20,000th KILOMETRE HAS BEEN RUN!! WATCH THE VIDEO AS I APPROACH THE MARKER
Press HERE to view my video shot as I approached my 20,000th km of the world run
Km 251 on the Bolivian Pan American highway, high up on the altiplano was my 20,000th kilometre!
Hi all.. Sorry for lack of internet service, Bolivia is very bad for it. I will be running in remote locations towards Villazon and the Argentina border and expect some more poor service areas.
The big news is that 20,000km was reached on Thursday and am now at 20,094 for 484 road days. I expect to be in Argentina in less than 2 weeks. I am zooming through Bolivia now. Some days I want to run more but I am limited without a support vehicle and have stopped early on a few occasions. I am in great form! Got a huge amount to report but as always am time poor!
I also am not forgetting about the last few days in Peru and the first week in Bolivia but am submitting this report first.
More details and hopefully if the connection is good tonight I will upload the video I shot as I approached the 20,000 km marker along with the interview I gave myself!! :)
Thanks everyone for your support and heres to the next 20 and 30 thousand!!
HERES TO THE NEXT 20 OR 30 THOUSAND!
A DIFFERENT KIND OF BACKPACK!
All week I was looking forward to running the 20,000th kilometre of the run. It was a bit surreal as I approached km marker 251, I just couldn´t believe that this was happening, after all the years dreaming and planning. And then as I finally approached it I even forgot to jump for joy and celebrate, instead I just took off my pack and shot a video!
I had promised myself a big steak and immediately laughed as the food has been terrible since leaving Colombia last February. Yes the food in Ecuador, Peru and here in Bolivia is appalling peasant food which is cold about 90 percent of the time. Amazingly the locals think its hot and think I am mad! Many times there is just a scrap of meat, ice cubed sized or chicken claws in the soup or rings of the claw mushed into rice.
Imagine French fries left on a plate for an hour, well that’s what they call hot here and a kettle of once hot water left on a chair all day in a restaurant is called hot too!
In Peru I went the whole country without seeing an electric kettle being boiled, I was later told that is due to the expense, an electric kettle is used only as a last resort, most of the time I had to wait about 15 minutes for my coffee, I missed the great North American service of being greeted at the door with a coffee! Here everything is boiled on gas stoves in huge saucepans of water when you just want a cup!
I ran another 10km and finished earlier than expected in the village of Machacamarca, only a lazy 34km today out of the 20,010km run so far!
This may sound corny, and I am not very religious but I have often felt that something is guiding me through this run, like I am meant to do this run. I have not had a single setback and things always seem to work out, no matter how grim they look, I don’t worry about things anymore, they work out.
In this village I was told that the re was just one hospedaje and I had a tough job tracking it down to a restaurant called Parador Restaurant. I banged on the locked garage gate and two maids came out. They phoned the owner, a grey-haired lady with the unlatino sounding name of Donna Tallon.
When Donna came over she assured me that her family were 100 percent Bolivian.
Then she showed me the menu and I couldn’t believe it, llama steaks were on it and big steaks there were too! Not surprisingly llama tastes like tender lamb.
DELICIOUS LLAMA STEAK, AND ALL FOR ONLY $4 
What luck! As I said, I longed for that steak and I got it, its amazing how these things are working out for me, sometimes I feel I am the luckiest person in the world.
After dinner I went down the lane to Donna’s shop and she showed me my room. I was sure it was a room in her house and a boys room as there were WWF posters on the wall and clothes everywhere, did I care – no not at all – another night safe off the road as lately accommodations are getting harder and harder to get.
MY ROOM ON THE 20,000KM NIGHT! MY BED WAS ON THE LEFT AND THATS NOT MY GEAR!
Next day out on the road I am running happily towards Poopo when I get stopped by a cyclist whose father hails from England but he lives in Barcelona as his mother is Spanish. His name is Mateo and we stop for lunch in town. He is an English language teacher in Barcelona and every year goes off on a 2 month cycle, this year it is Bolivia.
MATEO
On I run and a couple of hours later I get stopped by Italian cyclist Pablo.
Later that day after a 49km canter I stop for the night in a village called Pazna. Pablo is in the room next to me. I tease him by saying 4 nil! He thinks I am referring to the drubbing the Italians gave Ireland in the Euro 2012 soccer championships, in fact I am referring to the hammering Italy got by the same score in the final to Spain! We laugh and he cooks pasta, tuna, egg bread and coffee for dinner.
PABLO COOKS DINNER
Next morning he makes me coffee and bread and jam. That tasted so good, it´s a long time since I had bread and jam. Foods I miss are an Irish fry up with rashers,sausages, drippy eggs, black and white pudding, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans and heavily buttered toast with a nice strong cup of Irish tea!
I run about 14km and stop for a snack in a village with the embarrassing name of Huancane.
I go down a laneway
And get a nice greeting from the Huancers.
I think these bowler hats age the women… I often wonder if they wear them in bed!
Inside the shop a man shakes my hand and asks me why my hand is cold. I tell him my left isn’t as I was running with the sun at that side but the whole right side of my body is cold in that early morning cold spell.
YOU GOT A COLD HANDSHAKE! HE SAYS... WELL IT´S BECAUSE I AM RUNNING WITH THE SUN TO MY LEFT SIDE!
In the shop I spot my first non-alcohol beer in over a year in Latin America. I guess Latinos are too macho for this. I don´t drink regular alcohol but enjoy the taste of non-alcohol beers. I can´t resist it, so I polish it off quickly.
Many people here are amazed that I am not interested in the world famous salt mine here. It seems tourists come from all over to view the largest salt mine in the world. I tell them I have no interest, that I am not a tourist and besides I have never heard of Bolivian salt before.
I have heard of 2 million year old sea salt with a best before date. So what will happen if you take a pinch of it a day after it´s expiration and after 2 million years!
The salt fields ran along the highway and attracted many llamas. All hunters know how game is attracted to illegal salt blocks.
SALT FIELDS ATTRACTING LLAMAS
It took a bit of an effort to get going again but eventually I did, only to be stopped by three men who gave me a 2 litre bottle of cola. I fill up my almost empty water bottle and give them a world jog business card. I haven´t been giving many out in the last few months, it´s best to keep a low profile, well as best as I can! 
Approaching the small town of Challapata I suddenly realised that something was amiss.
There was a protest on the road, in fact it was a traffic blockade. Some of the protesters told me it was a protest for better roads. At first I applauded them and then was horrified to see that some of the protesters had catapults and were slinging rocks at vehicles that had broken the blockade.
PROTESTERS WITH CATAPULTS
I was horrified and told them so after I took a risk of taking a photo. I was a bit frightened I would be attacked and robbed in the mayhem and ran on. It seemed that many buses just turned around and dumped their passengers, invalids and all with heavy loads on the road. The innocent suffering it seemed to me and not the smartest of protests.
The protesters had blocked the road with rocks as traffic took dirt roads around the blockade.
35km today.
AND NOT A COP IN SIGHT!
July 15th, 2012 at 2:19 am
Great read Tony, congratulations on 20,094 Kms and the steaks, looked delicious and we all know you were looking forward to them so much. Photos are fab, glad luck is on your side so much. Take care Ann
July 15th, 2012 at 2:53 am
Thanks Ann! Now go to bed and get off that iphone as it must be 4am in Ireland! I can hardly wait for the world famous Argentine steaks
Tony
July 15th, 2012 at 9:05 am
Hi Tony,
I cant believe you never heard of the famous Bolivian salt mines !
Another great milestone Congrats on reaching 20,000 kms and posting
more amazing photos (maybe make us appreciate our foods, roads).
Best of Luck
Matt
July 15th, 2012 at 10:31 am
Good Man Tony, Thanks for another chapter in theworldjog, over 20,000kms and that iconic Tony Mangan smile still dominant throughout.
July 15th, 2012 at 5:13 pm
well done tony, a great milestone. let us know what national geographic say when you tell them of your discovery about the earth!!!!!! you are flying at the moment. keep up the great work. kevin
July 15th, 2012 at 6:43 pm
Congratulations Tony on reaching a whopping 20000km what an amazing achievement! Hope u enjoyed that well deserved steak and that it was at least like warm!! Keep on running. Thinking of u. Serena
July 15th, 2012 at 6:54 pm
Congrats tony! That’s an unreal milestone. Keep up the good work.
July 15th, 2012 at 7:51 pm
Congrats Tony. I daresay you’ll have a lot of opportunity to eat nice steaks when you cross over into Argentina. I still remember a steak I had at an Argentinian restaurant years ago in Madrid. I’m looking at a world map at the moment squinting to see the placenames from your latest blog post. As ever a great read. Good luck.
July 16th, 2012 at 11:43 am
Congratulations Tony on running 20,000kms. We are so proud of you and pleased for you on this great achievement. Continue to enjoy and stay safe. God Bless Mam
July 16th, 2012 at 8:44 pm
Tony, another huge milestone (or should I say Kilometerstone!!) on your amazing expedition. Well done and a great read.
July 17th, 2012 at 11:04 am
Well done Tony – seems like only yesterday when you started out!
July 17th, 2012 at 10:45 pm
Congrats Tony on the 20,000 milestone. We are all so proud of you! Great pictures. Hope you enjoyed the llama steak. Look after yourself. Gary
July 17th, 2012 at 10:50 pm
Hi Tony, many congrats, just back from 5 weeks in Brazil and last weekend got food poisoning, should have had those llama steaks. Keep up the good work, I will be in coontact wioth the club over the next few days. Well done once again
July 18th, 2012 at 5:46 pm
Now I understand why there were huge fireworks in Paris on that day!!! Congratulations, keep smiling.Bastille greetings from Marie France:)
July 19th, 2012 at 10:29 am
congrats on 20,000km
stewart and bernie cochrane
newfoundland
canada
July 19th, 2012 at 10:35 pm
Thanks everyone.. In Potosi now, first chance on net in 5 days. Ran 44km today, almost all uphill to here and just stopped for a few mins.Am feeling strong now at the end of the mountains, getting an about 20th wind!
48km Wednesday. Total 20,291. About 350km to Argentina and I want to get there fast!!
Tony