Since we started in 8/1/01 in La Paz now one month has gone. One Month full of experiences - I try to give you a calm impressions in the following email:

After 2 days of aclimatisation we were quite happy to leave La Paz, a very crowdy and nervous city... Valeria my girlfriend and I originally planned to stay the whole month we spend together in the mountains around La Paz but the current political situation was a little bit critical, so we went through the Lake Titicaca to Peru where we first met the real great environment in Altiplano: we enjoy nature better if we have to "fight" a bit going through rough terrain, on bad roads. On the way from Juli/Titicaca to Tacna at the sea we passed saw many animals, such as Lamas and Alpacas. The "Campesinos" i.e. the farmers that live very primitive without electricity but with many square kilometers of land... after we waked up between 7 and 8 (dep. on the current time zone and the sun) we used to cook for the whole day because in the evening it started to be very cold. While the nights we had between -1 and -11 degree celsius but with our sleepingbags filled with 900 grams of dow! n we didn’t suffer...One day we crossed the pass going down again, that was at 5200 m , quite high and we haven’t had enough water with us - so the first experience with unsatisfied needs for Valeria. After we were saved by a old campesinowoman we had our tent just like every night in the middle of nowhere. The dog that was barking the whole night next to our tent indicated that we were lying too near nezt to a Campesino...but at least we got a liter of fresh and warm milk the next day. This farmer had all animal stuff: porks, dogs, lamas, chicken, cows ..all...but aof all just a few... Here you meet as well a lot of people on the bike. it’s more due to the fact they’re poor than volunterely...

The people of the land is a shy people. They themselves say that they don’t like to talk too much...so we had comunicaion, but small... After we left this very big and ugly Town Tacna/Peru agin and entered Chile by Arica, we almost got an cultural shock: so many tourist stuff, advertisment...We flet viia Putre to Bolivian Altiplano again, the situation was calm. These 4500 meter of diference in altitude we made in 4 days. Then we entered the rough Bolivian roads again but saw the two saltlakes "Salar de Coipasa" and "Salar de Uyuini" The last one is the word’s greatest and is really great! Ever seen only white? Wow. As ist was sure that there is no water and people to be found, we carried 20 liters of water, 1,5 kg of rice, 4 eggs, milk, patatoes, 1kg cakes, 1kg of dried sweet corn, chocolate, 30 bread rolls....heard all of our 15 minidisc because in the same way the saltlake is monotonous, too...

When we reached Uyuni, we had to divide because Valeria now must study in Germany and I want to start my "Come join me Tou"; we spend 31 days in 3 countries. rode 1360 km, per day in average 43, 10 % over salt, 640 good road, the rest over bad ways, slept every night except for 5 in our green tent and spent between 1 and 5 US $ for it. I had to look 3 hours for a partner, but luckily I was able to find Kyle, who was travelling since 1 year now and has just sold his bike because he was tirde of pedalling. I could convince by my idea and so we’ll start of tomorrow to reach together San Pedro de Atacama which is supposed to be a very hard trail. We’ll be accompanied by another Swizz guy, Daniel, 23, that travels with his own bike.

Have a look at the pictures, bye, hasta luego, Sebastian