World Tour - Europe, Asia, North and South America - Entries for: Bolivia
20° | sunny / rainy | km 525
The infamous Death Road
on 2017-12-02 in Bolivia
Our first point of interest in Bolivia was the infamous Death Road (el Camino de la Muerte). Having seen it in various documentaries and movies we were excited to see it in person. After having spend the first night near lake Titicaca we headed through the capital La Paz up towards the mountains. The traffic in La Paz was terrible so it took us longer than anticipated to get through it. But what did cost us by far the most time was the fact that we were continuously turned away at gas stations. As it turned out all the gas stations that we went to needed to put our license plate into the system in order to correctly calculate taxes. As you can guess that was an unresolvable issue with our German plates. After having spent about half an hour at the first gas station we had to try about 3 more until we finally found one up in the mountains that had no computers and so simply added the necessary tax to the normal price... With about 5 miles range left on the Africa Twins we were in the end just glad to have found one that pumped gas for us. Something we will add at this point, from this gas station forth it was no problem to get the tax added to the price anymore. So either it is difficult with foreign plates to get gas in the La Paz area, or we just did not ask the right questions...
Anyways after all of that excitement the Death Road itself was rather enjoyable. There was near to no traffic, we had great weather and even though the drops on the side of the road were steep there was always more than enough room to maneuver a motorcycle. We have been on much worse roads before and so it was just a very fun ride down to Coroico. A small highlight for Fabi was the fact that his Odometer turned over the 100.000 kilometer mark at the end of the day. So we not only survived the famous Death Road our first bike also clocked the mighty 100k. What a fun time it has been, here is to the next 100k! :D
We spent a night in a very simple but comfortable Hostel. We knew we had a long stretch of curvy road ahead of us so we once more left around 10 in the morning to head on towards Quime. What we did not know thanks to our quite unreliable maps was that we would spend the entire day on a small offroad path. Worse and probably more dangerous than the Death Road the day before. On top of that we had to find out that because of some election all roads were closed for locals in order to force them to vote or make it impossible to vote in different regions twice. We were allowed to pass but it further cost us some valuable daylight time. In the end it did not matter because just before the last 30 kilometers Denis unfortunately had his second flat tire of the trip. Having had a little practice now we soon had the tire off the rim and started patching the puncture. After letting the patch dry we put it back in and started reinflating it. We were extremely disappointed when we realized that we must have missed another whole because we were not able to put enough air into the tire to make it stick to the rim. Luckily we had enough patches so we took the tube out once more looked and started looking for more holes. What we then saw terrified us. Next to our patch there were about 5 more smaller holes, we deduced that the nail must have punctured the tube many more times while driving. Three patches later we managed to get the tire back on the rim and with little confidence in the patch we went our way. Just to find out that about 5 kilometers later the air had left the tire once more. It had gotten dark by now and so Denis decided to slowly make his way towards the next town, where we would try to find a new tube altogether.
After a night in very simple accommodations with little to no dinner we got lucky the next morning when Denis turned up with two new tubes for his rear wheel. In a couple of minutes we had switched his tube, filled our bikes with some gasoline bought from the hotel owner and were back on our merry way towards some hot springs and volcanoes near the Chilean border.
Anyways after all of that excitement the Death Road itself was rather enjoyable. There was near to no traffic, we had great weather and even though the drops on the side of the road were steep there was always more than enough room to maneuver a motorcycle. We have been on much worse roads before and so it was just a very fun ride down to Coroico. A small highlight for Fabi was the fact that his Odometer turned over the 100.000 kilometer mark at the end of the day. So we not only survived the famous Death Road our first bike also clocked the mighty 100k. What a fun time it has been, here is to the next 100k! :D
We spent a night in a very simple but comfortable Hostel. We knew we had a long stretch of curvy road ahead of us so we once more left around 10 in the morning to head on towards Quime. What we did not know thanks to our quite unreliable maps was that we would spend the entire day on a small offroad path. Worse and probably more dangerous than the Death Road the day before. On top of that we had to find out that because of some election all roads were closed for locals in order to force them to vote or make it impossible to vote in different regions twice. We were allowed to pass but it further cost us some valuable daylight time. In the end it did not matter because just before the last 30 kilometers Denis unfortunately had his second flat tire of the trip. Having had a little practice now we soon had the tire off the rim and started patching the puncture. After letting the patch dry we put it back in and started reinflating it. We were extremely disappointed when we realized that we must have missed another whole because we were not able to put enough air into the tire to make it stick to the rim. Luckily we had enough patches so we took the tube out once more looked and started looking for more holes. What we then saw terrified us. Next to our patch there were about 5 more smaller holes, we deduced that the nail must have punctured the tube many more times while driving. Three patches later we managed to get the tire back on the rim and with little confidence in the patch we went our way. Just to find out that about 5 kilometers later the air had left the tire once more. It had gotten dark by now and so Denis decided to slowly make his way towards the next town, where we would try to find a new tube altogether.
After a night in very simple accommodations with little to no dinner we got lucky the next morning when Denis turned up with two new tubes for his rear wheel. In a couple of minutes we had switched his tube, filled our bikes with some gasoline bought from the hotel owner and were back on our merry way towards some hot springs and volcanoes near the Chilean border.
15° | sunny | km 1724
Hot Springs and the Salar de Uyuni
on 2017-12-05 in Bolivia
The story behind finding out about said volcanoes and hot springs is quite curious. A couple of months back Fabi switched on one of our laptops and was greeted by quite a beautiful windows start screen. The message on his screen said: "Have you ever bathed in some hot springs in front of two volcanoes?" Curious as to where the picture was taken he researched it and found out that it was a place west of Bolivia near the Chilean border. Since we had time we decided to take the detour and have a look at this area. Most of the road was tarmac and so we managed to quickly make good distance. Up to the last 15 kilometers the path into the protected area was loose gravel and sand. Sometimes quite deep so our front tires occasionally dug in and after dropping the bikes twice we decided it was time to let some air out of our tires. It was enough to deflate the front tires to get the necessary stability and once more we were pleasantly surprised at how much difference it made to deflate the tires. Early in the evening we arrived at a nice little hotel. We took our gear of the bikes and soon went on our way towards the hot springs.
After a short ride we arrived at the basins and due to the cold winds we quickly undressed and jumped into the closest pool. What we did not know at the time that there was a bigger artificial pool nearby but for now we started to relax in the natural pool. Nobody was around until after a short while a girl from the nearby bath house came by and told us that there was a fee that we had to pay and that we could also use the bigger pool near the houses. The price was all right and so we moved the party to the bigger pool where we could even get some cold beers. We had a great time and it was definitely worth the trip. On our way back we made some drone shots of this unique scenery and back at the hotel we slept like kings after a good home cooked meal.
Next up and another big POI on our list was the spectacular Salar de Uyuni. To get there we rode to Oruro where we stayed a couple of nights to sort out some issues with our drone and to prepare for the trip through the salt desert. Oruro was another big rather ugly city just like La Paz so after a couple of days we were quite excited to leave it behind us. We had decided to enter Salar de Uyuni from the North and head towards the cactus island in the middle. There we would start to look for a place to camp. When we came across the mountains in the North we were stunned by the spectacular view. In front of us stretching as far as our eyes could see lay this vast white desert. We had never ridden on salt before so we did not know what to expect. Would we have to deflate our tires? Was it like riding sand? No! It was as easy as riding on tarmac. The white salt crust crackled a little under the weight of our bikes but other than that and the occasional salty taste in our mouths it did not feel much different to asphalt.
It was simply put - magnificent. Surrounded by nothing but salt we took some drone shots, pictures and videos and after about an hour arrived at the cactus island. This in comparison was rather unspectacular if it were not for the fact that we met some very nice bikers from Germany and Switzerland there. We quickly bonded over some motorcycle stories and before we knew what was happening we were invited to dinner made by them and to sleep in the museum on this coral island. We quickly decided to skip sleeping in our tents in the freezing cold and enjoy the night with our new friends in the comfort of a house instead. The only drawback about staying in the hotel was that we had to get up and leave at 6 o'clock in the morning. Therefor the next morning was quite hard on us, since it was probably the earliest that we have gotten up since the last 19 months.
Back on the salt plane we took some more videos with our new friends and after a heartfelt goodbye we split up heading towards Uyuni. Just before getting back to the rode we visited the nearby Dakar statue. We are extremely looking forward to seeing it in January and so it was very cool for us to see it. We took a hotel in Uyuni around 10 and after a quick shower headed straight back to bed. A day later we said our farewells to Basti who was heading home over Christmas and so he had to catch a flight in Santiago de Chile. Denis and Fabi stayed for two more nights recovering from the Desert, before leaving Bolivia towards Chile.
After a short ride we arrived at the basins and due to the cold winds we quickly undressed and jumped into the closest pool. What we did not know at the time that there was a bigger artificial pool nearby but for now we started to relax in the natural pool. Nobody was around until after a short while a girl from the nearby bath house came by and told us that there was a fee that we had to pay and that we could also use the bigger pool near the houses. The price was all right and so we moved the party to the bigger pool where we could even get some cold beers. We had a great time and it was definitely worth the trip. On our way back we made some drone shots of this unique scenery and back at the hotel we slept like kings after a good home cooked meal.
Next up and another big POI on our list was the spectacular Salar de Uyuni. To get there we rode to Oruro where we stayed a couple of nights to sort out some issues with our drone and to prepare for the trip through the salt desert. Oruro was another big rather ugly city just like La Paz so after a couple of days we were quite excited to leave it behind us. We had decided to enter Salar de Uyuni from the North and head towards the cactus island in the middle. There we would start to look for a place to camp. When we came across the mountains in the North we were stunned by the spectacular view. In front of us stretching as far as our eyes could see lay this vast white desert. We had never ridden on salt before so we did not know what to expect. Would we have to deflate our tires? Was it like riding sand? No! It was as easy as riding on tarmac. The white salt crust crackled a little under the weight of our bikes but other than that and the occasional salty taste in our mouths it did not feel much different to asphalt.
It was simply put - magnificent. Surrounded by nothing but salt we took some drone shots, pictures and videos and after about an hour arrived at the cactus island. This in comparison was rather unspectacular if it were not for the fact that we met some very nice bikers from Germany and Switzerland there. We quickly bonded over some motorcycle stories and before we knew what was happening we were invited to dinner made by them and to sleep in the museum on this coral island. We quickly decided to skip sleeping in our tents in the freezing cold and enjoy the night with our new friends in the comfort of a house instead. The only drawback about staying in the hotel was that we had to get up and leave at 6 o'clock in the morning. Therefor the next morning was quite hard on us, since it was probably the earliest that we have gotten up since the last 19 months.
Back on the salt plane we took some more videos with our new friends and after a heartfelt goodbye we split up heading towards Uyuni. Just before getting back to the rode we visited the nearby Dakar statue. We are extremely looking forward to seeing it in January and so it was very cool for us to see it. We took a hotel in Uyuni around 10 and after a quick shower headed straight back to bed. A day later we said our farewells to Basti who was heading home over Christmas and so he had to catch a flight in Santiago de Chile. Denis and Fabi stayed for two more nights recovering from the Desert, before leaving Bolivia towards Chile.
15° | sunny | km 392
Lagunes out of this world
on 2017-12-11 in Bolivia
[Basti] To make sure that I would catch my flight from Santiago I drove ahead alone. But before entering Chile I had to visit the red lagoon (Laguna Colorada). The german motorcycle group we met in the Salar told us how awefull the road was, so I expected the worst.
Even the main road turned to gravel right after Uyuni, but it was still very good to drive on. In the small town Alota where I had to make a turn to go to the national park "Eduardo Avaroa National Reserve of Andean Fauna" I couldn't find the gas station all my navigation systems showed. I know that I would even have to use my spare gas cans to get to the lagoon.
But I quickly found a little restaurant with good food and in the meantime they were also able to organize some fuel for me.
Well prepared I drove down a nice gravel road to the entrance of the national park. As I was paying the entrance fee the friendly officer told me to my surprise that I would be able to cross into Chile at the very south of the park. Perfect!
When I arrived at the red lagoon the road got bad like expected. Deep sand and washboards. But somehow I made it through and the lagoon really is exceptionally. The pictures don't lie, the water truly is that red!
You can watch all three South American kinds of flamingos at this one spot. Remember, the place it at 13000 feet (4000 meter) altitude.
Because it was getting late all the other tourist jeeps left the lagoon before me I had the place almost to myself.
Right next to the lagoon is a super small village with a few accommodations for the tourists doing a jeep tour. They are not at all prepared for individual tourists, but nonetheless I found a bed and something to eat.
The next day I went further south on the horrible road while passing sizzling mud holes until I arrived at some hot springs full of tourists. Admiring the outstanding view from inside the hot pools was still pretty special.
After visits to the green and the white lagoon I still made it to the Bolivian border the same day. The border at this altitude in the middle of nowhere was basically one man in a shed. And because I was the only one there at the time I was finished super fast.
Even the main road turned to gravel right after Uyuni, but it was still very good to drive on. In the small town Alota where I had to make a turn to go to the national park "Eduardo Avaroa National Reserve of Andean Fauna" I couldn't find the gas station all my navigation systems showed. I know that I would even have to use my spare gas cans to get to the lagoon.
But I quickly found a little restaurant with good food and in the meantime they were also able to organize some fuel for me.
Well prepared I drove down a nice gravel road to the entrance of the national park. As I was paying the entrance fee the friendly officer told me to my surprise that I would be able to cross into Chile at the very south of the park. Perfect!
When I arrived at the red lagoon the road got bad like expected. Deep sand and washboards. But somehow I made it through and the lagoon really is exceptionally. The pictures don't lie, the water truly is that red!
You can watch all three South American kinds of flamingos at this one spot. Remember, the place it at 13000 feet (4000 meter) altitude.
Because it was getting late all the other tourist jeeps left the lagoon before me I had the place almost to myself.
Right next to the lagoon is a super small village with a few accommodations for the tourists doing a jeep tour. They are not at all prepared for individual tourists, but nonetheless I found a bed and something to eat.
The next day I went further south on the horrible road while passing sizzling mud holes until I arrived at some hot springs full of tourists. Admiring the outstanding view from inside the hot pools was still pretty special.
After visits to the green and the white lagoon I still made it to the Bolivian border the same day. The border at this altitude in the middle of nowhere was basically one man in a shed. And because I was the only one there at the time I was finished super fast.