We weren't expecting much proper camping in Bolivia, unlike Argentina where every town seems to have at least one campsite. So we were excited to find one marked in Sucre on our Open Source Map. Other travellers' instructions for camping at Alberto & Felicidad's said knock loudly on the brown door. But when we did that, the young guy who answered said they no longer owned the place! Felicidad confirmed it when we knocked at her house around the corner. Quite gutting as it had all the facilities we needed and was the only place to camp in Sucre. We ended up spending a couple of nights camped randomly in the centre of town.
Enough time to try the best salteñas in town (from El Paso De Los Abuelos)...
...and have a delicious meal and happy hour cocktails at Florin with some other travellers we'd first met in Tupiza and Potosi. Paul and I tried a cocktail made with a liquor made from coca leaves...not bad but no pix!
Our original plan was to head from Sucre to Oruro on our way to La Paz. But other than being the birthplace of President Morales, Oruro didn't sound like it had much to offer, so on a whim we headed for Cochabamba (or Chumbawumba, as Paul has been calling it).
However, we forgot that Franco had told us which roads were tarmaced and this was not one of them! (We had driven from Villazon to Sucre via Tupiza and Potosi all on tarmaced roads). About 70km in, the asphalt ended...
Every now and again, we were teased with a bit of tarmac, but for the most part we were bouncing along at around 40km/h on unpaved dirt track.
We were lucky it hadn't rained much, but it still meant our already long drive was going to be even longer. The van had run out of water (for washing etc) so when we spotted a campsite on the map on our route we added an unscheduled overnight stop in the tiny village of Mizque. A campsite called Camping Las Cabañas turned out to be a small family farm.
After initially appearing gobsmacked to see tourists (this village is tiny), the lady of the farm let us park up, fill with water and use the facilities.
With Ayulina (I think that's how her name was pronounced)
Later that evening we even got to try chicha, a fermented corn drink which Cochabamba is famous for and which the family makes.
It was unusual but tasty and quite cool to try it in those circumstances having read about it in the guide book.
