On Friday I set off from Cochabamba and I made some 450 km since then. One month ago, when I came on the same way by bus, I said to myself that I really have to ride the bike in these places. The first day was pretty hard. From Cochabamba which is at 2700 m starts a 20 km climb until 3360 m. Not being trained, fat as a pig and with a strong wind blowing into my face, it was hard; but 3 trucks pulled me upward from time to time. By the way, trucks, for two days everything is flat around me. So, yesterday I held on to a truck for 40 km. Until a small slope, where the truck slowed down because it didn't have enough power at that speed, and I, as a fool, was just looking at a traffic indicator in the opposite direction. The handelbar was at the height of the weighing machine, so, not having time to use the breaks, I fell like an idiot. I didn't get really hurt, except a 0,3- 0,4 cm scratch on my right hand thumb. It's more difficult to change the speeds now. Thank God nothing worse happened. I didn't touch any truck since yesterday.
So, after that hard climb, followed 55 km of descent, out of which 30 paved km at a speed of 60 km/h and 25 unpaved km at 15 km/h- and what a dust...The most spectacular thing about that part is the transition from the vegetation area of the semidesert arid plateau - Valle Alto de Cochabamba to Chapare, tropical forest, with abundant vegetation and daily rainfall. Actually, on a distance of 20 km, the precipitations vary from 300 mm/year to 5000 mm/year (as if one evening, you'd enter from a desert, this is exactly the feeling).
The first night I slept in a school, then the next two in Villa Tunari and Entre Rios in a simple but comfortable alojamiento. Another current matter about this area, Chapare, is the cultivation of coca - a very fertile land, national migration center - you make a good living out of coca, which after a long and a refined processing process turns into cocaine. Nowadays, the bolivian government has a strict eradication policy, but one of the political parties whose president is the chief of the coca producer syndicate, is for the partial maintainment of the plantations - there was a big demonstraton in Cochabamba with Evo Morales, the union leader and former candidate for presidency.
Well, it was a bit boring yesterday and today, the climate becomes again more arid, from pineapple and banana plantations to extensive bovine grazing. What is nice over here are the finca's of the rich from Santa Cruz - each with pool and a luxurious villa. Again I spent the last night in a school. Tomorrow I'll take my visa from the chilean consulate. Then, I'll go 2 days either to visit the menonits (without the bike) or directly to the mountains- Samaipata- Sucre- Potosi. Then, my plan is to cross the Salar de Uyuni by bicycle and then go to Chile.
06.10.2002, by bus from Santa Cruz de la Sierra - Cotoca - San Javier
I am back again in Santa Cruz. First I planned to go on Friday to a menonit family, but they had to take care of a problem and I couldn't go (grandfather got sick and he had to be taken to the hospital). I left the bicycle at Centro Menno which opened only on Monday. So, on Friday I went to Cotoca, a bigger village, close to Santa Cruz, small, known for the church at the plaza - a pilgrimage place for the whole bolivian East - Virgen de Cotoca. On Saturday I came back to town and got on the first bus to Chiquitania, a hilly area with former Jesuit missions. The village shelters a very beautiful and there is a well preserved Jesuit church with a lot of wood, painted in the specific style of these churches. But it is said that the most beautiful is the one from San Javier. There is an interesting one in Concepcion, but as a fool I mixed the bus hours that go to Santa Cruz and Conception.
I stayed at a alojamiento where I became friend with the children of the family. Yesterday I went to a man-made lagoon - really cool. It is the place where the high society form Santa Cruz owns villas and land. I met a young guy that has 43.000 ha land and around 6000 cows. All the area is used mainly for the extensive bovine grazing, being great landowners of 50.000 - 100.000 ha.
Last night I went to a karaoke show, an activity almost traditional in Bolivia. Unfortunately I caught a cold. Another news is that last week I received the visas for Chile and Argentina, each for 3 months and with multiple entries (70$ and 30$). I'm thinking now to postpone my flight date, that is to stay for 2 more months in order to go down as much as possible to Patagonia, and then to visit Peru. I'll see...
Tomorrow I'll go to Sucre, the former capital city of Bolivia. It is a town with a very pleasant climate and with very many colonial buildings. I hope I'll get there in a week. I don't know if I'll have the opportunity to write until then.
13.10.2002, by bike from Santa Cruz de la Sierra to Sucre
After 5 days of cycling and a bit of truck-tourism, I got safe (more or less) to Sucre , the constitutional capital of Bolivia . Maybe it`s the most beautiful town in Bolivia, with a very well preserved colonial architecture and a lot of young people. It is at an altitude of 2790 m and has a temperate climate with occasional rains.
The road back here was quiet difficult. I left Santa Cruz on Monday and cycled 70 km that day. I pitched my tent in the bed of a river, sandy, but nice. The only problem was the wind that started to blow. After I felt asleep, a windblast threw the tent over me. I had to anchor it in the bike and put some stones over the sidecorners so that I have place to fix the nails. It was my first night spent in a tent in Bolivia , also the first time I slept in my new tent. It's realy spacious so this way I have a lot of room to stretch.
I didn`t sleep to well, I had a rough cough all night long and the wind kept blowing and I couldn`t stop thinking that it would eventually fall over me again. Next day, pure climbing. 60 km up to Samaipata. I got a nice room in a residential, having a back yard with many plants, a quiet and pleasant place. Thursday was another day of climbing and descending, for about 15 km, with the wind in my face. To the vest, the vegetation rarefies more and more. On Friday I cycled the last piece of paved road, which was followed by 130 km of endless dusty road. Much too much dust. The area impresses with the western-movies type landscapes, vegetation of cactuses. It`s like I`d be in Grand Canyon sometimes. On Friday and Saturday I didn`t do more than 50 km. The night to Sunday I slept at a family, in a modest house. When I woke up, I had about 80 pinches - I suppose those came from fleas - lucky me they weren`t itching , only on my feet a bit. The cloths are being washed now... From now on I will only sleep in my tent or in a clean alojamineto, but never again in dirty houses - it had happened to me before, back in Romania .
Yesterday was a short cycling day. The road started with a very difficult climbing, deep dust everywhere (about 5-10 cm), the wheel was sinking and I had to push. Always when a truck was passing by, I had to wait a minute for the dust to fall out. The descending wasn't as great as I thought it would be, after such a climbing, with my thin wheels, that shook both me and my luggage.
From Villa Granada, where another 8 km climbing starts, I took a bus to Aiquile - 25 km. There, I cleaned my bike and started off again. As I was riding, a car with two Englishman stopped near me and asked me if I would like to join them on their way to Sucre . Both of them were botanists (one of them is an authority in succulentes and cactees). I didn't agree at first, but then gave up, saying that at least on Sunday I can take a break, especially because I knew that the next 130 km would make me face a lot of dust on the road.
