We left Sajama for Uyuni.  There were a few routes that we could take, but after fighting with loose sand for a couple of days, we decided to follow the paved roads as much as we can.  Yeah, we’re weak adv-riders, but hey, we have a lot of luggage!

As we were starting to get close to Oruro we had to dodge a simple roadblock in front of a bridge.  We were in the middle of nowhere really, still 50km to Oruro, so we didn’t really think much of it.  I just figured it was a few pissed off buses.

As we neared Oruro I started getting very nervous.  There was even less traffic than normal.  Oruro has 215,000 people, so there should be SOME activity.

I got to the tollway and there were buses, rocks, and broken glass spread across the road.  OK.  Now is when I realize there is a serious problem going on in the city.

Every moto traveler talks about Bolivia and road blocks.  My understanding is that they’re just to harass buses and cars, not motorcycles.  I don’t know why they’re OK with motorcycles going places, but there was no way for any other vehicle to get through this road block.

We managed to squeeze through two buses parked next to eachother.  The area was full of onlookers, just hanging out.

The other thing I heard from moto travelers about breaking through roadblocks is that sometimes you’ll have rocks thrown at you.

Lucky for us, this protest seemed pretty peaceful.  Getting through this city was going to be pretty rough.

img

Every intersection had atleast a bus or microbus blocking the way for cars.  Not only the car intersections, but they had lined up 4 or 5 buses on the train tracks to prevent the train running.  Lets just say I wouldn’t want to be the first bus to park on the track.

img


img

img

I’m not exactly sure what they mean, so I’ll let a better spanish speaker translate that sign.

It was a crazy experience though– It was a modern, well, Bolivia modern with lots of big wide roads, city of 200,000 and it was nearly silent except for the chatter of people.

Don’t mess with the buses.