Puno, Peru

Day 40 (265 km)

  To get out of La Paz was easy this morning and a few blocks later we took the auto piste " La Paz~La Alto" to the top and soon were on our way to the Peru border about an 100 km away.

   Halfway there were some famous ruins of the Tanawaku era, who ruled there before the Incas and after a 2 hour stop we reach the border place, which was a chaos. We passed Bolivian procedures quick as well the Peruvian immigration and then the hassle started with customs.

   First they say come back 2 pm what I did and after seen a German got rejected to bring his car into Peru, because the title was not in his name even thou he had signed certified letters telling them he had permission, I already thought the worst for Scotty, who had a similar case. When it was finally my turn, my bike was processed quick and the customs guy told the German, who kept hanging around that this is how it has to be! Then when I did Scotty's paperwork, the guy said that Scotty' bike could not get in and arguing the case that the criterium is that the bikes owner can only bring the bike in, according Peruvian law, I showed him so many papers, that he finally agreed and made an exception and entered Scotty as the owner, instead of "Utila Dive Centre" what the title said. 3 hours later we left with some paper work and 2 hours later reached Puno on lake Titicaca, which is shared by Bolivia and Peru and is believed the biggest lake in South America at an altitude of 3750 meters.



      Puno was a good size city with thousands of people on the street and an half an hour later we found an hostel in the center and we're able to park our bikes next to our room in the kitchen area, so we did not had to unpack nothing and soon hit the town to get something to eat. Tomorrow if we make it Cusco!  

Yungas road, also called the "death road" and considered the most dangerous road in the world!

Day 39 (222 km)

  Picked up the bikes in the parking lot and rode it back to the hotel to pick up a rucksack with some small items to take on our side trip to Corioco. To get to this place you had to take the Yungas road and this is the only road to get to the tropical lowlands of the north east of Bolivia. This road is considered the most dangerous road in the world and in the past has hundreds of fatalities, due to trucks and cars falling of the mountain edges which have shear drop offs of more as 1000 meters and the road is not even that wide that trucks can not pass each other. Lots of documentaries has been made in the past about this road!

     Few years with funding of Unesco, they made a second paved road on the other side of the mountain, what solved the amount of fatalities this road had each year. This new road we decided to take down to Corioco about an hundred km away and it took us almost 2 hours to get through traffic and asking directions in this insane city with congested traffic and soon after that we reached La Cumbre at 4700 meters and the rain start pouring and turned into hail. The fog was so thick that you could hardly see anything , especially the scenery.

        La Cumbre was the highest spot and just before Corioco it was only 1200 meters altitude, so everything was down from here fast with hundreds of winding curves. All the heavy trucks were doing only 15 km p/h due to the steep roads and 3 hours later, we reached Corioco in tropical weather and sunshine to get lunch in a German restaurant with a Dutch woman running the place!

   We dried all our clothes and 3pm took off for La Paz again and the intention was to take the old road back. But the weather conditions of the last few days, the road was so bad, that people told us not to do it and it was to late anyway to go back that way and reach before dark La Paz. So we took the same road back, but this time there was no rain or fog all the way to La Paz and rode through stunning scenery and saw the other side of the mountain clearly. So late around 7 pm we reached the parking lot and late had a good dinner in a Dutch bar restaurant and had bitter ballen and Swarma with pita bread and all the good ingredients and tap beer. For sure I will have a Dutch breakfast here tomorrow!

la Paz, Capitol of Bolivia

Day 38 (352 km)

    Somehow we had to make it today to La Paz to stay on schedule and we left before 7 am, had some coffee and an egg sandwich. We drove all day @ 3800 to 4200 meter altitude and of course it started to drizzle a little bit, but on the end of the day, we did not get wet like yesterday.

  The highlight of the day was reaching La Paz in the afternoon and looking @ the city from the top of the mountain and see the soup bowl where are the buildings are deep down

   

  We decided to stay 2 nights, parked the bikes in a parking lot and went looking for a Chinese restaurant . We did not see one our whole trip yet! Later came to find out that my laptop is not starting up windows, so using Scotty's iPad, but in that one I can not upgrade the map and upload photos for some reasons.

No progress today in Bolivia

Day 37 (230 km)

  Looking out of the window, all I saw was clouds and rain squalls, but we still packed the bikes and hoped for the best. Went through the same hassle again to get fuel and the first one did not want to sell any and the second one did and we paid her 7 bolivar for a liter ( $ 1.00)

   Took off in the rain and after get out of town, we were all ready soaked and the luggage as well.

After about 30 km we ended up on the wrong road and decided to turn back and then Scotty's moto stalled out and did not wanted to start anymore in the middle of nowhere . After emptying the carburetor she started again and made it to a village and could work on the bike, but no mechanic!

So the little knowledge I had, we decided to take of the carburetor ourselves and play with it.

After cleaning it, I lost the pin from the float and was never be able to find it back, so we made one from a needle, then reassemble everything and it worked, I could not believe myself!

   So finally we left 2 pm, still raining to the next town Chalapata and reached there cold with frozen fingers and feet. Checked in the only shitty pension there was and took a hot shower and start unpacking the motos, to see what all got wet. After all it was not to bad.

Potosi and the first 10.000.00 km are done

Day 36 (257 km)

      We needed gas, so there were only 2 gas stations in town and we already saw a long line with cars and after inquiring a little bit, it seems there is no gas and everybody is waiting on the tanker truck. Anytime fuel gets subsidized by a government, gas stations always run out of gas, same thing happened in Venezuela were gas is FREE, at least in Venezuela it is free for everyone, tourists included, but in Bolivia the official rate is 3 times more for foreign plates and in the bigger towns this is monitored with surveillance cameras. In smaller towns, the gas attendant charge only twice as much and pockets the difference.

So the local price is $ 0.50 a liter, foreign plates pay $ 1.50 and the crooked gas employee charge $ 1.00. 

 We drove to the next gas station 80 km away and filled up using a crooked gas attendant for $ 1.00 liter and soon again, we were up to 4700 meter altitude and were cruising 80 km p/h on an empty paved road to Potosi, 250 km further away. The moto's on this altitude loose at least 25% power and mine was sputtering up hill if I had it wide open,  I guess it was short of gas or the carburetor was dirty or set wrong!

   Over 4000 meter all you see on the roads are Lama's by the hundreds and they are not much smarter as cows, so we had to try to avoid them. Midday we reached Potosi for the second time this year, so we already knew the hotel and her parking lot and knew where to do our laundry. After a good lunch, it was siesta time and then do a little maintenance on our bikes.

  
 Tomorrow to Oruro, what supposed to be a dump high up, but it is the only place 5 to 6 hours away between Potosi and La Paz.

  Our friend Vicente, the Spanjerd sent us a nice picture, what happened with him in Chile, after we left!

Bolivia, 4000 meter high again!

Day 35 (456 km)

   Sunday morning we left the outskirts of Salta for the Bolivian border about 350 km away on route 9 north. This road was paved and the first 100 km went through a forest road high up on the edges of some mountains and the road was not wider as 4 meter and had a curve every 10 ft.

    I could not go through the curves as I wanted, because my bike is top heavy with luggage and with very low speed the front tire feels wobbling and hard to steer! So finally coming out of the woods, the road climbed very quick to 3500 meters and we stayed the rest of the day at that altitude.

   We reached the border around 2 pm and between Argentina & Bolivian,immigration and Customs, I passed with flying colors and 5 minutes later I had done all my paperwork.

Scotty was not that lucky and the guy gave him a hard time and did not wanted Scotty's bike to enter in Bolivia, because the authorization letter, he had, had errors in it, wrong passport number and a mistake in the vin number. After I had a little "discussion" with the official, he let us go and told him to take the rest of the day off!

  Once in Bolivia, we wanted to get away from the border and after changing some money, we took off for Tupiza, a place 100 km away on a paved road with of course no traffic and looking in a distance we thought for sure this time, rain will hit us, but missed us by seconds after arrival.

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Video's shot during our last trip in Brazil towards Argentina

Prologue

    These video's below are taken randomly and published today to get into the mood of our next trip. We have  one way tickets to Buenos Aires, Argentina for the 4th of November and another one way ticket from Lima Peru on the 22nd of December back to Utila, so we have 7 weeks to close the cap, but we have to go south first to touch the bottom of Argentina (Ushuaia), before heading north towards Lima Peru.

The distance to Ushuaia is 3000 km and north to Lima about 8000 km, give or take a 1000 km!

    The first few days in Mar del Plata, we have to tend to Scotty's bike. The engine, we have to take apart and we will carry the parts all ready packed from Honduras such as cylinder, piston, rings and gaskets and hope that will solve the oil problem he had the last 2 weeks ( one liter of oil, for each gas tank fill ) Hope the weather will be OK and even thou it is late spring in November , it still might snow in Patagonia, so I am carrying my ski clothes with me, which are not really waterproof, so no rain please! As well the winds are famous in Patagonia to blow constantly 75 km p/h

    As well to continue my blog, I updated the necessary links, pictures and maps and this post is a good test for me that all is working correctly, because most of the time on the road in the middle of nowhere, there are no good internet connections and if there are, it is usually slow and it is almost impossible to upload video's.

Glad to be in Chile and driving on asfalt

Day 28 ( 152 km)

      Bad luck again this morning, my bike started but Scotty's did not again, so we had to do the same thing like yesterday and swap batteries and we getting good at it, it only took one hour this time in freezing temparatures!

      left 8 am and hit the dirt road again and this time worse as the day before and were not making any distance at all.  Some people told us that the customs for the bikes is about 15 km away on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere and surprisingly we found it at 5033 meters high, after turning in our papers, the bikes were cleared to leave Bolivia, but the border was still far away and the road was pure sand and we couldn't go faster as 15 km per hour , but at noon we reached the hot geysers and we decided to take advantage of this by haven't bathe last night and the water was 35 degrees Celcius! so we went for it and sat in the natural pool for an hour or so.

We left refreshed for the next Laguna "Laguna Verde" and reached that 2 hours later and continued for the border what was just one building in the middle of nowhere and got stamped out quick and told us the migration and Customs for Chile is in San Pedro de Atacama, just before you entered the small town After 7 km we hit asfalt in Chile and what a beautiful road, it went for 40 km downhill from 4500 meters to 2300 meters and in no while it was hot and sunny again and for one reason I do not understand the time is one hour later, eventhou Chile is more to the east as Bolivia. They processed us quickly without any hassle and looked up a Hostal and found one for $ 50.00 for the 2 of us, Chile must be expensive!

                    

Most difficult day on a motorcycle to laguna Colorada, Bolivia!

Day 27 (80 km)

         We had to get up early to have breakfast together with 4 other guest, who had to leave early to go back to Uyuni with a jeep The breakfast was first class and between the 2 meals and room, was only $36.00 each. Had all my stuff packed already and had a hard start in this freezing weather; it was just above freezing and the motorcycles do not like this weather.

                Scotty’s did not start and soon the battery was dead and had to use my battery to get her started and after a 90 minutes delay we were on our way. Just out of town, we guessed the wrong road, but soon we got the right one and start climbing to 4600 meter and it looks like a moon landscape, but the road had lots of thick sand and ruts and it was hard to keep the moto upright and the speed we were doing was 20 to 25 km an hour, but you had to concentrate, so the moto would not drop.

                Soon we came across the first lagoon and had plenty flamingo’s in it and the surrounding mountains with snow caps were all around is. Two hours later, I finally dropped the bike and got stuck under it and between Scotty trying to lift it off me and I getting my leg freed, we succeeded and got the bike standing again, waited a few minutes and tried to start the bike again. After a few minutes, I succeeded and we continued again without any damage on the bike and me and around one we saw in the distance “laguna Colorada” in all his colors. They made a national park out of it all the way to the Chilean border, but personally think it was just to collect the $ 25.00 fee, we had to pay. The last 20 km were the hardest drive experience, I ever had, between a hauling 70 knot wind, sand road and we even encountered a dust devil of at least 200km an hour and almost lifted me and the bike, but did sandblast me. Anyway we only did 80 km and took us four hours and I am wore out

                Finally we reached the pension type accommodation, what could have been out the Middle Ages, with some hard beds; no shower and it will freeze tonight here @ 4500 meters. It is the meeting point of all the jeeps, that doing tours with tourist in the area, so lot of foreign people her under primitive conditions. Don’t know yet if there is dinner and they will start up a generator for only 2 hours @ 7 pm.

So hopefully our bikes start tomorrow and we will end up in civilized Chile, we plan to get up on turns every 2 hours to start the bikes!

Hitting the dirt road to Chile with a time bomb strapped to my back

Day 26 (205 km)

      Dead battery this morning for Scotty, so we had to dismantle the bike to get to the battery, filled her up with acid and re tightened all connection and was lucky she started on the last juice the battery had. Left nine to start the 600 km dirt road to Chile and stop at various lagunas. The first 100 km went pretty fast and reached the place of San Cristobal, which had a nice old church! We filled up for the last possible time and would hope this would make it to Chile with the already 10 liter of spare gas; I had in a container strapped to the bike.

The second part of today, the road deteriorated rapidly and we almost came to stand still due to the excessive amount of sand, what made it almost impossible to stay on the bike and soon we were only doing 15 km per hour and we were back in 4000 + meters high and bright sun.

Saw my first flamingo’s today at one of the lakes, we passed. Snowcapped mountains showed up in the distance and after riding five and half hours, covering 205 km we reached Villa Mar, a small village in the middle of nowhere. This is usual an overnight stop for all the jeeps making tours in this area and we ended up in a resort style hotel and they gave us a great price  as being the only customers and everything was first class, such as hot shower, cold beer, 3 course dinner and decent beds.

                We did some more maintenance, such as 

lubricating the chains and the noticed, Scotty lost his license plate, so I gave him one of my old ones, made some changes in it and put some mud on it and all was ready to go again. Our license plates only differs one number on the end, so it was easy to 

do.

              Found out the road tomorrow is even worse as today and probably will reach Laguna Colarado a 150 km away late in the afternoon! Looks like we not covering much distance in Bolivia, due to the quality of the roads and many flats and repairs, so have to cover greater distances to get to Uruguay in 2 weeks’ time, otherwise reschedule the route or leave the bikes in Argentina, where they can stay up to 8 months, if granted by officials, so we store them there till the end of the year to continue!