Dropped Harrys bike off at the Kawasaki shop to get repaired. Sounds
simple but this involved riding across the La Paz maize of certain doom for
motorcyclists. The push and shove give way rules are magnified by the volume of
traffic with this being the main city of Bolivia. We rode down into the depths
of La Paz dropping quite a bit of altitude in the process. Eventually we found
the place after numerous false starts and rapidly executed u-turns. It looks
like it will take at least 24 hours to repair so Geert organized a rental bike
for Harry to continue on, a Suzuki DR650. This was dropped of by the rental
company then we dropped the Rental guy back at his part of town which was a
long way back up the hill, then continued out of La Paz headed for the pass to
Coroico.
We climbed through about 1000m altitude within the city we felt,
then a further 500m to the pass. The pass is at 4700m and is very alpine with
snow roadside, and impressive mountains rising all around. There was a camp of
people staying in tents at the pass for some reason, drying chilies or some
such thing in the sun, not really what you expect to see at this altitude.
Across the pass and we began the decent. We stopped to look at the view after
about 2km and the scenery is very impressive with steep cliffs dropping into
the alpine valley. The road is excellent considering the extremes that it must endure.
Americans built this road over about 20 years apparently. Through a couple of
police stops and through a couple of tunnels and we stopped again to look at
another view, this time of green bush covered mountains, the first greenery we
have seen since leaving NZ. The road has cut across cliffs and very steep
country and clouds have been blowing up the cliffs and curling over onto the
road creating a surreal atmosphere. Off we went again and the road just
continued going down and down. Periodically slips had damaged the surface and
the surface was either under repair or had been repaired with cobblestones, so
we had to keep our wits about us. Down, down, down, we could gradually sense a
return in power in the motorbike engines and in our bodies. I became aware of
how easily I was breathing, and how much stronger I felt. Eventually the road
leveled off at 1000m with tropical rainforest vegetation now dominated, much
warmer temperature and Bananas. We have gone from Lama to Banana. A loss of
3700m altitude in about 50km!
We regrouped after the next police check point and decided to push
on to Coroico, about another half an hour. Back up we went on the opposite side
of the valley this time on rough shingle and it was great to feel the power
back in the bikes. Harry obviously had a surge of Bogan energy on his black
Suzuki and passed with wheel spinning and throwing up gravel and rock. The road
transitioned onto another cobblestone road that continued up the hill to
Coroico. What a huge amount of work it must be to make these cobble stone
roads, with an inlaid pattern of larger rocks laid perpendicular, lining the
way up the hill, amongst the predominantly linear rock pattern. We fueled up
then headed up through the town, which is a small place, and then up on a final
steep street to our hotel. This hotel has a fantastic view back towards the new
and the old road to La Paz with the steep valleys covered in lush vegetation,
and the magnificent mountains in the background. It is easy to see why
mountaineers come to the Andes to challenge themselves, the mountains are awe
inspiring, steep rough and very high.
A welcome relaxing afternoon with beer in hand, enjoying the view,
and a plunge in the swimming pool.
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