Bolivia Border to Potosi

Today is a two day update, since we were offline for a bit around the Bolivia border.

The border was a snap, but slow.  Easy coming out on the Chile side, and easy on the Bolivia side for the passports, but the bike paperwork was a couple hours.  Not hard or frustrating, just slow and laborious.

Since we hit the border late, we didn't finish till it was getting dark, so we asked the border guards where the next hotel was… 180 km and 3 hours away was the answer.  Uh-oh.  

Vanessa was looking at me with one of those.. "Please don't make me sleep in the tent in -10 degree" looks… 

We inquired further, and yes, a room could be had here, at the border.  So we rode 20 feet to the ramshackle rundown line of stores and restaurants that seem to line every border in Central and South America, and finally found a lady who had both a room and someplace relatively safe to store the bike.

I squeezed the bike into some dimly lit, tiny little doorway, and pulled it into a courtyard.  

We found our room, which was the size of a queen sized bed.... plus 1 foot.  

It had a TV, which had a screen about 1/2 the size of my laptop, and was made in the 80's.  

It had two channels, one was a music channel that seemed to only play the videos of one guy.  He had 4 videos on in a row, all different songs, but he wore the same shirt in each one.  

The mattress was sunk in the middle about 8 inches, and was harder than my yoga mat on a concrete floor.  

We took out the sleeping bag and slept in it, as the sheets were suspect.  I don't think either of us got more than 3 hours sleep in the 12 hour night.  

At 7:00 am the next morning, we got up, packed, dressed in everything available, and got on the motorbike in 3 degrees, and began to explore Bolivia.

After riding in 3-5 degree weather, I thought my poor Colombian girl was an ice cube behind me, but when we stopped for a break in the sunshine, she got off the bike with no complaints.  Seems the thermal underwear and top I gave her was useful (along with the other 6 layers of my and her clothes she had on).  The only thing cold on her were her hands.  

I however, was frozen solid, sitting in the front, without any thermals.  :(

However, by about 11:00 am, it warmed up enough that we could appreciate the awesome scenery that we were riding through.  

We blew through a town called Oruro, which I remembered from Troys earlier experience was not worth stopping in.  We agree.  It's a dusty, dirty, poor looking town.  We stopped for a bite to eat and that was enough.  We continued on to Potosi, arriving at dusk.  Cold and tired after an 11 hour, 630 km ride.

I have to report that some of my things are starting to fall apart.  The GPS is toast... the screen is shot, so I can't use it at all.  The Lens on my Canon Camera stopped working in Cusco.  The motor for the focus seems to be jamming, so it's won't focus and gives me ERR-01 all the time.  I can sometimes take one or two pictures before it stops working.   I looked at a new lens in Cusco, but for a $395 dollar lens, they wanted $795.00.    No sale.

I need two new tires for the bike.  The rear, which has been nothing short of amazing, has over 17,000 km on it.  I put it on new in La Paz Mexico, and it still has some tread left.  For a tire on a bike this loaded, it has been awesome.  The front tire still has lots of tread left, but it is a street tire (the only one I could find that would fit my bike).  But for some of the roads coming up, it is not ideal.

I have contacted a local bike shop here (it's Saturday) and he's trying really hard, but most of the shops are closed for the weekend, and won't have any answers till Monday.  We will likely stay here (in Potosi) until Monday to see if I can get some new tires by then.  I might have to ride to Sucre and back (about 300km round trip) if he has tires.

The motor is also in need of a valve adjustment.  The guy in Sucre can do this, so I am hoping on Monday to get that done as well.

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