MoabWorld.com News

Tupiza, Bolivia: it has a lot in common with Moab! Both towns have funky names, red rocks, incredible scenery, and are desert tourist towns…Most importantly, the riding in Tupiza is epic!
There is no such thing as a mountain bike guide for this town, however, so we´ve been doing lots of exploring. We´ve had some big successes and a few not-as-great experiences in our attempt to suss out the best riding around. Brian´s already become something of a celebrity with the local kids. In the afternoons a posse usually forms on the ridges above town; they gawk at his bike and urge him to do at least one more jump. I´m the designated photographer during these sessions…
It´s the off season in Tupiza - summer, and the rainy season. We´ve been more or less lucky with the weather - most of the rain has come at night, and at a volume reminiscent of the rains in Moab, October ´06. The roads and trails usually dry out quickly. This morning we did hit some gunky, clay-like mud; our bikes didn´t like it but we pressed on to our destination - 2 tunnels in a canyon gorge and the raging river right beside.
We´ve been here since Wednesday. Our ride from Potosi was really fun, as we descended almost 4000 feet over the course of 155 miles. The scenery was topnotch, and reminiscent of Southern Arizona, with lots of cactus and scrub oak and mountains. We also stumbled across road construction and an unfinished paved road still closed to traffic that we were able to ride for about 40 miles. It was like the world´s longest bike path, and we had it all to ourselves! Pavement is a rarity in Bolivia - most of the roads are dirt in varying degrees of disrepair. Washboards can be a serious hazard for the touring cyclist, but they haven´t been too bad thus far.
We´ll spend at least a few more days in Tupiza, then we ride to Uyuni. I´m a little daunted by the prospect, as we will be gaining back all that elevation we lost on the way here! I´ve heard the road is extremely rough, so our travel time is rather open-ended.