We rode 132km even though we wanted to take a day off in Oruro, but spontaneously decided to take off in the direction of Challapata- never thought we would make it.......and here we are!
The road was so easy -even with a little and sometimes a lot of headwind. The Lakes Uru Uru and Lake Poopo were shimmering in the heat, way back, looking like a mirage.
My bike felt SO GOOD and comfy and after washing clothes and myself the day we arrived in Oruro, there was no reason to linger. The town itself was surprisingly pleasant. It had its "Hay days" in the past as a mining town, but it seemed to have recovered and stabilized as a bit of a tourist attraction and "jump off" to the near by salt lakes - the largest in the world and most impressive: they can be observed with the naked eye from the moon (well, who is going to prove that....?), but I like to believe it!
I am excited to be here - ready for some more flat, fast riding after the intensity and the slow going of the peruvian mountains. There still will be some climbing...thinking about riding to Potosi since the roads are paved and it's a bit of a detour, but if we head into the Salar from here we will be on half finished and mostly difficult dirt roads which will probably take the same amount of time as taking the long way via Potosi and the town itself sounds interesting enough to pay a visit.
While riding - especially now in the flats when I don't have to pay too much attention...traffic is light, easy- my thoughts often take me to a place in the future when this trip is in the past and what remains? How will it all look like from that point? Which are the important parts that stay as a memory? Can I see already which ones they are going to be?Then, later, I will be different again......
Be in the here and now- but why not wander...? It's fun to be in the later too, not to worry, but just imagining it. When I was pregnant with my wonderful girl, I imagined how she would be and who she would be....of course she is nothing like I imagined (thank god). The reality of her is - now I can say it- way beyond what I could have possibly imagined and yet it was fun to play into the future and bathe in it. So, this trip is a form of laboring and who I am going to be afterwards is going to be something else...somebody beyond my imagination.
