Bolivia

After a 2 day crossing of Paraguay and 8 hours bumping through "El Chaco", a mule nearly runs us off the road. Our hearts are pounding as we wind through pigs, sheep and finally hit pavement in Villamontes, Bolivia. But the first hotel has a pool, a huge hot shower and a large garden. We have no idea of what else this town has to offer, but we decide to stay an extra night and rest!

This first experience in Bolivia turns up many surprises. The girl in the spare parts shop impresses Enric with her vast knowledge of parts, and then offers to exchange my dollars to Bolivianos. "In order to make money, we try to cram as many businesses into one," she tells me. She is right. The girl across the street runs a shop for woman: hair salon, depilation, diets, lingerie, photography and supplements!

In our hotel, we meet a man from Santa Cruz, our next destination. "I suggest you get an early start tomorrow," he suggests. "Santa Cruz is a beautiful city, and you want to have time to enjoy it."

What he did not tell us is that there is a 150 km stretch of road between Villamontes and Santa Cruz that is dirt. And it rained that night. And rain and dirt make mud. We spent 6 hours navigating sunken impressions made by the wheels of semis, skidding in sludge, looking for harder ground and finding none. The indicator on Enric's GPS that traces the path we make never seemed to move. While Enric held tightly to the handlebars, I practiced good posture - for 6 hours. We did manage to fall 4 times.... my puny arms did not do a lot to help pick up the bike, but the very wide side bags prevented us from falling all the way over, and a local Bolivian wading through the mud helped out too.

The mud ended with a triumphant crossing of a one lane bridge that was the train bridge as well! And just when we thought that Bolivia really was undeveloped, we roll into Santa Cruz de los Andes and find ourselves in the middle of a large Spanish style plaza - full of people, and music - a cultural festival. The streets are lined with cafés, restaurants.

Would you believe that after a quick shower, we were out in the middle of it all? On a roadtrip, these are the precious moments of "getting to know a place". On our way out of town, we discover an interesting gas station strategy. The attendants at the local GasEx are all tight yellow halter top clad women with long flowing hair. Now I think that this is quite an impressive marketing strategy.

In just three days, we cross the three regions of Bolivia - tropics (and heat) in Villamontes, to the high plains of Cochabamba (2500 m/8000ft), to the Andes - where again I have to put on the warm weather wear - we are at 3500 m (12000 ft).

La Paz is another story completely, and you could feel as if you had entered another country. Descending into the city from the plains is like descending into a vast bowl of craziness. "This city is chaos," Enric keeps saying. Because there is not a single flat point in the entire city, and every tiny road winds up or down - more than in San Francisco! Streets are jammed with women and men in traditional clothing selling everything from plastic tubes to bananas. No one has cars, but nonetheless, the roads are jammed - semis heading out of town, and vans for the locals that ride up and down the streets with someone always screaming out the window - "Come with us, we are heading to Cochabamba" or "2 Bolivianos - a ride to Titicaca".

Titicaca and Copacabana (the Bolivian version) make our last stop en route to Peru.