Jim's South America Motorcycle Journey: No Traffic Cops

Monday September 19, 2011
Distance today is 540km from La Paz to Potosi.

After an early transfer to the El Alto compound we began our journey however our exit from the city was hampered by yet another demonstration. The main highway was littered with thousands of people blockading all traffic from entering or leaving the city. Imagine four lanes of solid people and blocked cars for over five kilometers. We managed to weave our way through this humanity on the motorcycles without much protest however our support vehicle was turned back and had to find another route out. We rode south to the town of Oruro where we managed to get lost several times and then on to Challapata where we stopped for lunch and waited for Silvana in the support vehicle to catch up with us. The road to Challapata was mostly flat and long and typical of the high altitude landscape of the Andean Altiplano. From Challapata we turned east and began riding high mountain twisty roads until we reached Potosi. We passed through a number of small villages typical of the remote rural environment before arriving just after sundown. Our hotel was located in the heart of this Unesco world heritage site and the traffic was chaotic on narrow streets and steep hills. Today I rode through more red lights and broke more traffic laws than I've done in a lifetime as it was absolutely necessary to stay together to avoid getting lost. For the most part the locals accepted our madness and yielded to our radical driving.