Chile - Carretera Austral

Brilliant advice! Thanks.

That makes sense. I was thinking that section between LaPaz and Oruro would be pretty nasty. Any advice on rabie shots? I wasn't planning on getting this shot but maybe I should? What about wheel size in SA. I keep reading that you should have 26 inch wheels because that's what they can fix down there. Do you think that's true? If so, does that mean they don't have tubes for other size of tires? OMg...so much to think about. At some point I'll just throw my hand up and leave it all to the will of "Pachamama" or some other entity. Gracias otra vez.

When I went there, you had to be very self-sufficient. Things have changed a bit. There is now a reasonable bike shop in La Paz, I understand, but elsewhere then things may well be much more basic and you will still have to be reasonably self-sufficient, as likely you will only get basic Chinese standard spare parts. Perhaps someone who has been there more recently can say whether 28" hybrids have become common, but when I was there it was all 26" apart from racing bikes in 700C, and the latter are little use to you. But I travelled there with a 700C tourer, had quite a lot of mechanicals to deal with, and made it through, though I was somewhat prepared.

If you are literally talking about fixing spoke breakages, then they can fix any size of wheel, but you need to supply the right-sized spokes you brought with you (I keep them with my tent poles), and you supply the block/cassette removal tool you carry with you so that they can take the block off for a block-side repair, which it so often seems to be. If you need a new wheel or other serious spare parts, then unless you happen to be within reach of one of the handful of major cities in Chile with good modern bikeshops, or if you are lucky La Paz, then are probably talking about couriering it anyway. A good idea to have a couple of those emergency spokes for block-side repairs when you can't get to a bike-shop, but they need to be adjusted to size before you set off, as that requires tools you won't carry.

Travelling in such remote places, you will of course carry a spare tyre and several spare inner tubes you brought with you. You will also carry brake blocks, if you have that kind of brake, brake and gear wires, puncture repair kit with a lot of patches - though those are easy to source locally - chain extractor tool, cone spanners, narrow nose pliers, a little bearing grease, as well as the usual good quality allen keys and the like that you require for basic bike maintenance. Maybe you can't do all the maintenance tasks that these tools imply, but it is useful to give them to your mechanic so that he has the proper tools to fix your bike rather than trying to do it with a hammer and chisel. If you do need serious spare parts, then unless some really major city is at hand it's probably as convenient as anything to phone a good bike part supplier in the USA and have them couriered.

I did have a lot of mechanicals, and got very inventive about it. I was even searching rubbish dumps at times to find usefully shaped pieces of metal to substitute for tools I didn't have and was unable to borrow.

Wow! I have my work cut out for me. I'll have to figure the tire situation out fast. My longest ride so far has been a couple weeks in fairly easy terrain. I'm excited about this challenge but also naïve. Thanks for the reality check!
Denise

Just a little comment. If I was to fly in an airplane to Bolivia and start riding, I'd fly to Santa Cruz, not La Paz. It is the wealthiest city of Bolivia and there are international flights there. To land in La Paz, the airport is over 4000m, and routes to leave La Paz mostly require climbing up there out of the city centre, which is at 3600m. It is a big shock in terms of altitude acclimatisation, and it is particularly when you take vigorous exercise that the effect of inadequate altitude acclimatisation becomes clearest.

If you have done activities at altitude before, like Himalayan trekking or the like, you will know what your own body's response to these things is and how long you need at various altitudes to be reasonably comfortable with an active day. If you haven't, best to investigate it gradually.

Santa Cruz is in the lowlands, but right on the edge of the mountains, and there's a nice route that gradually climbs into the mountains via Samaipata, which is an interesting place to visit anyway. Though the pass of around 3700m to Cochabamba will likely be a bit of struggle because of the altitude, because you won't have been on the road very long by then, if you continue to Cochabamba. But you come down to Cochabamba at 2400m for a rest, and that up and down is very good for acclimatisation. Then the climb up to the high altiplano. There is another road from SCruz to Cocha, the so-called more northerly jungle road, which goes flat through the jungle and then climbs very suddenly to about 3900m, so that isn't such a good idea. Though you don't have to go to Cochabamba. There are various routes through the eastern valleys to Sucre, which will give more gentle altitude acclimatisation - gentle in terms of the acclimatisation, not gentle in terms of the effort of the ride, the eastern valleys are tough riding.

Another alternative which is a bit more gradual is to fly to Cusco in Peru and ride to La Paz - Cusco is 3200m so just a few days there will give you an acclimatisation start to riding towards La Paz, and it is a nice ride too, though the distances between guesthouses can be a bit challenging, I think you have to keep up 100km days, or slightly longer, and that part of Peru wild camping is best avoided. Also don't ride out of Cusco until there are people about - a few cyclists starting at the crack of dawn have met bandits on the peripheries of town. Also try to avoid staying in Juliaca, it has a reputation as an unfriendly place that is often a centre of political troublemaking. But very many other cyclists have been to Cusco there and done this ride without any problem.

I appreciate this advice! Would never have considered this option but it is very compelling. The scenery seems more interesting starting out in Santa Cruz. I was thinking of taking a two week language course in LaPaz before starting to ride to sharpen up my Spanish while acclimatizing. If acclimatizing weren't an issue, which route is less stressful in terms of traffic and road conditions? which route would you go?

The hill road out of Santa Cruz towards Cochabamba is reasonably quiet, at least once you are well clear of SC itself, because the better maintained jungle road is the main traffic route. Cochabamba has a lot of language schools. It's a very pleasant city with a very pleasant climate, though ultimately lacks the interest level of La Paz, Sucre or Potosí. It's also a notch more expensive because it has a stronger economy than the very high cities. And at 2500m or something, you'll still have some acclimatising to do.

If I was going to hang around for a fortnight, then I'd rather go to La Paz, because it has the interest level to make being there a fortnight worthwhile, and it will acclimatise you better. You can also go on short trips up onto the altiplano, eg to Tiahuanaco and Copacabana, to further aid acclimatisation. There's also great trekking in the nearby mountains, if you have the time for it. I managed to find a home-stay when I stayed a couple of weeks or so in La Paz, which would be good for the language practice. Bolivian Spanish is probably the easiest variety of Spanish, they speak quite slowly and clearly. Chilean on the other hand is one of the hardest, they speak fast and indistinctly, and it gets worse as you go south.

La Paz to Oruro is the only really busy road in Bolivia, aside from within and close to cities. Actually I haven't travelled the La Paz to Coroico road - the so called "road of death" - I think that may be fairly busy too because it is the road by which most of La Paz's food arrives, though you are committing yourself to a real tough adventure though the mountains on poorly documented roads if you leave La Paz in that direction. But you can easily take the bus to Oruro and start riding from there. Oruro is not a place tourists tend to linger, aside from the carnival in Feb, because it isn't a very nice place, though if you have to there are a few points of interest to be found.

Thanks for giving me the scoop. After further examination and per your comments, I think I will stick to the original La Paz-Oruro-Salar de Uyuni route. Santa C. and Cochabamba sound compelling, but I actually don't want to spend a ton of time in Bolivia. If I do end up riding the Salar route into S.Pedro de Atacambe, Chile (which I really want to do but only with someone else) then that will be my big adventure in Bolivia. Thanks Iviehoff

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