Bolivia XX: Atocha to Tupiza

Maybe the toughest day so far

Today we had the problem that there would be nearly no villages until getting to Tupiza, over 100 km away. Sleeping along the way was an option, but with the cold days and still in the altiplano at 3800 mts, it was not a very appealing option.

So instead the plan was to try to get as far as possible, and then go down to the valley where Tupiza lies. This would mean about 75 km, and then camping 1000 mts lower which should be warmer.

The profile in Komoot said the road would be slightly undulating first, but then mostly downhill after the 50th km or so, and then flat at the end.

Instead of that we had a brutal first 5 km to get out of Atocha, and the rest of the day was a relentless up and down. The climbs were mostly not too hard, but very continuous, and when you thought you were at the top, there would be a short downhill to lose all the altitude you had gained in the previous hour.

The road was new, they were actually still finishing the last kilometers to Tupiza, but instead of building bridges, which I guess are more expensive, the road just went up and down on every single river and valley it founded.

By midday Susanne was already running empty. I was carrying both kids in the trailer and she was still falling behind, demoralized with the ridiculous profile of the road.

By 17:00 we only had about one hour of daylight left, but we were still far from where the profile promised to start going downhill.

So I just stopped and hitch-hiked, with the great luck that in less than 5 minutes two guys picked us up. There were engineers from the government supervising the road works, and they were already on their way back to Tupiza.

This was in the end a great decision as the road, rather than starting to go down, kept undulating for at least another 20 km before finally going down, with long stretches without asphalt, so we would had never made it by bike.

They dropped us very close to our desired hotel, and we decided to stay for nearly a week there, since there are plenty of side trips to do from Tupiza and we might catch the ancient train to Villazón in the border.