Hi rena,
Thanks, you´re a sweathart !!!
As promised part two...
Okay, it helps a little bit, my mind is clear again.
I look around, forwardn, and see in the distance some green. Moss I know and also know moss is harder than sticky mud ! I know what I´m gonna do. Try to reach the green and from there decide what to do. Always better to wait making decicions if you don´t know what to do, don´t feel whats rong or right. To my surprise I reach the moss easily, biking even so !!! From here I see in the distance a little pueblo which I can also bike and sometimes walk through the sandy road. Asking a senor where Jirira is he says it is close, 3 km. Next decision is easily made, I go to Jirira and from there see if I can bike the salt lake. 3 km nah...
Forget it and the road is again so bad, this time with stones as big as grapfruits, no way I can bike it !!!
Also going up a mountain, between 5 and 10 %. So the 3 km turns out to be a f.....g 12 km, taking more than an hour, 1 and a half orso... But, at the top of the mountain I CAN SEE THE SALTLAKE !!!!! As white as snow, beautifull and so immense ! I reach Jirira a little later, exhausted. This day costed me so much energy and I had not that much... I decide to make an early camp today and to bike the salt tomorrow.
And so I did, and it was great !!!! With a northen wind in the back I fly across the salt. The sun turns the saltcrystals into diamionds, shining and flickering all the way. I am happy again, no more than happy !!! This is something I looked forward to from peru, my ´reward´ for taking all the bad busses so now I have the time to see this. Yipppieeeeeeeeeee !!!!!!!!
Only thing is I have to stop every 15 km orso to clean my gears, the salt is so hard my chain can´t gat grip but I clean it with a smile, looking around at all the white, as far as I can see, the horizon painted with mountains...
I reach Uyuni at 4 o clock and take a bus to Potosi. I can´t bike all the way to La Paz back so need to. The bus to Potosi, the silver city of Bolivia, many silvermines here, leaves at 1900 hours and should reach Potosi at 0100...should. SHOULD...
the first time it goes wrong something, the bobine I hear, is lost... looking in the dark at 2300 hours on the road for it. Just fell of the engine, you believe it ??? It takes more than an hour to find and fix it. On we go. Only for 2 minutes and the engine turnes again silent. For a very long time we wait, it can take hours, maybe it can't be fixed at all. After what seems an eternity, more than two hours a sound brakes through the night. Ging, ging, ging, ging, vroemmmmmmm !!!!! Yeahhhhh !!!! It works, finally !!!!
And on we go. Without further delay we reach Potosi at 0430. Biking in the dark, a little dangerous but no choice do I ? I find the main plaza, here called Plaza the 10 noviembre and start looking for a hotel, so tired. After a few streets I see one and a senor outside. Asking the price, 60 bolivianos he said. whow, expensive I say ( now you must now that 1 euro is 8 bolivianos, so less than 8 euro for a warm bed and some very needed sleep ) and bike away...
It´s kind of funny whit those cheap prices here. Used to a hotelroom for 3 euros or less, which is so cheap, I turn down an offer for less than 8 euros, also very cheap for western prices ain´t it ? But I am now in Bolivia where you can eat a two course dinner at the marker for 5 bolivianos...
So I bike further and find another hotel. Knocking on the door in the dark street and, yes, it opens and yes, price is 25 bolivianos. Minutes later I lay, unshowered, legs still covered with salt, in bed, too tired...
All in all a very nice, beautifull and again sunny and tiring day but i would´n have missed it for all the gold in the world...
