Santa Cruz de la Sierra Pt.1

As we had done the majority of the driving the day before, we were now only around an hour from Santa Cruz. While La Paz still technically holds the title as the capital, this city is a close second and in some ways better equipped. It’s the place to go if you want bigger shops or something special. The last time we were near a reasonably sized supermarket was back in La Paz, and we were looking forward to being able to stock up properly again. The small shops that line every street in the smaller villages are pretty limited. You can buy endless snacks and fizzy drinks, but things like groceries are limited and vegetables are pretty non-existent. It was high time we did a big shop.

Now with enough food for a while, we turned our attention to camping. It was still early in the day, and the best spot seemed to be a large grassy area outside Parque Guapilo. This was a large park on the outskirts of town, and it boasted a large level parking spot that ran in a generous stretch along one side. We drove down to the end so as to stay out of everyone’s way and potentially have a quieter night.

In the end, it wasn’t any noise that kept us awake but the heat. When we had arrived there was a good breeze that took away some of the humidity of the afternoon, but as we went to bed the breeze stopped and, with the night-time temperature in the camper over 30 degrees, sleep was hard.

One of our main reasons for stopping here was that we needed a specialist welder to fix our bike rack. As it turned out, this was not the only thing that needed fixing. That morning, the laptop totally refused to turn on. We do have another laptop that we had bought back in Ecuador when we realised that one is just not enough for two people both trying to work online. This one wasn’t really set up, or capable, of video editing. This was a bit of a problem as we were now in a position where we really needed to be able to post our videos. To add to our problems, it was incredibly overcast as well but still hot, meaning our batteries were already starting to struggle. After a terrible night’s sleep and with all of our broken things getting on top of us, instead of doing anything useful we moped in the park.

As it was now the weekend, there wasn’t much we could do about the laptop, but we decided that we would wait here till Monday as getting it repaired in a big city would be far easier. The following day remained cloudy, and while it had been cooler and stormy at night, it was still difficult for the batteries. We decided to get the generator down and look at it — why carry one around if you’re never going to use it? It had been neglected for some time though and hadn’t run great the last time we had used it. It seemed like it needed a proper clean on the carb, a new float bowl, and quite possibly a new oil level sensor. I cleaned out the heavily corroded system as best as I could and it very nearly started, but not quite. We would have to see if it was worth repairing another time, as we couldn’t get hold of the parts we needed for it here.

As we were in repair mode, we took off the sliding door and re-tapped some bottom bolts for the lower door runner that insisted on continually coming loose. The dirt roads had not been kind to the door mechanism either, and after a clean, tighten and a good grease, we could once again use it properly. Our other bit of bad news was that Lee’s new phone screen had completely died, just one week after fitting it. It seemed they hadn’t glued it on properly and the whole thing had gone black. As it was only a cheap one anyway, and we had already spent money trying to fix it, we debated whether it was more economically viable to get a new one. Being in a big town like this meant we had access to things like Facebook Marketplace, and it seemed like it might be a better idea to pick up a cheap, newer second-hand model than to pay yet again for a repair that might not last.

On Sunday, we headed back into town and found a cheap market. We attempted to pick up some bits we needed from a DIY shop, but the ones here weren’t very good, despite it being a huge city. At least we had some success buying fuel and washing the car too. Our little drive around town had helped the batteries somewhat, but the alternator was struggling to charge them at all with the stop-start city driving, and so by the time we got back to our spot they were still only about half charged.

As Monday arrived, it was time to go and fix some stuff. We found a store that repaired Macs and they told us that they would charge a small fee for a diagnosis by the end of the day, so we left it there and headed to a welder. It was a fast job to fix the bike rack, and in the meantime we arranged to pick up a second-hand phone for Lee. After being messed around somewhat by the seller, we finally met up and got the phone. As we sat on the side of the road talking to an old German man who warned us of the terrible quality of Bolivian driving, the repair shop messaged us. They told us that they could fix the laptop for £70 and that it would be ready the following afternoon, and we gave them the go-ahead. With things pretty much in order, we went back to the park.

The last thing that needed sorting was our Wallas stovetop. We had been talking to the engineer from England about the problem, but he wasn’t the best at replying. We sent him another message and a video showing the problem and hoped that soon we could also get this sorted. The only good news here was that it was possible to buy butane cans in Bolivia. We normally use our small butane gas stove for quick things like boiling water or cooking a quick breakfast when we can’t be bothered to start the Wallas. We hadn’t used it for months however, as in both Ecuador and Peru the cans of gas were hard to come by and extortionately expensive (around $10 a can) if you did find one. At least here they were a much more reasonable price and also more available, so we did have a back-up option to cook with.

As we waited in the park for the laptop to be repaired, and the Wallas to reply, Lee dyed my hair.

I had suspected that the main circuit board had failed, and I was unfortunately proved correct when the main dealer messaged back and confirmed this was the fault. A new circuit board was available, but it cost nearly £400. That really was the cherry on top. We had had a broken laptop, phone, cooker, and failing alternator all within the space of a few weeks. It seemed like the dust from the dirt road was to blame.

We had decided to see if a local auto electrician would replace the brushes in the alternator. It seemed like it would be the likely culprit, as while it still worked, the voltage was very low. We went and found a shop. They insisted on taking off the alternator, even though I offered. They told us that a part of the circuit board of the regulator had come loose. He proudly announced that it now worked when it hadn’t before. After trying to explain myself for a long time, we gave up. We had gained 0.2v back on the charging — perhaps that would make a difference.

With still no reply from the laptop repair, we settled in for another night. Who knew what it would bring. Some nights had been almost cold and we snuggled under the duvet; others too hot to sleep and I lay outside across our camping chairs at 2am trying to cool down. It was very changeable here, but at least it was very quiet, even throughout the weekend. Our main problem was power. We weren’t driving anyway, and the days were cloudy and hot. This meant our batteries were barely getting above 30% in the day, and at night we were shutting down the fridge to save power. While we managed, it was irritating because it was the perfect time to get some things done online, but charging the laptops uses a lot of power.

The next morning, we got a message that the laptop was ready to be collected, so we packed up and set off. We collected it from a slightly worried-looking person who told me that the screen was broken. I think they thought I was about to blame them for it. If they’d bothered to listen when I dropped it off, I had told them it was broken, but there was a look of relief on his face when we said we already knew that. We paid up our bill, bought some more butane to last us as we clearly weren’t going to have any other way to cook for a while, and headed out of town.

We had only got to La Guardia, a small suburb of the city, when we came up behind a line of trucks parked in the road. It was like being at the border, and after sitting there for a few minutes we did what we would have done at the border and drove past them all. A few kilometres further down, the way became totally blocked. We parked up near the petrol station, meaning that we could turn around and weren’t trapped by cars around us. It seemed to be a road blockade.

After speaking to the locals, it seemed there were rumours that it might open again at 6pm. There was no other way out of the city, so we decided we’d wait and see what happened. It was no surprise that the locals had capitalised on the blockade. There was already a pizza takeaway and rotisserie chicken available. From time to time we wandered down to the front, where large heaps of sand and some sad-looking flags blocked the way. As night fell and the road became increasingly covered in piss and piles of chewed coca, we decided to go and get blockade pizza. While we could have cooked in the van, it seemed easier to get some ready-made on the off chance we did need to suddenly go.

They were the cheapest pre-made shop pizzas, but nevertheless they’d do the job. As we sat on a plastic stall while they were cooked in a small portable oven, we asked if there was any idea about the blockade. Apparently they had opened it at 6am to let traffic through, but only for an hour, and the newest theory was that they would do this again tomorrow.

It seemed clear we weren’t going anywhere tonight, so we drove down a small side road and pulled over to the side to have a more peaceful night and eat our pizza. We decided we’d be up at 5am to try the road again, as unappealing as that sounded — it’d be worth it if we got through.