Tupiza Passage

People in San Antonio said the route from here would involve two significant mountain passes, of greater severity than Paso Santa Isabel on our way to San Pablo. The next habitation would be a minimum of two days’ travel. So before leaving San Antonio we bought everything we could lay hands on in the small store: cakes, fish, crackers, candy.

We left town in the company of another cyclist, heading to his home only a few miles away. He said the economic situation was tough. The only jobs were in mining.

A few miles outside of town we came upon an archaeological ruin and stopped to photograph it. There seems to be some work on it, and this could have the makings of a tourist venue one day. But it is hard to imagine big numbers making it all the way out here, beyond the 4x4 tourist excursions coming from Tupiza and Uyuni.

The road wound into the mountains, offering us our second glimpse of ostriches. These were much closer and even more hilarious with their un-natural waddle.

The roads in Bolivia are often steep -- without consideration given to switchbacks -- and this day was no exception.

We broke for lunch on the edge of a crest overlooking a small ravine.

Brice points to the far ridge where the road will climb back out of the ravine

After lunch we plunged into the ravine, where the road tacked and went back up out of the ravine, steeply. This was first-gear stuff, demanding all one's physical wherewithal. It was steep and lengthy -- no respite from the gradient. Getting off the bike was unappealing, as getting back on is difficult on such a slope. There is really no alternative to digging deep and moving the rig up the mountain. Again, it's true granny gear stuff.

The road finally switch-backed higher up, and this allowed us to stop and drink water.

It soon resumed its straight-up approach and demanded everything in one’s ability. As the road reached the heights of this area -- around 4900 metres -- I began to lose consciousness. I could feel the blood draining from my head. I could not afford to dismount on this steep slope -- there would be no possibility of re-mounting and assuming balance at these slow speeds from a standing start. I had to ‘psyche’ myself up, and music was the key. I heard a thunderous collapse of a drumstick onto a drum, then two, and two again, in a rhythm that yielded to a bass guitar line of such urgency that the heartbeat had no choice but to be stirred into action. Layered upon this came the guitar line. A familiar riff and lyrics: “Too alarming to talk about. Take those pictures down, shake them out…”

I followed Brice to the top, where we were treated to a stupendous view back from where we had ascended. The vista took in everything in this region of Bolivia, clear back to Tupiza surely, though one could not make out such a fine feature in the distant horizon.

We took several photographs and continued over the crest and down the other side. The other side was high, not a valley. Near the top a man was driving his burro team up the road. We stopped for a brief chat with him, but he needed to hustle to make it to his destination that day.

We descended into a fading day and camped on a mesa overlooking a stream bed, exhausted from the day’s effort.

Landmark	time*	temp (°C)	odometer (kms)	altitude (m)**
San Antonio de Lipez	11:00 am	?	0	4117
Junction, 2nd River Crossing	12:10 pm	24	7	4260
Cerro Crest	2:50 pm	24	16	2816
Paso Conquestador	4:44 pm	14	24	4681
River Overlook	7:30 pm	9	33	4343

Read the day's Journal Entry.