• Andean Geotrail Blog (In English)
  
• Fat Cyclist
  
• Our Long Haul Honeymoon
  
• The Andean Geotrail
  
• The Andean Geotrail Blog (In French)
  
• Up In Alaska
  
• Walking the Andes (In French)
  
• Ze Movers (In French)
  

Sweet Rides

By Chris Thompson - 2009-10-19

Finding yourself at 4,000+ meters, it is often the case that you will find oneself coasting downhill. As we left the twisting warrens of Potosi, we found out how true that can be. We started near the top of some high rolling grassland just outside of the city, buzzing past a sleepy power plant, and a bus stopped at a highway checkpoint. As we rode by, the colorfully dressed women and children selling snacks alongside the checkpoint laughed and waved at us. Soon, the descent began in earnest, and we quickly lost some altitude, and gained a lot of scenery. The rolling grasslands began to be punctuated with tortured ridges of rock, cutting through the earth.

As the sun went down, we realized we would have to cut short our joy-ride, and start looking for a nice spot to bivouac. Spotting a nice field between hamlets, we started to pull the bikes across patches of grass and rock that pass as fields in Bolivia. As the rest of the guys complained about my choice of campsites, we began to clear away the metric ton of small rocks that littered our campsite. By the time it was dark, we were huddled around the camp-stove, waiting for our pasta to boil.

The next day found us following a river valley down towards Sucre. The unlimited downhill had seemingly come to a halt. Occasionally, a series of terrifyingly fast and tight switchbacks would provide us with a few minutes of terror.

Mostly, it was an idyllic pedal through agrarian Bolivia. We encountered the occasional sheep herd, overlooked by tiny, anciently wrinkled matriarchs and a young waif, both of them hurling stones at the sheep with little slings, keeping the woolly beasts in line. From the high planes, we descended into lush river valleys, spending the night camped out on a dry river bed (and hoping it didn’t rain!) We few ups and downs later, and we rolled into, and pedaled up into, Sucre!