Trouble to get OUT of Bolivia

---

Hi, we are now all in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, but it was not an easy task to get out of Bolivia and into Peru, below is a bit from me, Gerardo and Howard...enjoy.

Getting out of Bolivia was a mission for everyone, as protesters had blocked the road, they let the motos through, but not me in the chase truck......so I had to return to LaPaz and take another border crossing that I had never done and in the dark.

The drive from La Paz to the border was about the most dangerous drive I have ever done! I even put my seat belt on!!!

Darkness was descending and in that Dusky period where its not quite dark but not light enough to see clearly, no one bothered to put any lights on. As there were no road markings at all, I could hardly make out the edge of the road, so I got behind a big bus and when he passed I passed, I stuck to him like shit to a locals blanket!!

I was still carrying the extra fuel for the boys, but now we were separated and I am approaching the border to exit Bolivia, with the thoughts from a previous crossing where they confiscated my extra fuel 'in case we were concealing drugs in the containers' and as the truck is no a diesel, I couldn't even off load it there.

As I approached the first control point, they flagged me down and torches were flashing all over the back of the truck, and I hear the word Gasolina many times. They made me pull to the side and I thought"Here we go again" But I played pretty dumb and insisted that it was for the motos and that I had to hurry in case of accidente to a moto, I explained that I had to drive all the way back to La Paz and now to this border crossing because of the protests and blocked roads, finally it all got too difficult and they let me through.

The entry into Peru couldn't have been any less bother...no enquiry about insurance or any special permit for anything....next minute I am having a nice rice and meat stew thing in a small restaurant in Peru.

It was now a long run in the dark to Puno, after moving the clock back one hour. The Peruvian drivers were as bad as in Bolivia by not dipping their lights, and it made it quite a challenge with my already tired eyes.

I arrived to the Hotel in Puna about an hour after all the others got in, so they were surprised to see me that early, but the Mazda does go well!!! 647 kms that day and such a lot of it in dense traffic.



Gerardo picks up the story from there as once we all got to Puno, he had to ride back to Arica in Chile and fly back to Punta Arenas for some work related problems the next day......

A return to my place: Punta Arenas, Chile.

As we arrive to Puno on dark but safe, after all the trouble of the protest of the people of Copacabana, Bolivia, with the scare of seeing lightning storms on the way to Puno and Don feeling very bad, we finally arrive, good hotel, but Rosco has to go back to La Paz and turn another road, Desaguadero, he arrived when Tiny, Scratch, Howard, Paso Jack, Rodrigo and me were having a Good meal in a huge plate and with the delay between the order and been served in less than 5 minutes, incredible, so we are now all together, after the troubles of Bolivia, so as Tom said on the first trip on 2008 "I don't feel scared, I've been in Bolivia."

After having a nice dinner we have a little time on the bar with Rosco, Tiny, Paso Jack, Scratch and Rodrigo,talking about family and motorcycles of course drinking Pisco sours and whiskey.

At the morning all wake up 6 am because they have a boat to the Uros Island and I have to go alone from Puno to Arica, Chile, so when they left to the tour I said to the Grupo, see you soon on San Pedro de Atacama and if I have bad luck with my work it will be Vina del Mar, the place where the adventure begins and end.

I had to ride 449 kms all sealed, but the first 3 hours very cold, because of the altitude, I reach the 4693 meters, a road with many curves, Tiny, Jake and Howard will be happy to be there (not)

But my Dakar runs nearly perfect with electricity because the good job on fixing it by Barry and Scratch with the help of Rosco, but with a trouble that I couldn't go more than 110 km-h because they made a restriction on the throttle, bad luck but is more safe, if you look to be safe?, who looks to be safe, if I look that, why riding a motorcycle?

I arrive to Moquegua, Peru, after 3 hours, and now at only 600 meters altitude, a good thing, my thin body was happy for that.

The border was no trouble, but I have to recognise that Peruvians are more quick in the attention than the services in Chile, and I arrived at the Hotel Park Paso, a good hotel, with swimming pool and the bar and restaurant beside it, the boys will be happy when they arrived to these place next week.

And next day I wake up at 2.45 am and I went to take my first plane from Arica to Santiago, arriving 7.20 am and waiting in the airport of Santiago that was full because today is holiday for us because of the Easter, and 13.45 another plane that take me in 4 hours to my place in the bottom of the world: Punta Arenas, my wife was waiting for me.

On Monday back to work and hope that I can be back with the grupo, to end these new adventure, that has become a great challenge, hasta pronto. Gerardo.

This is how Howartar remembers it...

Leaving La Paz around 9.00 am, although Don was feeling still a bit seedy.

Out of the city doing the convoy thing which we have now got down perfecto.

Winding through some villages along Lake Titicaca which had the feeling they were a bit better houses and perhaps holiday homes?

Then we got to a little village where we had to take a barge across to Tiquino on the other side. There was a problem in that there was something like a strike going on, and perhaps at 2pm we could do it? That was a couple of hours away, so I lay down on the grass near where an alpaca was grazing tied to a stake and had a snooze for awhile, but not before Terry got to know the alpaca rather well!

Barry, Scratch and Rosco had Gerardo's BMW apart, looking for the electrical fault that was plaguing his bike.

At about 2pm we had the chance for a few bikes to go on a barge to the other side, so Terry, Ray and I got on board. The planks were in one piece from the one tree by the looks, and the girth of the tree, so didn´t meet up at all. We managed to back the bikes on so we could easily ride them off, as suggested by Rosco.

In no time Terry was speaking to the locals about our trip, and Ray was getting photographed with a local lassie who wanted to mount his bike which she did.

We went to a restaurant as described by Rosco, but perhaps we didn´t get the one he meant? Others trickled in on different barges and went to the restaurant just along the road. However Terry and I had some trout from the lake for lunch, and Ray had the pollo or chicken. We thought it was quite good. We had difficulty in paying the bill as the teenage waitress put on her coat and buggered off, leaving the cook alone out the back cooking furiously for the full restaurant by the time we left.

We rallied around, and circled the centro plaza which got a few looks from the locals, especially as it was only about 70 metres square.

Then off up the hill, and a lovely sight down to the village below, all set to go to Copacobana where we would cross the border into Peru.

We didn´t get far before here was this bloody big tree across the road and people milling around it. Gerardo found out they were protesting about the rise in bus prices, and this is what they did to show their feelings.. They were trying to get us to ride between the stump and where it had parted from the tree which was across the road, but that wasn´t much use as Rosco in the ute wouldn´t have been able to get there even if we were.



The locals seemed apologetic for holding up the gringos, and said that a chainsaw was coming as the protest had finished or something. However there were further roadblocks along the road, so whether we could get further to Copacobana we didn´t know.

We enjoyed the sun if nothing else as we waited for something to happen. I took the chance to check the tyre pressures and then read a book for awhile.

After about an hour, this guy turns up with a chainsaw on the back of a 125cc sort of motorbike, and they start cutting the tree up for us to get past. Rosco even got through, but at the next one he couldn´t and had to turn back to La Paz and come the long way home.



We carried on, not knowing what was around each corner. There were rocks lain across the road, and further trees too. Not long after the first tree, climbing up on top of the hill there were hundreds of people milling about. It was a beautiful setting, with the sun shining and looking down on the lovely bays and water of the Lake Titicaca. Magic!

The people were motioning for us to go through, so we were picking our way through the crowd. It was a sort of picnic atmosphere. If they hadn´t motioned for us to go through, I don´t think any of us would have, but they seemed friendly and when we waved or tooted they were cheering us sometimes.

There would have been 30-40 of these road blocks, with greater or lesser difficulty to negotiate. A couple of them further to the end had glass strewn on the road, which wasn´t very inspiring.

Sometimes we had to bounce over branches and sometimes navigate through small gaps in the rocks or around on the grass on the roadside.

At one part the whole road was blocked off and a game of football on as we rode through, and a banner across the road they lifted so we could go under it. No intimidation or anything.

Then we came to a difficult one. 3 old ladies motioned back and around to me to get past a tree right across the road with a bank to the right where trees were.

So I went back to the side road where others were and went 50 metres if that across a paddock, not a few kms through a cornfield that Tiny is trying to say happened, the slanderous person he is!.

One of the locals on a motorbike indicated to go down the bank near the tree, which is moderately difficult, and then up another bank to rejoin the road which we had to do and all did without drama.

Further along another village was cordoned off, and we were direction to the right again, through another minor road for 2-3 kms to rejoin the road again.

We finally got to where the main road was. By this time Gerardo and I were concerned at the time being about 4-30 with at least 2 hours at the border in front of us, where we´´d have to hurry before it closed. Then it would be dark, about 7-8pm at least before we got to Puno. So we had to stick together, and keep on as a group without stopping for photos.

I was unsure of the ability of some night riding; and that there were a lot of animals on the road at night; vehicles didn´t always drive with lights or safely; the reported common drunking driving etc. Also the weather would be turning cold; it would probably rain; this being the second heavy day´s riding; and Don being very sick and saying he couldn´t continue. In my and Gerardo´´s mind it became quite risky with those factors.

We continued on to the Bolivian border, and it was a breeze as Rosco had said it would but he warned us the Peruvian one would be worse.

However it was just the time to do the paperwork, not any problems that we had.

Only trouble was that Don was in a bad way vomiting.

We finally get going about 6-45 and with 120 kms to go that would be another two hours in the dark.

We set off, keeping together. I found the ideal distance from the one in front was 50-70 metres so that you could see something in the front person´s headlight, and then use your headlight in the intermediate distance, while allowing enough time to react to anything that might come zooming across the road. AND IT DID. A black dog, yes I know what you´re thinking, but I have proof in Barry saw it too who was behind me. Anyway it shot from the right hand side and I braked like mad and managed to miss it by about 2 feet on the left of my front wheel. Memories of August when I did hit a dog and broke my finger and stuffed my right hand.

So that was proof that those bloody animals were likely to run across the road. Heading into a sort of village there was a guy in dark clothing crossing the road drunk, and I barely saw him because of course there were no street lights. As I passed him, I thought I saw him biff a can over his shoulder, which Barry said he saw that happen too.

One thing I noticed, and no doubt everyone else did, were these funny 3 wheel cars (TookTooks-Rosco) with obviously a motorbike engine, going fairly slow on the road all over the place. There weren´t any of them in Bolivia. Apart from that, just the road surface was a lot better, but you couldn´t really see anything else and I was too intent on concentrating on not hitting anything.

We managed to get to the hotel without further incident from what I know, and thankful for the second hard day´s riding finished.

Rosco managed to appear at about 11pm from going the long way home, so we were all safe and sound and together in Puno. Hasta Pronto, Howard.

---

Photos

Barry
Overlooking Largo Titicaca

Largo Titicaca
Rosco didn't know that he would have to drive to the other side to get to Peru!!

Hurry up and wait
Waiting for the striking ferry to arrive

Road block
Protesters block the road.

Man power to move the tree
Many locals got together to remove the cut section for us

More trouble
There was so much rubbish and rocks on the road with more cut down trees.

Dusk with threatening clouds.
More scary stuff for Rosco