Der erste Eindruck von Sucre, bekannt als die “weisse Stadt”: ein Kabelgewirr. Diese Art der Vernetzung sollte uns weitgehend in den nächsten Monaten begleiten. Sucre ist eine schöne Stadt mit interessanter Altstadt, meist in weiss gehalten, besonders auch die offiziellen Gebäude. Am Plaza mit Simon Bolivar Statue versammeln sich gegen Abend die Menschen, gute Restaurants ( im Cosmo gegessen – sehr gut), mal wieder Wäsche pro Kilo in einer Lavanderia gewaschen und vor der Abfahrt eingekauft.
We camped at Alberto and Felizidad – they were in the process of adding a bathroom and renovating so that bikers can be accomodated as well. Sucre proved to be a pleasant city with atmosphere, photogenic architecture. While strolling we came across a student dance competition, all in colourful indigenous dresses – a bonus while visiting the city.
Our route continued from Sucre at 2700m via the famous silver mining town Potosi at 4100m. Potosi produced most of the silver that the Spanish shipped to Europe and is infamous for the bad conditions under which the locals had to mine. Potosi is not a city to dwell for long – somewhat run down, poor, industrial. Here we started to feel the altitude – mainly headaches, exhaustion. We bought sweets with Coca content and had coca tea with the evening pizza – the taste is somewhat bitter. Next mornings breakfast at Cherry’s is not worth writing home about -pretty mediocre.
The road from Potosi to Uyuni is beautiful but arid: many Llamas, desert-like stretches with a number of mountain passes above 4000m. Arrived in Uyuni quite late, filled up at a gas station where a police officer negotiated the price with us. Then we drove out of town looking for the train graveyard to overnight wild – a cold night awaited us…