I lost my appetite the last couple of weeks in Bolivia due to very little variety in the local countryside cuisine. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were very often the same: a soup and then rice with either meat or chicken. Sometimes with yucca (in the lowlands) or corn. And I didn’t have a great number of options from the small stores when I cooked myself either. I started to sleep badly and just didn’t have much energy in general. However, coming to Peru was such a pleasure!

When travelling like this, the big (and sometimes obsessive) focus on food becomes very tangible. The Peruvian food is the best I’ve encountered so far! I’ve been eating smoked salmon salad, Turkish kebab, ceviche (raw fish marinated in lime/lemon juice), Chinese food, olive squid, guinea pig (!), fresh yoghurt, carrot and cardamom cake with cream cheese, mmmm… After talking so much about food, I just realized that I don’t have any photos to share since I’ve been so busy eating it.

I cycled on the altiplano for some days before descending down to Peru’s second largest city Arequipa, where I revisited the spa El Paraiso where we used to hang out in 2006. Then I continued down towards the Pacific Ocean and I can’t tell you how happy I was to see the sea (and eat fish)! I camped on the beaches every night, falling asleep to the repetitive sound of breaking waves.

Cycling on the Pan-American Highway along the coast has been easy. I’ve had a slight tailwind and it’s much more flat than up in the mountains, so I’ve been averaging over 100 km’s per day. The landscape has been arid and desert-like, but the soil in the valleys is very fertile and I’ve seen all kinds of plantations: olive trees, cotton fields, oranges, mandarins, fruit bearing cacti, strawberry fields, carrots, pumpkins, sugarcane, corn, bananas, apples and avocados! It’s winter here at the moment, and the coast is constantly covered in low clouds or fog, so the photo opportunities have unfortunately been few.

One of the biggest tourist attractions in this part of Peru is the UNESCO World Heritage Site called The Nazca Lines. These are ancient geoglyphs believed to be created between 400 and 650 AD. The geoglyphs represent figures like spiders, monkeys, birds etc, or just simple lines. No one knows the purpose behind the figures, and several different theories exist. What mostly confuses the archeologists is how they managed to make the figures so exact (some can span nearly 270 m), when not being able to see them from above. You have to fly over the area to see it properly, but there was a viewpoint tower next to the road where you could see a couple of figures.

After Nazca, I came to Huacachina, which is a small oasis in the desert outside of Ica. This desert is full of huge sand dunes where you can do dune buggy rides and sand boarding. A beautiful place!

I came to Lima after having covered over 1,000 km’s in 10 days since I left Arequipa. The traffic in Lima (which has about 9 million inhabitants) was absolutely crazy, but I made it alive and found a nice hostel! I stayed 5 nights and was very happy about seeing Jenny and her sister before they returned back home. Next up is the mountains at Huaraz, possibly one of the highlights of Peru!

Exactly one month ago, I left the mine town Potosí and started to descend the Andes together with Brian. It was such a nice feeling to get more oxygen, see a greener landscape and smell flowers etc! Brian wanted to stay in Sucre so I continued on my own towards Santa Cruz. There was a lot of construction going on on the road and not really much to see, but the people outside of the altiplano were more talkative and open minded!

In Samaipata, I met the American cyclist Tim who lives in Colombia. We continued together to Santa Cruz the following day, and this was when Bolivia (and many other countries in South America) experienced a cold that they haven’t had in over 30 years! In Santa Cruz, which is on an elevation of 400 m, it was only 6 degrees and I had to wear my down jacket! Several people had even died from the extreme weather in the region. Despite the weather I was glad to spend a few resting days after having covered 16 bus hours in 6 cycling days. I did a few practical things in Santa Cruz like repairing my shoes (again) and trying to fix my derailleur that keeps on malfunctioning, but the mechanic didn’t have a clue about it. I also bought a pair of Converse shoes, an extra weight that I’ve been missing a lot, haha!

When I continued cycling it was normal temperature again (around 30 degrees) and I was excited about seeing some of the tropics. However, outside Santa Cruz it was just dry land with cattle, strong side winds and trucks that didn’t show any respect. By the time I had my second near-death experience by almost getting run over by a truck, I decided to call it a day. I met a friendly family that lived at a road toll who invited me to eat duck, and they explained that the nature and traffic will be the same for about 200 km’s more. This wasn’t really my intention by doing this detour, so after a few hours of trying I managed to flag down a truck for a hitch. The bumpy ride lasted for about 6 hours but it was actually quite fun to lie and watch the stars in the tropical night, contemplating about life in general from the back of the dirty truck bed.

I continued cycling from Guarayos, where the landscape was much more attractive and the road less busy. The first day, I spotted monkeys, parrots, snakes, a scorpion and a capybara. I also noticed another species (of humans) called Mennonites. This group is similar to Amish and can be found in colonies all over the world. They all wear the same type of clothes and strive to work with agriculture in a very primary way, for example using donkeys to pull and wheels of iron. I also passed by a volunteer refuge for rescued animals where I got a guided tour around the facilities. The same night, I camped at a family’s house and they told me local stories about anacondas and jaguars. In this area, there are also poisonous sting rays and electric eels, but I still swam in the rivers just like the locals. The family’s dog had recently been bitten by a snake and I swear I’ve never seen a dog that skinny. It had lost its appetite completely and was facing a sure death. The following morning, we went with horse and cart to check out their ”chaco” where they grew yucca and rice for consumption but also for sales when the times were good.

After Trinidad, I crossed Río Mamoré with a boat and stayed with another lovely family who were fishermen. I played with the children in the river for over two hours and swam with dolphins! It was very hot that night, 31 degrees in the tent at 8pm..!

The following day I got to experience REAL mud due to a heavy rainfall during the night. The whole situation was actually quite funny. The road workers were laughing at me when I took off the mud guards to prepare for some muddy cycling. I told them that I was a strong Swedish Viking who were gonna make it, despite the fact that a bus was stuck diagonally on the road ahead, and two heavily loaded trucks behind me were spinning. Well, I think I only got about 5 meters until I had a lump as big as a coconut stuck on my front brakes. It was absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to continue since the wheels locked! The only way I could go on was by lifting the front and let the back just slide on the side. Eventually, after laughing my way through the mud for a while, I realized the need for another truck ride.

Fortunately, the road had dried up the next day and I did almost 140 km’s! But when it’s not muddy on these kind of roads, it’s definitely gonna be dusty:

My last destination in the lowlands was Rurrenabaque, Bolivias tourist destination located at Río Beni just below the Andes and at the beginning of the Amazon. I didn’t do much in Rurre except for a disappointing 2-day fishing trip where we spent more time searching for worms than on fishing. And the guide didn’t even bring something to dig with except for the machete! I got bitten by a 100 mosquitoes and on top of that traumatized by seeing a dog being eaten alive by fly larvae in a huge infected wound on its back. Anyway, it was nice with some days off the bike just reading in a hammock and drinking cold beer.

As I often get excited by routes by just looking at the topography and satellite photos, I really wanted to cycle north from Ixiamas to Puerto Heath, and then cross into Peru with a boat on Río Madre de Dios. This road, crossing the biologically diverse national park Madidi, was shown on my map. It also existed on the Bolivian Road Ministry’s map, but not on the Military Institute’s (IGM). Some people from other villages had told me that they were logging trees in the area and that cattle had been taken all the way to Puerto Heath. Other’s said there is no such road. When I reached Rurre I asked around but the only response I got was that a tractor managed to pass there 6 years ago. Bummer! I had to turn back towards the altiplano and La Paz.

It turned out that the road going up the Andes was extremely muddy as well so I had to hitchhike for some parts. One of rides I got was with some happy local artisans that went from festival to festival selling handicraft. They played an old cassette tape with Modern Talking on repeat for 7 hours while a bottle of whisky was passed around. On top of that a semi-drunk driver and muddy, steep roads… Crazy! Luckily, the vehicle was decorated with a “God Save Us”-sticker.

A popular backpacker activity in La Paz is to cycle the World’s Most Dangerous Road, aka The Death Road, almost pure downhill from La Cumbre at 4,650 m down to Yolosa at 1,200 m. I did this when I was here on my last trip and it was great fun! This time I decided to cycle it uphill It is a very scenic road but unfortunately it was all covered in clouds this time with less than 30 m visibility. But that didn’t stop me from covering 2,200 m vertical the first day! I met about 100 cyclists on the way and they all had very funny expressions on their faces when they saw me coming in the opposite direction. I was afraid that the second day would be very hard considering the altitude and one month in the lowlands, but my body had remembered my previous acclimatization surprisingly well and I didn’t have any problems to reach the top. In total, the climb was 3,450 m vertical so the downhill on the other side was a nice reward and I reached a new top speed – 78 km/h!

Through SummitPost, I got in touch with the renowned mountain guide Eduardo Mamani Quispe from Bolivian Mountain Guides in La Paz, (+59171957404, eduardo@bolivianmountainguides.com). He is a certified IFMGA guide, and after getting an introduction of what he could offer us, we didn’t hesitate for a second, but agreed upon leaving two days later! Their office in La Paz provided us with all the necessary equipment like plastic boots, crampons, ice axe and gaiters.

It takes 4 hours by car to reach the village of Sajama from La Paz. The radiator broke on the way but was fixed by a local welder in Patacamaya, so we got there a bit late. After a quick lunch we then started hiking up towards the base camp at 4,800 m. Two mules helped us with the food, fuel and common equipment. This first day’s 1.5 hour trek went through a small valley and we had the mountain’s vertical west face in front of us all the time. On the way, we saw the famous polylepis trees that on this particular place constitute the highest forest in the world. The base camp is situated just in front of the base of the mountain, and we had natural springs that provided us with water. I didn’t sleep very well this night because of the sudden altitude gain, but also because I was so excited about the whole thing I went out for a pee at night and suddenly an avalanche roared down from the mountain. At the same time, I saw a falling star, and deeply wished that we would be able to summit this beast!

The second day took us along the west slopes up to the northwest ridge, which is the normal route nowadays. This steep ridge is filled with loose volcanic rocks, making it quite hard to walk considering the altitude and heavy backpack. Finally, we arrived to the high camp at 5,700 m and felt very exhausted, wondering how we should be able to climb another 850 m the following day! We put up the tent and enjoyed the breathtaking views while Eduardo started the time-consuming task to melt snow for dinner, breakfast and our water bottles.

Day three – summit day (July 2nd)! We woke up at 2 am, had breakfast and got dressed as warm as we could. However, it was not very cold outside, only around -8 degrees! We set off in the dark at 3.30 am and continued on the rocky ridge up to where the ice/snow started. Here, we put on the crampons, connected each other with a rope and then started climbing up a steep ice wall. When we got to a rather horizontal ridge at 6,000 m, we were suddenly doing rock climbing with our hands. After that, a huge field of penitentes appeared, continuing as far as we could see! Fortunately, these were low (20-60 cm), but Eduardo who walked first still had to break many off with the ice axe to make them passable.

While struggling with the altitude and the tedious walking on the penitentes, the 7 am sunrise created a pyramid like shadow of Sajama in the other horizon – absolutely amazing! This gave me more energy at the same time as making me feel very emotional, and I continued to push with a smile on my face. Jenny got very tired and cold on this part, so we had something to eat and warmed up each other and then kept on going, however very slowly. When we reached a “fake” top, we could finally see the real one but we still had about 150-200 m of steep glacier to ascend. We zigzagged to make it less tiring for the legs, but it felt like it would take us ages to get there.

9.30 am, six hours after the start at high camp, we found ourselves standing at 6,542 m above sea level and on the top of Sajama! WE DID IT, WE REACHED THE SUMMIT! It’s hard to describe all the feelings that ran through your head at that moment. We hugged each other, lied down on the glacier and just laughed and the same time as gasping for breath! We both sensed a slight headache and were already late on the top, so we started to descend after having taken photos and realizing (or not?) that we were standing on the top of Bolivias highest mountain! A funny side note is that a football match has been played up here in 2001 (!)

I am so glad that we made it! To summit a 6,000 m+ peak was one of my many goals with this trip, and it’s very interesting to see how your body and mind react on this altitude and after such a big effort. This is without a doubt the most physically challenging thing I’ve ever done – but I’m so glad that I did it!

“Es la vida de la montaña, una vida dura!”
- Eduardo

PS. Eduardo might publish a video from our climb on YouTube. In that case, I will update this entry and embed the video here!

UPDATE: Here is the video!

…and here is a map of Sajama and the route we took:

The second day after crossing into Chile, we got a very strong and cold headwind. With the 10 days of food and 13 l’s of water each that we carried, we simply couldn’t cycle anymore but had to push the bikes into the wind. After a few kilometers, a car with road workers stopped and asked if they could give us a ride. We were so happy about this offer, considering that this weather could ruin our plans to head straight into Bolivia due to the food supply, so we gladly jumped in! We hitchhiked the last 100 km’s to the Bolivian border, 40 km’s before San Pedro de Atacama, and found ourselves very relieved of not having to push for perhaps five days! We quickly continued to the border post and then to the camp at Laguna Blanca where we got served soup and a plate of llama meat with rice. I fell asleep that night excited about being in a new country with a different culture, and also at a place that I visited in 2006.

The landscape on the altiplano is stunning! The colors are amazing, and even though the landscape is very harsh, the long distances make everything look soft and harmless. Especially this part of Bolivia, the Eduardo Avaroa Reserve, looks very surrealistic. It looks like you are on another planet! On our first day, we cycled from the turquoise/emerald green lagoon Laguna Verde with the cone-shaped volcano Licancabur in the background. After a 4,650 m pass and cycling through Valle Salvador Dalí, we made it to the natural hot springs of Polques, where we had beer and Pringles in the 38° water, watching a clear starry sky appear. A relaxing and rewarding end of our first day on the laguna route.

The second day took us up to Sol de Mañana, a volcanic site with bubbling, sulfur-stinking mudpots and steaming fumaroles. The steam sets such a magical touch to this place. Fascinating! The following day, we cycled over the highest pass so far on almost 5,000 meters above sea level. Up here, the density of oxygen molecules is only about 50% of that of sea level, which means struggling to breathe properly. We made Indian face paintings with the mud from the mudpots and pepped each other by ululating, and made it all the way to the flamingo lagoon Laguna Colorada. Here, we met up with Brian, an Australian cyclist that we both had met a couple of times before. We had obviously been lucky with the weather so far. A guide from one of the many jeep tours that pass here every day told us that it was snowing and -25° the previous week!

After Laguna Colorada, we chose to head for the east route instead of the west, due to better road conditions and more villages. The hot springs that we used on our way always left you with a slight smell of sulfur and we never used soap here. But, when we got to the village Villamar, I had the first shower in 12 days and it felt really good even though it was lukewarm!

When we cycled on the abandoned road between Alota and San Agustín, we passed through a fertile valley with a “Jurassic Park”-feeling to it. We saw some men working in a cave next to the road. At first, I thought it was some sort of mine, but suddenly an American PhD student appears and invites us to have a look. It turned out that they recently had discovered the oldest archeological site in the Andes – 13,000 years old! This cave had wall paintings, and in another cave nearby they had just found the remains of a shaman. Their excavation is funded by National Geographic, and the head archaeologist is Bolivian and a copy of Indiana Jones himself.

When we arrived to San Agustín, there was an annual party going on. Everyone were drinking and dancing on the plaza and we were not late to join them! The orchestra got more and more drunk and the music slower and slower. People poured half their drinks on the ground as a toast to Pachamama, “Mother Earth”. What a scene! I even made a deal with a local farmer to investigate the possibilities for Swedish companies to import his quinoa, haha! At 9 o’clock the following morning, the most persistent guys were still sitting on the street drinking (two hours before driving back home).

The road conditions have been really bad with lots of washboard and sand, but I haven’t had any problems with the bike even when it’s been fully loaded, except for breaking the mudguard. Jenny sheared a bolt on her rack as well as snapping the wire of the handlebar bag. Brian’s rear tire blew in the middle of a sand storm, but he fixed it surprisingly quick using duct tape and the old inner tube.

Leaving these bumpy roads behind, we entered the world’s biggest salt flat Salar de Uyuni. Bolivia has built a pilot plant for extracting lithium from the huge lake that is underneath the crust of salt. Several countries with car and battery industry have shown interest in this, but Bolivias president Evo Morales has been very clear that this should be for export only and benefit their country. We camped at one of the pools that they have made for taking samples for this plant. Cycling on the salt flat is a unique experience! We crossed it from Rio Grande to Colchani, and by cycling on the car tracks it feels smoother than fresh pavement. This white and perfectly flat surface makes it hard for the eye to get a perspective. That’s why you are able to take pictures like this one:

It was such a relief to finally get to Uyuni and back to civilization. The ability to eat any kind of food, surf the Internet, buy things etc. made us very, very happy! You appreciate these things that you otherwise take for granted so much when you have been away for this long. It’s an amazing feeling that I wish everyone could experience once in a while! Being able to leave your clothes to a laundry after three weeks was also a treat

My plan for Bolivia is now to make a circle via Santa Cruz and Cochabamba. One reason for this “detour” is to get a bit of warmth for a change, and to see parts of Bolivia other than the altiplano. By descending to the lowlands on this latitude (17°) means tropical climate and jungle, ahhh!

Talking about tropics, I have now finally decided whether to continue along the Andes or across the Amazon. I love mountains and the views that you get by standing on the edge of them. I also like the feeling of getting exhausted by climbing and then rewarded with a downhill, plus that curvy roads are more entertaining than straight ones. By choosing this route, I will also get to Colombia which I’ve heard so many good things about. Not to mention the famous Galápagos Islands in Ecuador that helped Charles Darwin to develop his evolution theory!

It would undoubtedly be a great challenge to cross the Amazon by bicycle, especially the part Humaitá to Manaus in Brazil, but I’m afraid that I would get bored of only tropics and straight, “flat” roads. I also have experience of cycling on muddy roads now, and that’s simply impossible with my bike. Constantly damp clothes and hungry mosquitoes would probably drive me insane as well, so it feels better to stick to the mountains/coast!

Since I don’t write new blog posts very frequently, I thought it might be more convenient for you to get notified instead of having to check the blog (i.e. if you don’t use RSS feeds). Therefore, I have added a new widget called “Mailing List” in the sidebar, where you can easily subscribe/unsubscribe to updates and then just follow the link in the e-mail. Cheers!