8-29

On the road to Sucre – We heard it was a wonderful downhill to the lovely colonial capital of Bolivia, Sucre. Well, of course, all you hear is not true. Yes, we had a couple of great and long down hills, blue skies, bright sun and the usual mountains all around us as we coursed down both narrow and broad valleys. A head wind kicked up about 11am. The roads were basically deserted thanks to a Bolivian strike. We pushed our bike through all the road blocks! Tomorrow we are to expect the same.

Note: I need to correct an earlier statement I made about Bolivian roads not being as good as those in Peru. The first 40km into Bolivia from Peru was rather rough up into the mountains around Lake Titicaca. Then they smoothed out. The road south of La Paz most of the way to Sucre has been a well maintained and smooth surface. Bici smiled all the way!

Thought: If you want to make the world large choose a bicycle. To make it smaller choose a plane. To make it human in scale, the bike is first choice. You can taste, smell, hear, and feel the world as your tires hum over the hills and dales.

1. Potosi blockade 2. Blockade on the road to Sucre 3. Road to Sucre

“The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage.” Thucydides

After week and weeks of cold – tonight we are sitting outside of our tent, the afternoon wind has died down and we are listening to the birds all around us. It is such a pleasure to have mild weather!

8-31

Yesterday we pulled into Sucre after 42+ km of uphill into the wind, averaging 5 mph! When we left Potosi we rolled at a slight downhill, never needing brakes for about 30km. Then we peddled into headwinds up over mountain passes onto plateaus or through valleys, always peddling into the headwind. As Art stated in the last post: there were a couple of steep, hairpin curve down hills only comprising 25km of the 110km rode that day!

To get up after such a wonderful evening in our warm, comfortable little tent and have to climb so slowly for almost all day – finding no food until about 10km before Sucre - left us pretty depleted.

4. Road to Sucre 5. Bridge to nowhere 6. Water in the desert 7. Camp 8. Wonderful spring

Last night we met our new acquaintances: Brits, Sally and Mike Oliver and Peruvian, Caroline, for a great steak dinner. They told of seeing us on TV as we took Bici through the barricade in Potosi. Today, in one of the government buildings a gentleman also recognized us as the bicyclists he had seen on TV. Our 15 minutes of fame in Bolivia!! We were on TV in Peru, too, once or twice. Last time we knew about being publicized was in Mexico for an article in a paper north of Gusave. Although we think many other cyclists are riding up and down the coasts and around these Latin American countries, there are probably only two dozen people cycling this month.

Sucre’s bright blue sky and warm sun, clean and clear is only enhanced by all the government strikes which are keeping most bus and auto traffic out of the town center. The only negatives to the strikes are the fireworks, shouting and demonstrating and the closing of most stores, many restaurants, tourist facilities and information offices. The demonstrations today are against a new airport landing strip and potable water. Two days ago in Potosi it was against gas prices. I guess to visit Bolivia without a strike, shutting down the government, would be missing the full flavor of the country.

1. Blue skies and empty streets 2. Sucre blockade

This is a colonial city, the official seat of Bolivian government, although La Paz handles all governmental business. It is dotted with many beautifully landscaped parks. We are seeing flowers for the first time in months. It is spring: fruits trees, jacarandas and many bushes are blooming.