Hi All,
Blockades and a significant military presence greeted me as i woke Potisi this morning...
You can see the final climb/push i had to do on my bike to reach this friggin city in the sky :)
My last views of Potisi...the whole town is based upon mining the big hill in the background...today 20,000 of the 120,000 residents are miners...they have been mining that hill for silver since the 1500's...its like a big piece of Swiss cheese.
My first of five blockade I had to "chat" my way around...I was nervous as I'd heard they can can get pretty serious and stone folks that try and sneak by!
I didn't know if the blockades would let me pass but I did my very best to be charming and all 5 blockades between Potisi and Sucre let me walk my bike on through...
The blockaders were a friendly bunch (at least to me) and wanted me to play some football...
...and to do a bit of "friendly" boxing against there local studs....modesty and a late start prevented me from knocking one of these guys out ;)
All the other traffic was not so lucky and were stopped, with folks sleeping in or under buses or just giving up and trying to walk to their destination.
The ride was nice...the more I descended the more green the countryside got...I've pretty much had my fill of high desert :)
This part of Bolivia is at a complete stand still....frustrated locals and tourists hoping to make connections etc are stuck where they are until the strike/blockades are over....its good to be own my bike - I had tractically no traffic for 100miles of riding ;)
Here is one of the many excellent Tour de France type descents...a strong wind and heavy panniers made it more technical then i´d like...Neal doesn't really like techncial on the best of days :)
All in all it was a pretty demanding day... a late start (8:30am) and a nasty headwind had me pushing hard all day...also the bloody 1:250,000 topo map is a piece of garbage!....it certainly makes the trip look easier then it is....what small portion of my ride that looked flat was actually a section of huge rollers....climb 500ft....decent 500ft, repeat until you pass out :( There were many awesome decents (it began with a 45km decent!) and a couple of brutal 750+m (2500ft+) climbs....this just went on and friggin on!...but I "love" to climb...or so I say ;)
I got to Sucre at 7:30pm - 45 min after dark (again!) but it wasn't so bad....good roads and a bit of road lighting made the last 10km (all climbing about 600m total) not too bad....although the rain did put a damper on my spirits for a while. I rode through town and found the Hotel Sucre....US15/night and the place is awesome! Beautiful courtyard, rooms, showers, TV....I am thinking longterm :)
The wonderful Hotel Sucre...CNN (in English!), hot showers and a beautiful courtyard....my room is on the left.
I had a wonderful meal and drinks at the Joy Ride Cafe...one of the many very nice nightcubs/bars a short walk from my Hotel...I do like this place :)
I got to bed about 11:30pm...my bed was calling (read: screaming ) at me!
I hope everybody is doing great!
Cheers,
Neal
Blockades and a significant military presence greeted me as i woke Potisi this morning...
You can see the final climb/push i had to do on my bike to reach this friggin city in the sky :)
My last views of Potisi...the whole town is based upon mining the big hill in the background...today 20,000 of the 120,000 residents are miners...they have been mining that hill for silver since the 1500's...its like a big piece of Swiss cheese.
My first of five blockade I had to "chat" my way around...I was nervous as I'd heard they can can get pretty serious and stone folks that try and sneak by!
I didn't know if the blockades would let me pass but I did my very best to be charming and all 5 blockades between Potisi and Sucre let me walk my bike on through...
The blockaders were a friendly bunch (at least to me) and wanted me to play some football...
...and to do a bit of "friendly" boxing against there local studs....modesty and a late start prevented me from knocking one of these guys out ;)
All the other traffic was not so lucky and were stopped, with folks sleeping in or under buses or just giving up and trying to walk to their destination.
The ride was nice...the more I descended the more green the countryside got...I've pretty much had my fill of high desert :)
This part of Bolivia is at a complete stand still....frustrated locals and tourists hoping to make connections etc are stuck where they are until the strike/blockades are over....its good to be own my bike - I had tractically no traffic for 100miles of riding ;)
Here is one of the many excellent Tour de France type descents...a strong wind and heavy panniers made it more technical then i´d like...Neal doesn't really like techncial on the best of days :)
All in all it was a pretty demanding day... a late start (8:30am) and a nasty headwind had me pushing hard all day...also the bloody 1:250,000 topo map is a piece of garbage!....it certainly makes the trip look easier then it is....what small portion of my ride that looked flat was actually a section of huge rollers....climb 500ft....decent 500ft, repeat until you pass out :( There were many awesome decents (it began with a 45km decent!) and a couple of brutal 750+m (2500ft+) climbs....this just went on and friggin on!...but I "love" to climb...or so I say ;)
I got to Sucre at 7:30pm - 45 min after dark (again!) but it wasn't so bad....good roads and a bit of road lighting made the last 10km (all climbing about 600m total) not too bad....although the rain did put a damper on my spirits for a while. I rode through town and found the Hotel Sucre....US15/night and the place is awesome! Beautiful courtyard, rooms, showers, TV....I am thinking longterm :)
The wonderful Hotel Sucre...CNN (in English!), hot showers and a beautiful courtyard....my room is on the left.
I had a wonderful meal and drinks at the Joy Ride Cafe...one of the many very nice nightcubs/bars a short walk from my Hotel...I do like this place :)
I got to bed about 11:30pm...my bed was calling (read: screaming ) at me!
I hope everybody is doing great!
Cheers,
Neal
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