Day 97: La Paz to Potosi - Saturday February 12, 2011

We drove through fantastic scenery from a low of 11,000’ to a high of 14,250’; including 2 gigantic lakes with marshes, canyons galore like Utah and Colorado and tens of miles of terrain like our Painted Desert. At 13,000’+, the valleys had herd after herd of llamas. The houses in the country villages still had thatched roofs and were made of mud brick. Some of them were abandoned, perhaps to go to the city. It was all very scenic and a real treat. The people were very nice when we interacted with them.

Potosi is a colonial mining town. The bloom is off the silver and tin mining and the tourist trade is geared to young adventurers where a $4 a la cart meal is deemed pricey by the books. We are staying at El Colosio Hotel—Potosi’s 5 star hotel and have a magnificent view of the town and mountains beyond. We had an excellent dinner at Fogato – I had mixed greens and the Parillada. The sausages were our favorite. The town is very festive and full of people - this being Saturday night.

Note: Things are not always perfect, but a fine dinner seems to restore our positive attitudes – basically, that is what the Adventure is throwing at us. The perennial lack of information or disinformation of Latin America, particularly Bolivia, got the better of us today. Our travel agent didn’t know whether the road to Potosi was fully paved or still had 100 miles of dirt road, as was the case 10 years ago – he has not made this major trip in Bolivia and didn’t ask the hotel in Potosi when he made the reservations (nor are we sure they would have known!) The time estimate was 9-12 hours depending on whether it is raining or not. My AAA map and another showed a paved road. The map made in Bolivia was unclear. At the hotel, the Frenchmen gave a 9-hour estimate but were uncertain of pavement, not having taken the trip thus not knowing the effect of rain. My cautious companions like to play it safe based on a worst-case scenario rather than relying my “daring do” judgment. So we departed La Paz at 7AM, rather than our usual 9AM departure. There was also concern based on maps and books whether gas would be available for the car—today’s concern started when the tank was at half. Personally, I feel that there is no way the major route to a major city anywhere in the world wouldn’t have gas every 90 miles based on my experience in the deepest Sahara Desert 30 years ago. We arrived unnecessarily tired and hungry which does not make for happy campers.

The Dark Side: The lack of information, etc. was very difficult. We arrived at our hotel at Potosi at 2:30 PM with 4 more hours of daylight left (in 7 ½ hours). The road turned out to be fully paved and in fair to excellent condition all the way. There were 3 gas stations in the town we thought was our last chance, when our range was still 100 miles on the car computer (before a 3 gallon reserve hits) and there were more on the way that were not listed. As a result, we spent ½ hour waiting in line at the first gas station we saw.

As the great Napoleon said, an army marches on its stomach. When I am outside my habitat, I like a consistent morning routine: wake up at 7, breakfast at 8 and depart at 9. The erroneous information disturbed all 3 of us.

The air quality in Bolivia is the worst so far. The old buses, trucks, and old beaters, in that order, are poison spewing machines. Even Porsche’s recirculating system is no match to those fumes. “Diesel cough” is the result.

In short, information inadequacy (verbal, signage and maps) and vehicle fumes are the dark side. I don’t like but expect occasional poor road quality and inner city traffic jams. The fact that the roads in South and Central America are often better than they used to be needs to be more widely known. The border crossings in South America are smooth – nothing like the Central American nightmares.