Sucre to Oruro? 469km & over 7 hours driving says Maps.me (our latest Sat Nav) - have to go back to Potosi and turn right - Recepcion at the Hotel de Su Merced agrees.
David has seen an alternative route - less than 320km and only 5 hours driving - Ruta 6 - Evo Morales' flagship construction project - to link Sucre to La Paz by a modern road through the mountains. According the the Peruvian Press it's 'almost' completed - with 'just' one 62km stretch still mid-construction.
iOverlander says it's passable in a 4x4, but runs through drug growing country so take care!
We're not on this adventure to be timid - so we fuel up and head for Ruta 6.
Fantastic tarmac for the first 60km - no sign of any other tourists - or any other vehicles at all actually! Pass through 3 Policia checkpoints - all surprised to see us, but after some chat all let us through. Mountain scenery spectacular - as is the road - must be costing $$$ millions!
Suddenly the tarmac ends - and the road becomes a narrow dirt track - through fields of some crop or other - and small villages where the local people stare and glare - seems not everyone wants the new flagship road - lots of construction equipment - bulldozing houses, excavating mountain sides - and in one deep valley building a kilometre long bridge on concrete pillars hundreds of metres high!!
Stop here for a Mountain Pass Picnic - Amanda is concerned about the nearby farm workers and a couple of ramshackle vehicles approaching! We wave to them and they drive by with a friendly wave.
Back on the track discover the 62km stretch mid-construction hasn't actually been started, so it's 62km of hard dirt road up and down mountain sides, across rivers, through tiny villages and across rugged but fertile agricultural land. Lovely scenery - but slow going - 2 hours to drive this stretch!
Probably should have left Sucre before 12:00, but hey - you know how it is! Back on tarmac we zip along, though it's clear we won't reach Oruro before dark - so as the light begins to fade we pull over in an unknown town and ask iOverlander to find us a Hotel. Just one on the map - to get there we drive through the Centro - via a Street Market and along the narrowest of roads!
After mucho traffic shenanigans we check-in at the Hotel Colonial which fortunately has a Double Room for us - in fact has every room for us - nobody else staying there! And hit downtown looking for chow! Unbelievably find a Chinese Restaurant where we have Soup + Chinese Chicken & Rice - delicious - Chef comes out to chat - we're unusual customers - never seen any Gringos in this town before! So what's this town called? Llallagua ! It's not a Welsh town!!
