Last ride - a finale with a bang

There were two argentinians in my hotel, unfortunately not going to the same place. One of them had the same bike as me. I must have woken them up quite a bit, as I couldn`t sleep longer than 4 am. I don`t have a watch, so I had no idea, when I got up, got dressed, had breakfast and loaded the bike. I had to turn on the tv to fall asleep again, until 5.30am. Its good to be at the border early, as there are no people. It opens around 6-6.30. The argentinian closes at 00.00 while the bolivian one closes at 21.00. Good to know, and I do know that border!

I was disappointed by how much dirt road detours there were due to maintenance. I can`t say how happy I am to drive on pavement instead. The scenery to there isn`t something spectacular. Didn`t even take out my camera. In the end, we had reached such high altitudes that the motor kept turning itself off again, but I learned after many kilometres of patience that if I drove slower than 40kms pr hour, it would keep going. I checked into The Koala den again, sang a bit with some music playing argentinians(its typical), met a couple that I have run into in every country I`ve been to, in SA. – For the first time in Salento, in september. I also met some italians who gave me authentical, home made risotto, wine and dessert, made by the mom of a guy travelling South America, even down to Ushuaia, on a Vespa! He had met the canadian family down in Ushuaia, too.

I couldn`t sleep longer than six am, so I got up and watched the first 1,5hour of the pianist. I`d have to finish that great movie, later. I had to get going to Sucre. Met a nice belgian guy in the hostel who tried to persuade me to wait for him, one day. I was too keen on moving, but I didn`t move too quickly. The carbureator had gotten too dirty for the bike to function right, so what should`ve been a 2,5hr ride, became a 5,5hr long one. When I finally decided to get a car to pull me to where I`d be going downhill, the guys asked me if I was driving solo. I replied as usual that they were behind. The funny thing was that the belgian guy appeared exactly in that moment.
He stuck with me for the rest of the trip and we checked into the cozy El Colon, in the white city of Sucre.

But something more interesting happened. Something I could`ve been without...
Being pulled made me nervous, as the car didn`t have break lights and I would always roll faster then the car and needed to use the back breaks to try to keep the ropes tight, so that I wouldn`t drive on them. The belgian guy said that I was doing a good job. However, for one second, I can`t have been doing a great job because as my front wheel rolled onto both of them, something happened that made the bike tip in 65kms pr hour, and we went down in a crazy crash.

I try to remember what happened, if my instincts had made me use the front brakes, which would explain why everything went wrong. It happened so fast, and while falling, also after, I was just yelling to them if Tornado was fine. I could see him almost beneath the car, wrapped up in the ropes. They kind of assumed that I wasn`t hurt, after that. My body was more startled than my head, as I felt like I had a fever. One of the guys drove my bike for a bit, instead.

I don`t like to write these things that I`m sure worry my family, but at least that was my last ride. How unfortunate that it should have such an ending, but at least there was some nice riding and company. In the end, after going far down and the bike still turning itself off, I decided to put it onto a truck, which costs just 30krs and takes 5 minutes, anyway. I`m just glad the bike can take so many punches. Myself, I got a few scratches and a bruised thumb, which really hurts to drive with, but otherwise is fine.
Tomorrow I have a lot of stuff to do before my 6pm bus to Villazon, where I`ll be crossing over to Argentina, finally! and meeting Sam, my chinese friend, in Tilcara.

Heaven crumbled

I spent my first day in Tupiza, mostly online, because of the selling process. Then I met the potential buyer from La Paz, who had been all confused about what bike he was
going to see and to what price. He tried to get me to sell for 3100usd, but I said no. I went out for pizza with a big israeli group. They had to remind themselves often, but they
did put in an effort to stop speaking hebrew. Pizza in Tupiza is really good.
The next morning, I went to visit my danish friend, Anne Sofie, who had been sick for a week in Sucre. Unfortunately, she was leaving later on. Her hostel, San Refugio, is where I moved later on, as it costs 35 bolivianos, with a kitchen and pool access to the Mitru pool. I mostly did chores like bike maintenance with a mechanic who had the same bike, made a copy of my key, uploaded photos, arranged horseback riding, hung out with an israeli guy that I let try my bike for a bit. We watched the sunset with cookies and milk, then a bbc documentary about life and animals. How a octopus mother starves herself for her children to be safe in their eggs, really fascinates me.

I did the horseback riding through the same hostel, Valle Hermosa, where I was staying at because it was the hostel of my nice car company to Tupiza. I paid 200 bolivianos for 9 hours, but I got a horse that I didn`t like at first, that didn`t care for me. - Such a shame! The first part is very slow trotting in strong sun, yet the rain-weathered, red rock formations and caves are cool. He dropped us off to go exploring in the caverns, which was a treat for climbing enthusiasts. - just me, this time.
As my group was just a french couple(sorry, but french people are the least friendly people I meet. Most don`t even Try to speak to me), it was nice when we reached a river and a lovely resting place where other groups also were resting. We continued on with a few of them, and it was much more fun from then on! We were river crossing and galopping a lot. The sun wasn`t frying and the landscape was great. My horse turned out to have quite the personality. He would always want to be first, and pass by people on the right side, without regard for the spikey bushes I had to fight my way through. He was growing on me, though.
The riding seriously hurts your butt, so be warned. But do it!
Later, I went for a swim and some gnocchi with a nice chinese guy I met while horseback riding. Apparently there aren`t a lot of chinese backpackers, which makes him
kind of famous. Funny.

I think one of the main things that separate a tourist from a traveller is that the traveller goes to bed exhausted, while the tourist has every comfort perfectly planned. A traveller travels for too much time to be able to or desire it. And there also develops a lot of duties and tasks that comes along with it, especially with riding, though.

I didn`t stress this morning. It was a beautiful day and I was riding mostly on pavement. I was going to be in Argentina soon and eat steak in Tilcara, drink mate, eat too much dulce de leche, learn a new culture and be... happy. I got caught by surprise when they told me I needed the cedula to be in my name, and that I couldn`t enter Argentina, couldn`t sell my bike with papers, couldn`t do anything. They told me that I might get more than 1000usd for it, but not in this town. I was devastated, and it was nice that Sam was around for support. He was going out of his way to try and help and I thank you so much for that! In the end I had to stamp myself back into Bolivia, buy a ticket to Tijara, where you could sell a bike without a plate for much more, and find somewhere to put my luggage and the bike. I wasn`t up for riding the offroad to Tijara. I found a nice hotel with an old, sympathetic man that let me leave my things there. I then went to the internet cafe to brainstorm what I could do with Victor. He encouraged me to try again, and I am tonight. One`s supposed to be able to enter because I don`t need to import it when its argentinian. I`m gonna wait to the other people have gotten off their shifts and make it clear that the bike Is argentinian. Its risky to go late, but I`m not gonna drive far. Tomorrow, the same people might be working again.

Please, please, please!!

Btw: next to the bus station, a woman sells the best empanadas in the world.

Salinas

The place that at first seemed so idyllic has shown its backside, yet I´ve learned a great deal about village agriculture and unfortunate drinking culture. Men drink from 1 am, and unfortunately, so does the mechanic, who in the end, ruined a part of my front break which they don´t have in the village. Couldn´t get him to fix it though. He was out drinking. No one had time to help me fix the kick- stand which suddenly broke, too. A part of me was relieved that I got stuck long enough for that to happen, instead of it happening on the way. Another part was pissed off, having to wait yet another day, and pushing my heavy bike around on the bumpy streets, while wearing all my hot gear because I was supposed to leave for the salt flats that morning. I was fighting for my way out of here, all morning. Seriously fighting, and asking everyone if they knew someone with a truck that could bring me to Oruro or Chatacalla. In the end, I was told that one could hitch hike from the main road, and there I met Grober. This is a little, little town, so everyone knows who he is. That’s comforting, as he loaded my bike onto the truck, and we´re off at four am. He´s bringing me straight to a mechanic, then I can go to Uyuni. Yet this town has turned me into a pessimist, and I´m expecting something to go wrong!







The reason why I´m now a pessimist is how unreliable people are. They really don´t mind making you wait, and often things don’t happen, to Ines´ dismay, as she´s relying on them to do her interviews. Yesterday, I went with her and the hotel owners family to another community, even smaller. We worked on their quinoa farm, which was murdering my back. I have a great respect for what they do. I followed Ines down to the houses for her to do her diet questionaries, before we jogged along towards Salinas. We got tired, started walking, rested, started walking, rested, and time just kept going without the others showing up. What had happened? We didn´t think they could work in the dark, but they did, and finally showed up 2,5hours after they were supposed to. We had been walking in the middle of nowhere, with only starlight, wondering if the car had broken down and how long it would take us to walk the 11kms to the next village.

Quinoa is everything here, which one could tell in the cooking competition, where everyone made quinoa soup and llama fricase. Its just that the people in the community have great areas of land, and are without right to sell it. Its decided that the land stays in the community, even though the kids don´t necessarily want to become farmers. Most of them don´t. Most of them want to get away, just like me and Ines. Maybe her attitude affected me a bit, but I really don´t have time to hang around! I´m going to New York on the 30th of April, and need to sell my bike. I´m all broke, because I needed to buy a brand new ticket, as the payment meant to change my ticket, several months ago, never went through.

She has saved me with a movie and sex and the city episodes, which was a nice break, after finishing all my books, too. I wrote today, instead, and felt at ease after rediscovering who I was again. I think this experience will be one I´ll have to digest, but I won´t forget or completely regret my wrong turn. At least I´m tan, at last!

La Paz - to Uyuni.. No wait.. Salinas?

This was an adventure I really didn´t chase.

I was riding early in the morning. The scenery was quite dull, my hands were chilly and I was thinking about yesterday. After practicing a lot, guitarplaying, and having a delicious sushi meal, Fernando showed up at last. I had a potential buyer, and went to talk with his friend about it. In the end, I said I´d be going to Uyuni, and if this guy would buy my bike for 3500usd, I would return.
I´m online to see if he´s replied, and to buy my ticket to New York, then Norway.
It started to rain on my way to Oruro, and I thought about staying, as I was freezing cold. I changed my mind and clothes, then continued. Was going to go to Challapata and stay there, but the riding improved with the scenery of impressing colours and yellow flower, framed roads. I stopped and talked a bit with a woman sheparding cows, thinking about how different our lives were. Then I was off, and noticed that the place was called Poopo. I realized then that I might not be mature enough for this, after all.
Another woman I talked to, reminded me how they always seem shocked that I´ve come all this way because there are so many dangerous people out there. There seem to be a true fear for the unknown in both cities and towns. I had to say that I had only met good people. Other friends say that they get advices about not going places, and that place will say the exact same about that place.


The roads are dangerous, as they´re not paved and suddely consist of deep sand. Two guys in a truck wanted to ride with me just in case I´d slip, but after they suddenly drove past me in a sandy area, so that I couldn´t see, I decided that going with them would be even more dangerous. I was tired at this time, and really just wanted to get there, safe and sound. I was mostly worried about Tornado. There were two rivers I had to cross, and the first one was just fine: put my legs in the air and made everyone around grin. The second one however, is the main reason why I´d dread the thought of going back there, to La Paz. The beginning of the crossing is like the smaller river; flat and seemingly okay. But you can´t see the bottom, its deeper and suddenly there were bumps and rocks. I thought I was losing Tornado at one point, and it was dreadful...
The two guys caught up with me, and one of them tried to convince me to wait up at the next village. After seing his almost empty whiskey bottle and the druel on his chin, I decided that, no.
Maybe I should have, because I think that was where I took a wrong turn. Somewhere along the road, I did, and went twice as far, to realize after talking to a woman that finally could tell me that "you´re not on the way to Uyuni, but Salinas". Everyone else before that had just answered "I don´t know". It didn´t even occur to me that I wasn´t, as I had followed the main road all the way.
I had no idea where Salinas was, or what. I just followed directions, hoping that they were true. I passed by a massive crater and some of the most amazing landscape I have seen, and I couldn´t bring myself to care. My mind was sick of it all. I had been too stubborn and pushed it too far.
The sun was beginning to go down, and still I was far from anything. I saw a truck and rushed after it. The truck never responded to my honking, that bastard, and instead I had to break for my life as a big ditch suddenly cut off half of the rocky dirtroad. This was Not good timing or the place for a tumble. Both of us made it just fine, but I had had it. The thought of camping out in nowhere, next to my bike that was halfway down a ditch, so that I couldn´t lift it alone, wasn´t really what I needed at that moment.
It didn´t take more than two minutes for two cars to show up and help me out. One of the cars were going to guide me to Salinas. I had been on the right road, but it was nice to be certain. The people helping me, and reaching Salinas, which turned out to be an amazing place, brought me one step away from crying from relief. Never go all that way in one day.
I´m staying up the hill in a pretty hostel with a kitchen, lots of room, a nice staff, beautiful view and a nice Polish girl thats working on her master in nutrition.
Here in Salinas, everyone says hello, and its safe to walk alone at night time. They also say that Uyuni is a shabby tourist town and that you can´t go far into the Salars, anyway. So I guess my wrong turn was a lucky one.






The reason why she´s here is the vegetable they´re growing here, which has become a large export merchandise, and she´s trying to find out how their diet has changed. Unfortunatly for the growth, they´re not able to think ahead, and don´t use crop rotation, so that the crops get worse year by year. She´s also told me about a large amount of unplated trucks that normally pass through the town, from Chile. They just rush past everything, past the police station as well, where the two cops are powerless.



I´ve been sunbathing today, walked a bit around, talked to the polish girl. Its nice to relax now. Here, I feel no rush. To avoid that river, I´ve been recommended to wrap up my engine to protect it from salty water, and cross over to Uyuni, very slowly. Its really a big pool of water, so that no tours actually go to the island, these days. I´m interested to see how the island sustains itself for that long at a time. The information guy said that I could make a deal within the hotels here and there, that if I didn´t arrive on time, they´d send people for me. Should´ve had a phone!

So awesome to go for a run with the polish girl, who´s training for a marathon. It was six kms uphill, to a beautiful sunset, then 6 back down again. I did go a bit too far, but all is good! I saw Chile. It was so nice to see that my body could still get the job done despite all this travelling. Repeating the run tomorrow, after the cooking competition that´s getting the town all excited. I´m helping out a bit.

02.03.11 A new travel buddy

Change of plans, again. After jobhunting online, Fernando came along, and we went for a ride. He first took me to his favorite sandwich place, where you can also play beach volley. We will!
Then he told me that we could go to the Amazon tomorrow morning, and we are. I let him get aquainted with Tornado, and he showed me all of La Paz and Valle de Luna. When we continued on to a beautiful lake in a quiet village, the rain started pouring, so we had to find shelter and eat cookies for an hour.
As Tornado still has too little force, we took him to the mechanic, but they said it will pass as we descend.
Later, I still had some shopping to do, and we trotted along to finish the search for rainpants and a memory stick. I'm a bit tired of speaking spanish all day, as he doesn't speak a word of english, but I`ll get used to it. Kinda have to.
We're not going to Rurrenabaque, where the rivers are all flooded, but an hour away, where its not supposed to be that bad. But yeah, I wont be able to post pictures for a while.

Chivay to Puno

I left, once again, very early. Driving up to 4900 meters above sea level that early was quite cold for my fingers. The engine did fine, until the level of gasoline got a bit low.

Just to be sure, I did some more check ups. It turned out to just be the lack of gasoline, so that I would have to refill or switch on the reserve, every time the engine would stop. The views were more spectacular at first, but it was nicer when it got a bit hotter. I´ve seen so much incredible nature now...

Made it all the way to Puno, where I got pulled over by cops. They immediatly shipped me off as they saw that I was a white woman. What wrong am I gonna do? just ride without a licence. taha. On my way out of Arequipa, I didn´t take any chances and did a loop in a dirty little village to avoid the police check ups.

Seing Lake Titicaca was quite a reward. I should´ve sat down to relax, but I got some great massage tips, and went searching. A woman walked with me for great parts of it, just to help out. Only found overprices places and was exhausted by the end of it. Now I´m all wrapped up in a blanket, ready for the big day tomorrow.

Its my last day in Peru, today, and I´ve been reflecting. I really came to like peruvians as well as their nature. Colombians are different. They have this incredible pulse, while peruvians have a more reserved pride(in a good way), and I´ve talked to so many nice old men that love to talk about their country. There´s a different crowd travelling in Peru, and its amazing how established tourism is here. You´ll find a gringo anywhere!

There´s also an older crowd, very often couples, travelling in Peru. Definately more europeans.

I am now very much excited about how Bolivia will be! I´ll miss the peruvian roads at one point, probably. The food too. Oh boy..

Arequipa and Chivay

09/02/11

After saying goodbye to the guys, I was on my way to Arequipa for 30 soles. The bus was fine, besides the fact that the speOakers were directly above my head, bursting out the Godfather 2 in spanish. I talked to a nice man from Arequipa, and took a sleeping pill to knock myself out for the whole 11 hours. Worked nicely.
Took a taxi for 5 soles to the center, for The Flying Dog hostel, where my dear Tornado was waiting for me. He has had some upgrades, and I can't wait to ride him tomorrow. I didn´t want to start riding now, when there's so much traffic.
Its a nice hostel with a good breakfast. Just a bit too expensive for me. I´m leaving for Colca Canyon at dawn, and intend to stay at Chivay, before going to Puno.
Arequipa is pretty, but there´s not a lot to do. I´ve walked around, snatched photos, met a guy I knew from Colombia, hung out with some people and really enjoyed watching The Expendables. We´re now going out for a free instrumental concert in the San Francisco church.
Other things to do in Arequipa is fine dining, party and visiting the Santa Catalina monastary.
The evening before I left, I met a german guy on a bike too. Might run into him in Colca Canyon.

I´m now enjoying some newfound music: Devendra Banhart (-freely, escpecially). Thanks Dolan.

Riding to Chivay

What a day!!

Chivay is the little town nearby Colca Canyon, the worlds deepest canyon. To get there, I got up really early and loaded my bike. And hey, my straps are just falling apart, and to not have to wait until traffic commences, I used lots of electrical cables as security! Disturbing.
I was afraid. Seriously afraid to get back on the bike after two months. Riding in such altitudes where the engine keeps tugging, so that you have to remain leveled out in every turn, didn´t help, either. Gradually, I`d get more and more comfortable again.
Travelling is strange. I`m just.. getting to know places now. Exploring. My passion is fresh and stirring. My eye is searching and admiring. My mind is saying I should be more careful.
I did conquer my fears today. Life gave me a nice reward for it. The scenery is once again very admirable. There`s hardly any plant life, but a few animal species; some sort of deer, alpacas and flamingos.
Can`t believe I was walking on my bike that many times to defeat the altitude, still remaining so positive that I was going to make it. I was rolling downhill at one point. The engine just died again and again, after I had passed the highest point, by some snowcapped mountains. Can`t say how worried I am about going back up there, on my way to Puno. Don`t feel like being stuck down here, though Chivay is a lovely town! Taking my bike to a mechanic later.

Everything has tasted great here, people are nice and wearing colorful, traditional clothing, and the dogs are the loveliest I`ve seen. The mountains are spectacular. Sorry, but Norway is just losing this fight...
I found a friendly hotel here for 10 soles, called El Rey. I`ve snatched photos and had a great lunch in a restaurant on the way to the bullfight arena. The landscape in the valley is lovely and there`s flowers all about. Its raining now, so its time to get some chemistry done. In the morning, its due offroading Colca Canyon! Hopefully some thermal baths, too.