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Published: March 22nd 2013
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Rocky Bear
It's been along time since he was on adventure with us. OK, so why are we in Potosi I hear you ask? Well we were to have two days in Tupiza, but we got there mid afternoon even after our three hour challenge getting out of Argentina and into Bolivia. The Bolivian Aduana, asks for our moto insurance...as we can only het it for Argentina and Chile, he said we cannot enter Bolivia!!..haven't I heard this before? Like when we enter Peru!!!
So after much negotiating, and flashing of a US$50 note, he would consider making and 'exception' this time ( like every other time) so here we are in Potosi.
Getting back to the last day in Argentina, as they have paved all the road to the border, we had made good time, so decided to take an alternative route on a Ripio road a lake to see some flamingos, oh, I see an email has come in from Eric the monkey, who is travelling on the back of Radars moto, so he can pick up the story from here......
Dear Rosco:
It's me: Eric the Monkey!!!!!
I have asked Radar to type this message from me for the "Blog" as I actually have no fingers
Hi I'm Eric
Radar has been scaring the shit out of me lately!!! just some thumbs and a velcro pad.
It has been a bit of a traumatic time for me over the last 24 hours or so, I have survived a crash, officialdom, and an attempted kidnapping.
I will start with the crash first, so Mike Vinsen might like to stop reading at this point as he will be disappointed that Radar is not taking care of the KLR as well as he should have been. This all because I wanted to go and look at the Pink Flamingo's. We were eating Empanada's from a roadside stall when it was good idea to take the ripio road to see the Flamingo's.
Trouble was brewing when Gerardo and others took the other road and the route to the Flamingo's was down a 7 kilometre dirt track which was okay on the way there. It was strange to pass 2 young women lying in the Pampas grass on the way there as well, but I waved at them as we rode by and they waved back. On the way back up the track Radar decided to take the middle option of one of the three that was available to him, I
Scratch and Tiny
Downtown Pumamarca with the Naki Boys thought at the time that this was a dumb idea as it was clearly a point that others had decided to make 2 other tracks around, this was because in the middle track lived the Argentinean Mud Snake, he is a cousin of the Sand Snake that reaches up and grabs the front tyre as you go through. He was very hungry and chomped on Radars front wheel very hard turning it through both ways to the handlebar stops which ultimately had Radar and me hitting the ground very hard. It was fortunate the Senior Ray was following behind and was there to help very quickly.
Soon after Rosco arrives in the truck complete with the two young woman from the pampas grass, they were very nice and French, they were very concerned for the Monkey and whilst all those bikers were helping Radar I was getting quite a good pat and overcame the shock quite quickly.
This was more than Radar did as he had to get his breath back at 3000 meters which he says is hard to do, I actually didn't notice and then he was complaining that he hurt his leg, which was no
good to me as we were still 90 kilometers from the hotel, and another bath for me (it is very dusty here). Well he got back on but I did notice that it was slower for a while before he worked out how to change gear with his heel. When we got to the hotel at La Quiaca Gerardo took him to the hospital which was very good of him, he said it was not the first time, nor did he expect it to be the last time he had to take a Gringo Biker to a hospital! Radar came back with a photo of his ankle bones showing they were still intact, but that every tendon and muscle was damaged, he has been limping about and taking some drugs with red wine to dull the pain and Senior Barry has to help him get on the bike from the wrong side. Radar says he doesn't mind as he still gets to ride and the bike is not on the back of the truck. He does however watch the temperature gauge closely as he thinks there is a small hole in the radiator from the bite of the Mud Snake,
Don
What can I say? but so far has not let him down although the mount for the radiator is about 60 centimeters from where it should be (Radar says sorry Mike).
The next morning however was to be one of major Trauma for me as we had to pass into Bolivia, this was no easy thing as the border was only 1 kilometer from the hotel and we got gas and then had to get off for the documentation, Radar said this was very painful, but I didn't actually feel much at all!
There seemed to be some problem at the Bolivian border, it took us 3 hours to get into Bolivia, Radar said it was because we didn't have any Bolivian Insurance but I caught the Border people looking and pointing to me, I told Radar that I needed a monkey passport before we left home, but would he listen, Noooo! Apparently some US currency made an "Excepcion" for me and we eventually rode into Bolivia. Stopping immediately to get som of the local currency, Barry and Radar changed some more US currency which was good because the "machina" would not work for the ones wanting to use it, it also
turned out to be a very good thing some way up the road before Tupiza, when we got stopped at a "Toll Plaza" that the locals had erected to charge the Gringo's (and I think every one else) for the privilege of using the road.
Radar ties me onto the bike quite well these days as he didn't do such a good job on the 2nd day and Scratch had to pick me up off the road, this however is a good thing as there were some children hanging around the Toll Station who had me half undone before Radar saw what was happening and rescued me, the kids got half a bottle of Pepsi from Radar to stop there attempts at kidnapping me, I was quite frightened to think that I might have had to live here in Bolivia for ever which seems a nice place but not as good as home. Senior Terry reckons he is setting up a Toll Booth on the Pacuranga Highway when he gets home so his working days are over, this I think would upset the Policia at home rather more than it does here as I think that they might also
Artisans
This was on our way north in Argentina. have an interest, but that is just my view.
Radar says his foot hurts more today and will try some more medication to fix it, Senior Barry helped him last night with the Red Wine and says today he going to start living better and is not helping him again (I will send an update on that later).
Well Rosco I hope that you get this and that Radar's spelling is better than Howard's as Radar said that you said Howard's takes a bit to spell check. Until my next adventure, ride safe.
Eric the Monkey.
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Rosco p
Rosco Pennell
No words with the Blog
Hi all, sorry, but for some strange Bolivian Internet reason no words came with this blog. I will try and find them and post again. Cheers, Rosco