12mph through the Andes: Onwards into cowboy country

The route south from the Salar took me to Uyuni. It's a small touristy town filled with Italian themed restaurants, and little charm or local character. I made a brief stop to get fed and to stock up on supplies. None of the shops sell bread. They all sell Pringles though. The bread sellers come to the market in the evening and I got a big bag of heart shaped bite-sized rolls to supliment my supplies. Suitably stocked up, I set off for Atocha the next morning.

The road to Atocha is very bumpy. There is a secondary road that parallels the worn and bumpy asphalt main road every few km, when the main road gets particularly bumpy. The second road has been created by the trucks and jeeps that have opted to drive on the dry earth at the side of the asphalt. It is much smother than the asphalt, but has deep sandy sections which the bike sinks into and needs some hard pushing to get the 40 odd kilo bulk through. It's a tough choice between the two roads but the sandy option was mostly quicker and I stuck with that for most of the way. There were some very bumpy asphalt sections, with no alternative route through the land to the side, which left the fingers tingling for extended periods.

I camped out on the way to Atocha at around 4,200m. The view over the rolling altiplano there was beautiful and much prefferred to dwelling in the town centre.

After Atocha, Tupiza was the next town south on the map. The route to Tupiza from Atocha started with a cycle along the dry river bed. That was very sandy and tough going. 5km along or so, and the riverbed met with the road to Tupiza and that was refreshingly solid and reasonably smooth. My speed went up from 4km per hour to 12km per hour - not tarmac speed but progress could be felt.

30-10-2010 The sandy scenery on the road to Atocha