Monday, 19. March 2018
Yesterday Tobi bought a piece of cloth on the market to get his car seats upholstered. So today he took out the seats and brought them to an upholsterer who told him that they would be done by Tuesday eveing.
When we were at Mercado Central again for lunch a traveller wanted to sell us cake. Her name was Beth and she's from Australia and in need of some cash for her trip to Torotoro. Knights that we are we offered here a ride.
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Tuesday, 20. March 2018
Well, that didn't work out. The lady from the campground suggested that Tobi should go to the upholsterer and check on the progress. However, only the cloth was cut out. Also he wasn't sure if he would get the seats done by Wednesday because his car had been stolen and he needed to go by the police...
Tobi used the time to give the cabin a thorough cleaning. Wow, it sure is clean now...
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Wednesday,
So this morning Tobi went to the upholsterer again who was doing his best to get the seats done today. And so he did, they brought the seats early afternoon and Tobi mounted them again.
So tomorrow off to Torotoro we go, only 184km...
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Thursday,
After some delays and another lunch at Mercado Central we started towards Torotoro around 02:30 p.m. with Beth on board. Right at the outskirts of the city the road became a track... Well, we should get there by tonight...
We were really happy to see the green landscape after weeks and weeks of desert. Less pretty were the wild dump sites everywhere...
However, for Bolivia these road conditions aren't out of the ordinary. There are even regular buses servicing the villages along this road.
It was really astounding how many people are living in these mountains and under which primitive conditions. I don't know when the last people in Germany lived like that, in straw huts? Most of them looked rather with wonder upon us. But as soon as we smiled and waved, they usually waved back.
The road got worse and worse and we came to realize that we wouldn't be able to make it to Torotoro today. So we camped out in the middle of nowhere. Ok, not exactly nowhere but in a river bed outside of Poroma.
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Friday,
Only 120km more to Torotoro, today we'll make it, not...
Unbelievable, we made such good way! Until about 40km from Torotoro where the road was blocked by multiple landslides. Turn around or clear the way? That's the question. After we had a look at the landslides we were full of optimism and started to clear the way. After having cleared the first one we were in good spirits and had lunch.
Then two locals came along who seemed to be out for a hike. However, it turned out that they are teachers and on the way to the next village to catch a bus back to Sucre.
With a heavy heart we had to accept that we couldn't do it and had to turn around and drive the 120km back to Sucre!
We also gave the two teachers a lift into the next village. Three people in the cabin is already not optimal but five was a challenge :D
In Poroma we wanted to drive towards Cochabamba so we wouldn't have to drive all the way back to Sucre. But also this option was taken from us by the rain. So we spent another night a couple of kilometers outside of Poroma next to the road.
Not only that, the food from Mercado Central was back with a vengance!!! I've soooo had it with digestion problems!!!
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Today we needed to make 460km. Quite a long detour forced upon us by the rain.
After two hours we'd made the 40km back to Sucre. Then it was asphalt all the was to Tarata. Then the asphalt turned into a cobble stone road. Not really cobble stones but normal stones, boy that was a bumpy ride.
And then came the construction site! They are currently building a whole new road to Torotoro and it was already getting dark... Once more it became cleare to us that we wouldn't make it and also didn't want to. So we stopped in a small village, La Viña, to grab some food and also spend the night there.
The restaurant was a special experience as the food was put on the plates with fingers, totally normal around here.
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Today we'll make it, only 36km more to go. For the locals we were the attraction in their small village. Apparently tourists only stop for lunch or dinner but they seem to have never seen a camper van.
Because it was raining quite hard all night we were a little uncertain whether we would make it.
And then at the first river crossing we saw the following picture:
The taxis and shuttle busses seem to be really care free. With a little speed and trust in god we can do it, or not. That was the first vehicle we helped out of the river. Shortly after a taxi drove into the river and of course got stuck... So we pushed...
Shortly after we came across a bigger challenge, a truck was stuck in the mud in a curve.
But we were also able to help him out :D
Then around early afternoon we finally reached Torotoro.
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