Oruro to La Paz

On Tuesday, 12 March, I left Oruro to begin the trip to La Paz. I know that there was accommodation in Caracollo, only 37km from Oruro, and for sure in Patacamaya, more or less 130km from Oruro – clear a bit too far.

I left at 8:45m, and the road to Caracollo went through the altiplano, and was really pretty flat (although at 3800m). And so I arrived at Caracollo at 10:45am – clearly too early to look for accommodation. I had a lemonade and decided to continue, without knowing where along the road there would be accommodation.

After Caracollo the road went a bit more up and down, and so I cycled a bit slower. I arrived to the village of Panduro – 30km from Caracollo and almost 70km from Oruro – at about 1pm, but couldn't find any accommodation. I had a break and then continued. After another more than 30km I arrived to Sica Sica, another small village on the road to La Paz. I was now quite tired – I had done 107km at altitudes between 3800-4000m – and at first I had another lemonade. I asked about accommodation, and they told me that yes, there is something. I went to the indicated accommodation, but there they told me no, but that there would be something on the other side of the road. I went a bit desperate to the other side, but there they told me at first that they were doing works. In the end I was able to convince them that I really needed accommodation, and they gave me a room. Finally, I could rest, and I did so extensively.

Sica Sica is a small village, with few things of interest to tourists. But there is a quite old church, and the main square and quite large. I had a walk through the village, and for dinner I went to an extremely small restaurant for another meal of eggs, rice, and potatoes...

The following day I woke up earlier, to continue on the way to La Paz. I cycled the first 25km up to Patacamaya, and I could feel that my legs were still quite tired from the effort of the day before. I had a coffee and thought about what to do. In the end I decided to take a coach or minibus to La Paz, because the weather forecast was also not the best – rain and thunderstorms.

In the end I took a minibus to El Alto. During the trip by minibus I could see that because of road works the road wasn't in the best state – and I was glad I wasn't cycling.

I got off at the terminal of El Alto, and went by bike via the motorway from El Alto to La Paz – 10km of descend, with good views over La Paz.

I looked for accommodation in La Paz, a bit on the margin of the gringo trail, not to be in the centre of tourism, but sufficiently near to make use of the infrastructure.

When I unloaded my luggage from my bike I could see that the rack on the back was broken – what a pain. I went to several bicycle shops, but none had a rack. I also sent a text message to a bike shop I had found on the internet, but they didn't have one either. There were no racks for bicycles in La Paz.

Luckily, I have a friend in London as point of contact, especially for emergencies. I sent her an email, and she bought a rack for my bike in the same shop in London that also had prepared my bike for the long trip, and sent it via courier service to La Paz. They told her that it should arrive on Monday. I am waiting...

Today I had a walk through the centre of La Paz, up to the parliament. Then I went to the Coca Museum, which was interesting, although it could do with some updating. I went to an Indian restaurant for lunch, and then returned to the hotel to write a little bit, and to do some other stuff on the internet.