We just got back from Bolivia.  Today we got to hear Liz’s bike start for the first time in way to long.  Anyway, Bolivia wow… It was like going from states to Mexico again.  Bolivia is poor, it’s the poorest country in all of the Americas and you notice it as soon as you enter.  The people are still just as friendly and hospitable but you can see the poverty in everyone.  It takes a toll on people, but they all seem to just press on and stay happy, just as many kids playing on the streets, festivals and pumping bars.  Within the first hundred kilometres of entering Bolivia I had to slam on my breaks to avoid collisions on four different occasions.  Once for a cow, once for a pig, a pack of goats, and of course a donkey.  You couldn’t drive for five minutes without seeing live stock on the side of the road.  It was truly amazing.  We got to Bolivia and drove to the capital of a province (we were expecting a big city) but of course there was no bank for a 1000km and the nearest one was back from the way we came.  We managed to change some Argentinean Pesos that we had and got a room for the night.  The amazingly cheap hotels of Bolivia that we kept hearing about were not in this town.  My head light on my bike had stopped working so we were biking around this town with out any light looking for a cheap hotel but after a few near death experiences from riding at night with no lights we decided to binge and settled for a $15 room.   Bolivia was great, but the food was bad.  It was cheap you could get stake and rice and fries and a drink for around $0.80 but you could only eat about an 8^th of it because you felt like you were going to hurl if you had any more.  So I guess the price is just relative.  When you are sitting at a small restaurant and you can see the kitchen and then watch a big cock roach come crawling out of a can it sort of turns you stomach, especially when that can contained the sauce that was on your stake.  But we managed to choke our way through at least one meal a day.  Liz actually sucked up a toe nail through her straw when drinking a milkshake (needless to say she wasn’t impressed) we spent to much time shopping and didn’t really buy anything.  It was cheap, but more so it was just cheap junk.  You could buy anything for just pennies but it was all knock offs and poorly made.  So Liz bought a few bras because they were less then a dollar each.  I am not sure the regular price of bras but Liz assured me that it was a good deal.  We were on the south east coast of Bolivia and it was hot and sunny, and beautiful.  Lush jungle (the Amazon) lots of parrots and palm trees.  It had been a long time since we could ride around in a t-shirts so it was a nice change.  When we were coming out of a town in Bolivia there was a guy with a little rope blocking the road I scooted around the cars in front of me to get to the front of the line to figure out what was the hold up.  There was a bridge ahead but it seemed to be in good shape, I was about to just go around him because usually a motorcycle is allowed to just fit wherever it can and most rules don’t apply to us but just before I got to the bridge a train came barrelling along and I realized why we were waiting.  We shared the bridge with the train and naturally he had the right of way.  It makes a lot of sense why build two bridges when you can just share one.  On the way back to Argentina we had another hold up.  Some locals protesting something had blocked off the road with burning tires and were carrying rather large beating sticks.  We stopped along with everyone else and talked to the police.  The police and everyone else held up had no idea what they were protesting but it was there democratic right so they let them.  We waited for about 10 minutes to show our respect for there protest but being Canadian we were allowed to pass and carry on our way.  We made it back to Salta just in time to get Liz’s working bike back and we are now off to Buenos Aries.  We have run out of money and we are way out of time so we are going to fly home and ship our bikes home by sea.  So this is nearing the end of our adventures.  We still have a few thousand kilometres to Buenos Aries and have to find a plane and a boat so don’t stop reading yet.  We will try to keep it interesting until the day we get home.

 

-Caleb

Ummm nice to see the update...Uncle Bill wanted me to get in touch with your guys...Liz ...check your lience...you are almost dues for renewal....something else to worry about...:-?

Caleb, thanks for the update - Bolivia was never on my short list of places to visit, so not it won't be on any kind of list of mine, except maybe those places to never visit at all. Sorry to hear that you and Liz won't be riding back on your bikes, but that is probably a good decision. Why not just sell your bikes in Argentina and skip the expense of shipping them back home? I am sure they hold great sentimental value for you, but just thought I'd make that suggestion, and I'm sure you've already worked your way thru that option.

Please keep the posts coming - I want to know when you get back home.