Bolivia

Apologies first of all for not having posted anything for two weeks. As predicted, I haven't been on the bike since leaving Chile, but it has been an obligatory break rather than an optional one. As you may remember, at the time of writing the last post I was about to embark on a three day jeep tour through the Salar de Uyuni and into Bolivia. And embark I did. Unfortunately, our guide (well, I say guide, he was little more than a driver, and other than a lengthy description of the wonders of the area after he'd had a few too many on our first evening, he barely said much) was a little over-zealous when strapping Toops to the roof rack on the second day and bent the rear derailleur hanger. This basically means that the gears don't work as they should, and to try and cycle through Bolivia with limited gears is foolish to say the least, sufficed to say that the words "Shit Creek" and "Wire Canoe" spring to mind.

Of course, it's unfair to blame the guide for it, because I should have either been overseeing or strapped it in myself, but you live and you, painfully and frustratingly, learn. There is a silver lining to all this though, and that is that since the jeep tour I have had to bus around as other lowly backpackers do and have probably met more people in the last two weeks than I have since starting. Around the time I got to Argentina, I had given up hope reconciling the bike experience with the infintely more social travelling experience, so it has been a pleasant surprise to find myself in this situation. Still, I'm very glad of the fact that I can't wait to get to La Paz tomorrow and get Toops fixed so I can get back on the road as soon as possible.

So, there's your update, sorry it's a bit scant on information. Hopefully I will have a chance to upload photos and write a bit more about where I have been when I'm in La Paz this week.

Farewell Chile (again...)

Apologies for not having written in a while, the reason for it is that I haven't been on the bike since Jujuy. I crossed into San Pedro de Atacama last thursday, this time by bus though - it would have taken me at least 3 days to do it by bike, probably 4, carrying water and food. Plus, given that a fair bit of the pass is at 4500m plus the chances of getting altitude sickness were good to likely, so a bit risky to do it on my own. Of course, I cursed my cowardice as I looked out of the bus window, but that's to be expected.

San Pedro de Atacama is the tourist gateway to the Atacama desert, and fittingly, there seems to be little else here other than restaurants, hotels and tour companies. Nonetheless, the authorities strive to maintain the decidedly Andean culture and, to this end, have banned dancing (yes, dancing) in public places and throughfares. How dancing, and not the myriad of pizza houses and cafés that are allowed, would diminish the local culture is totally beyond me. It's not as if the village pre-columbine civilisations used to sit down and discuss the vagaries of alpaca rearing over a hot slice and a de-caf capuccino.

Still, Bolivia tomorrow. I had hoped to cross on the so-called train of death that used to run between Calama and Uyuni, but after being reliably informed (or rather, unreliably informed numerous times and then being reliably informed) that it didn't run, I am now crossing over on 3 day jeep tour and getting to see a fair bit of Southern Bolivia before being dropped off at Uyuni, so it's in fact probably better than the original plan.

No, I'm not crossing into Bolivia by bike either; if the crossing from Jujuy would have been risky to do on my own, then this one is reckless verging on suicidal. In fact, there's a good chance I may not be able to get back on the bike until La Paz (combination of bad and dangerous roads and lack of population centres). Until then I will keep you posted as to my meanderings, but it's the bike that makes it worth writing for me so don't expect much.

I have put more photos up by the way, these have been on facebook for a week so most of you may have seen them already. It's the same album as last time, you'll find them at the end.