LA MESETA DEL COLLAO
After experiencing the Panamerican Highway as well as the mountainous backroads on the way into Cusco, we weren't overly excited about our options on getting out of the city. We opted to cheat by taking a bus south of the city to Santa Rosa, avoided the main highway and begun our journey around the east side of Lake Titicaca. These were definitely routs less traveled. The road started out paved but quickly turned south and we were greeted by dirt roads, and lots of them. We were high in the hills to start the trip topping out over 4000m as we worked our way south the elevation gradually descended to the mere 3800m at lake level. The roads were of varying quality; gravel, dirt and asphalt surfaces were all in the mix. We were primarily in the flat land of the Altiplano, riding our way through upper elevation wet lands with high numbers of diverse water birds. The mountains were all around us in the not so distant view, covered in low green vegetation with the prevalent sheep herds. We enjoyed raised lake vistas and incredible sunsets along the way towards the border town of Tilali on the Peruvian side and Puerto Acosta on the Bolivian side, about 10k between the two. We passed through the towns of Azangaro, Chupa, Huancane, and Moho before reaching the border...which happened to be an interesting and unexpected experience.
We came into the Peruvian/Bolivian border towards the end of the day finding a closed barrier with small offices on either side, one unhappy dog, and no personnel. After some loud knocking and calling out our presence, finally, someone came to our attention. Neither side quite knew what to do with us and it turns out that there is no immigration on the Peruvian side therefore we could not get an exit stamp. After some discussion with their superiors, they let us pass without any more than a "good luck", deciding it was more our problem than theirs. At the crossing, the surface went from the rolling lake side pavement we had been traversing for the last 30k or so to steep, loose, rutted surface and into strange between border territory. We threw up camp soon after the crossing seeing as it was quickly approaching darkness. The next day, after climbing and descending some the roughest, steepest, most technical passage of the trip, we reached the Bolivian border town of Puerto Acosta. There was slightly more control here, with several guards and officials representing the various agencies generally located at border crossings, Bolivia had an immigration office. After giving us some grief about not having a Peruvian exit stamp and trying to tell us that we had to go back to Puno, which happened to be on the other side of Lake Titicaca, they let us through. We were given 5 days to correct our illegal status which required us to reach either the crossing at Copacabana or at Desaguadero, both located at the very southern tip of the lake. Slightly out of our way, but not more than 50k, given we planned to visit Tiahuanaco before coming into La Paz.
As we pedaled away from the border crossing the road surface improved but was still a dry, loose, gravel with a steady flow of dump trucks hauling aggregate in the slow process of capital improvement projects. The next day we were out of the immediate mountains and had picked up some pavement, allowing us to advance well over 100k for the day. As we began to near the capital city of La Paz and it's adjoining city of El Alto, the traffic began to really pick up. The temperatures had been cool since leaving Cusco, riding mostly in pants and sleeves, but a steady rain set in for several hours making the combination of the wet and cold weather conditions along with steady traffic and sketchy highway detours due to road construction, not so pleasant. It eventually quit raining and we exited the main highway to a peaceful dirt road in the direction of Laja, which was to the west of La Paz. We rode until dark thinking we would find a hostel, but to our surprise there weren't any in the booming city of Laja. We interestingly enough found a Catholic church that was kind enough to give us refuge for the night in their dormitory.
The next day we had an easy ride west to the archeological site of Tiahuanaco. We spent the rest of the day touring the site with a guided group and ended the day having a tasty meal in town. We were pleasantly joined by a Belgium backpacking couple that was passing through the area. It was nice to share stories over a few beers and partake in some conversation with people other than us. Us and our Belgian friends camped right on the edge of the ruins and woke up to rain that had been falling for several hours, cold temperatures, and the view of freshly snow covered mountain tops. Before departing, the weather improved, making it a busy but easy ride into the border town of Desaguadero.
Once in the border town, and after some difficulties of even finding the border crossing, we rode right past the Bolivian control and crossed into Peru as if thats where we had been all along. We got our Peruvian exit stamp then our Bolivian entry stamp and we were legally in Bolivia and on our way to La Paz. Not wanting to deal with back tracking the busy 100+k back into the city, not to mention trying to navigate El Alto, we stuffed our bikes, gear, and ourselves into a taxi and drove all the way into La Paz. It was nice to finally get a warm shower and a roof after 8 days on the road.
