Life from Behind the Visor: 4 stars to $4

Jan 21-24

After a couple of nice nights in Santa Cruz there was a bit of backtracking to do. The route to Sucre required that we go back West on the pavement and even some of the gravel to a branch in the road that would take us South. We were okay with back-tacking a bit but when I seen a small gravel road on the GPS long before the intended route it only made sense to alter the route one more time and off we went into the outback. The GPS showed the road as connecting to Sucre so that was good enough for us and as it turned out the road passed through some really nice countryside.

The road itself varied from extremely good to the most very basic of paths in locations where the rivers had washed out the road leaving the bridge structure alone in the middle of the river bed.

Out in the back forty we came across what was obviously staff housing of a mining company. The little houses were all the same and built in neat rows, no vehicles were visible so the workers must get bussed in. Shortly after the makeshift village we started meeting semi trailers putting along at about 20kph along the narrow canyon road around all the sharp curves, many times we have to stop and allow the trucks to pass.

The drivers would sometimes toot the horn in appreciation and once the cloud of dust cleared we could carry on. We found out later that the mine operation is for lithium and tin.

The town of Aiquille is a clean town, we can’t say that very often, that is home to some of the best miniature guitar makers in the country. They make these instruments out of armadillo shells, so they are quite unique.

As a testament to how quickly things can change, our hotel has gone from 4 stars to $4 with the bathroom across the hall.

Aquille to Sucre

No gravel today, well only short patches of road work, so we can enjoy the scenery a bit as we can ride without having to concentrate on every inch of the road. Sucre is called the “White City” as there are numerous buildings either painted white or made of a white brick material. The architecture is amazing and even though it is raining on/off we enjoy a bit of a walking tour around the downtown area.

We plan to be here tomorrow as well so we take our time snooping in some open buildings and of course bench sitting in the park. When we return to the hotel there is a third bike in the courtyard, it is our Kiwi buddy from Puno. Phillip had trouble at the border entry into Bolivia and had to circle around to Chile, something to do with his bike being licensed in Peru. We catch up on our travel stories then turn in for the night.

We wake to the sound of rain as promised by the weatherman. This is the rainy season but we are still a little disappointed when it actually rains, then we laugh as we pass the bikes and see the large puddle of mud that has washed off of them onto the tiled courtyard floor. The cleaning ladies must hate us.

We are duped by another “bait and switch” tour sign at the Cultural Museum, the sign at the door is bi-lingual so we figure it should be the same for all the signs inside, but once we pay our entry fee and proceed in we realize that everything is in Spanish only. We do our best to read and figure out what they are talking about but eventually we get tired of trying to figure out the words and resort to making up our own stories. Once we start doing that the tour got very interesting but not very factual.

After all that creative story telling we have to take a break on the park benches across the street where we are joined by a local boy about 12yrs old, he is selling historical maps but just sits beside us for the longest time not saying anything. Then he asks us in English where we are from and eventually asks us if we would like a map, we decline as the last thing that would survive our trip is paper, the maps we brought with us have not survived so I doubt his would be any different.

Our next little sightseeing item was from the bell tower of an old church that is being restored. It is going to take them a long time with an entry fee of $10Bs per person. The view from the belltower is quite impressive as we can see the city in three directions, the inside of the church is almost as nice as the views, there is even an old pipe-organ that they are trying to get working again.