Bolivia’s Western Lagunas Route — Is Laguna Colorada Worth the Struggle?

Day two on Bolivia’s Western Lagunas Route. Having freed Jonas’s CRF from the sand, we reach the end of the altiplano and start bobbing up-and-down sandy hills till we reach what we had feared all along: sandy washboard. Annoyingly wobbly, with the occasional surprise sideway slither. Exciting? Maybe. But at this altitude, my CRF was already struggling as it is. Poor thing!

Apparently the CRF wasn’t happy with just struggling though. It got ready to give me quite a fright. While slithering along the sandy washboard, one of the slithers suddenly turned into a standstill. Not because I wanted to study the geology from closer by, although that would have been highly plausible, but because the engine wanted to hand me a cease and desist.

And resisting it did! The engine would turn on, but the moment I wanted to get the bike to move, it made a grinding sound and turned itself back off. Had I suddenly forgotten how to get a bike going? Or were my clutch plates ruined?

I’m not going to lie. I was getting a little scared. The kind of scared that doesn’t announce itself loudly. It just sits there, very still, while you try to think clearly at 4800m. Of course Jonas could try to tow me all the way back to Chile, but we weren’t too sure that a CRF pulling another CRF would actually be able to make it up to 5000m before heading back down again.

The tool roll came out and with a little fiddling with my clutch and some magical bike whisperer skills, we breathlessly got it working again. What a relief!

The sandy washboard continued till Piedra del Árbol, which you might recognise from photos, after which the track started to head downhill. Not the easy-going-let’s-enjoy-the-view kind of downhill, but at least I knew that I could keep my bike rolling if the engine turned off again.

In the distance we see dark red colours appear, separated from one another by white slithers. It takes us a while to fully comprehend what’s going on, but then we get it. It’s the famous Laguna Colorada changing its colours. Every day in the early afternoon the otherwise normal looking lake takes on this colourful identity it is so well known for. We couldn’t believe we’d timed it so perfectly! For a few seconds, the washboard didn’t exist. Nothing did, really, except that lake.

It might have been from afar with a wobbly track screaming for attention below our wheels, but it was unmistakeable. It’s one of those moments you can’t fully share with anybody else apart from each other. A silent moment in awe of the world, yet, if I am honest, slightly frustrated that we can’t get any closer at a reasonable speed without crashing.

Eventually we make it! The transformation to red has been completed, but it’s still the perfect lunchspot to take in the views.

If I am completely honest with you, lunch did start with us bickering at one another. I can’t remember what it was about or why we even started, maybe it was just our oxygen-deprived brains looking for a way out, but it took us a while to calm down.

Instead of riding on, we decided we might as well spend the night in the area and enjoy this place in peace. We knew there was a little town just around the corner with some lodging options, and being in Bolivia, even these are doable with a travel budget of 30€ per person per day. I mean, we had the all-in experience with biscuits, tea, dinner and breakfast for 36€ for the both of us.

The best moment though? A little bag of crisps and a drink at hand, seated on a random rock, watching time slowly move across this vast place with night tugging at its tail.

With sunlight gone, not much later, all lights disappear and it’s time to turn in for the night, below the well needed 5 layers of thick woollen and fleece blankets.