A full day of riding into Tupiza, Bolivia

We were very happy today to be able to complete the ride we had planned from La Quiaca across the border to Villazon to Tupiza for 57 miles. The ride started early in the morning trying to beat the winds again, by 7:30 AM Bolivia time we were on our way. It was 28 degrees when we left so we wore most of the clothes we brought. The first 25 miles were at around 11,500 feet on the Bolivian Altiplano and the winds built up as we went but never as bad as the previous two days. And then we were rewarded by a wonderful downhill to 9,500 feet with a wonderfully paved road (one of the few that are paved in Bolivia). We stopped several times to catch our breath, it is really hard to go uphill when you are already above 11,000 feet, get some snacks and rest our upper body from handling the bike with the cross and head winds. Once we started coming down the scenery changed again, the trees had leaves, willows, mesquites and eucalyptus, braided rivers and red sandstone formations. We stopped in a small village called Suipacha around noon where we found a small despensa that had Coca-Cola (2 liter bottle) and a can of sardines that were very tasty to have with our crackers (and source of protein, omega 3s and salt). The last 15 miles had some ups and downs but we were very happy we had made it through the day without having to break down and catch a bus. Tupiza is a medium city where many tours operate to see the south west area of Bolivia. The area has amazing places to see but hard to get to without paved roads. We decided to take a 3.5 day vacation from our bike touring vacation and go sight seeing by jeep to small villages, volcanoes, hot springs, geisers, lagunas with flamingos, and the salt flats at dawn. The jeep will drop us off at noon of the fourth day at the north area of the salar where we plan to stay one more night and explore it by bike, maybe we can do a moonlight ride with the full moon coming up. We will not have internet for at least four days, we will update the blog after June 26th when we will start our bike ride to Oruro, then La Paz, Lago Titicaca and into Peru.