GPS meltdown

Jan 19.
The next day we made our way out of the city and as luck would have it the route included a slow grind through the market area. Weaving between vendors, pedestrians, busses, taxis, stray dogs, garbage...you get the picture. The funny part is that the “largest market in South America” is just 20km away in the next town. We decided we would have to check that out as we have seem some big markets already, how much bigger could they be. The little town that hosts this market was easy to find, but the market was not, maybe it was not a daily market and we were there on the wrong day. Whatever the case, we were now in search of the North East route towards Santa Cruz and we were on the South East side of the city. Sounded easy enough but as we navigate on the small country roads through a bunch of towns that are not on the map, and of course road construction detours we did not really know where the heck we were. Finally we are back on pavement and what we think is the proper highway, wrong again, we are on the South route to Santa Cruz and not the North loop. This is ok, but it is a longer route and it is not paved all the way so it should be a fun day of riding and we will see where we end up. The route itself is fantastic and the scenery is some of the best we have seen. The pace is a little different, the total distance from Cochabamba to Santa Cruz on this route is approx. 550km and rated at 9hrs of travel time due to the gravel and mountain terrain. We do our level best and because we are on holidays after all, we make it about 300km in 8hrs to a little town called Comorapa. After riding through the clouds, passing more farms, lots of donkeys, and a couple of very small towns, the sight of Comorapa nestled at the bottom of a valley was a welcome sight.

The Hotel Brisas was even more welcome as the young lady at the front desk spoke English, her Uncle owns the Hotel, and the auto parts store, and the repair shop  that both occupy the commercial bays on the ground floor next to the lobby. Her Uncle is quite the busy man.

Berenice is a bundle of energy and before we left the next morning she and one of the staff got their pictures taken on the bikes and we exchanged contact info. We are expecting a visit from her when she comes to Vancouver to visit her friend, we explained how far away Van is from Calgary but she said she is used to long bus rides living in Bolivia. We admire her spirit.

Small town choices for supper included the Karaoke bar down the street, interesting crowd in there but the food was ok. The rest of the evening was quiet as there was nothing to do in the little town except change my rear brake pads again, this got the Uncle’s attention for a milli-second.

We once again eat some fruit and bread for breakfast followed by filling the bikes with gas and hitting the road. The balance of our trip to Santa Cruz was on pavement through a variety of National Park type areas. There was one particular section of the road that was infested with moths, little yellow-green ones similar to our cabbage moths. After killing hundreds of these things we stopped to clean our visors and buy some peaches from the farmers along the road.

 

Farmland in the valley

Traffic jam.

 

The town of Samaipata is a tourist town with larger than normal houses and groomed yards. As it turns out this is very close to where Che Guevara was assassinated and a memorial has been erected to mark the location.

Born in Rosario, Argentina, on June 14, 1928, Ernesto R. Guevara de la Serna studied medicine before traveling around South America, observing conditions that spurred his Marxist beliefs. He aided Fidel Castro in overturning the Cuban government and then worked in a political post. Guevara later engaged in guerrilla action in Bolivia, where he was killed. He's revered by many as a cultural hero.

Santa Cruz is a very old city, as most are down here, with roots dating back to the early 1700’s. I was surprised at how easy it was to navigate in the city, it is set up with a series of ring roads and the rest of the streets are on a grid. We found another really nice hotel and I managed to negotiate the rate down to $50Cdn so we once again found ourselves in the comfort of 4 stars. We could get used to this.

Our walking tour of the city allowed us to see all of the downtown core with all its’ spectacular old buildings, and of course the elaborate doors. The balance of our time was spent in the hotel room taking advantage of a solid internet connection and the spectacular views. 

Some not so desirable things we seen too much of was men and women urinating in the streets, it is fairly common all over for men to do this but when we started seeing women it was a bit much.