stray

2017-07-17 Day 92

Arrived at San Pablo de Tiquina and a ferry crossing. And what a crossing. outboard stopped a couple of times while awaiting our turn dock.

Just up the hill from the ferries we meet another truck!

Drove into Kopacabana and filled with diesel 7 Bs/litre, water and washed the vehicle.

Off to the border crossing. The hardest part was which office to go into first. Did the paper work for the truck then into immigration for ourselves. Very easy. I had to move the cones and barrier for us to drive through.

Into Peru was just as easy. We got 3 months and then the truck got her papers.

I had to go back inside to ask them to open the barrier. He then asked if we had any animals aboard. I just joked and said no only mi espouso.

Parked right down on the waters edge.

Talked about when we should change out the back left tyre as it is down on tread. But on these dry roads we figured we’d easily get some more mileage.

2017-07-15 Day 90

A coldish night down to neg 8.5°C, ran the engine before bed and again at 04:00.

Drove into La Paz once we had worked out where to drop Michelle and Andreus. Interesting drive.

The locals do not always take notice of the traffic lights so we were not sure either. Crazy driving.

Anyway got to the “green house” in one piece and dropped them and their bikes off.

Next a trip further south in town to meet up with Alex and Todd who we’d met at the geysers in San Pedro de Atacama. They are staying at the Oberland hotel before heading back to the states for a short break.

Some national holiday with roads blocked for parades.

Went out for a lunch of beer and grilled meat. Nice catching up again.

Finally managed to find our way west out of the city and towards lake Titicaca. We camped by the Internet aerial up on a small hill above a town. We were serenaded by a band for a long while. I was completely done in so had a basin shower and crashed.

2017-07-16 Day 91

Finally crawled out of bed and started on the blog and photos. Progressed well but still behind. The band is playing again.

As we drove out we stopped in to see the festivities at the local "square". About 5 or 6 different bands and dancers. We figured each band and dancers belonged to a village.

Drove out and north through Achacachi bought some buns (the best we have had) and banana’s then some sour sop and passion fruit. Camped out on a peninsular with a great view of lake.

Sat in the sun and had buns, olives and cheese with a glass of wine for lunch about 3pm and read our books. A nice relaxing afternoon.

2017-07-14 Day 89

Thought we may make La Paz if the road improved. The road was if anything worse than yesterday dusty, rough, busy and of course very narrow in places. Didn’t have to reverse too many times for passing traffic.

Found a spot off the road about 2.30 for lunch. A guy miraculously appeared to look after his bee hive so we invited him to lunch. What was left on his plate went into a plastic bag for later. He asked for shoes and trousers but we said we didn’t have any.

Drove another 10km to bitumen... at last. Pumped up the tyres blew out the air filters and drove on still slow up, up and up.

At 4pm we decided we would not make it out the other side of La Paz in daylight so turned off to camp at a parque. Found a great spot with view but in site of road so went down by a lake. Back at 4800m alt. and feeling it.

2017-07-13 Day 88

Decided to put the inside bike on rack over Cab. The tyre had broken the rack so John did a repair and the tyre came inside wedged with the bike panniers.

Lots of gums and undergrowth, banana palm, ferns, and orange trees. Mostly horticulture.

At a much lower altitude now down under 2000m. Roads becoming more dusty and rough. With lots more traffic.

We do not trust the outside edge and often it is washed away with drops of up to 700m almost vertical, no stopping if you went over. In some places it is so narrow that there is only 300mm between us and nothing. On saying this 40 seater buses travel the route and a truck with a grader on board.

In general the traffic is well behaved and normally give way when it is their turn. Downhill vehicle normally gives way and on the flattish section the smaller vehicle. If we were on the outside we’d just give way on a nice wide section of road where it was safe even if we had to wait awhile.

Lots of gum trees. They seem to cut them down while still quite small; about 10cm in diameter. Then they await the regrowth pruning it back to 3-4 poles and then cut them at same size. This way they get lots of poles off the one set of roots.

Had trouble finding a camp. Everywhere was very dusty. Finally found a spot near a river just off the road. People doing washing and washing their car. Andreaus and Michelle set up camp a little ways away in the bush and we waited ages for the locals to leave. Finally got camp set up just on dusk. John cooked a chicken stir fry for dinner. 4 inside is a little squishy

2017-07-12 Day 87

Drove into Indepencia. Gum trees are becoming more common.

Bought a SIM card but diesel wasn’t available.

A new church being built. Quite innovative in design

Bought some mandarins, asked for 6 got 6Bs worth, about 12. Lots of farm land and growth in general is increasing.

Could see the bridge or what was let of it just the pylons marching across the river. We hope there would be a way across. The road diverted and became a very small track. Got to the river and a couple of families were having a picnic popcorn and corn. John walked across the stream where the guys told us to and all good. Chatted to them about Australia. One of the kids new what the kangaroo was.

We went up the adjoining river a bit and did our washing in running water. A bit concerned on letting the clothes go.

The new section of road up was very narrow with few places to pass. And we were on the outside…..

We stayed on the outside most of the way up.

Stopped a tourist on a cycle, yes there are madder people than us! She was from the states and her husband a little in front. We told her we’d stop him for her to catch up. Any way we did stop Andreus who was very low on disc pads so we offered them a ride.

Put one bike inside and one on the spares tyres on back.

At Licoma the police stopped us. I went inside to fill out the book. Name, nationality, number plate, and number of people. Andreus and Michelle became Aussies….

We camp next to the old basket ball court.

Guy came to move us one but then said we could stay when we said we’d be gone in the morning. He then signalled to John who took him a beer. The caretaker had unlocked the toilet and shower for us.

2017-07-11 Day 86

Still on coble stones. 81 cobbles stones per square metre. 6 m wide road 28km’s long. 13.6 million cobble stones….. If one man lays one cobble stone every minute and works 7 days a week 8 hrs per day = 77 man years. A big undertaking. That doesn’t include making the road or delivering stones….

The valleys are much more fertile and the further we go North more vegetables are grown and there are less animals farmed. We have not seen many Llama this side of Cochabama. But we are seeing more pigs.

There are more bulls than cows. Cows seem to be kept for breeding only. None seem to be milking cows.

This road as we discovered yesterday afternoon and today is more than twisty it is twwwissty and true to map.

At one stage we were diverted downhill on a very freshly bulldozed road. The original road had disappeared in a slip. We then drove down river (literally) and met a loader and a grader making the “track” passable. Up on the slip there was a digger and bulldozer working to remake the road.