Day 7 – Santa Cruz to Sucre

Huston – we have a problem. My camera has fallen victim to the incredible amount of dust we encountered on this stage and has become inoperable. It is one of the few things for which I have no spare. I know you don’t check in just to read my silly ramblings and I will endeavor to find a replacement. Until then, I’m afraid I’ll have to suspend postings. Sorry to disappoint our faithful followers …

But all is not lost, Lloyd’s deft touch managed to resurrect the camera, however, keeping up one day at a time is not easy and I put off completing this day until our return so all the narrative will be from memories over a month old.

This day was not easy – 488 kilometers over a variety of roads, a little bit of tarmac and a lot of gravel in various states of disrepair.  We also had two Tests over gravel, of course, the first 51 kilometers long and the second 46 – both requiring speeds in excess of 70 kph.

Getting out of town and finding fuel that we can buy is always a challenge, however, once under way in the mountains, the views were worth the effort.

But  it’s not green everywhere, there is plenty of gravel and dust to share …

The towns are all small and quite poor – dirt streets, no sidewalks but sometimes plenty of color.  Unfortunately, the color was present only on rare occasions.

Very strange these balls with spines attached to the overhead wires – they seem to be everwhere.

Coming into a typical small town …

Variety may be the spice of life but here it is a way of life – the scenery changes by the hour.

Spectacular is the one word that applies to the ever changing vista.

Even the nicer towns are very poor and totally lack infrastructure.

Typical housing on the edges of all towns – the similarity of the structures implies the government has been involved – for better or worse.

These gravel roads are rough, I don’t think riding a motorcycle for any distance would be a lot of fun.

Well, I guess this is an improvement over a donkey pulling the cart …

This is the stuff we race over and it’s not as smooth as it looks – check out the rocks in the foreground waiting to get kicked up by the tires.  Despite all that, it was great fun.

Always something to look at and we keep gaining altitude.

An interesting combination, high mountains and desert conditions – that is a cactus at the edge of the road.

Tonight we have to switch to the high altitude carburetor as we have started our climb and can feel the reduction in power already.  This just adds another hour of work, primarily for Lloyd, before our day is complete.  Hopefully, the change will make a big difference in the car’s performance.