rocky and hilly island in the lake, dotted with a number of ancient ruins from the Inca period.

In the evening we meet an English chap we know from Olivers Travels Pub in La Paz. From him we get word that there is a electronic music festival going on on the Isla at the moment too, so we’re (at least I am) excited about checking that out.

The next morning we get tickets for our boat trip directly from the office at the lake-front and soon we’re on the boat to the island. Having reached the island, it’s an almost immediate trek up a steep rock stairway to get to anywhere. The terrain is harsh, though evidently even the steepest of slopes here are put to agricultural use using stepped terraces reminiscent of the Inca civilization.

A few hostels and restaurants reside directly on this slope, but there are many more once you reach the summit of this hill. We check out quite a few of these, but by far the cleanest and best mannered ones are the final two places you reach just at the corner before the upper town where the way levels off a bit (both at about 40BOB). All the others we saw were dirty, and when we originally decided to stay in another nice-looking hostel further up, we found that they hadn’t changed the bed sheets, just covered over again with the blankets. When I asked the woman to change them, she only changed them on one bed. When I told her that, of course, we’d be wanting fresh sheets on both beds, she started giving some lame excuses about how this would be a real pain because she had so much work to do… unbelievable…

The music festival turns out not to turn out: around 20 people, all hemp and dreadlock types, dispersed around a fluorescent tent-like structure – but they at least seem to be having a good time. We mission down the steep slope to get there and stay for a beer but it’s cold and it’s dull and it’s getting dark so we decide to head back up to find some food – something which seems to be in limited supply as we find only one open restaurant.

We do the best possible thing we can do and buy two bottles of red wine to take to drink our hostel patio and watch the stars. A beautiful night. Later whilst asleep it starts to rain and we get dripped on through the ceiling and have to move the bed.

The next morning we get up early and get some fantastic views of the sunrise over the Andes mountains behind this vivid blue lake. This truly is a special place! And what better to hammer in that message than a magnificent breakfast?! This was at one little restaurant on the other side of the summit; I cannot remember the name but it’s about in the middle.

We spend the rest of the day walking around the South side of the island before catching a boat back to the Copa. We don’t want to leave the bike alone for too long. But I’m thinking it would be worth spending a bit more time here. The isolation, the spectacular mountains on the horizon over this brilliant blue water, the strong sunlight, the terraced slopes telling of a civilization long gone… All of these things fill this place a special kind of energy worth experiencing.

TRIP INFO BOX

Total trip from La Paz is about 60Km (alphalt) to Undavi, another 5 to Chuspipata Crossroads, then about 50Km (good gravel) down to Yolosa, the end of the Death Road. From there 6Km (Gravel) take you to Yolosita and about 90Km of good asphalt (with a few patches of pebble or gravel) return you back to La Paz on the new road.

We decided to do the death road by motorbike and research the route on the Internet. It seemed easy enough based on the maps and advice there but in reality we would have missed the correct turn-off if we hadn’t been in proximity of some mountain bike tour vans on the day. We tried to exit La Paz on the East side to Ruta 3 but it turned out there was a miners’ protest which was blockading the road and all vehicles were turned back – including the mountain bike tours, which is how we ended up following them. They knew of a back-road out of the city, all dirt and spectacularly scenic, which we followed. I’ll describe the two routes as best I can in case you’re looking for the info to do it yourself.

Normal Exit from La Paz:
You follow the Avenida Gral. Jose Torrez Eastwards and this asphalt road will (at the town limit police post) become the Ruta 3. To get there from the centre your route planner might suggest leaving North on Av. Montes (aka. Av. Perez Velasco aka. Av Mariscal Santa Cruz), then slight (R)ight at the funny little YPFB petrol station, R on to Av Armentia, followed by (L)eft into Pisagua, which will join you up with Torrez. Be aware that your little trip up Pisagua will probably scare you more than the Death Road itself! It is severely steep and has come strong corners in it. But since you were off to the Death Road anyway, here’s your chance to test your courage.

Alternative Exit from La Paz (Through Parque Nacional Cotapata):
Follow Avenida Gral. Jose Torrez Westwards or Montes Northwards until you join the Autopista (uphill toward El Alto). About 3Km after you join the Autopista there will be a signposted archway labelled “Urbanisation Autopista” with a blue & white sign displaying a map for “Albergue Ecotouristico Pampalarma”; turn R off the Autopista here. This will take you on a dirt road towards the village of Chacaltaya, located near the mountain lakes or Pampalarma. (Around here we saw a sign indicating we were at about 4500m altitude.)

Just before reaching the village (after a small bridge) the road forks, L and level to the village and R and uphill to continue to “La Cumbre”. (La Cumbre is the name I read off a mountain biking tour map and I don’t know whether the real name is Pampalarma and that La Cumbre just means “the Mountain” or otherwise.) The road is nasty from here on but a fun ride and scenery is breathtaking! You snake up to a small lake, then right towards a larger one where there’s some national park sign boards and a couple of buildings. This is La Cumbre at about 4700m altitude. From here you join on to the asphalted Ruta 3.

(Just a thought if you do take this route: there was some truck traffic coming towards La Paz; I don’t know if this is always the case. You will likely be riding slow in low gears so watch out for engine overheating. It may be worth considering some emergency preparations in case you do get stuck there. In the day you would probably walk to that little village or forward to La Cumbre (there was no one there when we passed through). However this is not a place you want to be stranded without some emergency equipment in the afternoon/night. I would recommend at least puncture kit, torch, energy & water, warm clothing).

From La Cumbre you follow several Kilometres downhill until you pass a Police check point at Undavi. This is where apparently you normally pay your 25 Bolivano entry fee, but we saw no police and instead paid at the Cerro Rojo Tourist Checkpoint well down the Death Road. Soon after Undavi there will be small green road signs signalling the Yunga Norte and Yunga Sur routes: you take the Norte (L). Then you will pass the small Cotapata petrol station on the left (beware of the dogs!!!) before going into a sharp left-hand bend followed by some shops on the right road side. This is Chuspipata Crossroads.

The Death Road:

Just in the bend at Chuspipata Crossroads, before the shops, you will see a large yellow sign where a dirt road goes off to the Right. This is the beginning of the Death Road.

Starting from Chuspipata Crossroad you will begin to DRIVE ON THE LEFT roadside! This is the rule but on most straights you can stick right, close to the cliff face, if you feel unsafe near the edge. The average speed from here will likely be 20-30Km/h. In places you can safely burst to about 40Km/h for short distances but you’ll probably want to relax and take in the scenery.

The last approximately 20Km from the Cerro Rojo Checkpoint to the end of the Death Road, you can easily average a good 40Km/h. From here the scenery becomes gradually less amazing due to being lower in the valley. A little hairpin bend over a river at the village of Yolosa signals the end of the death road. From here you can DRIVE ON THE RIGHT AGAIN!

Returning to La Paz:
After crossing the river the road will fork again:

Choose L (dirt, downhill) to go to Yolosita (about 6Km further) where there are a few market stalls again. The big bridge on the Right is the NEW road (Ruta 3) back to La Paz, going Left takes you to Rurrenabaque.

Choose R (stone, uphill) to Coroico (about 9Km), a quaint little town. (Actually this whole area is full of backpacker hostels and various places to eat and drink, probably worth spending a night or two if you’re carrying your stuff along.)

The return from Yolosita to La Paz can be done in about 2 hours. The road is good asphalt except a few tiny patches of gravel or stone in between. It’ll take you uphill, past Chuspipata Crossroads, Undavi and eventually land you at the Police checkpoint at the La Paz city limit again.

In our particular case we had to navigate through the miners strike there, on our return into La Paz. Night had already fallen and being greeted by blinding miners lamps, huge rocks blocking the roads and the occasional sound of dynamite explosions was a fitting end to our adventurous day. We did ask for permission to pass and did so carefully, but it was a scary experience. They’ve got no bother with tourists, but many of the miners were drunk, standing around fires or walking in the street, and a few stones were thrown or rolled in our direction.

TRIP INFO BOX

Oruro to La Paz is a rather dull ride, with minimal change in the monotone landscape. The thing that’ll keep you awake though is maneuvering the dips and deep grooves in the tarmac.

Approaching La Paz itself is more interesting though: once you have piloted through the higher-lying part of the city build on the flat alpine plane, named El Alto, you then steeply descend into a crevice many kilometres across; a large,deep bowl rimmed with dramatic, beautiful, quedebras and ice-capped mountains, containing the city of La Paz. Spectacular!

The ride into La Paz itself is mind boggling: the traffic is incredible, human and vehicular pushing its way through narrow, stall-lined streets and alleys throughout the town. With a heavily loaded bike this is a riding adventure indeed!

We stay at the Residencial Sucre (Calle Colombia 340) and later, the Inti Karka, the latter is slightly cheaper and has a kitchen, but both are good and have bike parking inside. Both are also within walking distance of the tools and mechanical repuestos (spares) area, which is located 2 blocks West of Plaza de San Pedro, on Zolio Flores, which is very convenient, as well as in the vicinity of plenty of dining options and food markets.

La Paz is buzzing! Everywhere’s a hive of activity and chaos beyond belief. Streets are awash with intense colour and clutter, established shops selling everything you may need from bathroom plumbing and cement, restaurants and laundry services to alpaca pullovers and other delicate handicrafts of all descriptions; on the pavements in front of them are endless arrays of stalls selling everything else you may want to imagine, from super glue and screw drivers to safety pins, dog leashes, batteries and chewing gum; and of course, food! Nuts, char-grilled bits and pieces you may or may not want to identify, cheese, spices – you name it.

And of course to round it all off, people clambering over it all to find what they’re wanting, get where they’re going. And wherever they may be going, one fact persists: it’s either a steep uphill or downhill from where they currently are, guaranteeing a (literally) breathtaking journey in this 3500m-plus altitude.

Interesting things to see in this city are, particularly, the Witches Market (around Av Santa Cruz), as well as the huge market just North of Av Santa Cruz, where you will be able to get lost and find just about anything you are looking for. In fact this whole area is like one big market. Cluttered with shops and stalls selling everything you can imagine, from dried lama embryos to sewing kits to light bulbs and used liquidizer jugs and (unused) underwear. I do love the way people re-sell used stuff that others may need, unlike in our “1st world” societies where we just dump everything half-broken in the rubbish bin.

Yes, markets are definitely the highlight of this city there are plenty to see, just walking the streets. At the Witches Market we find plenty of essential oils and finally we can replenish our stock of skin-revitalizer-insect-repellent and the abundant camping stores finally provide us with the camping gas we’ve been searching for for months. (Sadly, however, a camera service is not on the cards for Ebru despite the size of the city: though we do find one guy that is supposedly in the position to do it, a short conversation with him convinces us that he hasn’t a clue what he’s talking about and we give it a rain check.)

We also (and this is the part I enjoy the most) get my other boot fixed, which took some damage returning from our day excursion on the Death Road (Carretera de la Muerte).

We spend nearly two weeks in La Paz. We get some bits and pieces we need for the trip and I do an oil change on the moto and of course we do a bit of sight seeing as well.

On Av Murillo we find a great little pub called Oliver’s English Pub & Restaurant (http://www.bolivia-online.net/en/la-paz/136/olivers-travel-bar-la-paz-bolivia). The great atmosphere, wifi connection and food, such as massive BLT Sandwiches and Bangers & Mash, and of course the Full English Breakfast, bring us back to this place almost daily. We meet Todge, an Ozzie miner who’s travelling the continent, and working there (filling up vulnerable visitors with cheap local spirit), and we get on splendidly.

Entries for the Crazy Sex Position Competition in Olivers…

Our initial leaving date to Copacabana is delayed after several travellers at Oliver’s tell us they didn’t find it “all that”, and so we stay to spend my birthday in La Paz. (Which I’m glad about, because later, Copacabana doesn’t turn out to be “all that”.)

On my birthday Ebru treats me to a lovely meal (I mean a fine-dine meal like we haven’t experienced since deep, rural, Aimogasta in Argentina) at the Sol y Luna restaurant just next to Oliver’s. It’s fantastic and afterwards we spend the rest of the night partying it up with the folks in Olivers, meeting interesting characters and having many interesting conversations into the wee hours.

All in all, we like La Paz! It’s crazy, it’s hectic, it can be a bit challenging to deal with at times, but it’s very rich in character, culture, things to do and things to see. Miss it at your peril!

TRIP INFO BOX

We say our final farewells to the Residencial America crew in Villa Tunari and ride off West. We don’t want to stay in Cochabamba on the way to Oruro so we plan to stay at any suitable looking town thereafter and continue to Oruro the next day. Unfortunately we find that there are no suitable-looking towns thereafter for us to lodge. Our journey to Cochabamba takes about 4 hours, we have a quick lunch there at the local Burger King (something we, as always, regret for hours afterwards), and then we continue SouthWestwards. We find one sort of lodge a few kilometres outside Cochabamba but for some reason they don’t seem to have anything available. So we continue.

After Cochabamba the road ascends. The valley of Cochabamba, about 2750m above sea level, disappears below us and we are greeted by the sights of a completely new level of mountains and valleys, just much higher up. The views are beautiful. Then it gets dark. And COLD.

The mountain roads here are desolate and winding, so we move at a slow pace, giving the cold plenty of opportunity to sink deep into our bones. Oruro is a city at about 3700m altitude and on the way there we have to cross a mountain pass around 4500m. It’s FREEZING!

At some point we arrive at a little village – Caramarca I think – with a toll gate. We stop so I can put on another layer under my trousers. Ebru’s so cold she looks like she’s going to cry. In one of the buildings there’s a restaurant so we park up and get inside. There are plenty of folks in there, mainly truck drivers also stopping in on the way. The old woman running the shop has some soup on the go. Thank goodness! Just what we need!

The soup and the following cup of tea gets the life back into us and we feel we can continue again. The lady is also selling red bull so I down one of them and take another for the road. A few local kids are very interested in our motorbike and accompanying attire. They’re all over it, trying out our stuff and saying all sorts of things we don’t understand. They find it all really exciting. It’s really cool to have encounters like this, these kids are so far removed from the life you and I are accustomed to it’s uncanny. But in the back of my mind I’m always worried they’ll get too over-excited and disappear with my gear. Oruro shouldn’t be too far now.

It takes us another two hours to get to Oruro. It’s a hairy ride, out here in the cold, dark, curvy roads of the Altiplano. At one point I am sure there’s something ahead of me and I slow down: when we get closer we find a broken down car with no lights or rear reflectors being pushed by two blokes, driver door wide open. Just the perfect setup to send an overtaking motorcyclist flying across the handle bars.

The approach to Oruro passes by the town of Caracollo, both of which are astounding sights, seen from a high point in the dark night. Thousands of yellow and orange lights, like a candle-lit church assembly – huddled together on a seemingly endless expanse of black in all directions. Oruro is a similar sight. Yellow stars below you and white ones above.

Finally we get to Oruro. The time is about 23:00 and the place looks dead. Using the map in the Lonely Planet and some directions from a petrol station attendant, we eventually find our way to a square near the bus terminal and find ourselves accommodation at the Hotel Samai Wasi (200BOB /dbl, ensuite, wifi, incl. breakfast). At 200BOB per night it’s more than double what we usually afford ourselves but we’re tired and need to settle into a place to rest asap.

After checking into the room, we head out across the road to a parilla restaurant. They’re apparently not serving food anymore at this hour, but there are still a few people in there and we just want to have a beer so they welcome us in. The beer goes down like mothers milk and after a couple of bottles we’re sated and ready for the piping hot shower awaiting us in our luxurious suite. It’s a dream! And the stiff white sheets on the firm mattresses on the beds provide us the therapeutic rest we need after such a harsh ride.

Sadly no other photos of our adventurous ride to Oruro exist as Ebru was loath to lose her fingers from frostbite in the icy altiplane winds, but we did get a few morning-time shots leaving the town. Oruro struck us as a pretty unremarkable and inhospitable town, the most remarkable thing about it being its “inhospitable-ness”, mainly due to its inhospitable situation. Life up here is no doubt hard.

TRIP INFO BOX

The cold spell in Samaipata seems to have disheartened Ebru and we decide to go to La Paz back via the tropical route we came. This does feel a bit foolish on the one hand, but on the other it’ll take us through some nice places, we will know exactly where to stay and the best part is that we’ll be able to stop by the Delicatessen Austria near Santa Cruz, where we last had lunch and bought those smoked sausages and ham we became so addicted to on the way up here.

We keep our visit to the Austria Delicatessen short because we have a long way to drive, but again we spend some time chatting to Elfi and we get to meet her husband Andy, and they tell us more of their woes that seem to have got quite serious since the reign of the current president, Evo Morales. It’s a strange paradox: travelling through places like this we [travellers] often enjoy the simplicity that such a degree of lawlessness allows you, but living with such corruption when things get serious is no fun.

We bid them farewell once again, and this time we’re stocked with a cold meats supply that will hopefully last us several weeks! We can’t make it all the way to Villa Tunari in one go as we don’t want to ride at night, so we stop in Buena Vista, check into the Cabanas Asai again and head straight to the Tex Mex bar/restaurant at the plaza for a couple of beers. To our delight we also discover that there is an awesome WiFi connection there so we make use of the opportunity and get some more blog articles uploaded to the web.

At Villa Tunari we stay again at the Residencial America (Calle Santa Cruz esq. Hans Grether / Tel: [591]-71707096). We get the same room and it’s spotless as before. We take delight in using the kitchen to do our own cooking again and enjoy the company of the hosts, Luis, Michael and Edilia.

This time our stay is tranquil and idyllic. No fiestas, no crazy DJ in the hall down the road rocking the air waves for the whole town until 3AM. We sleep like babies – no ear plugs! And what’s really strange: the guys with the truck stopped up the road every morning at 4AM, whom I gave incredulous looks and hand signals the last time, seems to have turned off his blaring radio this time when he drove past. Could it be true?

Tough Choice: “PASSING SIDE — SUICIDE”

We spend a night fishing at the larger river across the road this time but catch nothing but rocks and a few sand-fly bites – far less than last time though.

Also we’ve decided now that we will make the journey to Trinidad after all. This means we have to loop up to the East 800Km to get there or about the same distance via the West, passing La Paz. However we’re hopeful about maybe doing a jungle crossing on one of the “secondary roads” marked in my map, one which goes up through the Parque Nacional Isiboro – the one which they want to build that controversial highway through – or the other which runs up through Puerto San Fransisco, La Boca and Camiaco. We have been up each route last time we were here: the West road up to Inisuta, where is terminates in a river (the first of many) which you need to cross by canoe; the East road up to Puerto San Fransisco, where we did not look any further as it was a fishing trip. Both of these routes were completely pebble roads, so not very comfortable to ride on. However after that they would surely be dirt, if proper riding tracks at all. We have to do some asking around.

Must get a hammock…

We go to the army post at the entrance to the pebble road that takes you to these towns and see what we can find out. The soldiers there cannot help much but they seem to be of the opinion that there is no road to speak of beyond the points of Isinuta and Puerto San Fransisco and if there is, it’s very bad indeed. They advise us to ask at the OAS road construction encampment “just up the road”.

60 Kilometres later we arrive and speak to a young chap there. He seems quite positive about the idea:

He says the Western track continues as stone until Isinuta. There cross the river in a canoe or at 3AM there are generally Unimogs that may be able to help us cross. From there on it’s rough dirt track, but on a bike no problem. Continue to Isiboro, then cross a river there in a canoe. Then pass Santisihua, cross river, Aroma, cross river, Moleto, cross river, the get to Ichoa. After that there are at least four other rivers to cross but he doesn’t know any more about that, but ask in Ichoa, he’s sure it’ll be no problem. But an alternative on that route, he suggests, might be to take a road branching off right before Isinuta, which takes you all the way to Moleto, but crosses the four following rivers at a point where they’ve already combined into one.

Hmmm… my map shows that Rio Ichoa is only the second of four large rivers to cross on that route, and by Ichoa it’s only about a third of the total route to Trinidad.

Luis from our hotel, who is very well travelled in Bolivia, tells us that there’s definitely no decent track along these routes we’re considering, and plenty of stinging insects and diseases to contend with out there in the jungle. He tells us that even the government, who is supposed to be consulting for the Indigenos living in the Isiboro reserve regarding this planned highway, has major difficulties getting in there to the people they’re meant to be working with. This pretty much wraps up that agenda for us. Nevermind. (Aside from that, or rather, more importantly, it appears that in this area we might have encountered people so isolated from the rest of the world that exposing them to ourselves might well have put them at serious health risk. In that case better we don’t go.)

Luis offers another possibility which is to take a boat from Puerto Villaroel to Trinidad, which might take only a day. The next day we’re on a 200Km circuit to Pureto Villaroel to find out. We go to the captaincy house, a kind of navy police post where all vessel registrations and so on are controlled. We speak to a very helpful guy called Fernando. He’s about the most professional chap we’ve met in Bolivia!

But unfortunately we get more bad news from him: Because at this time of year the river levels are so low, only smaller fishing vessels navigate the rivers and journey times are much longer. We would have to take a boat to La Boca (2 days; 300 BOB/pp), then change to another boat to Camiaco (2 days; 300 BOB/pp). He says there are price estimates and can probably be negotiated cheaper, and these should cover the cost of taking the motorbike as well.

Four days on a fishing boat, no cabins, mosquitoes, nowhere to go, probably the engine thundering holes into your ear drums…. no thanks. In half the time and at half the price we could take the highway and ride there on the highway. Pity, I was looking forward to fishing.

So we decide to head out to La Paz instead. We hope to ride North to the Madidi national park from there and if we have time we may still make it to Trinidad. But for now the idea is buried.

To the Residencial America crew: thanks again for showing us great hospitality and Luis, thanks for all the helpful advice you gave us in planning our trip. We hope to see you again!

TRIP INFO BOX

To get to Samaipata we have to follow on South past Santa Cruz, into a headwind that annoys us to a seeming-crawl. 38Km before Santa Cruz we come across this sign:

I skid to a halt (safely) and do a U turn, I have to check it out. After a bit of knocking and ringing a Bolivian lady notices us and goes into the house. Then another lady appears. This is Mrs Kranewitter, who along with her husband and family manages this farm and the annexed delicatessen. I tell her I’m here to see their produce and she invites us into the deli. The sight of it makes me smile: the interior is decorated like you’d find in an Austrian farmstead restaurant.

As we inspect and try the lovely hams and smoked sausages we get talking with the lady and eventually she sits us down for a coffee and cake, on the house. She tells us the extremely interesting story of her coming to this country over three decades ago. And of the terrible problems they have recently faced with the government trying to fraudulently take a large part of their land off them. It gives us another perspective on the bitter realities of corruption, which for a traveller at times can be quite convenient.

She also divulges the interesting history of her husband’s ancestor, generations back, rounding up a large group of Tiroleans to emigrate Austria and colonize an area in South America; then, for love of his spouse, not going along with them himself. A great story. And she mentions to us the names of the places founded by these colonies and we write them down. Somewhere around a place called Blumenau in Brazil. Wouldn’t it be interesting to pass though there on our journey! We spend far more time chatting with her than planned and therefore, refreshed, and late, we say our fond goodbyes and hit the road with a good supply of their smoked meats. (Even Ebru is crazy about them!)

Frau Kranewitter: Wir bedanken uns nocheinmal fuer Speis’ und Trank, und wuenschen euch viel Glueck mit Allem und gute Gesundheit weiterhin! Unsere Begegnung war uns ein Vergnuegen.

Samaipata is quite a pleasant surprise for us. It’s a cozy little village, very backpacker friendly, with a nice plaza surrounded by some nice cafes, bars and restaurants. There are a good selection of hostels there, all quite reasonable, and there’s quite a few natural attractions in the area to visit. The mountain scenery around here is astoundingly beautiful!

One of the bars is really hip, very modern inside and the staff serve wine, cocktails, snacks and all sorts of things you’d have a hard time finding in most little Bolivian towns.

We stay in Hostal Andorina, run by a dutch guy. It’s got nice rooms and pretty good breakfast. They don’t have bike parking but the lady living across the road running the laundry offers me to park my bike in her front room along with hers, which is really nice.

We meet two German chaps there, one who is temp-working there and has just moved to Bolivia after publishing his book. The other has been living in Chile for decades and despite a very bohemian history, simultaneously managed great success in several interesting business ventures. They both have very interesting stories to tell and are very good company. Also they are very keen chess players so I get to play my second game of chess since the start of my travels – nearly a year ago (and I’ve been carrying a small pocket chess set with me all the way! – Should have listened to Chris Scott’s advice…).

About 3Km ride back North of Samaipata there is a 4Km sand track that heads to El Fuerte. A visit to this ancient Inca fortress costs 50BOB for foreigners and the walk about the complex will take about 1-2 hours. We recommend a guide (they were charging 75BOB at the entrance, English speaking as well) as there is nothing much to understand otherwise, though the mountain scenery is nice. We did not hire a guide so we cannot say anything about their quality. Sadly the main feature, the monolith on which all the carvings and most of the old foundations are, is only viewable from a platform on the hill, so you can only appreciate it from a distance. You can get close to the sides further along the path but there is not so much to take in. The rest is just – unless you have more information – a lot of old wall remains.

Regretfully we did not have much joy from this expedition as there are no signposts giving any useful information on the walk. I spent my time filming little documentary video clips, making up imaginary stories to go with the scenery. Maybe that will be published some day – my claim to fame.

Coincidentally we met Deepanker, the Indian bloke we met in Sucre, up at the Inca Fort. We met him last as we were leaving Sucre 2 weeks ago and he had come the other way round to end up here.

There are some beautiful waterfalls “Cuevas” to visit about a half hour drive North of the town (entrance 10Bol). You can park up in the garden near the entrance and then walk about 1km uphill to come past three waterfalls, one more serene and beautiful than the other. This is probably the most impressive site we visited here in Samaipata. Fully recommend taking a couple of sandwiches and taking in the view while you have your packed lunch.

We also headed out to a national reserve at La Yunga, this is a cloud forest up in the mountains. Normally you have to pay 50BOB to get in but nobody was about to attend, so we went for free. We Ride South out of Samaipata for about 17Km to the town of Mairana, then head right into a street that takes us past the plaza. The road continues and turns into dirt at a T-junction with a little sign indicating La Yunga to the right. We carry on up the sand track for somewhere about 30Km.

It’s a rough track, well eroded in places and with a few water pits to cross, but it’s good fun and the dirt is colourful, which makes it enjoyable to watch the road come towards you. At La Yunga there’s sign and a gate on the left which leads to the park, which we ride through until we hit a clearing with signboard showing the walking path.

There are two routes, one of about 1Km and the other about 2Km. It runs through some dense vegetation and fern forest, and eventually passes a viewpoint. It’s a nice forest walk but because we go too late in the afternoon we have to rush it, because the ride back to Samaipata will probably take about 2 hours – and it’s not a track you want to be on in the dark. The highlight for me here was to spot a number of Kolibri birds on the bush, tiny and metallic green in colour.

Samaipata and the surrounding area is cool. Lots of little things to see. And if you’re on a motorbike it may be of interest to you that there are many Che Guevara-history related routes and towns you can visit in the area. We don’t visit any specifically, as we don’t spend more time here.

One awesome memory of Samaipata is the Samaipata Mobile Pizza Man! We met this guy selling delicious mini pizzas at the plaza for a steal. This Argentinian’s done plenty of time in the Pizza business and has set himself up with a make-shift mobile gas-fired pizza oven on a trolley and he rolls out dough and prepares your pizza for you as you wait. Great idea!

The rain continues for about another hour and then stops. We seem to have overtaken the clouds, which are moving in the same direction, but more slowly. The heat and the motion of the bike gets us dried out again within a short time. We stop for 20 minutes for lunch at a town about half way, by which time the weather manages to catch up with us again and we scram off ahead of it.

We arrive in Buena Vista late afternoon, it starts raining again. The village is quite pretty and well looked after. Beautiful in the middle of this jungle setting. We lodge at Cabana Asai (Tel: 76607951) which provides a reasonably clean ensuite room for 80BOB and has a BBQ, fridge and kitchen out front of the building. By the time we’re showered and unpacked I feel a pain in my stomach which soon develops into full blown vomit and diarrhea. Must have been the wind blowing on my wet clothing all day, and I left my jacket slightly open to allow air to circulate through. We get a warm soup from a plaza restaurant and retire. By the next morning I am fine, thankfully.

By the Buena Vista plaza…

We visit the local market and stock up with chicken and coal for a BBQ that night. It’s always an interesting feeling buying your meat with head attached, from un-cooled shop stalls. Oh well if you incinderate it enough nothing harmful will survive.

For breakfast we have to ask the owner a few times before we get gas for the cooker but we get it eventually. As always, decent coffee is a challenge, but we find a small cafe at the plaza which produces something drinkable.

But the warm milk, never too appetizing…

TRIP INFO BOX

Int Wara Yassi (Parque Machie) is one of the biggest attractions in Villa Turani. What makes this place even more special is young volunteers from all around the World. They are certainly doing a great job and contributing the society.

Most of the animals in the park are rescued from captivity or brought in by local people. They are humanized animals, which means they cannot survive in nature by themselves anymore. That’s why the volunteers are needed to look after them. The biggest reasons these animals are in danger are, unfortunately, destruction of their habitat and the black pet market.

During our 3.5 hours of hot, sticky trekking we saw Spider Monkeys, cheeky Cappuccino Monkeys, many colorful insects, singing tropical birds and caterpillars. If you are lucky you may even see one of the puma which are a real beauty. After about 1Km you will reach a view point from which you can see the breathtaking view of the mountains, river and Villa Tunari itself. Towards the end of the trail there are two waterfalls with hanging bridge access. When we visited there was not much water as August is the winter on this side of the World.

Inti Wara Yassi is a place you definitely get a taste of the real rainforest and makes you want to explore it even more!

2Km East after VT there’s a army checkpoint on the left, where we cross without issue. 5Km of road works, then a 40Km stretch of pebble road all the way to Isinuta. The first half is very bumpy. The second half can be endured by accelerating to about of 50Km/h and trying to maintain a level course. Horrible grey concrete speed bumps which seem to blend in with the road surface appear around towns, sometimes without warning.

The road leads through lush jungle and crosses a few muddy rivers. It’s hard to notice that you’re actually in a major coca farming area. Apparently this has become the chosen occupation for more and more as there’s good money in it and people can earn more than they would in any run-of-the-mill job. Some people tell us that (aside from oil exploration in the national park), the main drivers to build this disputed San Ignacio de Moxos Highway through the national park is to service narco traffic, and opportunistic cocaleros will illegaly annex more land to their coca plantations. A Bolivian government estimate says that 10% of the park has already been deforested by cocaleros. Looking at the map, I really don’t see why they need to build this road right through the middle of this protected area, which is also home to many of Indigenos.

Some of the towns, especially Samusabeti, seem to be well stocked with hardware stores and workshops. A good place to break down I recon. They don’t seem to be short of mechanics but I cannot say whether they’re equipped to work on larger bikes.

Where the road ends there is a river. When this cannot be crossed by motorbike (we’re in dry season and a moto crossing would have been madness) a canoe or unimog might take you across to what is the national park Isiboro Secure. If you’re unfortunate, by the time you get to the end of this road it will continue with a bridge across the river and take you right through the national park, towards Brazil. The construction of this road is currently a highly contentious political issue in Bolivia. Some want the road and others don’t. The Indigenos are highly pissed off. They even marched all the way to the capital in protest and there are frequent disruptions to road traffic North of Santa Cruz as far as I understand.

End of the road to Isiboro Secure…

About 1Km after the army checkpoint on the right is the route that leads past Chipiriri, Villa 14 Septiembre and Puerto San Fransisco (about 32Km from Villa Tunari). This is a pebble road as well. Villa 14 Septiembre has a charming little plaza. Around Pto. San Fransisco is a confluence of many rivers and I’m told there is good fishing here. However by the time we arrive it’s late afternoon and too late to get the lines out.

Note: We investigated using these routes to shortcut through up to the city of Trinidad, however this did not appear to be such a good idea. For more info about this read our Return to Villa Tunari post.