What a difference a day makes! We woke early to a glorious sunrise over Lake Titicata, with snow on the distant mountains. The first challenge of the day was getting out of Puna which is an ugly, chaotic place, or at least we thought the traffic was bad but nothing compared to La Paz, more of which later. Then we had a 120k blast to the first time section, 20 kms of gravel road up and down a mountain , with a bonus wonderful view of the lake from the top.
Then it was off to the border crossing into Bolivia which we were dreading, based on our 8 hour experience getting into Peru. Peter had met a reporter from The Daily Telegraph in the bar at our hotel last night, he had joined the rally for the last leg and he wanted to interview us and look at the car, we thought the border post would be a good time to do it. Fame at last, as we imagined a full colour article in the Saturday Motoring section! It turned out it was the Dutch Telegraph, ugh!
However the rally organizers had done a great job with the paperwork the night before and we sailed through the border in about 15 minutes and it was off to the beach at Copacabana (no relation) a holiday resort on the side of the lake. It was a fabulous domestic tourist resort, very pretty, perhaps a bit like Mallorca 75 years ago, not a Sunseeker in sight!
Then it was off to the Pucanari race circuit fo a handling and manoeuvrability test, up a spectacular mountain road with views down to Titicata on both sides, absolutely stunning. The only problem was that we had to cross the straights of Tiquina, about 800m across, to get there. Our transport was a fleet of ramshackle old wooden rafts which could take 2 cars at a time. We drove on using some wooden planks and the driver pushed us off before starting the motor. Then there ensued an edgy 10 minutes while he tried to start the outboard motor as we drifted gently off down wind. Anyhow he got it going and we chugged across to the other side. Another great experience.
On a less enjoyable note we then had to pick our way through the traffic into La Paz. As everybody knows La Paz is the worlds highest capital city, but at 3660m it was the lowest we had been for a couple of days. There are 2.3 million inhabitants and, I promise you, they were all out on the streets this evening. The place is mad, there are no discernible traffic rules, it's every man for himself. Nobody takes any notice of the traffic lights, taxis stop anywhere they please, pedestrians just walk across the road without a care. Never seen anything like it.
Ou hotel, predicably, is in a quieter and lower part of the city, a brand new round glass and stainless job, very comfortable indeed. The Stephenson / Robinson suite has two huge beds, an office, and a relaxation area. it is of course round. As I type away Peter is feeding the waypoints into the GPS with his feet up drinking an ice cold Huari beer and eating a packet of Pringles. Not so bad in Bolivia then.
PS Rather than bore you with all the terrible parts of this torturous journey, how we suffer for our readers, the six o'clock starts, the
hours spent fixing the car, the incredible mileages, the blood sweat and tears, the fights to use the loo first thing in the morning etc etc, we just save you the good bits...
No comments:
Post a Comment