Bolivian Fuel Crisis

Leaving La Paz turned out to be a lot harder than I expected. I left early in the morning, only to find insanely long lines at every gas station I passed. The next station was too far to reach, so I had no choice but to wait. My first attempt to get gas took about six hours, and I quickly learned that most gas stations won’t serve vehicles with international plates. Apparently, the government heavily subsidizes fuel for Bolivian citizens, which costs around $0.53 per liter. This was also when I found out about Bolivia’s ongoing fuel crisis—oil production is at an all-time low, and the government is really struggling to keep the fuel subsidies in place.

After wasting six hours, I was directed to another station that was government-affiliated and could help me out. I made my way there, but at this point, I was in a tough spot. I didn’t have enough gas to either go back to La Paz or keep going forward if this station couldn’t help me. After waiting another three hours in line, I found out the station had run out of fuel, and it would be a while before they restocked. Luckily, I bumped into a local who told me about the illegal black market. This turned out to be a blessing, as I managed to buy enough fuel to fill my tank, purchasing several water bottles filled with gas to make sure I’d have enough to reach my destination. The price was outrageous, though, at $3.58 per liter, but I really didn’t have any other option.

After doing the math, I figured I had just enough fuel to make it to Uyuni, about 500 km away. The drive was smooth for the most part, but I noticed that most of the gas stations I passed were closed, running out of fuel. That was a little concerning since I didn’t have a backup plan anymore and was fully relying on the fuel I had. The situation became trickier when my fuel delivery issue kicked in. My bike tends to starve for fuel when the tank reaches a certain level, usually around 430 km into a drive. Sure enough, about 350 km into this trip, the bike started to struggle. I hadn’t planned for this, and with only enough gas to get me about 100 km further, I was 50 km short. It was completely dark, and pouring rain, so I started to worry I might get stuck out in the desert in the middle of the night. My only option was to slow down to 65 km/h to try and stretch my fuel, which made the trip take much longer than planned.

I barely made it, but as I saw the city lights in the distance, my bike ran out of gas. At that moment, I was actually pretty relieved best case scenario, in my opinion. I pushed the bike the last bit to my hostel, checked in, and finally called it a night.Læs mere