Friday, February 18

We had one of our better breakfasts in a long time to start the day. Since entering Peru the typical breakfast everywhere was coffee, juice, and some rolls with butter and jelly. Today we had a vegetable omelette, which judging from the flavor, was cooked in pork lard. A strange but tasty combination.

We rode south under another amazing Altiplano sky. The blue is so deep and vivid, and the puffy white cumulous clouds float unusually low to the earth. I almost felt like I was in a room with a low ceiling and needed to duck my head.

We rode to the town of Oruru, a mining town that in its day was the most important source of tin in the world, where we were greeted by fantastic sculptures. The main entrance traffic circle had at its center a platform with a sculpture of the town’s patron virgin, but going in and out of the ground leading up to it was a huge serpentine dragon. Past the circle, the center median was lined with whimsical, out of this world metal sculptures. It was so unexpected in what was an otherwise drab and cheerless town. We topped off our tanks, picked up a quart of oil, and headed south.

We arrived in Huari, but the gas station said no gas until Tuesday. We had been expecting this to happen sooner or later, and now we were really going to have to work to stay fueled. After a bit of the usual misdirection in town, we were on the dirt road leading south out of town.

We were expecting not to see a paved road again for many days, and were surprised when we looked 5 ft to our right and saw a pristine blacktop. We were baffled as to why we weren’t on it and why it was empty. We maneuvered a bit through the dirt and soon had a road to ourselves. The joy of 60 mph didn’t last for long, as a huge pile of dirt lay across the width of the roadway a mile down the road. With more maneuvering, we got around it, but another mile later it was blocked again, more thoroughly. We gave up and got back onto the dumpy dirt road. It’s strange that they would pave a road and then block it. Even if it’s not finished why not use what’s already there?

We came to a small village, and found the only store. We asked for gas and paid an outrageous price for 20 liters to split between us. The managing lady did the suction to start the siphon while I held the gas can high above the bikes. A funnel would have been much easier.

The old man at the store had given us good advice on the river crossing, and we rode across a concrete spillway and back down the river to the main dirt road. At the road’s crossing, we could see a stuck car and truck, so thanks, señor. We were soon riding again in a straight line of a dirt road, south across the grasslands of the altiplano. Llamas were grazing along the side of the road and paid us little attention until the last moment. The vicuñas we saw were much more skittish and ran away quickly when they saw us. Temperamentally llamas are like domesticated cows and vicuñas are like deer, wild animals.

The road became worse as we went south. There were small patches of sand, but the main difficulty was in the corrugation of the road. Stretches of intense corrugation could vibrate the fillings out of your teeth. As much as it hurt the body, we felt great pity for our poor bikes. Everything was getting a good shaking and vibration. My license plate fell off at one point, but fortunately Inna saw it come off and stopped to pick it up. I noticed that the famously high quality Kawasaki rubber had failed and my right turn signal was dangling by the wire.

We had been skirting rain to the east of us all afternoon and were given the treat of seeing a double rainbow once the sun had poked through the cloud cover. We stopped for a moment to take in the rare site.

This was a different kind of riding than we were used to thus far. Our focus was on the next 50 ft of road for sand and other obstacles, and we had to make a conscious effort to look up every now and then at the scenery to our right and left. We rode and vibrated along for a few hours and realized there was no way we were going to make Uyuni before dark. The sun was setting so we stopped to enjoy it. The sun reflected intensely golden light off the clouds overhead as darkness fell around us. It was a magnificent site, but also sobering in that we had miles to go in the dark and we were in the middle of nowhere.

Fortunately for us, this last section of the road was in good shape for a Bolivian road. There was little sand to accompany all of the teeth rattling corrugation. We finally arrived in the somewhat dumpy town of Uyuni. Our first stop was the gas station to top off the tanks. We searched for a hotel, were refused service at our first choice, and ended up staying in the hostel.

The room was small and could barely fit our unpacked luggage, but it was a room and we were exhausted. Parked in the courtyard was a BMW 650, and a Honda Africa Twin. We soon ran into the owners, the Africa Twin belonging to a Swiss/South African couple, Martin and Lauren. Pedro, from Spain, had met them on the road south and they were travelling this segment together. We chatted for a bit and promised to meet in the morning. We’d skipped lunch today, and decided we’d rather sleep than go to dinner.