Author: admin

Categories
Uncategorized

Day 57

Day 57

40,453 –  40,738    285 Miles today (18,038 Miles Overall

Purmamarca, Argentina – Cayafate, Argentina

(WARNING: Lots and lots of photos today! Some of the most epic riding and scenery ive ever seen in my life for a continuous amount of time!) Also alot of duplicates of horizontal and vertical of the same photo. Ive done too much riding in the last three days and not enough time to sort through it all to only get one shot of each in here.

I got up as soon as the sun came up today. I can and can’t believe it but this night in the tent was some of the best sleep I’ve had in 2 months without taking a little tab of Xanax to help me sleep. The tent felt like home and it was so damn cozy. People are asking me why camp when it’s so cheap down here and the truth is I actually do love my tent and the sleeping bag and pad are so cozy. I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning.

It rained all night so everything outside was all wet. I packed up as quickly as I could and figured I would open up the tent for lunch in the sun to dry up. No shower and no breakfast this morning since I was in a rush to leave. I’ve been sitting around so much waiting for the bike to get fixed and doing that MP hike that it doesn’t feel like a bike trip anymore. I figured out what would make me happy right now and that means just riding all day everyday. I know people are gonna tell me to slow down but I literally want to just ride for 12 hours a day and not stop. I mean in the end that’s what this trip really is anyway right?

I got on the road heading west towards the mountains towards Ruta 40. I look up and it’s white everywhere. Shit. I didnt think about it but with the altitude on the mountains and the rain all night I guess it snowed up there all night. I was hoping there isn’t like a foot of snow up there which means I’d have to go around this mountain range and miss a big part of Ruta 40. I keep on riding higher and higher in elevation and the temps are dropping and everything is white. I remember two weeks ago taking a video of the tv in Cusco of the blizzard that hit Northern NY and I guess now the jokes on me.

It was cold and I had my heated gloves on again but I was having a good time. I got to the top of the mountains and holy shit was the view beautiful. It was the first time I’ve seen fresh snowfall in two years since I didn’t see any last winter at home. The view was so nice I just wanted to pull over and hang out for an hour taking it all in. It felt like Christmas. There were a bunch of people stopping to take pictures too so maybe this whole thing isn’t normal? I got over the mountains and pulled over to put my jacket on because I wasn’t about to have a cold riding day starting early in the morning. My gps had a shortcut cutting out a part of Ruta 40 and I read online last night the northern part was the nicest in the whole country but it was a bit sandy up there. I decided to knock out maybe 60-100 miles of northern Ruta 40. I took a dirt road around the salt flats west of Purmamarca to get to a southern part of Ruta 40. The road was pretty shitty and it ended up being about 100 miles of some sandy washboard roads in the middle of nowhere. I hope Ruta 40 isn’t going to be like this because this shit is not fun at all.

I eventually got to a small town called San Antonio which will update later and stopped for some fuel and food. I got 5 eggs and bread with some coffee. I left town on Rt 40 and got stopped at a police roadblock and I was a bit nervous because I didn’t get insurance yet. After they harassed the guy in front of me in a car for 15 minutes they told him to pull over and just let me pass. I was on paved roads for about 15-20 minutes and then the real Rt 40 started. I made a right turn onto dirt which was a shitty road as well. I looked up and saw some dark gray clouds in the distance and it looked like I was heading that way. I was deciding if I should turn around but said fuck it. The road went up to maybe 5500 meters which definitely meant snow up there but hey I guess I needed an adventure again.

I ended up passing two people on bicycles traveling with gear on so I figured if they are heading up into this shit there’s no need for me to back out. I kept climbing in elevation and slowly it started to rain which turned into hail and snow. Pretty soon my windshield was covered in a thick layer of snow and ice and so was my gear. If it got too bad I guess I would just turn around. I kept climbing and climbing and decided it was time to plug my heated gloves back in because it was 22F up here. I got to the summit and it was a complete white out with snow and clouds. It was fucking cold and windy up here. Parts of the road were covered in a few inches of snow and my bike was not taking to it very well. I stopped to take a few pictures and videos and started my descent. I couldn’t see too far in front of me. This shit is wild. I’m at 5500 m all by myself in a snowstorm on Ruta 40. This is what life is about. I have so much more confidence in myself after this trip and it just keeps growing more and more. I wonder how many people I know would freak out in this situation. I felt good!

I eventually made it out of the snow and clouds and I saw some RT 40 signs with km markers on them.

RN 40 KM4580

So I guess this means I have to ride this road for another 4580 kilometers until I hit Ushuaia. Wow. I have a long way to go and especially on dirt roads up here. It all was put into perspective how far I have to go and how far I’ve come looking at those little signs. I figured out pretty quickly this is the most beautiful road in the world I think. The landscape and how much everything would change today blows my mind away. I finally got into some decently warm temps in the 40’s and 50’s. The rocks, colors, mountains, rivers and everything was unbelievable. Everyone at least once in their life has to drive this road in a car or on a bike. it’s mind blowing guys.

I ended up coming up to a few deep long river crossings. They were maybe 12-18″ deep and 20-40 meters long. I blasted through the first two and water came rushing over my head. I left my visor open for one of them and I was soaked in my helmet. No water got into my boots just yet though. I came upon another one and blasted through it but I guess my front tire hit a big Boulder and it shot me off to the left with my front tire pointing to the right and I shot across the river sideways with both my feet of the bike and then I corrected left again and just made it out of the river without crashing. I got that on my GoPro. I think I’ll have to review it later. This shit was wild out here all by myself blasting through these deep rivers. The landscape slowly turned into a hot desert. I was riding next to red rocks with cacti everywhere and a river flowing through the middle. I stopped a few times for pictures and called Grandpa Yak to show him this view. I really hope he can get back down here at one point to finish this ride. It’s absolutely stunning.

I kept riding and riding and it eventually opened up to a long desert dirt road. I stopped for lunch in a town called Cachi where I met a few white people on a 10 day horseback riding tour from Salta to Cayafate. We chatted for a while. I had a lovely lunch and I completely forgot to open up my tent to dry it out. Their tour guide mentioned this town Cayafate and said it was beautiful so I slowly got the idea in my head to get a place to sleep there if it was reasonably priced. I got back on the bike after getting fuel and kept on riding. I rode through a national park or two with these huge rock formations sticking out of the ground for a while and saw the same rock formations across the river from where I was riding. I still can’t believe I’m finally riding this road. It is gorgeous.

I saw some dark clouds in the distance and it looked like it would rain eventually. The dirt roads I was riding would be a horrible ride if it was wet so I was hoping I wouldn’t get stuck in too much of it. There was a lot of deep sand on this road as well and I’m glad it wasn’t any worse. I was slowly getting more and more comfy with riding my bike on dirt. I was able to start kicking my rear wheel out of turns and over hills and around berms. I wish I felt this way at the beginning of the trip.

I eventually hit paved roads again and my body was still vibrating from riding nearly 250 miles of dirt roads all day. I just missed the worst part of the storm and probably because I was showing up to town so late. I got rained on for a few minutes and finally rolled into town which was stunning. I found a hostel on hostel world for $13 and figured I would just pay in cash with a better conversion rate on the black market I got. I ended up paying $5 for this hostel. Way better than paying with a cc with the shitty conversion rate. This trip just got way cheaper! I met some people at the hostel while drying out my tent and they invited me out for some wine tasting. I took a shower and cleaned up, went into town, walked around for a while and found a lovely top rated restaurant which was pretty good. I met up with the British people after and we all hung out while I answered 14987 questions about my life because they were fascinated. We all had a good time I think and I called it a night around 11pm. I’ll figure out what I’ll do in the morning for tomorrow’s ride.

Categories
Uncategorized

Day 56

Day 56

40,163 – 40,453    290 Miles today (17,753 Miles Overall

San Pedro De Atacama, Chile – Purmamarca, Argentina

Country #44

I slept like shit yet again but I don’t feel too bad. I packed up the bike as quick as I could after a nice hot shower cleaning out all the shit in my nose. I was on the bike at 7Am and heading out to the border. I threw my heated gloves on and plugged them in right out of the hostel and threw my neck cover on. I didn’t throw my Patagonia jacket on because I didn’t think it would drop below 40 degrees for too long.

FUCK WAS I WRONG

I stopped for fuel at the end of town and filled up to try to get rid of most of my Chilean money. I got on the road and it was long and straight, and it went up. Slowly the temps dropped from 47 Degrees down to 40. The road kept climbing up into the mountains. Then it hit 35. It started to get windy around the side of the mountain. I hit some shade and I see 30 degrees. I haven’t seen the outdoor temp gauge flashing at me in years on this bike. The road keeps climbing. Well shit I just be at 15,000′ at this point. 25 Degrees on the dash. My hands are thankfully so warm and I’m very happy I ride with heated gloves now. But my body is a bit chilly as all i’m wearing is a short sleeve shirt under my Klim Jacket. 20 degrees and the road keeps climbing. I’m pretty sure I hit maybe 16,500′ on this ride.

The lowest temp I saw on the ride was 16.1 degrees. I couldn’t believe it. Reality set in and I realized how fucked I was if my bike broke down here or I got a flat. I need to start checking elevation on my rides if I’m going to start riding at sunrise. This was very dumb. I saw a few 18 wheelers on the ride but that’s it. No one else. I stopped a few times to take some videos and got right back on my bike with my hands nice and toasty in the heated gloves. I also finally got to see the god damn pelicans everyones talking about. These idiots were hanging out in water with their toes and it was 16 degrees out and the winds were blowing. What is wrong with them!

Onwards! The road finally started to descend down to 14,500′ The temps got to 30 but I was stoked it wasnt in the teens anymore. I got this Patagonia jacket that’s in my pannier just for shit like this and I’m not even wearing it. I got to the border 2.5 hours after I left the hostel and I was stoked to be inside for a bit. The border crossing was hella quick, maybe 20 minutes total which was lovely. I met a nice girl working at the other side of the border crossing and she checked my paperwork. She spoke great English and we chatted for a bit about Argentina. She told me I had a long cold ride ahead of me but at least it wouldn’t be 16 again.

Onwards yet again. I tried to get fuel at the border but no one was there. I’m very thankful for this big gas tank yet again. I wanted to ride into a town called Purmamarca which is pretty touristy as they have a rainbow mountain literally in their town. I was going to turn around after I got a SIM card and $500USD exchanged into Argentinian pesos and head right back to Ruta 40 which is a road I’ve been dreaming of riding for a long time.

I eventually got into town and decided I would just stay here even though I arrived at 11:50AM which was very very early to call it a day. But I’m thankful I did. I found a campground and paid $2.75 to camp there. I’m going to camp the rest of my way through Argentina because I’ve been spending quite a bit of money in the last two weeks especially with the bike breaking down and I need to use this damn tent.

I got a SIM card which didn’t work for a while, I met a nice man who spoke English in town that exchanged my money for an incredible rate and I got some food while catching up with Sameera and some friends on wifi at the restaurant. I did some research on what I had ahead of me and I’m super happy I stayed here. There’s no gas stations between here and going back to rt 40 so in the middle of the day I ended up riding 30 minutes north to another town to get gas and with my luck as I show up the big fuel truck shows up to refill the tanks at the gas station. I ended up waiting about 35 minutes for that to end while also hoping it wouldn’t start raining back in town.

I met two guys riding from Brazil who had the same bike as me and we chatted for a bit waiting for the fuel to be ready for us. Once I filled up I shot back to town. It was raining a bit so I went back to my tent to work on the blog and organize some of my paperwork and money from the last few weeks of it all being thrown around. Argentina is like Spain where the restaurants don’t open till 8Pm. So I hung out at my campsite till about 7 and then rode into town to get a few cups of hot tea to warm me up and worked on the blog some more. Then right at 8Pm I went over to a restaurant I heard was the best in town. It sure was. I had a lovely Llama steak with flan for dessert and listened to live music for a while. It was lovely. made me smile and appreciate life so much. I rode back to the tent in the rain pretty late and crashed real hard in my tent.

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Day 55

Day 55

40,106  – 40,163     57 Miles today (17,463 Miles Overall

San Pedro De Atacama

I ended up liking the vibe a lot in this desert town so I decided to stay two nights. Last night I booked a ticket for a desert in down with some cool views. I got up pretty early and went out for breakfast. It took the server maybe 3-4 minutes to figure out I was asking for milk. I don’t understand what’s up with people. I even showed her on google translate and she was confused. At the end of my breakfast she brings me a cup of milk and charges me $2 for it. Insanity.

I make my way over to the desert entrance and park my bike. it looks pretty cool in here but doesn’t look like there’s too much to see for the $12 entrance fee. I start my hike up to the first two viewpoints and I’m following a few French people. We get to the top and meet some other people from NZ, and Switzerland. We all take some pictures and then on the way down some guy that works at the park starts yelling at the French couples taking their ticket and putting it in his pocket. I ask them what’s going on and the guy starts yelling at me asking me for my ticket. I told him it’s in my motorcycle and I didnt carry it with me.

Supposedly we went past a marked area which we weren’t supposed to go and everyones lost their tickets to another viewpoint outside of town that you get when you get these tickets for the desert. Oh well. We all walk down bullshitting about things and when I get to my bike some woman working there approaches me and tells me I have to give her my ticket. I said I didn’t do anything wrong. We just followed other people there and they should have marked the trail better. I told her if she wanted to take my ticket from me then she would literally have to take my ticket from me. She was not happy at all.

I got on my bike and rode to the end of the road in the desert which wasn’t very far and then went for one more little hike which was garbage because it just led to another parking lot. I met half the French group on it and talked to them for 25 minutes and then we parted ways. Back into town I went! That wasn’t very worth the $12.

I went into town to exchange some money into Argentinian Pesos so I have something when I roll into Argentina tomorrow. I got some food here and there in town, went to a playground and did a big pull up workout and then made my way to a big gorge. On the way I picked up a Swiss girl and we took my bike over to the trailhead. We took about a 2 hour hike through this cool looking gorge and then to a scenic viewpoint. We made our way back down and she munched on an apple while I went for a little swim in a river by the trailhead to clean up. I was in the sun most of the day without a shirt on and covered in dust with a good tan.

After that I went into town for a little more food and then off to the viewpoint outside of town where everyone else lost their tickets too. I hung out there for a bit and took some pictures of the sunset. I went back into town for dinner and I’m starting to realize Chile is as expensive as Switzerland. Its insanity and the food is actually terrible for the prices they are charging. I ended up being stuck at the restaurant till about 10:30 till they gave me my check and I ran home to pack everything to get an early start in the morning for the border crossing.

Categories
Uncategorized

Day 54

Day 54

 39,782 – 40,106   324 Miles today (17,406 Miles Overall

Uyuni, Bolivia – San Pedro De Atacama

For how nice this hotel and bed was I sure slept like shit. Lots of anxiety the last few nights and i’m pretty sure it’s due to the bike having issues. I packed up fairly quickly and was on the road by 7:10. Thankfully I was smart today and put my neck buff on along with my heated gloves because it was cold! It was 45F when I left the hotel. I had a 3.5 hour ride to the border crossing into Chile.

The morning started out with a shitty shitty paved road if you’d even call it paved. It was maybe 30% paved with a ton of holes. I had 120 miles to go so I wasn’t thrilled. But it got much worse. There was a detour and they made traffic on a dirt path next to the highway they were building and paving. There wasn’t much traffic as I passed maybe 5 cars in an hour and one passed me from behind. The dirt road was hard packed in spots with some deep soft sand so I stopped doing 40-50 on it because I almost ate it a few times with the deep sand. It was also bad with the washboards on all of it so I pulled over to take the camera out of the box and put it in my pannier so it wouldn’t damage the sensors in the camera.

After about an hour of this shitty riding it got way worse, The road started cutting through some uphill and downhill spots and it turned into deep sand for a few kms in a row. I couldn’t stop because if I stopped and tried to move again my back tire would just bury itself and I would be stuck in the middle of nowhere. To make matters worse, maybe 8-18 wheelers came head on with me going the other direction and the amount of dust their trucks put up blinded me. I wish I had it recorded on my go pro but I couldn’t see my hands after the trucks passed me. I was terrified of another trunk being right behind one another because they would kill me and not even know it. I couldn’t stop for any of this due to the fear of getting stuck and I am very thankful I didn’t crash once even though I came real close about 10 times.

I was so thankful to make it out of this at the end of the ride. The road turned back into hard packed dirt for another 30-40 miles at the end but with some soft patches of sand so I couldn’t go too fast to get to the border still. The views were incredible when I was able to look away from the road to enjoy the view. So many mountains in the distance with volcanoes. One of the volcanoes had white smoke coming out of it the entire time I saw it. It’s really a desert out here in the middle of nowhere. This is starting to look like the Chile I hear about.

I eventually made it to the border which was a piece of cake. 30 minutes to get done with it all. I hit the road and thankfully it was paved. The views here were beautiful. Wide open land with mountains in the distance and salt flats everywhere. It got a bit boring after a while but it was still fun. Long straight roads with no turns after a while and I decided to pull over for food at about 2pm. I didn’t get breakfast in Uyuni because nothing was open yet. I couldn’t keep the bike in sight for lunch so I decided to roll the dice and turn the bike off. I was pretty anxious the whole lunch and rushed eating so fast but thankfully the bike started up right away. I decided I’m going to start rolling the dice more as I get closer to Mendoza so the issue can come up again so the mechanic can see it. With my luck i’ll show up there and we can’t get the bike to show the issue.

I finished my ride to San Pedro de Atacama and got myself a SIM card along with a nice hostel room. I’m gonna stay here for two nights and check out the desert in the surrounding area as I have some time to kill before I have to be in Mendoza.

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Day 53

Day 53

 39,715 – 39,782   67 Miles today (17,082 Miles Overall

Uyuni, Bolivia

Got up around 7:30 today and had a few things to do before I went to the salt flats. Early in the morning one of the guys from WhatsApp messaged me and asked if I wanted to ride the salt flats with him and I agreed to meet him at his hostel at 11. I went into town at 8:30 to try to get my cell phone SIM card recharged but I couldn’t find the Tigo shop so I gave up. I Exchanged some USD to Argentinian to get a jump start on crossing the border tomorrow and got a gallon of water for the next day or two. I went to a gym in town and did a nice workout. I’ve gotten a bit weak in the legs since I came out on the trip because I pulled a muscle in my quad from doing banded squats and after doing the Machu Picchu hike with no pain I’m ready to get back at it. So I’m trying to stop at a gym to do some big leg workouts two times a week for the rest of the trip.

After the gym I had some more time to kill so I went down to one end of town to get fuel and then on my way to the train cemetery. I met a Swiss guy with a Bmw that he bought in Brazil as he’s been working there for part of the year the last few years. We made our way around the railroad tracks to get some shots in front of the rusty trains. We ended up hanging out there and chatting for about an hour and I asked him if he wanted to come to the salt flats with us. He agreed. We made our way back in town and Bruno split off for a few minutes to get fuel.

I met up with Howard in town and then Bruno showed up and we all made our way to the salt flats. Howard bought a bike in Peru 4 years ago and has traveled 40,000 miles on a dirt bike all over South America. He has been to the salt flats three times already and he was going to be  our tour guide. We rode all the way out maybe 30 minutes into it which wasn’t that far compared to how big it is. We stopped for an hour or so to take a bunch of pictures and chat in the middle of the salt flats. It was incredibly easy to get lost and stranded out there. We all had different ideas on which way we had to go to get back to the exit. We were cracking up. Thankfully our GPS still worked and we were headed in the right direction.

We made it out and rode back into Uyuni about 20 minutes away. We got our bikes washed since the salt is very bad for it and made plans to get pizza for dinner around 7. I went to the hotel I stayed at yesterday and got another room. This time two floors up so the wifi signal was weak. I went for a walk into town to get food since I haven’t eaten anything yet all day and then walked back to my hotel. I took a nap for two hours. My eyes are burning from how tired I was from the day out in the salt flats. I met up with the guys at dinner and edited all the photos we took and hung out for about 90 minutes or so. I said my goodbyes and was off to my hostel. It was raining a bit but I threw the bike in the garage of the hotel and worked on my blog for a bit. That’s my day!

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Day 52

Day 52

 39,310 – 39,715  405 Miles today (17,015 Miles Overall

Coroico, Bolivia – Uyuni, Bolivia

I had a lovely Saturday in Coroico. I woke up quite early and went for a hike to the top of the mountain and hung out there alone for about an hour taking it all in, spent the rest of the day by the pool tanning like a lizard and then went into town for dinner.

I woke up Sunday morning feeling refreshed and itching to go explore.  I went out for breakfast and met a lovely beautiful couple. Yuli and Jordi. We chatted for about 2 hour that morning about so many things and it made me so happy. I wish we all spent another night there or we met sooner at the hostel but this is life! We all were checking out that morning and almost missed the check out time because we were just chatting forever at breakfast.

I packed up the rest of my small belongings and threw them on the bike. I decided I would aim for Uyuni today. I got on the bike and was nearly shaking with so much energy. I felt so damn good about today and what’s ahead of me. I was ready to go explore and get back on the bike and also very sad to leave Coroico. It’s on my list of the top three places I’ve visited on my trip. I don’t think it’ll come off that list.

I rode down into town and down the mountain into the valley on the windy twisty newly paved road. I went the long way this time I guess you can call it and the temps slowly went from 96 degrees to 45. I made my way back into La Paz to get fuel where I got it on the way to Coroico. I stopped in La Paz for a little bite to eat and was on my way to Uyuni. I kept checking my GPS and my arrival was at 9pm but I figured I could cut it back to 7Pm for sunset. I didn’t want to stop in Oruno because it’s a shit hole. The ride was quite boring from what I’m used to and very windy. I pulled over to put my earbuds in and kept on rolling. I was trying to haul ass to beat the sunset but I wasn’t doing that great at it.

I stopped in Oruno for fuel and once again no issues. I just got charged double the local rate which is fine with me as long as I get fuel. It’s still the same price as what fuel costs in NY. I go to start my bike and boom the fucking nightmare is back. I can’t believe it. Well I can at this point. I turned the key on and off a few times and tried to start it again and made some progress. The bike started with the CEL on but no throttle response. This hasn’t happened before when the issue arises. I turn the bike off and turn the key back on and we’re back in action. It works. I messaged the BMW techs that worked on my bike and no reply. I figured i’ll go to Uyuni. I’ll figure out this situation there.

Back on the road and hauling ass yet again. The winds were so strong from the side and front that at one point I was full throttle in 6th gear and I couldn’t get the bike to go over 70MPH. I was getting there but slowly. I watched one of the nicest sunsets in the desert that ive seen in a while on the bike since I never ride this late. It was gorgeous. The road into Uyuni was quite deserted and I barely saw any cars for hours. The road was brand new and very twisty. It was incredible. I pulled into Uyuni at 7:15pm. Not bad for a 400 mile day starting at 11:30am and dealing with some issues.

I’m in a big group chat on WhatsApp with a bunch of guys traveling via Moto right now and one of them told me to go to a pizza place in Uyuni run by a guy from Boston. I parked right in front and rang the doorbell. A man opens the door and I say to him “Are you the gringo from Boston that makes good pizza” he started cracking up and invited me right in. The place was packed and I got a pepperoni pie which was hands down the best and last pizza I’ll have in Central and South America. I talked to another guy that rides bikes and does big trips that is a local now and got pretty hammered off of one beer. I jumped on my bike nearly drunk after dinner and rode about a mile away and got myself one of the nicest rooms I’ve had my entire trip for pretty cheap. I unloaded a few things and showered and crashed really hard in bed. I was beat.

When I puled into town there was a white dust surrounding the whole city. I found out at dinner that an earthquake struck in Uyuni at a 3.8 I think and a lot of the white fine salt dust because airborne. It looked like you were on Mars in town from the earthquake it was insane!

 

 

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Day 50

Day 50

39,251 – 39,310  59 Miles today (16,610 Miles Overall)

La Paz, Bolivia – Coroico, Bolivia

Well after spending 4 nights in La Paz and hating every minute of it I was ready to get the hell out of here. After talking to the mechanics all week they told me to come by at 11Am this morning. I was super antsy to leave so I got there at 9 and luckily they had it ready. I started up the bike to let it warm up for a while and then turned it off and we chatted the whole time. The shop manager there was such a nice guy and his crew was incredible. He threw his two best mechanics on the bike and boy was it time consuming.

I took the bike out for a spin for about 20 minutes but he wanted me to go for an hour. I didn’t want to burn the fuel because the whole country has a fuel shortage and a big thing for me is getting fuel right now. It’s very hard for travelers to get fuel. We have to pay a lot more than locals do and 80% of the time they won’t even sell to us if we offer double or triple the price for the fuel.

Once I got back to the shop we went into the office. I was terrified of the price. They spent 3.5 days on it. They fixed the issue and luckily we didn’t need to buy any parts. It turns out it was all an issue with the ECU and they had to reprogram the whole thing and readjust a bunch of numbers for it. On top of that they put new spark plugs in, flushed the brake fluid, and changed the oil and filter. I wanted them to put my new chain and sprocket set on to take some weight off the panniers but they said I didn’t need them yet. I know I didn’t need them, I just wanted the weight off. They also were supposed to put in new wheel bearings but didn’t do that either. I’m assuming I was eating up all their time with the engine issues and they wanted me out of there. Looks like i’ll have to stop in Mendoza, Argentina for a day to get this stuff put on before I get to Santiago. Only 2600 kms away so I hope nothing else breaks until then that I can’t fix.

So the grand total for the bike I was assuming from $700 – $1300. The price ended up being $300. Holy shit I couldn’t be any happier. These guys made my month and I am so very thankful for all of them! I loaded up the bike and got the hell out of La Paz as fast as possible. I hit Coroico on google maps and got stuck in some horrible traffic on a steep hill going up right off the bat. It sucked. The guy Jesse I met at the hostel a few days ago went up there too and dropped a pin where he got some fuel pretty easily so that was my first stop. I pulled up and said “Effectivo sin fractura” and he filled her right up. The total was 37 Bolivianos so I gave him a 50 and he just said thanks and walked away. Hah Yeah change is all yours buddy.

It got cold real quick and I kept riding uphill for miles. Next thing I know I’m surrounded by snow covered peaks and my dash says its 43F out. I pull over for a few pictures and keep on riding. God damn am I happy to be back on the bike. I just want to ride for 12 hours right now and cover some ground so this feels like a bike trip again. Jesse said he wasn’t doing the death road until the morning after he got here because it usually rains here in the afternoon so I was waiting until I got to the turn off for it to decide what I’ll do.

The roads were so nice to ride and the temps weren’t even bothering me. Yak crashed on this road on his road trip on his way back to La Paz after riding the death road so it was creepy thinking about the whole situation. He always comes up in my head to remind me to slow down so I can finish this trip. I wonder if I can find the exact spot where he crashed. It slows me down for sure.

I got to the turn off for the death road and said screw it i’ll go for it now since its only 11:30AM. I started riding down it and it looked like the end was 35 km away. Not too bad. At the beginning of my trip that would have gotten me nervous but now it doesn’t bother me. I can sign up for 200kms of dirt roads and be fine. I love these roads because you never know what you’ll expect. It was pretty rocky at the top and the drop off was quite steep but not as intimidating as the one I did in Peru recently. I passed a ton of Mountain bikers going down the mountain and I was just crushing them on my big bike. These guys were all scared on their bikes. It was hilarious. My friend Moshe was here maybe ten years ago and doing this downhill mountain biking tour on the death road and some kid 2 years younger than him rode off the edge and died.

The road was pretty cool in the beginning but got quite boring after 5-7kms. There were a lot of overhanging cliffs with waterfalls coming off of them so while you’re riding youre literally riding through waterfalls. The road turned into. river at one point. It was nice to cool off since the temps went from 45F to 95F. I eventually got to the bottom and started looking for this guest house Jesse told me about back in La Paz. he said google maps doesn’t know there’s a road going up to it so I have to find my way without GPS. It got a bit frustrating since it was 95 degrees out and I’m wearing all my winter gear. I was getting really hot and antsy to get out of my gear. I eventually found a steep steep rock street going uphill and then it turned into dirt. I saw signs for Sol Y Luna and followed it for maybe a mile into the jungle. I pulled up and the man told me to pull my bike all the way in by the office and called me by my name. This was incredible. I told Jesse to tell the guy to save me his room he just left in case the place gets booked up.

I checked in and unloaded a few things in my room. This is the type of place where I don’t even have to take anything off my bike and I can just leave it on the bike for the few days up here. No ones going to steal anything up here. The guy told me the price is $100 Bolivianos a night which is about $14. Wild. I told Jesse I was going to do a night here but he went ahead and booked me two nights because he said he knew I would stay for 2. This guy knows me for 20 minutes of talking and hit that idea right. I had some food at the restaurant here, took a shower and then walked over to the pool a few meters up the mountain and that’s where I laid up the rest of the day.

I am such a lucky person to be doing this. I remind myself of it every single day and sometimes even hourly. I’m pretty happy to say that I’m a college dropout and doing this while most of my friends are at home working. It’s also such a common theme to not see any Americans while I travel. When I got here there was just one older French woman here and later on that night a few more French people showed up. Why aren’t Americans traveling that much?!?!? You guys are missing out on so much beauty out here.

A thunderstorm was building out in the distance over the mountains so I packed up my stuff and hung out in the hammock in front of my room for a bit reading my kindle. Grandpa Yak called and we chatted about his stay here and what he did. Turns out he did a nice hike to two viewpoints and that hike he did is on the property of the guest house I’m staying at. I packed up a few things after talking to him for a while and went down into town. About a 1 mile walk all downhill. I walked around for about 45 minutes and sat down in the little town center to get some fish, a coke and some ice cream. I got some fruit to bring back with me and started my walk back around sunset with a little rain hitting me.

This was one of those days that I’m so thankful for where I am. That’s all I was thinking about this whole last few hours. Such a nice quiet walk into town and out of town. I stopped at a little viewpoint and sat down to just take in the view for about 30 minutes watching the sunset behind the mountains. I was realizing I was actually getting pretty depressed being stuck in La Paz for 4 nights. Too much noise, traffic, people, pollution, and filth. I really am a much happier person in the jungle by myself. It’s really wild to see how much I have changed since the beginning of the trip spending so much time alone. I don’t need anyone else with me to stay happy. I just need to be in a good place like this. I’ll take this over the city any day of the week and I will happily be up here alone by myself. I also wish that I would have come right up here Tuesday morning and relaxed here until my bike was finished but it’s all good. I’m going to stay here for 3 nights I think. I could really use this relaxing time before I get to Uyuni where it’s freezing and high altitude.

Where was I? Oh yeah, sitting there watching the sunset. I took a bunch of pictures and videos of this perfect moment and started walking back to my place again. I was literally so happy and at peace that I felt drunk. I got back home, laid up on the hammock reading my kindle for a while and listening to nature with the birds and animals in the trees surrounding me. The weather was absolutely perfect.  This is heaven. I wish you all could be here right now feeling and hearing everything.

After being thankful for so long I ended up in bed and passed out even though the bed is pretty rock solid along with the pillows. Can’t have it all!

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Day 46

Day 46

38,833 – 39,251  418 Miles today (16,551 Miles Overall)

Cusco, Peru – La Paz, Bolivia

For what was supposed to be a resting night for me along with a rest day today it went to shit. I had so much anxiety all night that I barely slept at all. Being sick isn’t helping. I was up and at it at 6am today. I decided I’m gonna make a run for the Border of Bolivia today. GPS says 9 hours and I found a hotel right before the border I can stay at and then do the crossing tomorrow. I went down to the office to check out and then waited for the hostel restaurant to open at 8 so I could eat there. I had to eat before I started the bike. I had a rough time at the bar before I left. I feel like quitting. This is getting quite expensive and time consuming and too stressful. I shed a few tears at breakfast and then christian tapped me on the shoulder and sat down to eat with me. He gave me some words of encouragement. We ate breakfast together and chatted for a bit before I hit the road.

I pulled the cover off my bike and rewired the phone charger because I didn’t put it on last night in the rush. I started the bike up and I was off. So much traffic leaving Cusco so late. I had 9 hours to go. Along the ride I passed 5 guys on bigger BMW’s. I don’t get how or why these guys go so slow if they have huge bikes. A minute later I pulled up to the guy I met in Pisac on his Africa twin. We were rolling pretty hard ripping around the curvy roads. He kept up with me the whole time. I like this guy. This is the dude that wouldn’t ditch me on the side of the road like anyone else. A real man. It was really comforting having him with me for about 2 hours on the road. he signaled to pull over and I already wrote out a message to him on google translate explains my last 24 hours and the next 24 hours I had planned. he said he will get in touch with me in La Paz in two days when he gets there since he’s going to Puno first. We shook hands and we took off. I left them in the dust since he wasn’t trying to catch me anymore I realized! Haha

I had my first fuel stop and had to beg the woman to fill the bike up without turning the bike off and she gave in and filled me up. The Africa twin rider passed about 5 minutes after I stopped. Back on the road I was hauling ass and shaving my ETA down quite a bit. I was posting a lot on IG every hour letting everyone know my progress since everyone was so invested now. As time went by the scenery changed so much. I wish I could slow down and enjoy it more. It was some high elevation and really cold with high winds. My ETA when I left was 5:50pm and I ended up arriving at 2:55pm. So close to shaving exactly three hours off. I can’t believe I took 33% off my ETA. I was really hauling ass on a mission. I decided 3/4 of the way through the ride I can actually make it to La Paz before dark today depending on the ferry schedule at Copacabana.

I pulled up to the Peruvian Border at 2:55pm and went into the immigration office, I was checked out in a minute. I walked across the street and I had my bike TIP closed within 4-5 minutes. The bike was still running outside. I got to the Bolivian side and the guy at the desk was a real asshole right off the bat and told me to come back in ten minutes. I ended up turning my bike off but not the ignition hoping I can not let the bike do what it does if I turn it off. I ended up going to the wrong office so I went down to immigration this time and had to apply for a visa. 2 Pictures, bank statement, hotel booking, my route through Bolivia and some other stuff and I got my visa. $160 and it is good for ten years. I went back over to the adana office to get my bike checked in and I was out of there at 4pm. I jumped on the bike and had an hour ride to the ferry. I ended up making it in 40 minutes. The ferry was just loading up with two cars and I got right on.

I left the bike running for the whole thing which was 20 minutes. The ferry was a real piece of shit with holes everywhere that I almost went through loading the bike up. This was hilarious. I got off the other side and had 2 hours until La Paz and it was 5pm. I started hauling ass even harder on the road. I watched one of the nicest sunsets I’ve seen on the bike with Lake Titicaca behind me. It was cold and windy up there at 13,000′. I was so close to la Paz and doing great with time and then the traffic started 20 miles outside of the city. This traffic was so hectic and insane I couldn’t believe it. I started blowing red lights and not having any regard for traffic laws. Not like anyone else was following them either!

I pulled up to my hostel at 6:20 right as it was getting pretty dark out and threw my bike in their courtyard. I made it. I can’t fucking believe it. All the way from Cusco to La Paz with a border crossing and a ferry and a broken bike. Tomorrow morning I’ll take the bike to the dealer and let them have at it with the bike. If they can figure this out I will be blown away.

Categories
Uncategorized

Day 45

Day 45

38,671 – 38,833 162 Miles today (16,133 Miles Overall)

Cusco, Peru and somehow back at Cusco, Peru

My plan for the today was to ride to Rainbow Mountain and then a rope bridge and slowly make my way top Lake Titicaca near Bolivia. I got up pretty early and was excited to leave. I ended up leaving at around 7am. The ride was pretty nice and sunny. About an hour into the ride or so I stopped for breakfast at this nice little place in a small town. I went to start up the bike and there same shit happened as three weeks ago in Lima. I called up my buddy I made from the forum and chatted with him for a bit. I couldn’t take the bike apart as I was in a dusty area directly in the sunlight and it was too hot. By the time I waited and got off the phone with him the bike ended up working. I was going to skip rainbow mountain and go right to Bolivia where the BMW dealer was.

During my ride I said fuck it. Im going to go see rainbow mountain. The bike hasn’t left me stranded yet since it usually only takes a little time to start up once the issue arises. Do I turned down the road for rainbow mountain. I had a 30-40 mile ride on dirt roads in the middle of nowhere. it was absolutely beautiful. I didnt stop to take many pics because I wanted to stop on the way back to take them. I finally made it to the parking lot and there was like 5 cars there. I thought this place was supposed to be packed daily with thousands of visitors. I guess this must be a new parking lot and entrance.

I made my way up the mountain. It was about a 45 minute fast hike and it was snowing. There was thunder roaring in the distance near me and it was pretty scary watching the lightning as I was completely exposed out there. I turned to my right and saw a huge snowcapped mountain. This was beautiful. I got to the top of the viewpoint at about 16,500′ The winds were blowing 50mph and it was maybe 20 degrees up there. I look to the right again and I see a path a few miles long which was from the old entrance point where most of the people go and the wind was blowing up from their valley. Im so lucky I picked this one, or was I? I stopped to look at this mountain and for some reason some intense emotion came over me and I started to cry quite a bit. I was wondering what the hell was going on. What was happening? Was it the view that was so beautiful that was making me feel this way or just being up here all alone so high in the cold.

I hung out there for a bit and took some pictures. I made my way back down running so I could warm up and when I got to the bike I changed into my gear out of my shorts.I try to start it and of course I turn the ignition on and I see the CEL. I turn the ignition on and off a few times and still nothing. I ended up waiting an hour. No cell service up there and the people working there didnt really care about my problem. After about 1.5 hours I started pushing my bike down the mountain. I made it about 2-3 miles and there was some uphill. I hopped off the bike and started pushing. The bike was so damn heavy and now being at 14,500′ I was breathing like an animal.

I pushed and pushed and pushed and reality started to set in. This was my worst nightmare by a long shot. On a deserted dirt road in the middle of nowhere with no cell service and on top of that pretty damn high elevation. I parked my bike at a long part of the road where I couldn’t push anymore. A car eventually pulls up and they decided to tow me. I took my luggage off and threw it on their roof. I held onto the side of the door and they pulled me for about 10 minutes. I couldn’t do it anymore because my bike was so heavy. They pulled some rope out of their trunk and tied it to their bumper and started to tow me. I never did this before and I didnt like it. They lived in a village about 4 miles from the main road. It took about 2 hours of towing and we pulled into their town. My sinus was absolutely fucked from breathing in dust from their car for two hours. I was covered in dirt and I was a mess. I found a little place that had beds with a garage. I went out to the village to look for food to buy but there were no restaurants. I got right back to the house and changed, plugged my phone in, got my headlamp out, played some music and got to work.

I was going to strip the bike down and change out the spare parts I had because it should be the problem. its the same issues as last time. It took me a few hours but I stripped the bike and changed the TPS sensor, connected the airbag and the sensors along with the battery and just my luck. It didnt do anything. So now I have more problems. Something else is broken. I started to put the bike back together and making calls to figure out how to get towed. I really came up with no towing solutions. I was going to roll my bike down to the road tomorrow and hang out all day trying to hitch a ride to Arequipa. After a few hours of putting the bike back together and while eating one of my emergency meals I keep in my pannier I figured why not turn the key and see what happens.

I turn the key and no CEL. I can’t fucking believe it. I type in a few destinations on my phone to see whats reasonable. It was 8pm and getting really late, ive been up since 6am and not much food in me and I am fucking beat from the whole day. I walked over to the bike and hit the start button. On she goes. I ran upstairs and shoved all the shit back in my pannier, ran downstairs and loaded up my other pannier. I threw my gear on and they’re the owner of the place 10 soles instead of 30 and pulled the bike out. I loaded everything up and hit the road. 2 hours until Cusco. I figured ill back track and stay there if im really stuck. I rode like a madman the whole way and shaved the time down to 1:30. I saw the coolest lightning storm in the background right over cusco and thank god it didnt rain on me. I pulled into the hostel and I saw a familiar bike. it was christian from Cusco. I unloaded my stuff in my own room and got some food with him. I told him what happened and he couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t either. My plan was to sleep and leave after tomorrow after I got some rest.

I ended up going to bed at 12. BEAT

Categories
Uncategorized

Day 44

Day 44

38,622 – 38,671 49 Miles today (15,971 Miles Overall)

Cusco, Peru – Pisac, Peru

I’ve been so tired from the lack of sleep the last week and even here in Cusco. I’m pretty sick. I either got covid on the hike or a really bad cold. I woke up at 6 naturally unfortunately and decided to work on the blog and edit pictures for about 4 hours.

I went out yesterday and spent 3 hours looking for a place to get insurance for my bike since my one month policy was up a few days ago. I’m getting a bit antsy sitting around in Cusco so I decided I would take the bike to a small town called Pisac for a little day trip. It was only about an hour away and it was nice to rip around on the bike with no luggage. I had a nice lunch there and tried a bunch of different juices on the side of the road. When I went to start my bike it wouldn’t start. It didn’t do what it did a few weeks ago but close. After about 30 seconds it started. Now I’m getting pretty nervous that I might break down again. I headed up into the mountains to see some ruins like Machu Picchu. It wasn’t even close to the site but I might as well go check it out. On my way up there I started to get very stressed out about the bike being broken.

I went for a short hike at the ruins and couldn’t even enjoy it or see it all because of how stressed I was. I went back to the bike pretty quickly and thankfully it started. At the bottom of the mountain I met a man from Colombia on an Africa twin. We spoke for a minute and I didnt understand too much since he didn’t speak any Spanish. I shot back to Cusco and hung out for a few hours in the hostel, did a little workout there and went to the gym to get back in action with my pull up game.

I met up with everyone from the hike at Organika and we all got dinner. I called it a night pretty early because I was planning on leaving tomorrow to head out to Rainbow mountain and then to see a beautiful hand made rope bridge the Inca people remake every year.