Tag: Vivente World Randonneur

South America Blog Posts

Week 13 – Solo Bikepacking Bolivia. Flamingos on the long road north.

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This week I continued my way along the 550km route north towards La Paz. It was really nice to be back on the bike, out on the open road. Even though the road was sometimes difficult or going through the middle of nowhere. The first few days were difficult but I pushed through and managed to do a decent amount of distance each day. I have been using an app called iOverlander to find camping spots as well as cheap accommodation along the way. Some of the camping spots have been in really beautiful spots, while some others left me wondering why anyone would mark it on the map.

Cheap accommodation & desert roads

The accommodation in some of the towns was very basic. The worst was in a town called Sevaruyo. There was just a small bed in an otherwise empty room with a wooden floor. The shared bathroom was a small toilet room with some brown substance on the floor and a bad smell. The door was broken so it had a huge hole in the bottom and didn’t close. But it was only £2.50 per night and I was only staying one night so it wasn’t so bad. From Sevaruyo the road headed through more long stretches of empty desert. Sometimes it’s nice to cycle through these kinds of places. But when it gets hot and you are starting to get tired, its not so fun. It really made me look forward to getting into the Amazon. Although I’m sure it will be difficult to cycle through the heat there, at least there will be some moisture.

An unusual camping spot

Further north, in a town called Poopo. There was only one hotel in town and it was overpriced at £6.30 per night. I asked around to see if there was another place, but when I found it, nobody answered the door. So I used iOverlander to find a camping spot. The spot that people had suggested was on the road to the cemetery. This was ok except that when I got there there I found a load of animal skins drying in the sun. I didn’t really mind that too much, but then a car drove past slowly and the guys inside were looking at me and my bike. So I decided to look around for a more secluded spot. On the other side of the road there was a raised area hidden by piles of dirt. This was perfect, except that it was just outside the walls of the town cemetery. I don’t believe in ghosts or anything like that, so I decided to sleep there.

An alternate route

The road from Poopo to Oruro went around the edge of a lake. But I could see a small road that cut through the middle of a lake, following some train tracks. I decided to take that road. It wasn’t so interesting for the first half. Just dirt tracks through the desert with a couple of train bridges to push my bike across. But then I got to the lake and everything changed. The clouds were reflected on the surface of the water and there were more flamingos that I have ever seen in one place before. I spent ages there taking in the scenery and flying my drone. For a while I even forgot that I had to cycle another hour or so into town. I really hope that I get more experiences like this as I go through the Amazon. But eventually I had to come back to reality and cycle into town. The roads were terrible, but I was still on a high from the lake. I got to my hostel and had a great nights rest.

South America Blog Posts

Week 12 – Solo Bikepacking Bolivia. Leaving Uyuni & a new route through the Amazon

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As I mentioned in my blog post last week, Huong and I will be travelling separately from now on. Huong won’t be cycling and instead she will travel north to Peru and volunteer on a farm for a while. This means that I will be cycling through South America alone. To start my new solo journey, I moved into the Casa de Cyclistas in Uyuni. A Casa de Cyclistas is like a hostel, but is especially for cyclists. There are a lot of these places throughout South America, but there is only one in Bolivia. Luckily it’s in Uyuni, the city that I have been staying in. Its a very basic form of accommodation, just a room with no bed, a shared bathroom and kitchen. But there is no set fee for each night. Instead you pay a voluntary donation for your stay. It was an awesome experience and I am looking forward to visiting more of them as I continue north.

The Cycling Community

The best part of staying there was meeting some other bicycle travellers. When I first moved into the Casa de Cyclistas, there was one other cyclist there. His name is Yuri and he was cycling south after starting in Peru, he is collecting footage for a travel documentary. After I had been there a couple of days, a group of French cyclists arrived. They were also heading south but had started in the United States. It was awesome to meet other cyclists, I have been in South America for 12 weeks already and these were the first cyclists I have met. This is probably my own fault for starting in the south of the continent during winter. I am really looking forward to meeting more of the community as I continue north.

New route and bike adjustments

Yuri actually suggested that I take the route that he had just completed. The route was through the edge of the Amazon, in Peru, Brazil and Bolivia. I’ll leave La Paz, taking the road of death down to the edge of the Amazon. Then up through the Bolivian Amazon to the Brazilian border. I’ll only be in Brazil for a short time before crossing the border into the Peruvian Amazon. The route is over 2000km long and looks like it will be really awesome. The only issue is that my bike has narrow road tyres, not fat off-road tyres. So while I was in the Casa de Cyclistas I took the opportunity to change my back tyre, taking one from Huong’s bike before she sold it. I haven’t managed to get a replacement front tyre yet. Hopefully I can find one before I leave La Paz. But first I need to cycle 550km from Uyuni to La Paz to start this route.

South America Blog Posts

Week 11 – Bikepacking Bolivia. Entering Bolivia and the Salar de Uyuni

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This we left Chile and crossed the border into Bolivia. The 48th country I have visited so far. The road from Calama over the border to Uyuni, takes you through some unbelievably beautiful landscapes. The road climbs high into the mountains, passing small villages and huge, snow capped mountains. The border was easy enough to cross. But we weren’t asked for any of the documents that we thought we would need. We just filled in a customs declaration form and got our passports stamped with our new visa. We read that we should have our vaccination certificates, health insurance and an onward ticket to leave Bolivia. We weren’t asked for any of these things. So we got back on the bus and continued through to Uyuni.

Arriving in Uyuni

The driver took a strange route to Uyuni. Instead of staying on the highway, he turned onto a side road that went through the desert. I have no idea why he did this, but the views were great. When we arrived in Uyuni I cut our packing boxes open and rebuilt the bikes in the street. Uyuni is not a nice town. It’s a desert town with nothing to really see or do except go to the Salt flats. We spent a day or so getting everything ready, washing laundry, stocking up of food and water, then we were set.

Camping in the Salar de Uyuni

Uyuni is located high in the mountains of Bolivia. The salar (salt flat) is the largest in the world, over 100,000 square kilometers. During the day time, the sun shines and it is quite warm. But at night time the temperature drops below freezing. We packed our bike and headed into the salar. We cycled out of town and onto the salt flat, cycling into the emptiness until we found a spot that we thought would work well. We set up the tent and cooked some food. It was a windy day, so even the sun shining down on us didn’t do much to increase the temperature. Our main reason to camp in the salar was to see the night sky. Being in a desert and high in the mountains, the night sky is so clear that it is one of the best places in the world to see the stars. This is why there are so many observatories in this region of the world.

A night below freezing

We rested in the tent until around 9 pm. This was half way between the sunset at 6pm and the moonrise at midnight. I got out of the tent and set up my camera. The temperature was below minus 5 and the cold wind blowing across the salar made it even more uncomfortable. I had to get my sleeping bag and wrap it around myself to give a little bit of protection. But each time I took a picture, I just wanted to take another to see if I could capture the sky better than before. It was a horrible situation to be in, but with the beauty of the sky above, it wasn’t too hard to forget the cold. In the morning, all the water bottles were frozen. We made some breakfast, waited until we were warm in the sun and then cycled back into town. Uyuni is a magical place, even if the town isn’t so nice. I would definitely recommend visiting this unique place if you ever get the chance. This is the last part of the trip that Huong will join me for. Starting next week we will be heading on our different routes to experience South America. I have an adventurous route planned to take me from Bolivia to Peru. But I will explain more about that next week.

South America Blog Posts

Weeks 9 & 10 – Bikepacking Chile. San Pedro de Atacama and getting ready to leave Chile.

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I started week nine by waking up with a hangover in a tent in the desert. The party had been great the night before, but now was the morning after. We packed up our things and headed back to Bahia Inglesa. We decided to stay there on a campsite for a few more days to relax and enjoy the beach. Bahia Inglesa has a beautiful beach with turquoise waters, but the water is super cold. We only stayed for a few days before we took a bus from Caldera to Calama. The night before we took the bus, we stayed in a very cheap hotel close to the bus station. This was so that I could carry our boxes to the station, but also so that I could carry them back again if we got rejected. This time we were lucky and the bus driver was very kind. He actually repacked the luggage that was already on the bus so that we could fit all our boxes into the storage area. It was such a relief and we were really looking forward to being able to cycle again without relying on buses.

Applying for a visa in Calama

Calama is close to the border with Bolivia in the north of Chile. It is also very close to the town of San Pedro de Atacama. To keep things simple, we checked into another cheap hotel near to the bus station. We stayed in Calama for a couple of days so that Huong could apply for a Bolivian visa at the consulate. We were really lucky because the day that we went to the consulate was also the anniversary of Bolivia’s independence. So there was an event being held where people were selling different Bolivian foods. It was a nice little window into what Bolivia might be like. The best thing was a non-alcoholic spiced peach cider called Mocochinchi. It has a taste similar to mulled wine because of the spices, but a refreshing peach taste too.

San Pedro de Atacama

San Pedro de Atacama is an expensive tourist destination. There are tours that take you to see the different sites in the desert around the town. To avoid these costs you can rent a car and visit the places on your own. So we posted in a Facebook group for backpackers in Chile and managed to find some people to rent a car with. There were five us in the car all together. We headed to San Pedro and visited a national park area called Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon). Personally, I think it would be better to call it the Martian Valley as the rocks are all red and remind me of the footage from Mars. It’s a really beautiful area, especially to view the sunset as the light highlights all the texture of the terrain.

Getting stuck in the desert

We also drove out to see the flamingos in a lagoon in the middle of the Salar de Atacama. Google maps lead us to a blocked road, so we asked some workmen for directions. They told us to take this dirt road so we headed off. Unfortunately the road they recommended was for a local back entrance to the lagoon and wasn’t really suitable for our rental car. We soon ended up bogged and stranded in the middle of nowhere. There were five of us in the car, but it took us a few hours to be able to get free. We weren’t pushing the whole time, we took some time to walk around taking pictures and also eat some lunch. When we finally got out, we went to see the flamingos but they weren’t so exciting after our afternoon in the salar (salt flats).

Preparing to leave Chile

San Pedro is a really cool looking little town. The buildings are all made from mud bricks so they look really rustic and match the desert location. It’s a really cool place to spend some time and there are some cheap food options if you look carefully enough. For example there are some local restaurants next to the football field in town where you can get a menu meal for less than 5 pounds.

We headed back to Calama and organised our final bus journey with the bikes. This time we were heading over the border from Chile into Bolivia. The woman in the bus station guaranteed that the bikes would be taken on the bus. She was so confident that she actually let us drop off the bikes the day before so that they could be packed like cargo. It was such a relief to have everything sorted and know that next week we would be starting a new adventure in a new country and back on our bikes.

South America Blog Posts

Weeks 7 & 8 – Bikepacking Chile. The difficulties of bikepacking when you can’t ride and the joys of partying in the desert.

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In my last blog post I talked about the wonderfully kind family that we stayed with while Huong was healing. What I didn’t get into was how difficult it was to leave. Not only because of how welcome they made us feel there, but also because we had all our stuff in boxes. Huong had healed enough that she didn’t need to go back to the clinic anymore. She bought some medical supplies and was able to clean and dress her knee on her own. Unfortunately, she wasn’t healed enough to ride yet and we were now way behind schedule. Actually, it’s not that we had a schedule, but we only have visas for 3 months and the border to Bolivia is a long way north.

From Bikepacking to Packing our Bikes

I don’t really class myself as a cyclist and I didn’t really class myself as a motorcyclist when I was travelling by motorbike either. I see myself more as a traveller. I just want to get to places and experience things. So I don’t mind if I take my bike on a truck or train, or even pack it on a bus to get where I am going. But the big problem with doing this, is all the boxes. When you ride the bike, all your bags are attached to it and it’s fairly easy to get around. But when the bike goes into a box, all your bags also need to go into boxes. It’s a real hassle. So I spent a bit of time on google and saw that a lot of people who cycled in Chile would take their bikes on the bus. They said it was simple. Just pack the bike in a box and book the bus ticket, then pay a small extra fee to the driver. This sounded so easy, but the reality was much different. During weeks 7 & 8 we took two bus journeys with the bikes. Both times we contacted the bus company, told them we had bicycles and booked our tickets. But on the morning that we were supposed to leave, the bus drivers rejected us and we couldn’t take the bus.

Our First Rejection

The first journey was as we left our wonderful host family in Cachagua. Maria-Jesus offered to drive us to the nearest city so that we could take the bus from La Ligua to La Serena. we had booked the tickets online after speaking to customer services. When we got to the station they actually loaded the bikes onto the bus. But then the driver came and told them to take the bikes off, then he just got on the bus and left us there. As I’m sure you can imagine, this was quite stressful in the moment. But Maria-Jesus helped us again. She spoke to a guy in the station who sells snacks. He told her that there is a place on the highway where buses stop to buy snacks from a friend of his. So we drove out onto the highway and waited with the snack seller. It didn’t take long for a bus to arrive. We spoke to the driver and he was happy to take us and the bicycles for payment in cash. We were so relieved and, as sad as I was to leave Cote and her family behind, it was nice to be moving again.

Working in La Serena

We arrived in La Serena and I spent some time working on my website and YouTube channel. I had accidentally left the charger for my new laptop at home when I took my flight to Chile. My parents helped by sending it to me. It was a 5-7 day delivery service, but when the package arrived in Santiago de Chile, it was delayed there for a month by customs. Luckily Byron, my first Couchsurfing host, helped me to pick it up and he shipped it to La Ligua. So I had just gotten it back before we got to La Serena. That is the reason that my blog and vlog posts have been delayed and I’m covering 2 weeks each week for now. La Ligua is a nice enough beach city, it has an old quarter that’s more inland and lots of hotels and restaurants by the beach. Their famous landmark is their lighthouse. After getting some work done in La Serena it was time to continue north.

Rejected Again

In La Serena we faced the same issue again. This time we booked with a different bus company and actually went to the station to buy the tickets. When we got there in the morning to take the bus, we were rejected again. We tried to replicate our last experience so we headed to the highway, but this time to a service station. We hung around for an hour or so, trying to thumb a lift with any truck that passed. We weren’t the only people hanging around the service station. There were immigrants who were trying to get to other cities and a guy who was selling USB drives full of music to passing drivers. Huong spoke to the music seller while I was attempting to thumb a lift. This actually turned out to be the solution to our situation. While he was walking around speaking to drivers, he found a guy who was driving an empty bus to the same city that we were heading to, Copiapo. We loaded the boxes into this old bus and headed north. From Copiapo we headed to the coast to a beach which is known as one of the most beautiful beaches in Chile, Bahia Inglesa.

An Awesome Weekend

In Bahia Inglesa we stayed with an awesome Couchsurfing host. Marcelo and his brother Mati are rock climbers and we arrived on a weekend when Marcelo was organising a regional competition. People came from neighbouring cities to take part. But it was open for everyone. Children took part in the morning and through the day there were different stages working their way up to the professionals. It was really fun to hang out there and I took some pictures and also some drone footage for them. But the best part was the evening. A whole load of people drove out to the desert for a party. We were drinking a popular Chilean party drink, Piscola. A mixture of Pisco (a sweet spirit from Chile/Peru) and Coca Cola. Then later in the night we had mulled wine cooked on the campfire. It was a really awesome night. We were actually the first people that Marcelo had ever hosted through Couchsurfing, but he was an awesome host. He and his brother are both really cool guys and I am really happy to have met them. Hopefully we will meet again somewhere down the road.