Today is a great day, it's the first day of cycling in Bolivia, in the South Lipez region. This region is a desert, reputedly beautiful, the wind is strong and roads in very bad condition. Only 4x4 full of tourists crosse this region. For these reasons, few cyclists venture there.
Once our pancakes swallowed, we leave around 8am. That way we hope we don't arrive too late tonight and can avoid the wind. The thermometer shows 3°C, we believe it without problem, fortunately it's the hottest time of year here. The laguna Blanca is very beautiful this morning, there is a thin layer of ice and the mountain is reflected in it. We start the day by going to see the Laguna Verde, adjacent to the Blanca. It's not as beautiful as the first. We head for Polques, a hamlet from which a source of hot water comes out.
The ripio is surprisingly good, we expected a lot worse. We can still see the traces of roadwork machines that have made the road recently, we are lucky. On the way we cross a lot of 4x4 and some trucks carrying sulfuric acid. Whenever one of our water bottle is empty we ask a 4x4 to give us water,
all stop without exception, we're still in the middle of the desert
without a telephone network.
At
noon, we're almost at the highest point of the day, the Paso del Condor
(4750m), which turns out to be also the highest point of the trip. On the descent to Polques, we can see the Dali desert, a strange stretch of sand dotted with large rocks. The ripio isn't excellent here, there are some sandbanks.
We descend fairly quickly despite this, until Floriane failed to cross a sandbar and fell. Her foot is wedged between the frame and the handlebar. More fear than harm, her elbow is well scraped but the rest is fine, including the bike and its load. We rinse the wound with water, we aren't very far from Polques where we can disinfect all that properly.
Polques is wedged between the mountain and the Lago Grande of Chalviri. Drinking and hot water comes out of the ground right by the lake. Once the tipi is up and the evening meal ordered, we wash ourselves in one of the two thermal baths. The water is hot and the view beautiful, moreover we haven't taken a shower for two days, we savor this moment.
