High Plains Drifting... Or La Paz to Oruro

Had a lovely day off exploring La Paz, doing a bit of shopping and checking out the ex-pat pubs in search of cider.  There's not a lot in terms of land mark tourist sights.  The hotel we stayed in was fairly centrally located so a lot of the things we needed were an easy walk away.

The climb out of the canyon that La Paz sits at the bottom of is over 500m.  Seeing as how we were only retracing our steps from on the way down, we cried off the 2 hours of hard work that cycling out would have entailed, and caught a taxi back to were we started the decent from.

After all the ups, downs, rain and wind of the last month, the ride to Oruro was essentially 230km of flat straight road.   So fast but sooooo boring!  The desolate altiplano stretched for miles to the horizon.  It might have been the kind of desolated isolation that could have inspired had it not been for the constant passing of trucks and coaches about 2 foot from your left shoulder.  Luckily we managed to avoid any actual contact with several tons of metal long enough to reach Oruro.

  

The road to Oruro

The first day out of La Paz, we reached the town of Patacamaya.  Which offered a choice of none too salubrious accommodation for the night.  In it's defence, the cost was about 3 quid.  But, as they say, you get what you pay for.  I was a bit worried when we went to the restaurant downstairs and I was told that I couldn't have a beer if I was staying in the hostel.  I guess there may have been some problems in the past.

Patacamaya

The second day into Oruro was a longer than average.  75 miles.  We were in two minds when we set out whether to do this trip in two or three days.  In the end, it was the lack of (open) accommodation along the way that made us decide to go for the extra mileage.

Oruro is apparently the folklore capital of Boliva.  There are a number of big festivals that occur throughout the year, and some interesting art on the way into town.  Unfortunately, it just goes to prove that that you can have all the culture you want.  If the side of the street is covered in dust and rubbish, then your town is still going to appear down at heal.  Anyhow, we are off to investigate to see if there is any more to this town than first impressions suggest.

Welcome to Oruro

Having looked on the web, the unsealed road between here and Sucre could be one of the hardest of trip so far.  Only, 210 miles.  It should take us about six days.  Let's hope so.  Looking forward to having Christmas in comfort.