Day 46

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.