September 20 & 21, 2017
After over 6 months traveling in Peru we were headed to our first new Country in a long time.
Cycling Stats
September 20, 2017
Start Point: Lake Titicaca Wild Camp, Peru
Destination: Puerto Acosto, Bolivia
33.8km, 11.4 km/h average speed, 40.4 km/h maximum speed, 2:57 time on the bike
562 meters gained, 560 meters elevation descend, 4120 meters maximum elevation
September 21, 2017
Start Point: Puerto Acosto, Bolivia
Destination: Santiago de Okola, Bolivia
55.7 km, 15 km/h average speed, 56.6 km/h maximum speed, 3:42 time on the bike
788 meters gained, 779 meters elevation descend, 3960 meters maximum elevation
Route Description:
September 20, 2017 This day is part pavement and part gravel. There is a beautiful road along the lake with undulating hills, however mostly flat for the first 17 km. Then the gravel road climbs out of Peru after you get your exit stamp. The climb is 8 km up and then you descend for 8 km to the border town of Bolivia. Immigration is on a gravel/dirt road.
September 21, 2017 The day started on a paved road. We turned off the highway after a bit to stay near the lake and to see the town of Dragon Dormiando where we had hoped to find a ferry to Copacabana. When you make the turn toward Dragon Dormiando it is a gravel/mud road that has small communities. Dragon Dormiando has a hospedeje at the start of town but we wild camped just past the town after getting water from a house.
Accommodations:
On September 20th we stayed at Hospedeje Noviembre 5 which included a private room, shared hot shower and shared toilets for 50 Bolivianos for two people. For the second night there is a Hospedeje in Dragon Dormiando. We don’t know how much it costs as we decided to camp instead.
What happened…
Andrew writes: I’m not really sure what I expected from Bolivia, having spent so much time, about 8 months, in Peru. Actually I was a little sad to be leaving the country since I felt that I knew it so well; heck, there was even a parade going on in the border town when we were leaving. Crossing into Bolivia it was a little surreal, there was a new town with a new currency. We actually had to ride a few kilometres of ‘no mans land’ before reaching Puerto Acosto. There were some surprise foothills to go over which made me a little cranky, but it offered a nice vantage point during our lunch. When we reached Puerto Acosto, it sort’ve looked a lot like Peru, but more shabby looking. Maybe I was just thinking that Bolivia was a poorer country and this affected how I felt about the town. We had to do a bunch of running around to clear immigration, customs, find food, buy a SIM card for the cell phone, find a place to sleep etc. And oh, what a place to sleep we found. If this is to be any indication of what is to come, I think we’ll spend every night camping. The bed was so lumpy and threadbare, and the ceilings were only 5 feet high!
We set off late in the morning on the 21st, entering Bolivia we encountered a time change, and this meant that English classes went until 10am instead of 9am. Still, we hadn’t planned on going very far, just to a nearby tourist spot called the “Sleeping Dragon”. Since the road was paved, it didn’t take long. Traffic was light and the way was easy. We pulled into the village of Dragon Dormiando just after lunch. There weren’t any stores and we couldn’t find the hospedaje so we ended up just finding a shady spot beside the lake to setup camp. There was a dog, who we affectionately named ‘Boner’ who hung out with us the whole time, including guarding our camp that night. It was a pretty sweet day.
Amanda writes: I think I was more excited to be entering Bolivia than Andrew was. Yes I really enjoyed Peru but was happy to finally be entering a new chapter in our trip. Somehow arriving in a new Country signalled we were making progress. The landscape seemed similar but somehow more brown. The land seems less rich of nutrients or something and therefore less farms. There was also a consistent theme on peoples land that included the gravesites of what I would assume is family members that have passed on. I’m guessing that people keep the land in the family always because the resale value would be challenging when its covered with bodies. I didn’t take any pictures because I thought it might be disrespectful.
As we were on our way down from the uphill climb we came across some kids tobogganing. Yup, that’s right; sliding down a hill. It was awesome! Let me try and paint the picture. It’s a hillside, quite steep in fact and covered in some grass, a few rocks and dirt. Then your sliding device is a 3-litre pop bottle that you’ve been able to tear apart so that it is flat. Because you’re a child your backside fits on the spread out plastic bottle. You hang onto the lid part in between your legs and your buddy pushes you down the dirt hillside. Gut wrenching giggles ensue and at the bottom after you’re stopped by a large boulder you run back up the hill and switch positions with your friend. It was so fun to watch how they kids were having a great time with what they had.
After entering Bolivia and engaging in some awkward conversations with the border patrol we headed out toward some towns we had marked on the maps. I had wanted to find a fisherman boat to take us across the water to Copacabana. We chatted with some locals who told us the only boats would be two towns down and the way they described them was more of a tourist type boat. I wasn’t really interested in hopping on a big boat with other gringoes. I didn’t have my heart set on Copacabana but had heard it might be possible. We didn’t end up finding a small boat so just parked the idea and decided to keep heading South toward La Paz. In the end the only reason I wanted to go to Copacabana was because the name is cool and it looked like a pretty town from the pictures I had seen. In the end I was happy with the way things turned out and we enjoyed our ride.
The aerial view of our rides: