a new country with no gas

copocabana is a nice little tourist town tucked in a bay on lake titicaca...not at all what i would call typical of bolivia... feels more like old tacky california tourist town.....nice and relaxing. great little stone hotel overlooking the water.

rode to other side of the lake... crossed on a shouldnt be floatable boat.....battle to keep the bike upright. after getting to the other side my reserve gas light came on...1st town gas station.."no hay".... next 4 villages that look and feel more or less abonded, no windows, unfinished constrtuction, everything same color, bleak, kids all over road holding hands out for money.....its true about bolivia finacial state..... same story, no gas at stations. get to 36 miles on reserve, think it goes to 40....finally see a group of motorcyle police on side of road so pull over. sabes donde gasolina? si, aqui. (then told the lady to charge us $20..initial impression not the friendliest cops) the tiny store they were in front of sold it in jugs out the side....thats if you call it gas....pure white color like no gas ive seen but no choice...ok...thankfully i have some octane booster and it ran but sluggish. rolled into la paz...literally as dan ran out of gas at the top of town...thanks for the andes, he coasted a few miles on the highway (even passing a bus) and rolled right into a station.... with gas! la paz, highest capital city in the world, spectacular initial view...man and mountains....once in the middle little different story. strange feelings here and not a smile in sight. country has been on verge of civil war for quite sometime now.... im sure that takes its toll. after a day though the city kind of shines in its own right and has a raw-real feel happy to get new camera.... heading south tommorrow.....gas permitting

a new country

hello Bolivia! After garage day in puno finishing up the clutch.. went for beers with east coast girls traveling peru…in the morning took some pics with their wigs and the bikes…laugh every time at simons blond mullet. Rode alongside lake Titicaca to eventually cross the border and into copocabana. Titi-caca in Spanish translates big cat and rabbit…in English boob and poop……my little brain
It’s the highest navigable lake in the world (not really but close.) riding around it… cool and glistening. Flat highland here.. white peaks there. Feels good to approach and enter the next country but i wish i had my own camera..borrowing simons to take pics and getting some from dan as well...
stopped and talked to some local fishermen...commercial mostly trout. nets bigger than the boats.



Crossing the border was a breeze but the fee for americans is $130 since bush kicked bolivia out of free trade a month or so back. Without trade the countries economy will likely suffer even more than it already does… currently labeled the poorest country in south america.

out but not down

after macchu picchu went back to cusco for a day to see if could get camera fixed..took it to shop and instead of fixing it, 4 hours later they broke it to the point that it wont do anything..completely gone. that camera was in the top 5 most importante list of this trip so i wasnt exactly happy. loaded up the bike and out on plaza when this older man came up in a suit.
my friend, how do you like cusco?
nice but i am ready to go
i can sense your negative feelings.. i am an anthropology professor here at the university and i want to give you something for positive feeling and good luck.
whatever
here my friend...hands me a little knitted bag witha silver inca figurine in it.....promise nevfer to show anyone or sell it, you will have good luck and never problems on your trip. this is a special incan day and that is pure silver ancient incan madre de tierra...incan mother of earth. worth 100´s of dollars.
oh cool. thank you?! thanks ya, ok. it was unusual timing a good will gesture, i thought...
my friend i am for working a charity, you can give me some money now.
oh no, no thanks i dont want to buy anything
no no my friend its not for buying, i give this to you. but i am working for raising monies for childrens here in cusco....you can give as much you want.
ok whatever i just want to get out of cusco and these hustlers to go away so i give him a few bucks and he looks at me for more...
oh my friend you can give more its for the childrens and this is a very special incan artifact..

i stick it in my pocket and as soon as he leaves show it to a local who says yes mother of earth statues are given away, not sold so hustlers use charity words to get $$$ and also that it is bronze and worth about $1...

ok so i fed into it because it was coincidental that he cought me at frustrating time...
left cusco...while riding i couldnt stop thinking that bastard used kids charity line..... crass
and probably bad luck to have given him anything....forshadowing i guess.

ive been in peru what feels like far to long. plan for the day was to get to lake titicaca and cross into bolivia in the morning. ride was more lunar like landscapes and buzzing thru a few small towns where the kids come up in genuine excitement. was helping to ease the bastard rip off mindstate i was in, as was the ride aside from the closest call ive had on the trip with an oncoming bus and about 5 others that all happened in the 2hr ride before stopping.
eventually came to a huge valley area in the middle of nowhere that was too nice not to stop. so i did and waited for simon. as i shut the bike off i clicked it up to nuetral but it died in gear first...thats odd. (this is where it went out)
got off the bike chilled for a bit and simon came up... took a few pics and went to get back on the bike. grabbed the clutch and it didnt feel right..hmm. started the bike and pulled clutch to put in gear ...nope not happening right. shit not here nothing around stranded. squeezed the clutch again managed to jam it in gear then jam up a few to 3rd and thats it nothing..
oh man no towns for 100 miles... and enough gas to do about 80 and its getting dark.
rode in 3rd at 40 mph stewing despair and what to do the whole time. cants stop or im out. cant go fast and dont have gas to get to the town. very scare frustrated helpless what to do feeling. yeeling thru the helmet to simon riding next to me....what should we do? go find a truck or something i cant stop!?
no luck. soon im on reserve and have about 10 miles left of gas...just happen across a little truck stop type village area....stop. bike is stayput. luckily there is a place to stay, barn like room in the back of a store..
ive never had such a feeling of despair and helplessness in my life. dont speak the language enough, nothing around and not a mechanic by any means.
go to bed, wake up feeling the same way. however there is a rider (dan) who i met and rode with in belize for a few day in the area and he is now riding solo too and had emailed back and forth about meeting up. hes two hours away at lake titicaca.
took a taxi to a town that had internet... molasis slow and after two hours managed to get an email out to him.
next day he showed up. more mechanical than simon and i we figured it was the clutch slave leaking all the fluid and needed to get some in to make it to lake titicaca town. Puno.
what options are there for clutch fluid in a truck stop town in the nowhere peru mountains?
baby oil...yeaah...its mineral oil and that works for hydrallic clutch.. put it in.... bleed the line and im on the road...worked for a while and had to fill it again in town.... made it to puno and got in a hostel with a garage....assessed the situation...as ktms are known for.... the seal went out in the clutch slave...luckily found one same size and replaced it. so far so good.
these guys stopped when they saw the bike in garage and told where to find a seal...i wish it were that easy...we went to about 6 places and finally found one that had the size, his last one. 021

funny thing i remember almost romanticizing about breaking down in the middle of nowhere and having to overcome the challenge of figuring out what to do.....i say you...there is nothing romantic about breaking down in the middle of nowhere and figuring out what to do.
was kind of fun maguivering it out and getting it going again but i look forward replacing the whole thing for piece of mind...hoping it lasts til i can get to dealer.... 2ooo miles or so in beaunos aires or santiago

macch picchu

quite the sight.
No wonder macchu poicchu is the #1 tourist sight in the world. Anciet city built on a hilltop amist magical sharp mountins is truly spectacular. I remember as a kid going skiing in Colorado and as we were driving thru the mountains my parents would always talk about how the pioneers crossed before roads, etc...... thinking like that when got to macchu picchu…..the incans were badass!

rode the bike as close as i could but had to hop a train

happy to see they had lunch that wasnt chicken and rice... come on airlines.

Before getting here my camera went on the blink and wouldn’t focus, zoom or close right. So in cuzco I took it to get repaired. They did and I was happy again, this camera takes good pictures and I didn’t want to have to buy a new one for twice the price and half the quality.
So i get to macchu picchu...after 12k miles and probably 2000+ pictures taken…pull out my camera for what is sure to be a blast of pics in the mecca of all tourist destinations and photo opportunities and……1st pic it breaks again. &^#%*#er!!! Its alright it didn’t totally breakdown just back to no zoom and only 1 setting with decent focus. make the best of it, walk around and snapping left and right. plenty of clouds as I got up there around 6am to avoid the masses (something likke 1000 visitors a day on average) and what happens…about 1hr and my battery goes dead! Bum rush the show...now what? Keep hiking, Plug in ipod…tune out…take in the surroundings. as the clouds burnt off the swarms of tourists came in....i heard every language there is and saw way to many white socks and open toe sandals. Just as im starting to feel lonely watching watching all the couples pose for their macchu love pics….I met a couple birds on a stone, lindsay and jill from Australia, jills out that’s my sisters name…hello Lindsay.....started talking about altitude farts…they brought it up (after one slipped out, oops)…. identified, down to earth and after hiking 4 days straight on the inca trail to get to MP I don’t think much could phase them.. fun, hung out walking around ease dropping guided tours….did I mention the incans were badass.