05/19 I got spoiled a little today and had some very unexpected paved road to ride on. The odd part was that it was paved a few miles before the town of Cabana and then not again until half way to Tauca. That just didn’t make sense because the part before Cabana led to, well… nothing. Cabana and Tauca are kind of big villages and I didn’t get why they didn’t pave all the way between them. It was nice being on a hard surface because the dirt sections sucked. I rode 4.5mph uphill on pavement and 3.5mph downhill on dirt.
There was a protest going on in Cabana when I rode through and people in costumes dancing in the streets in Tauca. The police here have been very helpful. The map I have is kind of useless in this area so one of the officers drew me a map and even wrote a note explaining where I was trying to go should I need help. They even gave the note an official police stamp.
Tauca shuts down pretty early. Everything is closed, including the bakery and the only place with internet. The 2 restaurants I found weren’t serving food at 5pm. Hopefully someone fires up a grill in the plaza or it’ll be an oatmeal night. The one thing I’m really not liking about South America (and Central America was no better) is that there’s almost no where to camp without being in someone’s yard/pasture. At least I can eat better if I can use my stove.
Update: My day didn’t quite end when I expected. The policeman that helped me with the map said to come back to the station after he finished working at 6pm and he’d show me the way to get to Corongo. Him and another guy take me out on this crazy expedition up into the hills where we can see every nearby town. The sun has set by now so we walk back in the pitch black with only cell phone lights to keep us from stepping in cow stuff. Then we got a little lost and had to ask people for directions. They probably thought it a bit strange that the police and a gringo were walking around at night outside town. We walked a bit further and a van comes driving by with the police captain and some other guys in it. We get in and the van dies. We solved that problem and finally made it back. The captain invited us all over for dinner and I had a great time hanging out and making fun of the one crazy guy in the group (not me).
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